The police knew this, [that objects were beneath the bed] says Hendry, but they made a fundamental mistake in their analysis. They concluded that the objects were put there after the murder to cover those blood stains, as part of a staging activity. But Hendry's analysis revealed that the truth is quite different.
"The police created these bloodstains themselves," he says. "Photos show that they ransacked the room after the murder, and they carelessly tossed a pair of blood-soaked boots under the bed with other footwear.
"When they removed this footwear from under the bed, they found the stains made by blood that had not yet dried when the boots were moved and had dripped onto the floor. They looked at pictures taken the day Meredith was found, saw that a shopping bag was covering the floor at the spot where the stains were located, and jumped to exactly the wrong conclusion."
It was a useful error for the prosecution, Hendry notes, because it helped them frame two innocent people.