If you look at the pics on the pro innocence website you can see they are faint, I don't think you necessarily would notice them, they were not dripping in blood. She also appeared to be rushing that morning and she appears like she is a bit weird.
Why would AK want to frame RG? If she saw the prints and was involved in the murder why not clean them? She had no way of knowing RG DNA was in the system. Why risk leading the police to RG who could blow her story and turn on her instead of wiping away ALL the evidence and leaving the murder unsolved?
I think it is attributing a little too much to AK to think she had the wherewithal to spontaneously kill someone, and then frame someone else for the murder, wiping away some evidence but not others. I guess she was not framing him, but she would be having RG take the fall. I would think she would rather it remain unsolved than risk RG being singled out at all.
And if she wanted to frame him, why would not she have mentioned RG instead of PL?
The leaving the crime "unsolved" makes sense. Wiping up RG's footprints. But then....what we would have is clear sign of clean-up/cover-up. I don't think Amanda and RS wanted that. They
wanted people to think that a burglar came in and murdered Meredith, in a burglary gone wrong. They wanted people to believe it was as simple as that.
If there were no signs of the burglar walking out of the house, or for that matter any signs of him after the murder room....investigators would say, what happened? Who cleaned this? How could it be that all traces of the perp vanish suddenly? That would lead to questions, and they didn't want questions. They wanted a straight-forward, simple explanation.....that see, there is the burglar, he comes in through staged window, murder, and then walks out.
Maybe they didn't know that the police would even be able to trace it back to Rudy. I don't know, I admit this part doesn't make complete sense. I do think, however, that their main goal that night was obviously
to erase any connections to them. They were mainly worried about their own evidence of involvement in the murder. If they had completely cleaned-off everything, or as much as possible,
that would have made them look more suspicious, since Amanda was the one who lived there and was in town. What the investigators would have is a dead body in the home, and no signs of anyone, meaning someone cleaned something up. And that would naturally lead to questions about whether someone in the house was involved. That was the last thing Amanda wanted. She wanted to divert attention as far away from her as possible.
The thing is, the plan for the cover-up happened after the murder had already occured. At that point, Rudy was in the picture, there was no way to take him out. So at that point, the best they could do was try to control the situation as much as they could, and minimize whatever they could concerning their own involvement.
Maybe they thought, if Rudy got caught, they would deal with it later. I woudl assume the natural instinct would be to get through the immediate things - such as discovery of the body, initial questioning. I doubt they thought that far in advance, other than making the initial cover-up plan to try to point attention another way. Maybe they thought, we'll get to Rudy
IF the time comes.
Maybe they thought, no one will believe him over us. If he gets caught, we'll just say, we didn't do it. We'll just deny everything.
No one is going to believe the Black man over us. This actually seems like the most plausible thing, now that I'm thinking about it more. I believe this is what their mind-set was.
First, distract attention from them. Second, deal with what happens later. Third, deal with Rudy
if he gets caught. And dealing with Rudy meant denying his story, and believing that no one would believe him over them.
That makes sense then, why they would leave signs of him. They needed, obviously, signs that a burglary took place and that someone,
other than them, committed the crime.
IF they couldn't identify Rudy, they win. All sides win.
IF they caught Rudy, they still win (in their minds) because
no one will believe the Black man with shady past over them, college educated and coming from good homes. Rudy getting caught would, in that case, makes no big deal (long-term) deal to them. They would just explain to the police, that no we weren't there, we were at RS house. Deny, deny. Police would then say, ok you're free to go. Rudy gets sent off to prison. Amanda and RS go free and never have to worry about the nightmare again.
Except it didn't go exactly as planned.
I also have to add that, dealing with Rudy was their last choice.
IF, and only if, it got to the point where the police arrested him and he said anything about them, then they would deny, deny, deny, let the Black man take the blame. That's why she accused Patrick and not Rudy. Why would she give them Rudy's name, and bring herself closer to the crime? They would have to deal with him if the time ever came, but not a minute sooner. Patrick was an easier target, he knew nothing about the crime and nothing about Amanda or RS's involvement of him, and he was a convenient target b/c he had texted Amanda that night and he knew Meredith.