Hi MistyWaters,
Do you feel the staging was pre-planned?
If it was preplanned to choke to death, why strangle them with another object and then take a chance rummaging around the home to find another belt to hang them up? did they know that no one would drop by or knock at the door? To "string" them up with belts so they remain in an upright position, possibly mimicking statues? why not strangle with the belt? Or put a bag over the head to suffocate, they had their hands bound and could not easily fight back?
It is assumed ( I do not know why we assume this) that the suggested ties to the wrist, plastic ties, did not come from the home. How can anyone be 100%, painters we in the basement painting on Wed., who knows if they had some ties to tie up drop sheets and they left a couple behind? Many (service / hired hand / pool cleaner / Furnace repair etc.) people have been on-site to perform jobs over the many years, it is stated that Barry and Honey did not frequent the basement (yes Barry entered there and went straight up the stairs) so who can say that no ties were in a toolbox somewhere in the house?
To be fair, we don’t know if ties were used to suppocate them, or a bag or a rope. We don’t have that info.
I have not yet come to the same conclusion, I still have so many questions that run in my head, I can strike out many of my own wild "what if's" with the details I have learned here on web sleuths. But I am not sure the initial plan was to stage them looking like the statues. I understand putting them in the pool area, it is locked off and temperature would be with humidity - to alter the time of death and somewhat hide the bodies from open view.
I am not sure we are privy to the complete autopsy details that would tell us if they had any blood pooling after death in any areas and that they were deceased when strung up with belts.
I still think it was a horrible night for the two of them, if the time of death was midnight that meant they were held for 2-3 hours before death. Who felt they had that amount of time to hang out in the home. The home was not ransacked. No items reported stolen.