The point of this thread.
If a lamp is missing and it was on a bedside table, chances are is that it's cord would've been pulled from the wall and moved or upturned the bedside table which wouldn't be unusual in a homicide case, but it's cord may have left a mark in the wall as the lamp was swung to hit Michelle. You can control an item but you can't control any cordlike substance attached to it.
Was there one lamp or two?
One lamp was mentioned as having blood splatters (this is where blood pattern interpretation comes in). No mention of another lamp. The mentioning of one lamp doesn't necessarily mean that there was only one lamp or that one might be missing. The location of the lamp in the room would tell more (as will the patterning of the spatters on the wall).
If there are two lamps, one might not have been covered in spatters due to the perp being between the point of impact and the 'clean' lamp (this is also one of the reasons why I said early on that I believe she was found on the floor and that the attack may have occurred while she was out of the bed. The other reason was because Meredith couldn't roll Michelle over. If Michelle was on the bed, Meredith would've been able to roll her, RM or not).
If Michelle was attacked in her bed til her death, there would've been blood splatters on all pillows (first and secondary + spatters), the wall behind the bed and if there were two lamps, spatters would've been on both. Depending on how the weapon was swung, there would've been spatters on the roof (if swinging overhead, vertical) or arced (if swung around..horizontally) or even both. The amount of times she was hit can also be told in splatters as well as markings on her skull and other areas of her body.
Blood spatters are 'directional' they tell which direction, they came from and can also tell what 'speed' they travelled at to get there, as well as whether they were from the attack wounds on the victim or from the instrument used.
The kinds of weapons used also have their own tell tale signs in blood, as do wounds. Eg; a severed artery will spurt and arc.
Blood spatters are also 'positioning'. They can also give a great estimate of where the perp was standing due to a patterning of 'back spatters' if blood from the attack itself sprayed onto the perp and in the area behind him.
Now for Michelle.
I only mention this because of the person who in ctv decided to post that '10 blows to the head' and because someone asked about Rigor Mortis here.
The first hit by a blunt instrument, even a hammer, will not at most times kill a person outright. There are certain areas of the head where this can happen but the perp would have to know those points. So from day one it was clear to me that Michelle suffered greatly (a distressing fact). It is also obvious that Michelle lived for a time possibly afterwards. It is true, for anyone wondering, that once the heart stops beating so does the blood stop pumping around the body. It begins Livor Mortis within minutes, then after around 2 to 3 hours Rigor Mortis begins and Algor Mortis (cooling) has begun by then as well.
The heart does not always stop beating first in death. Sometimes the lungs stop breathing first or the brain dies (or part of) and can no longer tell the body's organs what to do, beat, breathe etc.
A bit long and I'd better hit post before it becomes an epic but now you know where I was going with the quiz.
The 12 to 6am timeframe is within the estimate of a Prelim Autopsy....it makes me giggle that they're speculating as to why that time frame was chosen in which to ask if anyone saw anything. A 6 hour timeframe is not unusual. She may have been attacked at 12am and not actually died until around 6 am.