I've been following this case from the beginning, however I don't post much as you guys always cover everything I seem to be thinking anyway. Anyhoo, this particular crime, along with another one where a young lady and her step-son were killed in their home - I cannot remember their names at the moment but I think they've been mentioned on this thread as well - have always brought to mind for me a crime that happened here in Harris County, TX in 1992. In the Harris County case two young girls were stabbed to death in their home on a summer afternoon by a neighbor who had just lost his job and was annoyed that their music was on too loud. He just walked into their house and told them to turn their music down and when they told him no and to get out of their house he went to the kitchen and grabbed one of their knives and then proceeded to stab them to death while the girls brother and friends played right outside.
Tom and Shirley being stabbed in their (Tom's) own home with one of their own knives in the middle of the afternoon seems very similar to me...in that random kind of way. This could have been a neighbor who went off because Tom walked across his perfectly manicured yard earlier that day or last week or some other inane thing such as that. Heck, Tom or Shirlee didn't have to do anything at all, some neighbor could have just walked over to pass along some mail of theirs that was in his box and went off because they didn't answer the door fast enough...sometimes people are just plain wacko and unfortunately sometimes when that wacko comes out it can intersect with someone elses normally routine day. We tend to logically think that someone should have seen something or should have seen someone coming and going, especially in broad daylight, but the fact is a neighbor who belongs in the neighborhood and is just doing what he does everyday tends to blend in and escape people's minds. In the Harris County case no one saw anything, and given that this guy walked from a few houses down and the neighborhood was littered with people on a summer afternoon one would think someone would have seen him walk up the driveway or go in or out of their house but no one saw a thing. I tend to agree with what someone else on this thread said about most people, including myself, wanting to believe that there is some type of elaborate conspiracy when things like this happen, however, on this one I tend to think the answer is going to be a bit simpler.
Another reason I mention the Harris County case is that although police suspected the neighbor since shortly after the crime the public here never really knew about them actually having a suspect in mind, hence us left thinking that there was no movement on the case and there were no suspects, similar to this case. The police did not have enough evidence to arrest the neighbor until a few years later when he incriminated himself. The police had kept the pressure on him, the public just never knew about it.
Here's a link to the Harris County case if anyone wants to read up on it:
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/US/mays800.htm
