We have no idea when that footage was taken so for all we know it may just be stuff left on the table by a detective or investigator. E-fits etc would seem very strange items for Joy to have, let alone left in full sight, whilst if it related to her killer then they would surely of destroyed them.
I think the time expected for a fire to fully develop is being wildly overestimated also. From a smouldering state then it could take much longer for flames to develop especially if there is no accelerant. A lot of the damage looks to me like smoke damage and would explain why many items in the flat seemed unaffected (Plants, TV, Stool, Clothes).
Listening to the full call I don't get any hint of the race of the caller. Definitely got an East London twang and I would guess aged 25-50. Majority of the call is spent trying to work out exactly where they are which seems odd as I would of thought they could of traced where the call was made from the number of the phonebox. I guess back in the day it would have generally been quicker to go off the caller. He does say "flames coming out of one of the floors" though the evidence suggests this is unlikely to have been the case (Windows not broken and limited fire/flame damage in the flat). Maybe it was just poor terminology at the time. To me it sounds like someone trying to be helpful but not really knowing much about where they were and possibly not fully comfortable ringing emergency services. I think he gets the name of the block of flats and expects that to be enough for the call handler to work out where they are. He is then thrown when she starts asking further questions about the road he is on etc.
Considering the killer has ran down 6 floors (Possibly 12 flights of stairs) then the caller doesn't sound like he is breathless as you would expect of a killer and so I would rule him out after all. It has thrown me with the "flames coming out" but it could just be curtains alight or something similar. Interesting that he says he was driving by and saw the flames. I guess he would have seen them from a distance as opposed to when he was at the junction as surely it would have been a job to see 6 floors up.
Not sure on the relevance of how long it takes to drink a cup of coffee is but the whole process could easily take over half an hour. Waiting for kettle to boil, drink to cool down then chatting away. Joy doesn't strike me as someone who would kick someone out as she wanted to go to bed, she would stay and listen to them and try to offer support and compassion. I suspect it was this that sadly led to her death.
Great post.
I think the reference to flames coming out is likely to have been the man literally seeing flames, or some smoke escaping through. I find it hard to believe that the windows were open, as there would have been more than just 1 witness to the fire if smoke was bellowing out from an open window.
In terms of the time required for the fire, it also supports the idea that the windows were closed, because the oxygen coming from the open window would have surely acted as an accelerant to fuel the flames. That said, the flat was a relatively small space and so it wouldn't have taken long for the fire to take hold and spread.
The apparent lack of combustion of organic materials would also suggest that the air pressure didn't reach the level for combustion to occur. This then suggests that there must have been a window open somewhere in the flat and therefore runs in direct contrast to the idea that the windows had to all be closed.
The one point I would have to respectfully disagree with you on, concerns the ethnicity of the 999 caller. It is fairly evident that based on the overall tone of the caller's voice, it matches an individual with at least some percentage of Caribbean heritage. The man's voice has a bass quality that confirms he was either a black male, or a male with mixed heritage.
The only way that the man could have been a Caucasian individual, would be if he was deliberately putting on a voice to make him sound like a black male. This is not something I adhere to personally.
This vocal analysis of the 999 called clearly doesn't match the ethnicity of the man seen standing by the main doors at 22.31pm.
It's also interesting to note that the 999 caller mentions "Chingford" in the full unedited version of the call. This may suggest that even though he doesn't appear to know the roads around the flats in Walthamstow, he may have had a connection to Chingford. Otherwise, why mention it?
