why did Churchill and Bridget search up the front stairs?

[leitskev]

Re-reading the testimony, and I note this is odd and I guess points somewhat in the Lizzie-did-it corner. Lizzie asked Bridget to search the house for Abby, saying she was sure she came in. Bridget only agreed to go when Churchill agreed to accompany her.

But the upstairs had two distinct halves. The only entrance between them was a door in Lizzie's room which was kept locked. Mr. and Mrs. Borden kept a dresser or something on their side blocking the door. Abby didn't normally go into the girls' half of the second floor. She only did that day to clean up the guest room, since Morse had slept there.

Bridget would know this. So if Lizzie sent her looking for Abby, she would not go up the front stairs, but instead up the back stairs to access the rooms of Mr. and Mrs. Borden. Unless Lizzie specifically told her that she heard someone go up the front stairs, which it would be unusual for Abby to do.

There's no testimony suggesting Lizzie directed them up the front stairs, I don't think. And it seems Bridget would have immediately thought it odd to search in that direction. It would have made sense to Bridget to search the bedroom of Mrs. and MR. Borden up the back stairs.

Right?

[camgarsky4]

Good question and one that we can never definitely answer. We can only deduce....similar to why did Bridget get two sheets when she and Churchill went up to the Borden bedroom for a sheet to cover AJB.

However, I believe that the 'sheet trip' to the Borden's bedroom is the reason that Bridget and Churchill went up the front stairs when encouraged to look upstairs by Lizzie. Why would they go up the back stairs again when they had just been up there moments before and didn't see Abby.

One big factor we can never know is body language and non-verbal indicators. Perhaps lizzie looked or nodded towards to the front of house. For what its worth, in her inquest testimony, Lizzie did tell Knowlton that she was referencing the Borden bedroom when she said 'look upstairs'.

p.s. One slight correction, there is zero documentation that a large piece of furniture was kept against the connecting door between Lizzie and Borden bedrooms. You may be referencing the connecting door between the guest room and Lizzie's room. That did have a large piece of furniture placed on Lizzie's side of the door per testimony.

[Steve887788]

there is zero documentation that a large piece of furniture was kept against the connecting door between Lizzie and Borden bedrooms.

I dont know if this counts - but the official layout as drawn by Kiernan 1893 - shows a bed diagonal on Lizzie's back door and the Borden's bedrooms. Not up against it by definitely blocking them.

Porter - shows lizzies room without a bed. I'll stick with the one drawn by the engineer. The bed is shown in the other layout that has been on the internet for a while- old brown parchment one, in the same spot.

[camgarsky4]

You are correct 887788 about the bed placement per Kiernan.

I don't consider a twin bed to be a large piece of furniture intended to 'close' an opening. But I can totally understand someone else viewing it as such.

Leitskev -- please disregard my 'P.S.' above.

[leitskev]

I think it was in reading about the theft from the year before that I read that the parents kept some kind of furniture blocking the door from their side. But it's not really important. The main point is that it's somewhat odd that Bridget and Churchill searched up the front stairs, though as you rightly point out, Bridget had gone up the back stairs to get sheets.

There are some odd things that could be coincidence or could be explained by other reasons. For example, consider this: Emma is away, and Morse shows up to stay in the guest room. This puts him and Lizzie alone in that half of the house that evening. Then Abby is killed next morning in that same guest room. Did she find something that would compel Lizzie to murder her?

The Bordens did not have a phone. Say Lizzie and Morse do something improper. Abby discovers it. Lizzie kills her, then sneaks out to a phone to call the Emeries, who did have a phone. She tells Morse what she's done. So Morse establishes his alibi on the way back.

Of course, it seems unlikely Lizzie could make a call unseen by anyone, and certainly whoever answered the call at the Emeries was not Morse, so someone there would later piece it together. So I'm grasping at straws, no doubt.

[camgarsky4]

I haven't researched personally, but a couple of Borden researchers (including author William Spencer) have dug into the likelihood that the Emery's had a phone. The consensus is at that time phones were a very rarely found in individuals homes and, when they were, it was likely the wealthy. The Emery's did not fit that demographic.