Here’s a theory -
What if the two roommates were home at the time and the night was winding down / had already winded down. The perpetrator entered either through the 2nd or 3rd floor sliding glass window but either way went to the top floor first and he/she was silent through pretty much the entire interaction. The perpetrator then proceeds down to the next level and enters the male/female room. This is likely to be the loudest encounter of the night as there were ostensibly two people sleeping in the same bed. He/she would have to attack one victim at a time given the nature of the murder weapon, and this would have a high probability of waking the other victim in the room. This has a realistic probability of creating some sort of commotion/sound that could easily awake the victim sleeping directly below them in one of the two rooms on the 1st floor, but it happens all so quickly you don’t have enough mental state to process ir all in that moment. At that point the perpetrator would expend a great deal of energy trying to quiet the second victim in the bedroom, which would panic/freeze the victim on the 1st floor who now registers what just happened. Once the perpetrator finished murdering the second victim, the house would be very quiet at that point. I imagine the perpetrator would’ve went downstairs to the first floor quickly (but quietly) to see if they thought there was anyone alive down there. They would‘ve found the locked doors and didn’t try to kick them in for fear one of them might call 911 immediately. Maybe the perpetrator didn’t want to risk it and wasn’t 100% sure either A.) those roommates were even home (the would definitely lock their doors if the WEREN‘T there given the house vibe) or B.) if they were there that they even heard anything but kicking in the door at that point elevates risk for them. And then went back upstairs and did who knows what? Left immediately or did other things?
If that were all true then the roommate downstairs would be in freeze mode. The other roommate, not being under the victims’ room and out late didn’t wake up. The roommate would be trying to stay as quiet as possible for fear of attracting attention. But at some point I would imagine she is going to call 911. But what if her phone was dead? I’m not sure that would be all that implausible. And if so, she would probably go in freeze mode for good. Particularly if she didn’t actually hear the perpetrator leave the house. If the perpetrator entered extremely stealthily, there’s no reason they wouldn’t also leave that way. A person who enters a home and kills 4 adults at peak physical age with a knife isn‘t expecting it to be quite as quick. Either you bring a gun and have speed as your ally or you bring a knife and you have stealth and precision as your ally.
If she was locked up just basically waiting for someone to come to the house (or if the other roommate WAS there, for her to wakeup and come out, maybe the other roommate was a late sleeper). At this point Ethan’s friend comes over and knocks on the door because he had plans with Ethan that day but he didn’t answer his phone or they already had a pre-planned time. He knocks though because it’s an entirely female house and it’s his friend‘s girlfriend that lives there. Not getting an answer he knocks again, goes around to the second floor window and sees it shut but opens it and shouts in asking if anyone is in there. At this point, the roommate feels unfrozen and opens her door, goes to the other roommates room and gets her attention, saying give me your phone, we need to call 911. Goes upstairs with her, connects with Ethan’s friend as she calls the police. They go into Xana’s room and see the carnage, maybe one, maybe all, who knows. But they tell the police their friend has been murdered. Maybe they go upstairs and see the rest of the house. When the police come, they know there’s no need for EMS as it can be reasonably concluded based upon their call that no one is remotely alive. We know it‘s gruesome, we don’t know HOW gruesome it could be.
The police at this point would want to ensure all their roles in the call and as importantly, LEADING up to the call. We all know that’s the biggest gap in this crime and yet nothing is known about it publicly. They’ve stated that a roommates phone was used but we can infer that it’s not the owner that is reporting the crime. The two surviving roommates would still be considered friends and hold up under what the police have conveyed.
It sure seems that given the nature of the crime, they reasonably thought initially that it was an ex-lover or someone committing this crime out of rage. But the more they’ve explored the case, maybe they’ve come to realize this is more intentional but less connected in a “it’s someone close to the victims who did it” kind of way. Who knows, just a theory, but they definitely don’t appear to be honing in on a specific perpetrator, at least not publicly at this point. It sure seems odd they won’t release that 911 tape and continue to obfuscate who reported it. If they really thought they were honing in on a perpetrator and the 911 tape had telling information at all, that would help turn up the heat on the perpetrator. If there wasn’t anything telling on it, why not release it?
I’m thinking maybe they’re trying to really protect one of the surviving roommates because she’s potentially a bigger witness than we know and they’re equally concerned for her safety and also don’t want the public to panic over what transpired.
