OldKenTuck, thank you for your post, very helpful. Raises so many more questions and I think I'm going to just wait and see on the Jr. angle. I often wonder how much of a story is really reported or how much is actual fact (and not information put out there to lull a criminal into thinking they're on the wrong track).
I know exactly the kind of ceiling tile you are talking about and had there been any spatter that tile would have grabbed on to it.
Your disclaimer is duly noted, and if you find a need to edit some of what you wrote for your own protection, I would understand (and also why I won't quote any of what you have written).
About the only editing I would make at this point is to change the line "unless Mikes was a Vulcan, I doubt he bled blue." Vulcans have green blood and I didn't see any of that either.
I would also like to include a note on the carpeting. It was a medium heavy duty grade, the kind you might find on an office floor or apartment. It could soak up a decent amount of blood without bleeding through to the floor, however it has been my experience that if Mikes Jr had purchased cleaning chemicals for the purpose of covering his tracks, he would have caused an even greater mess on the carpet, which certainly should have left a much larger stain on the concrete floor.
Now, it is possible that a person could have bled out on that carpet and left little evidence on the concrete, so I'm not about to say Mikes Sr was not murdered in the basement. Much of that depends on how long a person laid there and the amount of blood loss and of course I have no idea what other evidence was removed from the home.
I will say that dragging a body up those stairs would have been a chore and would tax the strength of a body builder. It would not be impossible, just extremely difficult.
Let's just say I found more questions than answers when it came to what I was expecting. I walked into that house expecting heaps of blood and signs of violence because of the reports from the local media. What I found was a pleasant, clean home with no obvious signs of anything wrong, beyond the torn up carpeting, an exhausted family member, a highly upset source and scores of police markers that circled what appeared to be nothing more than small fragments of dirt and grime.
This was beyond my previous experience and forced me to raise questions as to the investigation, questions of which I have no answers, nor will I receive any unless there is a trial. In a word, frustrating. Were this a murder mystery story, I would by now have done the unthinkable and jumped ahead to the last chapter.
The one thing that bothers me most is that this is yet another example of overreach by both the police department and the news media. The police are already trying to convict Patrick Mikes Jr with the help of the media and I find that appalling. In my humble opinion, the law enforcement spokesperson should not be spouting off the way he has to the press. If this young man is guilty, let the courts decide, not the news media.
As for my experience with the press, both as an outsider and former insider, I'll save that for another day, but I do have nothing but contempt for the pond scum.
Patrick Mikes Sr was a person I may have met in the past and would have been a person I could have enjoyed long conversations with had fate been kinder. Although there is really no hope to his survival, I pray his end was not at the hands of his son, especially as it has been suggested to me by those who know that this is highly impractical and the very thought of it is depressing enough. I still cannot get over and remain highly annoyed over the on going reports of credit card "fraud" which was so blown out of proportion by the police and news media.
I do want to believe the authorities did a proper investigation and that they had solid evidence against the accused, but when the media starts reporting wild rumors and speculation as fact and the authorities seem to encourage it, I have a serious problem with the motives and intentions of our law enforcement and that is not an idea I enjoy.
