• BROWN FIBRES - possibly from brown corduroy material and not from any clothing belonging to Mrs Bolshaw - were found on the bottom sheet of the bed, where it is thought she was killed.
• MATCHING FIBRES - were found on the linen basket and a stool in the deceased's bedroom, and also on the driver's seat of Mrs Bolshaw's car when found abandoned

BUT….within the time scale, it was impossible for John to have:-

• killed Mrs Bolshaw
• taken the car
• walked home along the route described and be seen burying clothes in his garden at 11.30-11.45pm on the night of 8th October '83

THE CROWN ALLEGED….

• these fibres came from clothing John was wearing when he killed Mrs Bolshaw
• he had then taken Mrs Bolshaw's car and her jewellery, driven five miles along the Chester High Road, walked over a mile along the dual carriageway, descended a 15-ft bank, walked another 7/8 miles home along the Wirral Way
• then had been seen by neighbours in the garden of his home at 11.30/11.45pm on 8.10.83

THIS WOULD MEAN THAT….

• John would have had to leave the car on the Chester High Road at least 2/3hours before he was seen in his garden
• this would have to have been at about 8.30/9.00pm on 8th October 1983

AND….

• at 11.30pm on 8th October '83 Mrs Bolshaw's car was seen parked on her driveway by her next door neighbour

ALSO….

• the post mortem estimated the time of death as being between 3.00-6.00am on the morning of 9h October '83

HOWEVER…in his summing up the trial judge raised a new theory. This was that John, after killing Mrs Bolshaw:-

• may have returned home by some means and buried his clothing
• at a later time returned to the scene of crime, taken the car to where it was later found abandoned, then taken the route home described by the crown prosecution
  
  (This was not a theory advanced by the prosecution and therefore not having the opportunity of rebuttal by the defence)

CRUCIALLY….

• if John had destroyed clothing worn during the crime which had shed tell-tale fibres in the house and car (by burying them when seen in his garden at 11.30pm on Saturday 8th October '83), and had later returned to the scene of crime to remove the car, it would have been impossible for the same fibres found in the house to be found on the driver's seat
• however, the same fibres were found on the driver's seat of the car when it was seen abandoned on the following morning