The bat that they did not recognize was found on the north side of the house, on a ledge near the window to the bathroom.

That bat had fibers from the basement carpet on it.

Intruder enters through window with the bat or finds the bat in the basement.

Intruder leaves though the butler door with the bat (a weapon if he runs into something unexpected) and checks to see if anyone is around.

Intruder sees the coast is clear and tosses the bat out of the way, but it hits the ledge because he is unfamiliar with the outside layout of the house having entered on the other side.

Don't know if that is possible, or not. I just don't think a killer would throw the bat where it would make noise, unless it was an accident.

It was dark outside in the middle of the night, but I doubt the intruder would use a flashlight that might be seen by a neighbor or someone in a car driving past.

If you toss a baseball bat down in a yard, I don't think you'd anticipate it making noise. It must have been an unnerving surprise when it clattered on cement.

If the noise that Stanton claims to have heard through his open bedroom window WAS the baseball bat hitting and maybe bouncing on the cement ledge, it was a real fluke. No one else heard it.

And Stanton wouldn't have either, had he not been awakened by his wife about the noise she heard. And if the window had been closed, like all the other windows of nearby house apparently were.

(After all, it was 9 degrees outside!)

But that is the Butler door? I thought the butler door was alongside of some windows back by the kitchen. I suppose that was the pantry door?
I saw the house plans online one time and remember very little about them now. I think the ones I saw were in rockymountain news online.

>I've stared at that picture and can't
>really tell what is there because
>it is so dark.