Ybarra had her doubts from the moment she surveyed the crime scene and took a closer look. As she left the laundry room and went through the house, her suspicions grew. "It did not appear to be genuine," she later testified in court. "It appeared to be staged."
Beyond the blatancy of the laundry room, there were items laid out on the beds. But they were cheap things. "Very inexpensive and had little street value," Ybarra said.
On top of it all, there were no signs of forced entry into the home. With a costly security system, one would have to believe anyone breaking in would have tripped any one of the alarms.
The intruder knew the code.
It was the only answer.