As to the first question, haven’t thought about it enough yet.
As to the second question, “Gloves?”
Gloves would indeed be a reasonable assumption.
If I were to go into a room and I found a friend in the process of hanging themselves I would probably not spend a lot of time running around the house searching for a pair of gloves to cut them down.
If I wanted to murder some one by staging a hanging, I would definitely use gloves to keep from leaving finger prints or DNA traces.
In this case, a lack of DNA or fingerprints points more towards guilt than innocence
Very good point.