[1L]

I hate to tell you, but I've shopped for a mattress before without my wife. And did you ever consider that maybe they decided on one at a prior time, but were either price shopping, waiting for it to go on sale, or trying to find it in stock?

What I don't understand is what all this proves?

[MizSterious]

It proves he was desperate to have a mattress pronto. He found a good deal at the store across the street, but blew it off because he couldn't take it home with him that day.

Why was he so desperate? If he needed a mattress so badly, why throw the old one away before he had a new one?

My guess--he'd gotten rid of the old one the night before, because it was drenched in her blood. (And the box springs--everyone see the footage of it being hauled away?--sure looked like it had a bloodstain on it.)

[Bonaparte]

"...but I've shopped for a mattress before without my wife."

Then you are, IMO, in a very tiny minority of husbands. I'll bet concensus on this thread will support this. Probability is not on your side here.

"...maybe they decided on one at a prior time, but were either price shopping, waiting for it to go on sale, or trying to find it in stock?"

Why would they settle on one unless it was already in stock? The fact that they settled on it would indicate, at least to me, that they tried it out in the store. So it would have been right there. No need to wait for it to be in stock -- in which case, they would have bought it then and there, no? Short on cash, you say? But they had a credit card and stores often agree to layaway. And even if that weren't the case, parents (especially affluent ones) have been known to be helpful.

Your other point is plausible. Let's stipulate to it. He could have seen an ad for that particular mattress on sale at both of the stores he went to that morning. He went into the first store but they were either sold out or the shipment was delayed. So he went to the second store and made the purchase.

Was it just coincidence that he did this right after his wife mysteriously disappeared, right after she'd had an upsetting phone conversation that threatened to topple his shaky house of cards, and just before the bedroom tested positive under luminol, the police carted away the old boxspring and announced that he wasn't telling them the truth under questioning?

How about this? What if I telephoned that furniture store today and asked if the mattress MH bought was on sale at a discount that day?