Tom Riddle - Riddle murders

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 105490

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "eloise_herisson"
<eloiseherisson at a...> wrote:
> I believe that Tom murdered his family in the summer *after* he'd 
> left school. This is certainly the timeline supported by the Lexicon. 
> 
> http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/voldemort.html
> 
> Tom wouldn't have been underage, and it's highly unlikely that his 
> family's home would have been monitored by the MOM if there was no 
> record of anyone magical living there. We know from Dumbledore's 
> words in the Pensieve chapter of GoF that the Ministry were not 
> interested in Frank Bryce's disappearance, because he was a Muggle. I 
> imagine they would have the same lack of interest in the deaths of 
> these three Muggles. In fact the lack of interest in Frank's 
> disappearance *at the same location* rather reinforces that 
> speculation, even if in retrospect.

Well, there were 50 years between the two incidents; it would take
quite an "institutional memory" to be able to connect them.  I get the
impression that Dumbledore remembered them because he was making it
his business to know everything connected with Tom Riddle.  Also, the
3 Riddles were killed before there was any Voldemort, or any
indication of trouble to come.  If the Ministry didn't pick up on any
illicit spells being cast, they probably didn't even know that there
was a wizard involved at all.
> 
> One certainly might assume that he murdered his family before he 
> disappeared, that the disappearance was in fact partly (although only 
> partly) a result of his having committed the murders. More 
> accurately, perhaps the murders might be seen as a rite of passage.

That sounds quite plausible, and the sort of thing Voldemort would do
- inaugurate his new life by killing off the old. 
> 
> We do know that he still had the appearance of a teenaged boy when 
> the murders were committed, so he can't have embarked too far on the 
> appearance-changing transformations that he underent during his 
> disappearance.
> 
If it was Tom that Frank saw, that is.  I still think it might have
been a time-travelling Harry.  By the way, whatever happened to
Frank's body?  Maybe Nagini ate him.

Wanda