So when Bobby was arrested and confessed to the brutal murder of his sister Lucy.. along with the release of the wrongly imprisoned Max Branning.. it was now painfully obvious to the rozzers that something of a cover up must have happened. For a start Bobby couldn't move Lucy's body to where it was found.. so at least one adult was involved. And I'm sure Max would have had no problem telling the police all of the people he knew were in the know.

So my question is.. has that element of the story line just been completely and conveniently forgotten about? Or did I miss an episode where DCI Marsden turned up and decided as Phil Mitchell wasn't one of the merry gang of conspirators.. she was letting the whole sorry affair drop?

I got the impression that they wouldn't pursue a new investigation because it would highlight the police ineptitude regarding Max's arrest/prosecution/conviction.

And I think they felt sorry for Ian. Not only was his daughter killed but his son was responsible for it and he would be losing him for a while too.

I think that was the crux of it, but the official story is that Lucy got up after being attacked and went to the Common before collapsing

Yes, you did miss an episode. Plausible or not, DCI Marsden declared that Ian and Jane had suffered enough and there was nothing further to be gained by pursuing the case.

Max Branning may think otherwise...

To make a slight correction, it was Keeble. The contradictory thing was that she was angry her obsession with Max led to the wrong person being sent down (although I guess it makes sense that she doesn't want to dig any further or she would look bad)

It was DI Keeble who decided not to persue things further and not Marsden

I stand corrected.

They retconned it so that the police think Lucy died on the common after all.

I would've expected Max after his release to atleast tell the police that Jane (and maybe Lauren if his hatred was strong) knew that Jane knew all along.

Keeble told Bryant to let the Beales off as they had suffered too much, but Bryant never revealed that Lauren told him that Bobby was the killer a year before.

I do think it's silly that no one on the Square is questioning if the Beales knew Bobby was the killer and if so, why did they let Max go down (Stacey didn't confront them).

Also if Max got sent down, wouldn't Jane be punished for telling the court that they slept together that night? There were so many flaws in the storyline now that I think about it which is annoying.