The Situation:
The successful attempt on Mr. Boddy occurs when the group runs to the kitchen to check on the Cook. At this point the Cook is already dead, stabbed by Mrs. Peacock, but the group doesn't know it yet. They only think to check on her after returning to the study and discussing who is in the house and what could possibly be going on.
The Murder:
It's at this point in the movie where the multiple endings and edits starts to cause trouble with the on-screen logic of these murders. It's important to remember just how the three endings are presented. The first fake ending (Scarlett ending) shows every killing, start to finish. The Second fake ending and the Third True ending don't rehash the the murder of Mr. Boddy or the Cook, they simply start with the series of murders that commenced with the Stranded Motorist. The problem though is that the stated explanation for this murder doesn't match up with the film.
There are three scenarios presented as to who killed Mr. Boddy the second time. In the first ending it was Yvette, who hid in the study, waited for the group to leave, then killed Mr. Boddy as he tried to escape. The second ending shows Mrs. Peacock going from the kitchen to the study via secret passage in the commotion surrounding the cooks death to finish off Mr. Boddy. The supposed true ending though only states that Prof. Plum did the killing without showing it. The only clue as to how he did it is when someone else exclaims that Plum "Wasn't in the kitchen when the cook was found!" This is the smoking gun that implicates Prof. Plum and he readily admits that he did it after Wadsworth exposes himself as the real Mr. Boddy. "Then who did I kill? My butler. Aw shucks!"
The video we are shown though supports all three versions of the killing and by doing so, undercuts them all. When the gang runs to the kitchen, Yvette does not go with them. She never appears in the kitchen and no mention of her is ever made. Presumably she is sitting in the study with the faking death Mr. Boddy the entire time. Yet we know she didn't do the killing. Professor Plum and Mrs. Peacock on the other hand, do run with the group to the kitchen. When the group is looking for the cook, who is about to fall out of the freezer, Plum and Peacock are clearly behind Wadsworth, fully in the kitchen looking around for the cook. Oddly enough, once the dead cook falls, Plum and Peacock disappear from the scene. They have no lines during the whole thing, they simply vanish. That is, until Wadsworth declares that they should bring the cook to the study to keep the kitchen tidy, then Plum and Peacock reappear to the scene, behind Wadsworth again where they were at the beginning of the scene. This positioning is problematic. We are presented with two possible ways the killer was able to get the drop on Mr. Boddy the second time. The first one is that someone stayed in the study, hid, and killed Boddy when he got up. The second is that someone used the secret passage when everyone had their backs to the freezer when the cook fell. This is a problem though because we can see that angle for the duration of the cook falling scene. Plum and Peacock never go near the freezer and therefore couldn't have used the secret passage. Its conceivable that Prof. Plum simply backed out of the kitchen, as he was close to the door in the shots where we can see him, and ran back to the study to kill Mr. Boddy. The problem with that scenario, and really the secret passage scenario as well, is that if Plum returned to the study either way, he would've found Yvette there waiting in the study. Are we really to believe that Prof. Plum would've murdered Mr. Boddy right in front of Yvette? We know from the rest of the movie the Yvette was eventually murdered by Ms. White and that Prof. Plum had no interaction with Yvette during the movie. Had Plum killed Mr. Boddy and then attacked Yvette to remove a witness, that might make some sense but Plum doesn't even try to kill the Singing Telegram Girl, who is informing on him, so it seems unlikely that he would kill in front of witnesses with the idea that he could just kill that person later.
Conclusion:
As presented, this murder doesn't make sense. Prof. Plum simply could not have killed Mr. Boddy at that time in the manner explained. He was in the kitchen with the rest of the group, didn't use the secret passage and there was a witness in the study anyway. I suspect that when editing this movie, there was three shots of the scene where the Cook was found dead. One where each of the three proposed killers (Yvette, Peacock and Plum) was missing. The problem is that they showed us the "Yvette was missing" ending in the first fake ending but then didn't ever show us the scene where Plum was missing from (and Yvette and Peacock were present in) the kitchen. Without showing us that scene they're simply too many killers in the study when the murder happens and it can't be reconciled. A bad edit as opposed to a a bad plot though.
Up Next:
After Mr. Boddy is really killed, we enter into the logic stretching string of informant murders that begins with Murder #4 - the Stranded Motorist. We again have to delve into the murky waters of character motivation and behavior.
Recap:
Wadsworth: 0 murders
Peacock: 1 murder
Green: 0 murders
White: 0 murders
Mustard: 0 murders
Scarlett: 0 murders
Plum: 1 murder
Mr. Boddy: dead
The Cook: dead
Yvette: alive
Stranded Motorist: not arrived
Off Duty Cop: not arrived
Singing Telegram Girl: not arrived
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