Probably the most important way in which Helen's situation is similar to that of Julia just before she died two years ago is that Helen is engaged to be married, just as Julia was engaged to be married within a short time just before she died. Helen does not connect the two, but it is her stepfather Dr. Roylott's strong motivation to keep control of the girls' money that drives him to the desperate expedient of killing Julia with his "speckled band" and then trying to kill Helen by the same means two years later.
The doctor's fiendish scheme puts Helen in the same situation as that of her sister when she died. Helen is now sleeping in the same room and in the same bed right next door to Dr. Roylott. The doctor has started some completely unnecessary repairs to Helen's own bedroom in order to force the girl into staying in Julia's former room, which is the only other one available in this decaying mansion. Helen hates the idea of having to stay in Julia's room and sleep in her bed. This contributes to the anxiety which will motivate her to come to Sherlock Holmes for advice and assistance.
The third part of Helen's situation which is similar to that of Julia before she died is that Helen hears a low whistle at around three o'clock on the very first night she sleeps in Julia's bed. She tells Holmes she remembered what her sister had told her about hearing such a whistle before she died.
"At eleven o'clock she rose to leave me, but she paused at the door and looked back.
“ ‘Tell me, Helen,’ said she, ‘have you ever heard anyone whistle in the dead of the night?’
“ ‘Never,’ said I.
“ ‘I suppose that you could not possibly whistle, yourself, in your sleep?’
“ ‘Certainly not. But why?’
“ ‘Because during the last few nights I have always, about three in the morning, heard a low, clear whistle. I am a light sleeper, and it has awakened me. I cannot tell where it came from—perhaps from the next room, perhaps from the lawn. I thought that I would just ask you whether you had heard it.’
Julia had had the snake in her bed for three nights before she was finally bitten on the fourth night. The snake would have had no reason to bite her unless she did something to provoke it. There is a strong clue as to what Julia must have done to provoke it on the fourth night. Helen tells Holmes:
In her right hand was found the charred stump of a match, and in her left a match-box.”
Julia must have placed a box of matches right beside her bed, intending to light one if she heard the same "low, clear whistle" again on the fourth night. In doing so, she would have had to roll over in bed to reach for the match-box. That was when she rolled right on top of the snake and got bitten through her nightgown.
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