had to read this a couple times to wrap my head around what y'all were talking about, but I see what you are staying now..
I will admit that at first the "Drill Hole" looked strange to me, but I didn't think much of it because I thought it was a hole drilled in the face plate
So my question is, wouldn't someone have to turn the handle in the wrong direction pretty aggressively for this piece to break off... Would someone have done that in an attempt to break in ?