I really don't know. Fear is a paralyzing emotion. It is hard to define. Like why do people that know someone has committed a horrible crime keep it to themselves for years and years and tell no one and then tell after so many years have passed? Most of them say it was out of fear of the perpetrator and they thought he/she would do the same thing to them and were often told by the perp that they would be killed too or their family if they told.
I am sure he told Tommy since he had helped him dispose of Haleigh's body that if Tommy told anyone he would go down too and of course Misty would want to protect her brother from being charged in Haleigh's case and she didnt want to be implicated either.
I am sure LE could have helped his family or they may not have believed him. Who really knows. I think when Tommy came clean this time he did ask LE to watch his family or make sure JO was in TN.
IMO
If this occurred about like Tommy's lawyer has described, then I can honestly understand why Misty and Tommy reacted the way they did, becaused of the way they were brought up.
Having a person you know well actually kill someone you care about, in your home, is an almost unbelieveable occurence. I think it would throw someone totally into shock. If that person then threatened you, combined with you
knowing you had been doing something you shouldn't have (doing drugs? planning a gun theft? allowing someone in your home that you weren't supposed to? sneaking out at night behind your wife's back? not protecting the children in your care?), I think could be overwhelmingly intimidating. It wouldn't have taken much for Joe to scare them. He was no longer just cousin Joe, he was a killer. Misty and Tommy may have felt that they "allowed" this to happen and, given their history, they did what was natural to them and covered it up. Once they did this, they were in so deep that they had to continue the charade or they would risk losing everyone & everything they cared about.
I think normal people would throw up and become non-functional. If they did help cover it up, as soon as the killer was out of sight, I think a normal person would call for help. But Misty and Tommy were not raised like most people and their role models did drugs, did small crimes, and made excuses. This is such an incredibly sad situation that this beautiful, loving little child fell prey to this bunch. My stomach is in knots. Even though logic told me that she was probably deceased, a part of me kept up hope that she wasn't, but now we know. And more details will emerge in the coming weeks.
