Hello, everyone. Thanks for all the great visuals. I joined WS during the Jorelys Rivera case because I am very local to that, and this case has had my attention, but I didn't want to reply until I read all the threads so I can enter caught - up.
I have a few cents to throw in.
I notice that in many replies, we are saying things like "I think it was someone known to the family because they knew the dogs wouldn't bark", and that, IMO, is not at all proven. For example, maybe the perp had no idea if the Celis family had dogs or not, and took the chance. Maybe everyone on that road knows the dogs bark at every passerby and passing bar patron and squirrel or cat passing every night, so they assumed one more barking episode at night wouldn't wake the family in panic. Maybe they had witnessed the dogs roaming the neighborhood and knew that even though they bark, they are stranger-friendly. I haven't heard anyone say directly, "the dogs always bark at noise at night and this night there was zero barking." we just don't know.
The uncle is not hinky to me. Does he seem a little Kato-like, sporty, maybe immature? Umm yes. But he also seems well socialized, friends of both sexes (per fb), laid back, not apparently into creepy stuff (Shawn Adkins type)..sometimes the goofy, fun uncle really is just the goofy fun uncle. Also, the family does not seem the type to allow unsavory characters too close, they seem responsible with their careers, they seem like involved parents, not likely to let the man stay so close if they didn't trust him, and I have seen no reason to doubt their judgement. On IS vs. WAS, IMO if someone says, for example, "she was always playing, friendly to everyone..." vs. "is always playing..."that doesn't mean they didn't say IS because now she's dead, it means they didn't say IS because now she's missing or kidnapped or GONE.
Last quick thing.. As a bluish eyed, medium brown haired Cuban American, I get mistaken for "gringa" all day, every day. Highly annoying. Latinos come in all colors, from the lightest person you can imagine, to the darkest. Latinos are mistaken for caucasian and African American all the time. We don't know his race, and with multiple marriages, step families, etc, a last name doesn't give it away.if you separate his last name into 2, you get a Hispanic last name, anyways. There are so many interracial families that I automatically get defensive when there is an feeling of someone "not belonging" to a family because his or her skin doesn't match.
In these cases, we root for the parents, we want them cleared, at the same time, if it was an inside job, we will feel just a little safer knowing that it wasn't a random window kidnapper...I just don't see any kind of good ending but miracles happen.
