Although I do not give MB a total pass, I do deeply believe there is nothing like a mother's love for her child, no greater instinct to protect, no matter what. I have no idea (and of course, i'm sure just as MB was, that my child would never commit murder) what i would do in a situation like this. I for sure would not want to believe what I was hearing on the news, and from CN, and I can see trying to come up with every scenario in my mind where my child was innocent and caught up all by some extreme unfortunate set of events. I hope that I would do the right thing, as sometimes as tuff as that may be concerning your child...it does equal love.
That being said it sure seems like they both went into cover mode really fast. Also if I thought there was possibly a missing man in a trailer in my driveway, I do think I would contact the lawyer, if not the police directly and have someone come immediately to check the trailer. If there was any chance there was a live man bound inside and I could possibly save him.....which would equal saving my child from murder charges. So this tells me they were positive Tim was not inside...
I would think it would have been one heckuvan eye that MB turned the other way while her dear son was collecting all of his unpaid-for equipment. Maybe even catching little giggles here and there between friends about these missions? And if there were money issues, she would know about them.. and perhaps also be privvy to any of WM's instructions NOT to buy certain things. In other words, my guess is that she had to have been aware that he was involved in stealing well before this event, and would it have been a stretch for her to imagine that her son could potentially be charged with theft AND the missing person? moo