The only thing that would make sense with regards to the google search is that he already knew where he was going to dump the body, but was going through his plan mentally the day before and just pulled it up. It's too short a search to believe he was trying to find a place.....and obviously the images from google aren't real time, so you couldn't rely on that to know there weren't houses already built in that area.
That's the curious thing: google was slower with
realtime a few years ago. There are images from 2007, 2009, 2013. There was no reason for anyone to assume that the short Cul de Sac mapsearch zoom area was still undeveloped in the week of the mapsearch and body discovery area. Regarding the google search, I find it hard to believe that, given Brad's knowledge and experience in the field of computer science, he deliberately placed a permanent forensic trace of the
body dump location on his work computer immediately prior to the murder. Let's give Brad and his alma mater some credit.
Prime Minister Steven Harper graduated from the University of Calgary Economics program. Computer Science students do learn about computer forensics and the can give reasons for not leaving crumbs. Can a computer scientist become so arrogant as to believe that he/she can erase the trace crumbs of a google mapsearch? Probably. And ... so for fun, while a computer scientist is contemplating murder, just before the murder, he deliberately leaves crumbs, just for fun, then after the murder, for more fun, that computer scientist screws with the times of those crumbs? For what purpose? Why not just shot himself in the foot. This makes no sense to me, no matter how I look at it.
Give the suspect some credit. He knew better than to search the dump site immediately prior to the murder. To prove that is probably a nasty task, but the failure to prove tampering should not result in assumptions/conclusions
Especially for a Canadian, it's hard to believe that someone that grew up on the prairies wouldn't have a paper map in his car full time, along with a winter coat, a shovel, perhaps candles, hopefully tire chains, and other "stuck in the snow" without cell service equipment stuff ... especially a mountain climber. As a new employee in a foreign country, wouldn't that Canadian have an hardcopy city map for navigation ... and alleged murder planning?
According to the prosecution theory, the computer scientist decided to place a quick google mapsearch of a body dumpsite on his work computer, even though he knew better ... for fun, to put himself in jail, because he wanted the challenge of trying to remove the search from his computer ... why? Clearly he knew better. There is no reasonable argument for a new employee in a foreign country to search google mapsearch to plan murder when there should be a street map of all local cities in every traveling foreigner's car, especially people from the prairies ... with their tire chains, et al. Brad is from Medicine Hat, where his father ran the post-secondary school and his brother ran that IT dept.
Nancy's family was prominent in Edmonton, Brad's family was prominent in Medicine Hat. Brad and Nancy met in Calgary. He was a computer nerd and she was a front-end user interface specialist who changed jobs and opened a used clothing shop.
In no time, they were an item, engaged, and then pushing up the wedding because he had a fantastic job offer in NC. Both Brad and Nancy were all for the wedding because it meant that Nancy had more rights in the US. She didn't think much about her former boyfriend, a philanthropist who left his wife, until things went south with Brad.
By all accounts, the Scotiabank is well represented in Raleigh, yet claims from Nancy and testimony of Nancy's friends was she could not open a bank account in NC. Why couldn't Nancy open a bank account at the Scotiabank in Raleigh? That's the same Bank of Nova Scotia used by Amanda Hayes in North Carolina when she murdered her husband's ex-wife. Scotiabank is in NC. Claims that Nancy could not open a bank account at the Scotiabank in Raleigh, NC. are bogus.
Nancy could not leave the US with the children. That is a fact. Not being able to leave the country would be a reason for Nancy to murder Brad (he prevented her from leaving the US with the children), but that is not a reason for Brad to murder Nancy. Brad held all the cards and murdering his wife would not advance his cause. He was financially solvent and she was financially destitute after divorce in the US except for an offer from her husband to receive payment for caring for the children during the day ... a bit of a tax scam, but manageable ... that was probably the best he could figure out given their divorce in a foreign country situation. She refused that financial offer. Why would that result in her murder?
What did Brad gain by murdering his wife?
Nothing.
Even the sticks and wood ducks turned out to be a figment of the prosecution's imagination.