It's human nature to want the outcome to be positive, but in my experience from my decades of crime reporting and family in LE, the Crown would not risk going ahead with murder charges unless they had solid evidence that the victims are in fact deceased. IMO, they have more than they need but due to the high profile nature of this case, they only moved ahead after their evidence was confirmed. I suspect they knew the outcome was bad on the very first day.
In my experience, LE will give false leads to the media in an attempt to solicit more information and/or keep a suspect in the dark, and off centre. IMO, we may have incorrect information as to many aspects of this case.
I have my own theory on what happened based on my experience, but it may be too graphic and gruesome. Sadly, I see the pieces fitting differently.
My bold
Following on from your statement now in bold. I think that you're sadly right. What the cops saw, JO saw first, and what they may have surmised, she may also have thought possible. That poor woman, IMO, opened the door into hell that morning. I think she hung onto that new little t-shirt, even during the press conference, because if she let go it would mean she would never give it to him. He'd never wear it. It would never "smell like Nathan". But, if she held on, there was a chance, the smallest chance that he'd come home. So she clung to the shirt, because it was her hope. And her words, which some criticized as "odd", were a prayer that her baby and her mother would still be together wherever they now were while at the same time following LE directions as to what could and could not be said. Lord knows, hanging onto a little T-shirt that she knew could well be the last thing she'd ever buy her little boy, was a very human thing to do.
JMO, but I think that the original alerts that said that Nathan might be with his grandfather, were written that way because if Nathan was alive and with an abductor who was, for instance, in his fifties, most people would assume that he was a little boy on an outing with his grandfather. I think it was a hope, perhaps futile but still a hope, that an abductor might be moved to drop off that sweet, polite, religious little boy in some safe harbour while he made a run to save himself in another place, under another name.
The cruelty displayed by the alleged perpetrator in this case is mind-numbing. The repercussions are going to continue for lifetimes, for all the members of the extended O'Brien and Liknes families, for the first-responders, for LE and their partners, for the community. I think this is going to go way beyond grief counseling for some of these people. In light of the recent tragedy in Winnipeg, apparently triggered by yet another psychologist believing his patient is no threat to society, I think that an effort should be made by City of Calgary to have services in place for the treatment of PTSD for everyone involved. It will be ongoing, and there will be a cost involved, but if money is available for treating the perpetrators of crimes within the prison system, surely there should be money made available for treating those people who suffered because of those crimes, for the people who had the difficult task of investigating and analyzing the crimes, and for the people who had to deal with all the aspects of cleaning and reconstruction following the crimes.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...ommits_suicide_years_after_bus_beheading.html