First
@Kerry Winter, thank you for you candidness and willingness to share on this thread. And as a fellow person in recovery, keep up the good work in that regard. I can't imagine it's easy with all this going on.
I haven't posted on this thread in ages, probably because my opinion on it changes often, though I admit I lean towards double murder. I think my hesitation is influenced by the Rebecca Zahau case in the US, if any of you followed it (it has many many quite contentious threads here on WS if you care to research), but I will sum up with the similarities:
- A bizarre murder scene that seemed staged (RZ was found naked hanging from a 2nd floor balcony)
- A contentious initial manner of death (Ruled suicide initially based almost entirely on the word of the only other person in the house)
- A wealthy, influential family (RZs boyfriend was a billionaire pharmaceutical CEO)
In her case, LE took the word of her boyfriend's brother at face value, were clearly influenced by the boyfriend's position in the community to cover up the bizarre death, and investigated it as a suicide with complete blinders. I won't say more because some disagree, but her boyfriend's brother, after many years, private investigations by her family, and public pressure, was found culpable of her murder in a civil lawsuit.
Anyway, at the beginning of this case, I was very adamant that this was not a murder-suicide. But the more I learned about Barry and his character, and then how the very wealthy family reacted and seemed to want TPS to find otherwise, I admit to becoming a bit less certain. It's uncharacteristic of me to take a contrary position, but I've seen how money and influence and ambiguous evidence can influence even those who should be impartial in ways they may not even be aware of (subconscious bias - JonBenet Ramsey anyone?). That said, I do think murder/suicide is highly highly unlikely but not 100% ready to rule it out.
In the absence of actually finding something like DNA evidence to bring charges against a perpetrator, evidence that would be useful in helping me rule out murder/suicide would be:
1. Being shown that their cause of death or the positions of the bodies were physically impossible to recreate with one actor; that being BS in staging the M/S;
2. That hanging by belt was NOT BS's COD - I know those of you have concluded it wasn't, but I'm not sure
So I'm almost there, but not quite. Of course I realize that the above will remain unknown until an actual trial or close of the case. I also think that if it was a double-murder it was not done by professionals for business-related or other reasons like that. They wouldn't bother with this elaborate, ambiguous staging - they'd be in and out, leave no trace, probably use untraceable weapons, they'd have no reason to not make it look like a murder, because they're confident in their ability to cover their tracks. On the other hand, this double murder was messy, and up-close and personal. Agree with those that say it speaks of revenge, which could still include a business deal gone bad, getting out of money owed, etc.
As far as suicide - there might not have been signs and it might not make sense to us, but after reading here and having people close to me who have lost people to suicide, I find it is almost always senseless, inexplicable, and notes aren't always left (I think it's only like 30-40% of the time).
So I remain on the fence, with my legs dangling over into double murder territory. The complexities of this case make me suspect that we are in for a long wait either way. I hope I'm wrong.
