Their divorce was over 5 years ago, and he's had opportunities in the past do anything to him he wanted to do. I guess my problem is that I personally have known men to murder their wife/ex-wife for filing for a divorce, but none who did anything to one of his own kids because of it. I know there are men who have done it, but I just don't automatically expect the father to be guilty if something happens to one of his children. We all base our views of the world on our own experiences, I guess, and I don't think any of our outlooks is the right one EVERY time. MOO
We have multitudes of stories right here at Websleuths of parents (see? I used a gender neutral word) who DID murder their children in heinous ways just to make an ex suffer. Nothing personal against the kids, ya know. Some of these cases have happened quite a while after the divorce, but changes in custody, child support, an ex remarrying, a move to a far location, these are ALL stressors that trigger.
You are right of course. Not everybody in these situations murders.
But let's count how many of those stressors are factors in this particular case.
And let's cross reference that with any known history of domestic violence.
And while we're at it, lets also ask ourselves if there is a "pattern of detachment" in parenting choices.
------I believe law enforcement has a lot of information, in addition to these factors, that we do not yet know here.