@MassGuy – you said, “Without a body, a witness, or compelling physical evidence, there was zero chance he would have been arrested early on.”
My point, poorly made, was that he would certainly have been arrested if the interrogation had achieved its goal: his confession to the murder of his wife.
It’s no surprise that BM’s first conversation with LE resulted in the discrepancy he admitted to LS, and even more. This was not a kind and casual conversation with a bereft husband – it was the professional interrogation of a natural suspect: the sole intimate partner of a woman who disappeared under circumstances that aroused the CCSO’s suspicion.
The investigators likely would have employed elements of the “Reid technique” – an approach to interrogation developed after courts began to exclude from evidence confessions that resulted from physical beatings and threats, sleep or food deprivation, prolonged isolation, or explicit promises of light sentences or immunity from prosecution.
The Reid technique employs forms of psychological coercion with the goal of extracting a confession. It is based on proven psychological influence strategies so powerful that the technique is known to have induced suspects to confess to crimes they did not commit.
If you’ve ever participated in a formal deposition or a trial of any kind, you know how stressful a high stakes conversation can be. My friend recently testified for seven hours in a civil case, and she was mentally and physically exhausted. And this was in a court, with a friendly attorney and a judge to keep the cross examination from becoming argumentative, repetitive, or otherwise harassing. Without an attorney in a police interrogation, there is no such protection.
With this in mind, the idea that a guilty BM could spend 30 hours being interrogated by CCSO investigators without confessing seems dissonant. I frankly don’t see him as a genius sociopath who could breeze through a Reid interrogation sans counsel without breaking a sweat. The fact that he didn’t confess under the circumstances gives me a reason to avoid leaping to a firm conclusion that he’s guilty of murdering his wife, without seeing the actual evidence.
I agree entirely that the CCSO must have some evidence that BM committed a crime and evidence of that crime could be found at the Salida worksite where he had done hardscaping. However murky the definition of probable cause may be, it’s hard to see how a connection of that worksite could be made without at least some evidence that BM had committed a crime and disposed of evidence there.
But that’s as far as it goes. The search of the worksite produced no evidence related to MS’s disappearance, according to the DCSO’s public statement. And whatever evidence supported the judge’s determination of probable cause, it is undermined somewhat by the failure to produce the expected evidence.
In any case, whatever the burden of proof for probable cause may be, it falls far short of “compelling” evidence. In my mind the worksite warrant seemed very significant when it was served. It still signals that LE has some evidence that tends to show BM’s guilt. But I can’t now characterize the warrant as “stunning” and “a big deal” without seeing the actual evidence on which the warrant was based.
I agree that the Broomfield job is a “bad look” at the very least. If it was intended to be an alibi, it creates more suspicion than it’s worth. Even in a state where you can get a construction job if you can lift a nailgun, can the inexplicably slapdash recruitment of a “meth-head” crew for a repair job rescheduled at the last minute and inadequately led, equipped, and prepped be the work of a credible contractor? People are right to question this, and BM may well have to explain. But as far as we know, the explanation may be that he needed to cover an assignation with an old flame he recently discovered in Broomfield. Then his wife disappeared and the scheme blew up in his face. In that case he’s certainly a disgraceful husband, but probably not a murderer.
We don’t know what the cell phone records of the various parties say. This, and the forensic analysis of the PP home search, are the most intriguing areas of speculation here, and you may be right. This evidence may be part of a damning picture, in which Suzanne is dead by the morning of Mother’s Day when BM claims she was alive. Clearly it hasn’t eliminated suspicion to that effect. But until I see the evidence, I won’t know how impactful it is.
Clearly, you are a civilized man,
@MassGuy. BM presents to the public as more of a stumblebum. As my grandmother would say, “He is a schmuck. He didn’t deserve her! If her family don’t like him,
they’re right!!”
But his behavior is not at all unprecedented for guys like him, let alone contrary to human nature. JMO. Of course.
To your final point, serial killers have been known to abduct low risk victims from low crime areas time and time again without immediate detection.
But MSM has not looked into the Sex Offender Registry, and LE has not shared whether any suspected active serial killers may be around (like the CIA, they have their methods but don’t share).
So we don’t get to speculate here about anyone other than BM.
I may join in the speculation about BM, but life has taught me to be prepared for surprises.
