Police can say they believe this or that all day long. If they had evidence they would have made additional arrests. So far there appears to be no evidence anyone else was involved (and detective said as much during the preliminary hearing). Police also had been wrong on more than one occasion when they believed something and it turned out to be completely wrong. Like publically declaring a kidnapping of young woman a "wild goose chase" and claiming they wasted resources looking for her. But it turned out to be a real kidnapping and woman was telling the truth. Thread is on this board.
This is certainly true, jjenny. Over the years I have seen several PD who 'believed' (thought) at the time there may have been more than one perpetrator especially when it is a murder case involving multiple victims. When the eight family members of the Hienz/Tolar family were murdered LE also believed there could have been more than one suspect. That was at the beginning of their investigation but as the investigation proceeded forward all the evidence pointed only to one suspect being involved, Guy Heinz Jr. who has now been convicted.
I would think that belief is quite common among investigators who have a multi-murder case. It has to be ruled in as a possibility at first and then it will be ruled out by elimination during an ongoing investigation if they have no factual evidence others were involved. Have the PD held a news conference recently telling its citizens there are still killers on the loose who haven't been caught concerning the SS murders? If not, I think the investigation has revealed there was no others involved but the arrested suspect, DW.
My theory on why Philip was tortured is a rather simple one. Philip was the leverage DW needed and used to gain control of the three adult victims. I have said before by hurting Philip he knew he had put psychological chains around SS. If at the time SS did not do exactly as he instructed him to do then Philip would be tortured again.
As far as DW remaining in the home only DW has the answer to why that happened. I have learned a long time ago we cant put rational thoughts into the mind of someone who is making irrational decisions at the time when they decide to murder others.
That same subject comes up in just about every murder case discussed here. 'But why would he/she do this or that the way they did or why would they take such a risk of being caught or why would they stay inside the home for hours?' etc. Unfortunately, many times, even at trial we never learn the answers to those things because the defendant rarely testifies. But we do learn that they did happen even if we never know the details from beginning to end.
As you know, I never thought DW had help nor needed or wanted help. Many sole perpetrators have murdered multiple victims before even more than four victims. I do believe however; his defense will be to place blame elsewhere or they will tell the jury he had to have had help. I have seen that defense in other multiple murder cases and could never really understand why they used it. Even if DW had had 15 people help him it doesn't change one thing legally and he is still just as guilty. I guess they have to pick something though even though unreasonable and not supported by all the evidence collected.
I don't even think he did this for revenge. I think he wanted to invade a home where he knew for sure the family was wealthy so he picked this home. Several home invaders recently have wound up murdering all the victims inside the home. More and more their motto seems to be to leave no living witnesses behind.
![Frown :( :(](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)