My initial thoughts too, Happyshoes, until it became obvious imo, that the crime was meant to be a message; a riddle lade message of revenge/retribution, imo. Virtually every psychopathic predator/serial killer case that I have researched since the CA speed freak serial killers of the 1980s had a direct or indirect meth link. There will likely be a meth link in the Dermond murders, imo.
Can't rule anything out at this point Happyshoes, but the indicators do not point to meth as being the motive. This crime was too well planned and executed; organized. "All is a riddle, and the key to a riddle...is another riddle." Ralph Waldo Emerson
Meth manufacturing has a very distinct pungent odor similar to cat urine and would have been detected by other boaters or lakeside residences, imo. There is usually a breeze blowing on the lake..
There is a new method of meth manufacturing; Shake & Bake;
New 'Shake and Bake' Meth Method Explodes
Method Designed to Get Around New Laws
http://alcoholism.about.com/od/meth/a/shake_and_bake.htm
By Buddy T
Updated June 20, 2014
Also known as the "one pot" method, shake and bake meth is produced in a two-liter soda bottle. A few cold pills are mixed with common, but noxious, household chemicals and produces enough meth for the user to get a few hits.
Smaller, Mobile Meth Labs
The old meth labs required hundreds of pseudoephedrine pills, containers heated over open flames and cans of flammable liquids. The cooking process created foul odors making the labs difficult to conceal. They often sparked explosions.
The shake and bake method requires only a few pseudoephedrine pills, circumventing laws passed restricting the sale of large quantities of over-the-counter decongestants, cold and allergy remedies.
The new method requires little room. All of the necessary items can be carried in a backpack, making the process mobile. Drug users are making meth while driving around in their cars and throwing the used plastic bottles, containing a poisonous brown and white sludge, along the highway.