If the main suspect is the kidnapper, the only motive that makes sense to me would be revenge for something significant that we are not yet privy to.
Any thoughts about this?
Yes, and perhaps thoughts that are too many and too involved to follow. But I'll try to clarify.
As a preface, to be clear, imo we're not looking for the motives of camo man, but rather what could have motivated this event. So I'm trying to ascertain the general motives of the one(s) behind this case, and I see the kidnapper(s) as being (allegedly) ZA/JA, whether or not they were in HB's garage.
In general, on this topic of motive, my thinking is more complex than a simple answer.
ONE - Background
As a backdrop, my thinking on motive is impacted by the following ...
1 Criminology studies support the operating theory offered by oceanblueeyes that we naturally tend to suppose a motive that's more substantial, sinister, or complex than reality.
...People really do kill on a whim, or do acts of incredible evil, just because they feel like it. But we want to look for more, because it doesn't seem to make sense that a person we value could die without the perp having some strong reason. So we are inclined to abandon the senseless (truth) and pursue "more" when there isn't more.
2 We heard this truth preached repeatedly by LE in the wake of the JFK assassination, telling us that the lingering ideas of conspiracy in that case came because we yearned for a "bigger purpose" to explain such a killing beyond a single nutjob who got a gun and committed evil.
3 However, I also learned from that back-and-forth that even though we may irrationally yearn for a more complex or sinister explanation and seek it too readily, it's a mistake to dismiss the possibility without looking to see what we see, and following it.
4 And at the end of the day, motive isn't about "tendencies" but rather is about reading the singular mind of the perp(s) who did this. 999 of 1000 murderers could think one way, yet that doesn't preclude this guy from being the 1 who doesn't, and we have to keep that in mind.
...Of course, that makes motive an almost impossible task, because unless they choose to tell us, who can know what REALLY went through the mind of another?
TWO - Application to the possible motives in this case
With all that as the backdrop, here's how I generally see this case and motive:
1 I accept the very real possibility that this was nothing more than a grab, violate, and kill event as outlined by ocean.
2 I also don't think this crime necessarily was planned in great detail. Could it have been? Sure. But the "plan" could have been little more than the idea of going to her house, waiting until everyone left, forcing her to come with them, and driving away using the backroads of Decatur County that these perps knew intimately and had driven all their life.
3 A conviction doesn't require a proof of any specific motive, so we may never know what went through the minds of the perp(s) that made them do this even if we know who did it.
4 When you say the motive only makes sense as revenge for something significant, I don't buy that at all. Could it have been? Sure. But I think that the need to suppose there MUST be something significant at the root is an illustration of the erroneous thinking criminologists see at play when acts like these occur.
5 I do believe we MIGHT have been provided one vague hint as to motive. But it's evidence that may or may not truly pertain to this case, so it's certainly nothing to bank on.
THREE - The one vague hint?
1 The one vague hint ("1VH") is of a nature that it can infer all kinds of various scenarios that could have been behind this deed.
2 1VH doesn't allow us to focus on any one motive, however.
...Taken in one way, it could support ocean's view that this was a sex-power crime.
...Taken from a different angle, it could support revenge.
...Or, it could support pettiness, psychopathic actions, or narcissism as motives.
...And there are probably even more motives made possible by 1VH.
3 1VH potentially opens the door to all kinds of complex motives and possibly a much more complex case.
4 Absent information from the perp(s) themselves, there's nothing besides our own imaginations to rank one possibility arising from 1VH over the other.
...And, in fact, this "hint" may not have had anything to do with this case at all, so there's that.
5 Because the inferences we can draw from 1VH are so impossible to evaluate, 1VH really doesn't help us narrow the possibilities as to motive, and in fact it actually broadens them.
As a result, I see the potential here for just about any motive one wants to imagine. Ocean (it was about sex and power) may be right. You (revenge) may be right. Or it could be any one of a million other motivations, or maybe almost none at all (because evil is evil).
Just think how boring it would be here if we all agreed . . . LOL !
