I can see rage as the emotion for the moment, and repeated rages leading to hate.
What makes you think some one went to the house to talk and it spiraled out of control?
That implies the killer was let inside, very different than what I’d imagined- him gaining entry after they went to sleep.
Just curious what makes you think that? Did they leave and go get the knife and return?
Argue with a male neighbor?
A known guy interest?
Guy met earlier in the night?
JMO
Let's start with everytime I had my gas tank filled when Oregon (I know it's not Idaho) had required attendants, everyone had a large knife on their belt. Unknown why, it just was. Granted I only passed through 16 times, and every attendant was male, but I noticed because I happen to like knives, swords, anything I consider unusual. None that I saw were Ka-Bar brand, fwiw. Gerber was most common, some Benchmade, a few Buck brand, and some odds and ends that were pretty special. I asked about every one.
Having a knife on hand does not seem odd to me. I carried a Buck pocket knife for many years, wore a custom Buck special that would cut through a car when I camped, walked alone in the woods, road my mountain bike. I do not live rural, but suburban. Having a knife does not seem out of the norm. So no leaving and going to get a knife necessary, per my particular life experience. It would be nothing out of the norm for this person to have one somewhere.
As a theory, they might have gone in with permission or not, and the person was not emotionally stable.
Reasons they might have wanted to talk to someone in the house include:
- Felt slighted and wanted to address the issue.
- Asked someone out and was refused. Trying to seek understanding of why.
- Someone in the house had some kind of attitude that hurt someone the killer cared about.
- Someone in the house did something that the killer found offensive.
- Some agreement the killer might have had with someone in the house was broken.
The list is really endless. Remember in this theory the killer is not mentally stable. Anything can send them over the breaking point.
In this theory, the killer could just came in. Might have sat outside working up courage and figuring what to say. Confronted who they expected to confront. If one of the girls and they were so passed out they couldn't wake up and talk to him, rage could happen if he thought they were doing it on purpose. Or if someone had been awake and laughed at him. What no one seems to understand is that if you take a pillow and put it over someone's face, they are too busy trying to get a pillow off so they can breath that they aren't necessarily defending against a weapon. Pillow over one face, stab the other, stab pillow person.
In this theory, girls first, Ethan heard something and got up, he was third, Xana was last and since not near Ethan has defensive wounds.
There are many variations on the "came to talk and things went south" theories. Some would have the target to talk to as Ethan or Xana. (Wanted to talk to Xana, Ethan said no, bad things happened, someone upstairs made noise so they had to be killed, for example). But they all rely on mental instability of the killer.
JOOMO.