I agree he has delusions of grandeur. IMO he’s also more than a little nuts, ridiculously impressionable, easily manipulated and his moral compass has gone kaplooey .
And she’s pure evil.
Yes, Chad wrote, said and believes really wacky stuff. But he was married to one woman for 30 years, established in his community, with no trail of dead bodies in his wake (until Tammy). And all his kids are accounted for.
Compared to Lori, who’d been married 4 times before Chad, had two soon to be ex-husbands suspiciously die, remarkably timed when she would still inherit their assets and collect life insurance (or so she thought). One husband documented she she wanted to kill him, she admitted she’d lie that the other was abusive just to win custody. Has a history of bouncing around like a geographic pinball between hither and yon. Then disappeared for months causing her son’s school to contact CPS. Came back in time to raid hubby’s business account before watching him being shot by her brother, then giggled with police and threw a pool party hours later. Texted her stepsons their Dad had died, lied about the cause of death and went ballistic 4 days later after learning she wasn’t getting his life insurance. A couple months later two of her three kids vanished from the face of the earth. What did I miss?
I imagine a deluded person who believes his own wacky stuff would be an easy mark mid-life for a manipulative, beautiful blonde that seemingly fawns on his every word. Eagerly swallowing whatever combination of fabricated “visions” and improbable lies she feeds him.
On some level the truth must be dawning on Chad. But the implications of admitting he’s been duped, even to himself, must be paralyzing. Rationalization might be his psyche’s only defense.
Yes, it’s hard to imagine he would want to believe her despite all evidence. But that believe would be the only thing keeping him from seeing the shambles he’s made of his entire life.
It sounds impossible. But lots of us are holding out hope the kids will be found safe despite only evidence to contrary. And our stakes aren’t nearly as high.
No doubt Chad has a lot to answer for, and I trust he’ll pay in all sorts of ways. At very least he aided/abetted after the fact, lied to LE and ignored all reason. Quite possibly he murdered his wife. Either way, he should pay dearly! But IMO there’s a reasonable chance he got into this mess because he’s the biggest buffoon on the planet.