I just have to say that I have known a lot of functional alcoholics, as customers, friends, family and as clients and they are never the ones that get arrested for DUI because they start drinking at 3pm and are asleep somewhere by 7pm. The occasional drinker who has one too many will get caught because they don't drink all the time. And in all the years, I have never had a young DUI in my office, they were always middle aged or elderly. Go figure.
RL has made some mistakes very late in life, with the key words being 'very late in life'. However, not only did he serve our country in the military, he graduated college and that would have been a remarkable feat in the '50's. Not everyone got to go to college then. There weren't any student loan programs, except the GI Bill. We do not know that he farmed for a living but I rather doubt it because he has only 40 acres and as you can see, most of it is wooded. He likely had a career and this was just some country land passed down to him that he loved and loved living on. It is beautiful and in such a nice little town. Who wouldn't want to live there on the river?
We know he loves that piece of property.
His son visited on weekends, so he was likely divorced when much younger, remarried and divorced again when he was in his 70's. Traumatic? You bet. He obviously loves horses and dogs, bought himself a new truck some time ago and was probably quite content in retirement until they divorced. Then the drinking and driving came. Gee. Why am I not surprised that his behavior reflected the soul shifting reality that he was 72 and alone? Am I the only one who sees him as a person here?
And he doesn't know the exact words to say in response to media questions that will satisfy everyone who might parse his every syllable. Who would?
I do not believe that RL is BG. He is just caught up in the investigation because BG chose RL's property.
If someone murdered 2 little girls in the woods at the rear of my property where my kids played when they were young, in broad daylight, while I was home and then my property was declared a crime scene and was searched for days by goodness knows how many people, 'raped' would be exactly the word I would use to describe how I felt.
Horrified. Stunned. Shocked. Frightened. Violated. Loss of sense of safety. Loss of peace. Loss of place. It would be a horizon-shifting event.
I am praying for RL, he is a victim too. I hope they do not send him to jail to serve his sentence for the DUI, he will lose everything. He needs help, not condemnation.
