I did find the step brother's comments that she was "painfully shy" interesting. It was not what I expected. I thought we would hear she was a rebellious teen who was causing all kinds of chaos. Maybe looking at that Idaho ID where she seems so happy makes even more sense. She was trying to reinvent herself. I would like to ask if there was a boyfriend in this time frame. I just can't get my head around a shy, wallflower catholic school girl, becomes worldly, exotic dancer, on the west coast, or Dallas. She also lied about her ID to a judge. That takes guts or worse. She really took major risks. If caught she would have gone to jail at least.
I wonder if "painfully shy" wasn't simply a conclusion drawn from her actions, & these symptoms she presented actually could be diagnosed by an expert as some kind of other mild form of a personality disorder.
Note: I'm just throwing out a thought that has bothered me about how a number of people who knew her described her. Think of it as a caveat. And I'm willing to accept that until someone happens on new evidence. And if we assume she was "painfully shy", much of her known behavior makes sense: her lack of known friends, her reluctance to talk about herself to her inlaws, her refusal to have her marriage to B announced in the local newspaper. And adopting at least two different names in order to hide herself from other people. However, it doesn't explain in an obvious way two things we've been told about her.
The first is the rumor that she was a "dancer" as a "gentleman's club". I have problems believing that a shy person stripping; people have enough problems with their self-image as it is. And as for a "painfully shy" person... I just can't see it. She might starve to death before doing something like that. However, sometimes people who are aware of their weaknesses will do something completely opposite their nature, that is overcompensate, as an act of self-enabling. So maybe KM/LEK did try this for a few years -- but I doubt it. Which is why I consider that story a
rumor.
Second, & far better documented, is the fact she was active in a Woman's Business club for several months. While the Texas Business Women of Bonham and Fannin Counties group is by no means a high-profile group, my sense is that while a shy person could participate in something like this a "painfully shy" person would not. Maybe KM/LEK got over a good chunk of her shyness to join this group, or her step-brother knew her during an untypical period of her life (a parent's divorce, a new family, & moving to an entirely new school & neighborhood are significant stressors). Or she was suffering from a mild form of mental illness that was confused with extreme shyness.
Beyond expressing that one misgiving, I don't have any new serious theory to propose about KM/LEK. Real life is messy, & no matter how well documented a person's life is, there will always be something inexplicable about that person. As I said, I'm willing to accept that her shyness led KM/LEK to do much of what she is known to have done: cut all ties with her family, move to Dallas, change her identity. Her privacy was important enough to her to take some risks with the law, & alienate many -- although not all -- around her. And even accepting that explanation -- with reservations -- still makes her an intriguing figure, because she took an idea many of us have considered at one time & pushed it to the extreme.