As this case develops further, and as information can be shared, I will find it revealing to know more about the childhood and past of the POI. While not a perfect science, there are some very specific characteristics common to those who offend in the manner of Julia's attack. And, there are generally plenty of precursors and a pattern of behavior according to criminal psychologists.
But one of the problems I am having is that I do not really know what the "manner of Julia's attack" is. This part is still mysterious. For example, it is not clear to me
whether the crime was premeditated or more impulsive.
I am not a profiler or a criminal psychologist, so my observations are mere conjecture. That said, the theme of control and silencing seems to fit this scenario. We know that Julia has been described as a vocal communicator and self assured. For anyone with control issues, this type of female can be an affront to their authority. Was this the general cause for the conflict between Julia and her stepfather? His control issues and her unwillingness to comply?
This may be the case, but his "control issues" might be exaggerated. I can imagine that a father is protective of his daughters and that he is controlling to some extend. I am
not sure if he is a "control freak" as the grandmother stated. Are there any example that would justify calling him a control freak? I don't know. But have not yet heard of
any such behavior.
And again, I go back to the theme of silence. Julia was a communicator, a communications major, and she was "silenced". What did she know that had to be silenced?
Of course we do not know if silencing was the motive for the crime. And if it was the motive, we still don't know who did it. It all depends on what the information
was that had to be silenced.
Editing and adding to my post. The mother would know if this post rings true. She would have, most likely, experienced some of these scary controlling behaviors herself. Although, it is more likely that there is a family scapegoat. In this case, it sounds like it was Julia, whose "willfull" behavior was problematic to the POI. Julia has been described as being incredibly close to her beloved twin. If she left her twin behind to go live with her Grandmother, it had to have been for a very compelling reason. And why didn't Jennifer go with her? Why did the mother let her go live with the grandmother? Letting your child go live with someone else is a very big, and dramatic decision....
I don't find this so dramatic. Julia lived on campus most of the time. I imagine that one of the reasons that she stayed in her Grandma's house was
that there was not much space in JT's house. According to some real estate websites, the house has 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, 900 square feet.
That is not much space for 5 people IMO. There certainly would not be a lot of privacy. Grandma just lives by herself as far as I know (?), and lives closeby.
But you raise some interesting questions. I was also wondering about the relationships in the family. It seems that before Julia's death, JT and his
mother-in-law at least had a cordial relationship. Is this correct? Some article called Jennifer "estranged" from her grandmother. Has she been estranged
since Julia's death or was she already estranged before that? If there was some serious conflict between JT and his mother-in-law, how did this effect
the relationship between the two twins?
