I saw the ID show and read some of the posts. The people here sound much more knowledgeable than I am. Is there a premier with all the facts condensed? The ID show is geared for dramatic presentation not concise facts.
Thoughts
- The trance-like walking and repeated trips sounds more like psychological problems than meth. Meth is an upper. It sounds like they were depressed and/or upset.
- The parents' psychological problems would explain Madyson's distressed expression and ill-fitting clothes in the picture.
- The family sounds troubled enough that it's hard to imagine them hatching the perfect plan to disappear into hiding. It sounds like they were struggling to get through daily living. Sherilynn had joked about feigning mental problems to scare people off, but most people who take that approach probably have some bona fide mental problems.
- I don't find it odd they wanted the realtor to give them the coordinates instead of showing them the properties. These were depressed people who wanted to live away from other people. They liked salesmen even less than the average person.
- The cash isn't that weird b/c I've heard of people with trashed credit or who are just distrustful or unsophisticated liking to keep their money in cash instead of the bank. If they were going to buy land, they might have brought the cash to show they were serious. I bought my last car with cash from a large local dealer, and they lowered the price when they realized I was able to buy that very minute with no indecisiveness, applying for a loan, etc. Cash really talks. People get a visceral reaction to it, and they know you're serious.
Does anyone know why they seem not to be very affluent but own several timeshares? Did they accept free vacations in exchange for signing up for shady timeshare deals?
Were the keys locked in the car? Maybe they locked everything in the car by accident, decided to walk to town, and got lost. Keep in mind they weren't healthy. He had a bad back, and they both had psychological problems, so they would not have approached the problem of being locked out of their car in a calm and rational way.
How far were they from the nearest town?
My guess
My guess is they were in a bad psychological state and made a series of bad decisions that got them lost, kidnapped, or murdered. They could have met up with someone, bought a small amount of drugs from him. That person could have realized they had enough money on them (not counting the money he didn't know about in the trunk) to supply their habit for months and killed them. They could have gotten in an argument with someone and waved that missing .22 around at them, leading to an altercation. It doesn't seem like it would take planning to kill or kidnap them because these were troubled people making bad decisions. Their bodies could be a few miles away from the car, and the police search could have simply missed them.
The pic of Madyson
I suspect Madyson knew her parents were not on top of things and were making bad decision. She probably struggled to keep them from doing stupid things, but she was only 6 and not sure of the right thing to do. It would be like the pilot on a plane going insane and a passenger with no knowledge of flying attempting to take the controls. Madyson knew from Kindergarten that other kids' parents take care of them. She was
out in the countryside at an age where she was still learning to distinguish fantasy from reality listening to her parents talk about living in a storage crate there, ghosts in their house, shooting demons with a gun, suing her school, and so on. She was probably trying to work out which of those things were real and protect herself and her family from them. The parents took that picture at the site where they would live in a crate. They were too upset themselves to realize they were putting their daughter through hell.
Thanks for bearing with me if it turns out someone's already thought of and debunked any of my guesses.