I would like to add that they were both only children of their parents' unions. Terri grew up as an only child, and while Scott had older siblings, he too was pretty much raised as an only child. I imagine TH and SP were both spoiled and pampered and praised to high heaven to the point they had unrealistic egos.
Scott bragged about his golfing skills and how he went to school with Tiger Woods. Yet he mysteriously dropped out after his first year at the school and his coach couldn't even remember him. He flounders trying to get started in a career that suits his tremendous ego. Nothing is good enough for him.
Terri brags about her teaching skills and has a whole laundry list of special teaching skills which may or (most likely) may not be true. Yet she cannot find a job teaching, even part time or sub or outside the public school system.
Both TH and SP had parents who dropped some dough to get them started in the hamburger business early in the kids' marriages. TH got her folks to finance Chubby's, which failed miserably, and SP got his folks to finance The Shack, which failed.
One of the key similarities in TH and SP I believe are the parents who raised them. They appear to be prime enablers. They jack their kids' self esteem so high that it comes as a tremendous blow when the kids reach adulthood and find out the entire world doesn't see them as "all that plus a bag of chips." They seek out partners who are willing to see them the way they see themselves. And when that adoration starts to wane, or other people get in the way (SP=baby, TH=Kyron) they just get rid of whomever they see as the problem at the moment.
In light of all this, it also appears that the kids totally take their parents for granted. The parents drop all this money on the kids, and the kids just expect it and keep coming back for more. Then don't appear to even treat their parents with respect, unless they are once again needing something.
Scott's parents to this day deny Scott's guilt. While TH's parents have kept quiet, I suspect they will also deny their daughter's guilt. I believe the reason why is because they see their children as extensions of themselves. There is not a healthy separation between the parents' egos and their adult childrens' behavior. IMO>