AGREED. The best predictor of behavior is to look at one's past.
While I generally agree with that statement, in this case I'm working the other direction from EA's behavior. We already have the evidence telling us he did something bad to Christina, and in looking at what he did to Christina imo we see neon signs saying there is very likely a history of predatory behavior and criminal acts in his past, that previously went unnoticed.
I know some want to argue that this was just an otherwise-innocent kid who veered out of control one night, but I'm not buying that's who he was in Aug 2014. Not at all. If it was simply an accident then a person who wasn't like that would tell what happened, explain it was an accident, and so on, and hope to make things right if he possibly could. That wasn't what happened here in ANY way.
Instead we have a guy who coldly abducts, (probably) kills, hides the victim, and then starts a coverup and misdirection campaign. That doesn't make sense to me as a first foray into criminally self-focused acts.
And as that coverup unfolded, imo EA was too casual in his lies, too practiced, and most telling was that he clearly thought he would simply be believed. To me, that indicates he had covered up evils in the past where deception allowed him to skate, because in this case as he told one lie after another, he clearly assumed his words would be taken at face value. As always. Worked before, right?
So based on his reaction to the crime, and how he interacted, I begin with the belief that he's done the coverup act before and hadn't been caught before. Time to start looking closely at his past, under a microscope.
Second, the crimes against Christina look to be predatory - the mindset that "I'm doing
whatever it takes to try to get what I want, because I'm entitled to get it and willing to " - and predatory behavior tends to be repeated behavior.
Sure enough, when LE looked closely, there was a sexual assault of a child that began almost 2 years prior. I know some want to minimize that sexual assault (sex without consent) as some act of love, but that's nonsense - he was taking sex from one who was too young to be involved with sexually, who wasn't considered old enough to have wise judgment in saying yes or no, and he didn't care. He was an adult and this was a 16 YEAR OLD CHILD, I'm guessing still only a sophomore in high school. What is an adult of 22 doing chasing after an early high-schooler, a 16 year old? That's predatory, strong preying on the weak.
If he only wanted an actual dating relationship, and he's really there for the long haul, he could have treated her with respect, dated her, and waited. Maybe it was even about crossing those forbidden lines because not long after she was legal, he discarded her. (Did they even date, or was it just him getting laid from a wide-eyed kid? Haven't we been told his most-recent gf RA had been his gf for years?) In fact, he was so self-focused aka predatory that he made his parents unwitting accomplices to his crimes against her, as they provided the bedroom and encouragement (invitations to their home, eventually a birthday cake as continued enticement) to allow him to sexually assault that child 15-20 times.
I see multiple predatory acts already. I suspect more looking will turn up even more, and I hope they keep examining his past under a microscope, because I think there's much more to be found.
