I’m not opposed to the burglary theory but one thought I had after reading a previous post about other church burglaries in the US and watching the corresponding news reports that with the exception of one (he was more interested in committing a hate crime) all the other burglars didn’t leave empty handed. Even if Missy Beaver’s murderer originally targeted the church for the cash but found themselves unable to obtain or locate it I would imagine that they would still try to make their illegal endeavor profitable. Shouldn’t the 30 minutes they are alone in the church been spend identifying and stealing whatever commodities available to them in the church? For example, why not, like some of the others mentioned in the previous post, steal and sell any of the instruments, mics, stands, speakers and cameras from the stage? Maybe grab some nice mugs, cups and plates from the kitchen? What about that pretty cross hanging on the wall, the artwork hanging above the stage, those white machines in front of some of the doors or perhaps some of the bibles? These things may not spark my own personal interest but the robbers in the videos were able to make a market for items I generally overlooked before.
I also noticed that compared to some of the burglars in the videos, the murderer in MB’s case seemed either less motivated or less driven to enter the locked rooms. In particular, I think about how they tried only once to use a pry bar to enter room 1, which on the exterior wall of the West hallway, and gave up immediately on getting inside. If they lacked the skill to break through the locked doors, why not break through the windows when applicable like the other robbers? If they really came there for the cash shouldn’t they try harder to locate it by breaking into as many rooms as possible? And again even if they didn’t find the van chances were they could have still found something to steal and sell, like office phones, computers and maybe even files or records pertaining to church members’ personal information.
I think altogether the videos have shown that the burglars need the crimes to pay because they already took a big risk, and thus expect big compensation, by stealing and being spotted on security cameras in the first place.
I am also not trying to promote or justify crime or burglaries but rather am trying to engage more with the insights I gained from the videos recommended earlier.