There’s a book by Malcolm Gladwell titled “Blink” amd it’s about how our gut intuition is usually right.
I don’t know for sure if NL harmed Thomas that night but it’s the gut reactions that scream out at me.
When people first learn the details of the case they all cry out - “that sheriff is shady!! He knows something!”
I still go with my gut on this one and agree with that consensus.
There is no alibi for where NL was that night though it is known he was out of the house. He was seen in town that night.
When Tom went missing, on Thanksgiving morning, his first communication with Penny on the disappearance of her son was,”Well these things happen when you let your son hang around druggies” referring to Michael Castletine because he was known to smoke weed on occasion.
Then NL soon changed his story and told the Brown family that Tom left town with a gay lover he met online.
When asked, NL claimed he did not process the Durango because it was too dirty and kids “go missing all the time.” Even though there was a shell casing in the car.
When the backpack was located, he didn’t tell the family for over a week. When Penny found out and asked about it, NL told her that Thomas was somewhere sitting under a tree eating little Debbie snack cakes. (From the many snack wrappers left in his backpack)
At the 8 month anniversary of Thomas’s disappearance, he publicly claimed he was working with Chidress county who had a missing person named Grant Brown who disappeared at around the same time as Thomas. Grant Brown was found months prior, so if he was indeed collaborating he would have known that.
On a radio show, NL claimed that Thomas’s case was a criminal investigation but has retracted that without any supporting evidence to show it is suicide.
NL’s entire official write up on the disappearance of Thomas is two pages long and the current sheriff Brett Clapp made reference to this really unprofessional and dismissive report.
Over the entire course of the investigation NL provided zero leads or support but he did offer up a lot of lies and obstacles.
At the time, NL lived within easy walking distance of where the Durango was parked.
NL worked with Gregory Pyne prior to Hemphill County. Gregory Pyne and NL were both dismissed from HCSO for incidences in which they were found to be unreliable and spreading untruths.( for those of you new to this case- Gregory Pyne happened by chance upon Thomas’s remains while searching for deer antlers and scat. This point makes everyone cringe. )
NL has a notoriously bad reputation from the time he was young. As an adult, his is known by many as a bully.
NL, in fact, bullied Tom before he was even a sheriff at Hemphill. He took Thomas into his car even though he was outside his jurisdiction and Thomas was a minor at the time. This is against police protocol and detaining a minor in such a way is illegal. But the picture we get is that NL can do what he wants. He felt entirely justified.
He grossly mishandled the physical evidence and provided zero support to the Brown family.
So IMHO this is how the story plays out in my head -
A bully sheriff who had a history of harassing teens and taking minors into vehicles, has a young man in his town go missing two months after he becomes sheriff. It’s the same young man he bullied a year and a half prior and he was publicly reprimanded for that. There is little physical evidence to support what happened to Thomas because he didn’t do his job and mishandled all the evidence. To top it off, at every opportunity, he scoffs at this disappearance, gives flippant and irresponsible answers while continually demonizing or mocking the victim, playing up weird unsupported scenarios. Then his side kick deputy finds the remains and he and his deputy eventually get dismissed.
My gut tells me NL knows everything.
