Hi, I first came to Websleuths not long ago after reading an article on Medium about "Lyle Stevak"--the unidentified man who killed himself in a motel in Grey's Harbor....but this week I read about Helen Bailey. I haven't been here long enough probably to make a list of what we DO know, but several things about this case send up my internal red flag alert. Mainly, those red flags are screaming "something's not right about the press coverage of this case," although other things might be at work here.
First, I'm an author (fiction), so, naturally, an author going missing is going to get my attention. Second to that, my imagination might be getting the best of me here, and so I claim no neutrality. BUT...if I were writing this tale...I would look very closely at one or both of the sons of Mr. Stewart AND any of their friends who have been to the house. Thirdly, it seems quite odd, as someone else pointed out that she would take the road behind her house instead of in front of it to walk the dog. My guess: a very specific destination. Fourth...does anyone else think it's odd that all the press reports (unless I've missed one--always possible) say that she "had access" to a large sum of money....so, I'm thinking it's still at the house (or in a bank by now) and no one wanted to broadcast that a large amount of money was in the house for apparently some period of time before Helen disappeared. So, was ANY of it missing...any amount?
No one can say how another person should or will grieve for a loved one, or even what it will look like; having said that, a few observations: It seems she's been grieving over her first husband a long, long time, and despite her grief therapist's comment and comments from some friends, any 'getting over it' might have been rapidly derailed were she to suddenly discover something previously unknown to her. What kinds of things? Finding out about a large sum of money in her own home or finding something (or finding something out) about Mr. Stewart's first wife's "mysterious death in the garden," just for examples. Did anyone other than me get a sense from the coverage that Mr. Stewart being her "fiance" seemed a surprise to some? Beyond that, does anyone really believe that one leaves someone one is in love with without any notice whatsoever UNLESS 1) foul play 2) psychotic break or 3) an affair with...someone else, possibly someone younger or 4) a fear so great and so close and so immediate that total flight seems the ONLY alternative?
No one leaves forever with a note about "needing some space." When was that note written...was it just written? Written two years earlier after a minor tiff with B/F? You are engaged to someone and you leave a note about needing space? And don't return, no word, no nothing? Nope, not unless there was trouble in Paradise. And finally...she was close to her mum and brother...I have to wonder what they are thinking about this.
What's especially bothersome is the feeling I'm getting that it could be any of these...or any two or three of these. There is something we don't know that law enforcement does. They use words like baffling, mysterious, etc etc., but something specific about it has baffled them beyond the overall mystery of where is she. I wonder what?
Wow, "Stevek" and Bailey...two tough ones!
