According to FBI Unified Crime Report [UCR] 2006 - How are Murder Victims Related to their Killers? Acquaintances 53.4% (GF, BF, Family, Neighbor), Family 23.7% and Strangers 22.9% - SO there could be an approximate 76.7% chance that MC's perpetrator was an acquaintance or family member. In WA State, 8 persons under age 18 were murdered in 2008; according to the UCR.Whether we want to consider this a possibility or not - it is the current data.
I don't think speculation of anyone should be off limits at this moment and would hope that discussion of the possibilities could be a bit more open-minded. Some local posters undoubtedly don't put in key "facts" so as not be identified while the number of forum "guests" continues to outnumber registered discussion participants. All views and angles are important.
Let me be clear where I stand, since it's obviously not been.
I don't have a problem with sleuthing adult relatives, acquaintances, associates. Of course that's the first place that the police will look.
I have a problem when suspicion is grounded in subjective rumors, unfounded gossip, and sexism. Just because a woman is career-oriented, asks her friends on her personal facebook for assistance in housing relatives in town for a memorial, and doesn't stay home baking cookies and being what some people's limited view of what a mother is supposed to be...well, all of this doesn't make her a murderer.
I have said time and again that I think WC made a bad choice in men when she hooked up with JF.
However... if you look at my posts from the day I joined WS forward, you'll see that it's not WC that I'm "advocating for," but AGAINST outlandish rumors and disjointed gossip, some of which has been proved to be in error.
No one should be tunnel-visioned in this case. Harping on what a "bad mother" WC was, when there's little if any evidence to support that, doesn't get us anywhere closer to finding out who did this, and might in fact obscure our view of who IS to blame.
Again, I'll say that if people want to post gossip and rumors, that's fine, but they should be prepared for skeptics to respond to those rumors and gossip.
I don't go with the flow, just because the flow is a comfortable place to be. If I see something that I disagree with, I'll say so. I disagree with the nasty comments that have posted about WC, especially because there's nothing that substantiates those nasty comments.
Finally, I'll say that WC is a victim until there's evidence otherwise. I would never want to go through what she's been through. To judge her because she's not behaving (according to the rumors) like each of us would behave is wrong, because, to my knowledge, none of us have lost a daughter to murder.
Where is the same scrutiny of Reid Cowell? If he had a FB page, and had asked for help putting up some visiting family members, would there be the same criticism? Should we start sleuthing SF so that we can find something to pin on RC for being a bad father?
The above are rhetorical questions... I'm through discussing my skepticism of some of the rumors in this thread. But I'm not done being skeptical of some of the rumors in this thread.