My two cents -
After throwing this new "boyfriend scandal" and RS's future plans into the mix in this case, I now think the murder of his wife made things much harder on RS and think his defense will have a great argument for reasonable doubt...if the facts as we know them now are the actual facts, which I assume they are likely not, but whatever....
IF RS was already planning on going on a solo (no one else from his local church) mission trip for three years to Russia or wherever and these plans were known to everyone, as well as funded and endorsed by his church family, then he already had the perfect situation for him to escape his current life and start a brand new one with anonymity (theoretically). The murder of his wife only complicated things immensely since there would be an investigation, etc. Even if he was quickly eliminated as a suspect, the ongoing investigation would just present numerous problems for him.
If his wife is alive, he leaves to a grand sendoff by her and the church as he embarks on this three-year mission trip where he will be making personal sacrifices in order to do the Lord's work. So, this provides him with three years where he can still be in contact with everyone back home where he is considered to this great Christian man AND continue to receive their unquestioned financial support, as well as the "freedom" to plan and execute his ultimate end game. For someone who plans to begin a new life in a new country, whether if be with another man/woman or not, this three year "headstart" would be like a Christmas gift. When the time came for him to return home, he could simply disappear and never return to the US. He would be remembered as the missionary who probably met a tragic end in a dangerous, foreign land while doing the Lord's work. Of course this would cause his family great pain, but he's not concerned about his family's feelings or whether his actions hurt them anyway, so that part doesn't matter to him. Whether he actually planned on continuing a life with a new male or female partner doesn't really matter at that point since he had already made his "escape" from his "real life."
If his wife is murdered, all of these great plans are ruined. He can no longer make an "easy" escape, which means he can no longer do any of the other things listed above. Not only is the easy escape gone, but now every tiny detail of his personal life is going to be looked at and analyzed. His affair with a gay lover is guaranteed to be discovered pretty quickly, which not only gives him an apparent motive for the murder, but it also exposes the ONLY thing that can really "hurt" him in all aspects of his life. In this scenario, he would have had to assume he would lose pretty much everything he cared about and the potential to explore new options, even if he somehow escaped conviction for murder. It is possible he isn't the brightest bulb and didn't think this through as thoroughly as I. :blushing: If this was the case, I would think even with his compromised intelligence he would still figure out he should make any murder look as little like a murder and as much like an accident as possible so he would have the hope of it being ruled an accident/suicide/etc. However, this is not the way the murder occured. Based on the facts, if he did it, it was after she discovered his plans and confronted him about them. Whether she outright threatened to leave him or tell others, he felt she would ruin all of his careful planning and he killed her out of rage and fear.
Based on the above, I have concluded that either a) He didn't do it and has the worst luck possible b) he did it and is a complete moron c) he did it after she discovered his plans and it was in an unplanned rage. :takeabow:
