I feel it is just more finger pointing in any direction but his own, something we've seen from him since day one. I find it defensive and self serving. JMO
Yes, his "look, squirrel" finger pointing very early on came off as a desperate attempt to control.
As time passed and he said more and more, his statements were cues of possible domestic violence beginning with a general attitude of denigrating Malehya, pulverizing her self confidence, then acting as lord and rescuer for/over her. The dynamic looked familiar to a number of domestic violence victims from my past work. He seemed to usurp her parental authority with her own kids and establish himself as king. Were there justifiable reasons or is this just a personality defect?
We have read of her paternal g'mother saying he HELD HER DOWN. Why? Was she trying to leave when he'd hold her down? Or were there other reasons. I'd like to hear DM's version of this. And he was also reported to TAKE HER PHONE. Again, why? Was she calling for help, 911? Or was he "saving her" from a bad phone addiction in his mind's eye? Did he hit her and Malehya couldn't bring herself to tell anyone that?
When she first came to be with DM, she had some means of her own. That changed and she had no resources close to the end and their dynamic may have changed along with it. .
Bless her maternal Grandmother ~♡~ for helping her out with a car, a primary necessity for changing one's predicament. But that had not had time to cycle through before disaster struck. Did DM sense the end was near?
Had Malehya's going to bed "early" and DM staying up until we don't even know when become a routine, possibly indicating both relationship dysfunction and maybe a habit of nightime stimulants (housecleaning, car work, fence building, and such at night when he was not even working days)? His edgy pushy angry manner of addressing things may be cues. The "I'm the best, I know best, I'm faster than a helicopter, ppl should/shouldn't be doing xyz, everyone should listen and take direction from ME ME ME, is a piece of the puzzle. I can't fathom what he was like alone in a one on one relationship, especially with children who weren't even his own and with no money for food, firewood, gas, and apparently winter coats for the kids.
One thing really jumped out for me: when daybreak came and the kids had vanished, he first made comments akin to being Malehya's protector. Was that by design and strategic for him in order to influence Malehya to stick with him?
Was she drugged in some way to make her drowsy enough to sleep soundly and to be sluggish on waking in the morning?
We're the kids likewise drugged, whether to put them to sleep or to render them unaware of their final fate?
Terrible thoughts to ponder. Sadly, in social service work and then in justice work I've seen more than plenty of terrible things. But we always always followed the clues and then looked for evidence.
The link MistyWaters posted is a worthy read and I think very well written, kudos to the author and thanks to MistyWaters for posting it. If you read it, keep in mind, always, to never assume words mean something they do NOT SAY. No evidence is not equivalent to "ruled out". Unsubstantiated is not ruled out.
The RCMP has not "disputed" any theories or witness reports, they just say they have not substantiated nor found evidence of (yet). That salacious headline was sooo badly written that the author would have been fired in the days of excellent journalism and my granddaughter's Jr high's newspaper staff would have been docked and corrected for such.