I think this is a good, well thought out post. Some excellent observations and points here.
There are a couple of things that don't make sense to me though. One you kind of glossed over, is the effort and time and horror involved in strangling not one but two, innocent babies to death.
He witnessed their fear and panic. He witnessed them writhing and clawing at his hands to breathe. Whether two minutes to unconsciousness or one. That's an eternity at a moment like that. And then he had to keep strangling and strangling while their faces turned different colors, to make sure they were dead and not just unconscious.
And after he killed one, taking several minutes to do so, he went over to the next little bed and did it all over again. How could a loving father do something that gruesome, not once but twice?
So let's say he wasn't "rational". And lost it. That happens. We see case after case of unstable men and women who "lose it" and commit atrocities.
But those cases typically follow certain patterns. They usually include at least one and often more than one of the following:
1. Immediate calls to 911.
2. Immediate confessions.
3. Wailing screams and crying in the front yard or to the police operators.
4. Attempts at or actual suicides.
5. Clear mental illness such as stated delusions, catatonia, etc.
6. No calm and emotionless attempts to conceal the crime.
I never forget an episode of COPS I watched years ago - so disturbing- where a man "lost it" and kicked his wife in the chest. Emergency services came. They showed them cutting her shirt in half (but blurred her face and some of her body) and just pumping and pumping on her chest trying CPR. At the end of the program they reported she died.
The whole time he was screaming and wailing in the background. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" That is a more typical reaction. They're not all like that but I've never seen one like this.
The other thing that doesn't make sense is how can a man who just "lost it" but actually loved his children and feel remorse look so dry-eyed, well rested and calm the next day as he coolly lies about their whereabouts? He was so composed and in control for a man who under your scenario didn't really mean to kill his kids and grieves for them. Didn't appear at all to have lost any sleep. No signs of crying. Or really of any emotion at all. That doesn't make a lick of sense to me.
Finally, he gave three, separate interviews. Two are almost identical. What he says is almost indistinguishable in the two interviews. IMO, clearly rehearsed.
