This is kind of OT. But I recently watched The Interrogation of Michael Crowe again. I had seen it before as I was very interested in the case because we had a house by where the Stephanie Crowe was murdered.
If you get a chance, watch that movie. Since I have been involved here, I watched it much differently. The movie does a great job of showing how they locked in her brother as the prime suspect immediately without any proof then how they used LVA, lies and cohersion to get him to kind of confess.
Neighbors immediately told LE about this transcient who had in the neighborhood that night. But they had locked into the brother then his friends because they fight LE's theory. While the murdering transcient was immediately deemed credible and treated much better than the innocent parents, brother and sister.
It just really gave me a better understanding of a murder investigation and how even if Misty told the truth, she would not be believed if they had a theory.
I am familiar with the Michael Crowe story; he was a teen who was accused of murdering his younger sister in the family home. The police interrogation effectively convinced this teenager that he had committed the crime, even though he could not remember doing so.
I do not believe Misty was ever interrogated in this manner by LE. In her early interviews, she seemed free to talk to LE if she wanted to but at one point when LE apparently tried to used some different tactics with Misty, she got up and left the interview.
Misty's early accounts were all that she was sleeping, woke up and Haleigh was gone, etc. While LE did not believe her, they were never successful in getting Misty to admit to anything. Even when LE suspected Misty might have not been home that night, she denied it and never veered from it.
So now Misty is in a quandary because even if she told the truth verbatim, she has no corroboration. Evidence that might have been obtainable back in February 2009 might not be available anymore.
IMO, had Misty been forthcoming in the beginning she might have come out of all this OK. Now, however, even if she wanted to be fully honest and tell all, how can she? Even saying, "I was not there" may not be an option anymore since she might have no way to prove it now, though she might have been able to back then.
Misty went from saying she woke up to find Haleigh gone, "and that's all I know" to saying she heard Haleigh being attacked and saw Joe put her in a black bag. The only way I might consider this to have any similarity to the Crowe interrogation would be if it were to come out that LE planted this scenario in Misty's head and then over and over pounded it home, until Misty relented and went along with it (like Crowe had).
All JMO.
BUT...it really is frightening to know about some LE tactics, such as those that were used on Michael Crowe. What a horrific display on the part of LE that case was! A similar tactic was used on Connecticut teen Peter Reilly, falsely accused by LE of murdering his mother. At some point after hours of interrogation Reilly confessed to the crime, even though he was totally innocent.
It is true, though, that often LE gets an idea in their head of who they think did something and they refuse to budge from it, even in the face of new information that points elsewhere. I think it is possible LE may have decided the Croslins are likely suspects; perhaps the Cummings even counted on that happening.