I've missed out on replying to a LOT of posts on many subjects due to timezones & the thread lockdowns, but this one seems to come up in some form in every single thread, so I'm going to roll a whole heap of replies into this one post re the debate over whether the man at BB Rd & others were "cleared" while RL was not.
The news articles that went further & described the subjects of the BB Rd search warrant as "cleared" came after the LE statements of "not a suspect
at this time". Local media went further a week or so later only because the rumours & accusations about Bicycle Bridge Rd still hadn't stopped & the family in that home were terrified. Local media did much the same when the accusations continued against RL after the police issued "not a suspect at this time" statements about him.
Those who haven't followed the case outside of WS from the start may be unaware of what it was like when that warrant was served but the man at Bicycle Bridge Rd was subjected to many of the same rumours & accusations as RL
ie :
- he must be involved or they wouldn't have probable cause
- if he didn't do it himself he must know who did & he's protecting them
- it was his adult son or someone else he knows & he's covering for a child killer
- if he's not a suspect why were so many officers involved in the search
- why were they there for so long unless they knew what they were looking for
- why would they execute the warrant "urgently" at that time of night unless they had something big on him
- if it's not him why did media show photos of police removing multiple boxes of evidence from his house
- why were media there at all unless police know he's involved
- they want us to
know they know or they wouldn't have tipped off media & let them stand around filming the search all night
- people insisted "pfft he hasn't been cleared at all - they said "
at this time so obviously they're just not charging him yet because they're waiting for the lab results to come back on the stuff they removed from his house" etc, etc, etc.
Sound familiar?
The only reason those "not a suspect at this time" statements were even made was the insane reaction to that search warrant. The family started being approached on soc med by strangers. Some wanted to befriend them to try & get the dirt on their family members, other people were sending a
of threats & abuse. There was such an onslaught that the family deactivated their accounts in fear & then even
that was seen as a sign of guilt.
The first warning to leave the family alone & not listen to online theories about the crime came from a page run by Carroll County's emergency dispatchers. When their warning failed to calm the situation & the family's home started to be vandalised & targeted in real life,
then the "not a suspect at this time" statements were finally issued by police themselves.
IMO all LE involved in this investigation were completely unprepared for the public response to that search warrant. They're used to going about their work without having to worry about every word, facial expression & mannerism being analysed & (mis)interpreted by thousands of people. They learnt their lesson - & IMO that's why they addressed media quickly when RL's warrant was served. IMO that's also the only reason RL was accompanied to court by senior officers with the most experience in fielding media queries. The extreme reaction to the man at Bicycle Bridge Rd & several other men who've fallen under public suspicion is probably also behind the level of security given to RL at court. Police have a responsibility to protect people & property, especially when they may come under threat as the result of police enquiries.
It should not be assumed that police tipped off media re RL's search warrant. Journalists have the same access to police scanners as the rest of us. They're also capable of recruiting tipsters or parking near police buildings & watching for movement.
It's also important to note that several people have been the subject of accusations as the result of police activities in this investigation, but so far only two men have had police issue statements on their behalf. Only one man has had police statements issued on his behalf
repeatedly & while one or two of those statements also contained ambiguous detail, they
all contained detail that could be considered to clear the subject as well. Therefore the bulk of police statements re RL point to him
not being a suspect.
In any case, the only
LE issued statements re BB Rd are "not a suspect at this time".
I'm not here to push for suspicion of one name over another because we have nowhere near enough detail to single out any one person.
My point is that either "not a suspect at this time" clears
everyone LE applied it to,
or it clears no-one.
It cannot be both.
