Found Deceased MT - Rebekah Barsotti 33, & dog (fnd deceased), Town Pump, Superior, Mineral Co, 20 Jul 2021 *Reward

[laurawlms]

Have you approached the Lucy Blackman trust or John Walsh or the Morgan Nick Foundation

We have contacted John Walsh by email several times. I am not familiar with the other 2 you mention so I will look into that. Thank you.

 

[Steve McQueen]

Apparently R met with a third party for belongings to be transferred at the gas station. Is there CCTV at the location? How remote an area is it - is it likely to have CCTV on the arterial routes to and from
both the gas station and the location she was last ? Or ANPR hits on her vehicle or even ex husband vehicle. ? You don’t need to answer all these questions in the main thread , especially any questions that relate to ex as he’s not a POI. If you want to answer then use the conversation thread to pass information.
Regards the dog - what breed was he? Some dogs are water dogs . What was the approximate temperature outside that day ? Can you find out the approximate temperature of the river water ? Normally cold water is a preservative. How long after R was last seen , was her dog recovered? Was he still wearing his electric collar? Was the collar removed ? ( I’m thinking of any possible data retrieval). Where is the dog now buried/cremated? It will be interesting to have these answers as to how the dog was unable to have further examination due to the passage of time and the state of his body . Strange question but did the dog still have his eyes when recovered? You can tell by small burst blood vessels called petechia which settle in the eyes and are not always visible by the naked eye and this will tell you if strangulation occurred. Was the collar swabbed for forensic retrieval? The dog allegedly travelled 10 miles. Where does this shallow river feed into and is it ever a fast moving current ? Were photographs taken by LE/forensic investigators of the found dog ? And the vet who made the Decision that no further examination of the dog could take place. Request their records made at the time along with descriptions of the dog .

To be totally transparent we need to consider the following:
Some animal lovers do not agree with electric shock collars . Some make their feelings known vocally ( had own experience of this using check chain which is a similar method to stop the dog running after whatever they desire, so you check the chain which tightens around the throat and breaks their train of thought so they become controlled again - this was when training K9 police dogs ). Some people can be aggressive towards the people who use these methods. So with that in mind- were there any witnesses to R presence at the river that day ? Anyone witness any altercation or argument between R and third party ?
Re searches- submit FOI request to ascertain if LE approved search teams to join in. If you are told that they cannot provide this information then you need to question why not if they are not conducting a criminal investigation and say it’s a river drowning.

And lastly. Again I don’t want you to answer this on the thread but you can always make enquiries regarding military vets and service and obtain basic information which can show a persons course of conduct and their provenanced behaviour displayed which may or may not feed into the current feelings and theories that you have about truthfulness or otherwise of the people involved in this situation.
I will continue to read this thread and if I think of further lines of enquiry then I will post . @laurawlms

I will defer to @laurawlms to answer your excellent questions. Unfortunately many of the answers depend on the local LE and they have not been particularly forthcoming with information related to the case.

I am more interested in your opinion as to what it would take in the way of new evidence to have local LE open a criminal investigation into RB's disappearance. The case is now considered an accidental drowning/missing persons case. These are my ideas:

1. IMO the surest way to change this from a missing person case to a criminal investigation is to find RB or articles of RB's clothing somewhere on land (i.e. not in the Clark Fork River). Unfortunately is not likely to happen until after the Spring thaw and even then because of the vastness of the territory to be covered, would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

2. Another possibility would be for a local person with knowledge of criminal activity in the case to come forward in response to the reward that has been offered. While I applaud the family and their friends for accumulating the reward, imo it will take a much more substantial reward for someone to risk the retaliation by the perpetrator that is likely to follow (perceived or otherwise).

3. Could national media attention (e.g. John Walsh or the like) put enough pressure on local LE to act. I think this is doubtful. IMO the locals view this as an us versus them (RB being from outside MT) situation. I think threatening them will only make them circle the wagons even tighter.

4. Another possibility is that someone uncovers some devastatingly clear evidence that DB (or someone else) profited in some big way from RB's elimination. The family has recently hired the highly regarded PI, James Terry, to look into the case. I have high hopes he will uncover something along these lines.

Once again, thanks for joining the thread @Angleterre

 

[NoSpoonFeeding]

What I don’t understand is LE saying that this is not being treated as a crime. If that’s the case, who obtained access to R phone and downloaded the video of the dog training? If LE then they would surely need a warrant with probable cause to do so. If that’s the case then how do they not have probable cause to obtain a warrant and enter the marital home ?

Upthread, I have asked numerous questions about the phone. I think that the phone is under the husband's contract and the family, therefore, is not given access, either online or by request to the provider. Upon recovering the phone, the police contact the husband, he has no personal knowledge of where RB is, the phone is locked and it may have important information as to what happened. With either the husband's permission or citing exigent circumstances, the police can access the phone. This is different than getting records from the provider. After accessing the phone and seeing the video, text messages, etc., it appears that nothing suspicious was noted and it's concluded that the most likely scenario is accidental drowning.
There are witnesse(s), that state the husband did not leave his home during that time frame, there is no evidence he was ever at the river. There is no probable cause to get a search warrant for his home.

Where does this shallow river feed into and is it ever a fast moving current ?

By volume, this is the largest river in Montana and drownings are not uncommon. vhttps://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/missing-woman-trained-her-dog-by-the-river-before-disappearing/

Strange question but did the dog still have his eyes when recovered? You can tell by small burst blood vessels called petechia which settle in the eyes and are not always visible by the naked eye and this will tell you if strangulation occurred. Was the collar swabbed for forensic retrieval?

The dog's body was decomposed, most likely in the river for 6 days, with advanced insect activity. This indicates that after initially sinking, the dog surfaced and was exposed to a very hot sun and insects for several days. There are lots of fish in this river that would have fed on the body. It is incorrect to think the first stage of body decomposition slowed when it was in the deeper, colder water and therefore the dog should not have been so decomposed when recovered. I have no idea if the vet could see bones or checked for trauma.
The vet didn't take the collar off, I can envision it being entangled or embedded in fir and decomposed tissue. Insinuations about the vet, in my opinion, should not have been voiced.
Sidney and Missoula weather July 2021 Sidney, MT Monthly Weather Forecast - weather.com
Missoula, MT Weather Calendar | Weather Underground
All of the above can be considered just my opinion, but readers can do their own research. Also in my opinion, not agreeing with the position of LE, and LE not releasing information, does not equal a cover-up, corruption, or a conspiracy.

 

[Zoose]

I don't have coordinates. The sheriff initially said Cerb was located approximately 10 river miles west from where RB's personal items were found at Alberton Rock area.


Which would be about here according to my google mapping 10 miles from that area.

46°59'49.7"N 114°42'53.4"W

Yeah I measured the same, seems an odd place for something to wash up though, it looks like a very deep gentle bend from what I can see

 

[Zoose]

Hello and Welcome, from a descendant of Sedgley in the U.S., have you taken time to read the thread? Many things have already been discussed, and questions answered. There are locations, photos and links posted, with lots of information.

I have, its never bad to requestion things though, sometimes rethinking and answering a question again at a later date can cause you to remember details you may have missed the first time, you also have a fresh perspective about your own answers with the context of how opinions have changed based on everything discussed prior

 

[Bit of hope]

Welcome to WS @Zoose and very nice to have you here on this thread too @Angleterre. Input is much appreciated.

 

[Zoose]

Welcome to WS @Zoose and very nice to have you here on this thread too @Angleterre. Input is much appreciated.

I appreciate the welcome, im sorry we couldn't be meeting in better circumstances

 

[Angleterre]

Yes welcome @Zoose
Good to have your expertise here

 

[Angleterre]

I will defer to @laurawlms to answer your excellent questions. Unfortunately many of the answers depend on the local LE and they have not been particularly forthcoming with information related to the case.

I am more interested in your opinion as to what it would take in the way of new evidence to have local LE open a criminal investigation into RB's disappearance. The case is now considered an accidental drowning/missing persons case. These are my ideas:

1. IMO the surest way to change this from a missing person case to a criminal investigation is to find RB or articles of RB's clothing somewhere on land (i.e. not in the Clark Fork River). Unfortunately is not likely to happen until after the Spring thaw and even then because of the vastness of the territory to be covered, would be like finding the proverbial needle in a haystack.

2. Another possibility would be for a local person with knowledge of criminal activity in the case to come forward in response to the reward that has been offered. While I applaud the family and their friends for accumulating the reward, imo it will take a much more substantial reward for someone to risk the retaliation by the perpetrator that is likely to follow (perceived or otherwise).

3. Could national media attention (e.g. John Walsh or the like) put enough pressure on local LE to act. I think this is doubtful. IMO the locals view this as an us versus them (RB being from outside MT) situation. I think threatening them will only make them circle the wagons even tighter.

4. Another possibility is that someone uncovers some devastatingly clear evidence that DB (or someone else) profited in some big way from RB's elimination. The family has recently hired the highly regarded PI, James Terry, to look into the case. I have high hopes he will uncover something along these lines.

Once again, thanks for joining the thread @Angleterre

@Steve McQueen it’s a difficult one because without some answers from the questions that I posed, it’s difficult to advise further. The way my role works is like building blocks and you start with a small amount of intelligence and from that you develop lines of enquiry/questions to be answered and when they are answered you create more lines of enquiry which eventually give you enough direction to go in with provenanced information/circumstantial evidence to back you up leading to then presenting the information gleaned to someone who can make the decision to investigate further because you are offering them a fait accompli whereby they can’t not do something because of the package you present- DYKWIM?
Plus there are issues around the phone and the ex husband access
Last evening @NoSpoonFeeding stated that there was no need for a warrant for the phone which in the circumstances that were described by him/her in their reply to me, I understand. But two things struck me with that answer-
1. Why if they are not treating it as a crime, did they look at the phone at that time because that I believe was early days and at that point they didn’t know what they had . So by accessing the phone, they have broken the chain of continuity of a potential future exhibit in any court case ( criminal or civil ) and it could be argued, even if this hasn’t been done, that it’s compromised the integrity of any investigation. We are taught NEVER to touch the phone content for that reason but to bag it and submit it for forensic evidence retrieval so that all procedures and processes have been diligently abided by and followed through with ( because we don’t know if this could change for a MP enquiry to a Criminal investigation). An allegation could be made in any future trial that it has been tampered with and potentially cloned etc . I am not saying this has happened but it is to protect against it.
2. I have concerns about any property being handed to the ex as the NOK because of the previous DV situation that was ongoing right before she disappeared. For the sake of transparency, it would be better if the property was lodged with a solicitor so that any forensic investigation can be undertaken by both sides but under a legal representative so that it’s fair to both sides however, personally I would be going to see a solicitor/lawyer ASAP to get her property back due to the circumstances of very recent DV and threats.
It’s not necessarily because he’s potentially a person of interest, it can also protect him too by being transparent so it’s not necessarily a bad thing to hand over her belongings.
I think that the family should consider using any funds raised to look into cadaver dogs/bloodhound searches, forensic examination of her vehicle, witnesses, CCTV etc
It’s true that PIs can only do so much and don’t have access ( legacy anyway) to LE current databases but they will have contacts and can source contacts to get the ball rolling in certain areas and they can co ordinate the investigation so that it can be packaged together and put before the AG or whatever if they have enough in their investigation strategy that points towards a crime as opposed to a river drowning.
What size is the LE department in both of the towns mentioned? The lead LE should be where she was last seen, not where she lived .
I also don’t necessarily agree with what NoSpoonFeeding said about decomposition
I have never been to an animal autopsy but I have been to hundreds of suspicious death, suicide, murder autopsies for the age range of 6 months to 90. Every one is different. Yes No spoon feeding is correct about the heat and insect activity if the dog was floating for 6 weeks but I find it hard when looking at the images to think that nobody saw the dog in those shallow waters beforehand. And cold water does affect decomposition and preservation. I disagree with NSF there. For example I investigated a murder of a husband and wife who were left for 6 weeks in the hottest temperatures ever recorded for the month of July in their year of passing. However, unlike what I would normally expect whereby decomposition would have liquified the corpses in those temps, it didn’t. It actually “mummified “ the two of them and they looked exactly the same as they did when living apart from a more tanned complexion. I won’t say further in this thread but if you want to start a conversation about this, it was interesting about the decomposition inside the body . But the point I make is each is different.
I accept I’m U.K. based but from what little I have already gleaned the DV charges, threats to kill and no contact order in being right before her disappearance, she would be classed as a DV Gold victim which affords a set criteria of intervention and protection in the event of any escalation irrespective as to how small the escalation may be and would be subject of weekly MARACK review meetings with all different agencies to ensure her safety. I just can’t understand the approach that LE are taking. Yes sadly, she may have drowned but at least investigate all leads to the nth degree to ensure you have covered all bases . It’s very troublesome to me and personally I would write to the top , Kamala Harris the VPOTUS and collate the evidence of her press releases, policies and tweets where she has prioritised women and violence especially DV. Then include these in a full and detailed report asking for it to be investigated, but being careful not to slate LE, just make mention that the family are at an impasse and have different views to LE and aren’t even able to engage outside agencies because LE has to invite them. I wouldn’t be unprofessional by slating LE, I would pen it as a plea for a more detailed investigation due to the DV aspect of the case.

 

[laurawlms]

Ok I have only just come across this thread so I apologise for the late input. Firstly can I say to the family of Rebecca that I am truly sorry for the situation that you find yourself in and with Rebecca still missing. I am only 4 pages into this thread and as many of you on WS know, I am a Retired High ranking Detective and Sio ( senior investigative officer who would lead Murder and major crime and the occasional high profile MFH especially where DV ( domestic violence ) is involved. I’m in the U.K. and our way of working and investigating has similarities to the USA, but we also have some differences with regards to entry of property and seizure of evidence which makes it far easier in the U.K. to make progress. I have already noted 3 pages of lines of enquiry and things that bother me which the family could potentially progress . If because of differing laws around your amendments come up, then I apologise in advance because I can only go off what I know to be the process In U.K. Furthermore , because I’m only 4 pages in , it may be that many of these lines of enquiry have been done or are in progress so apologies if that’s the case.
I have both questions and observations and they are random as I’ve been reading the thread and therefore are in no particular order .
In relation to DV it’s a widely known fact that this is the most dangerous point in any relationship break up because the perpetrators of DV are losing control. I don’t say this to scare you but I am being real about the situation, I see that R had ongoing DV issues with her ex and that there are currently cases before the court in this regard plus she had a ‘no contact order ‘.
So firstly a few background questions:
Were any DV support agencies involved with R? If so, they need to identified and spoken to as they may have documented evidence of DV and threats . I presume that to get a no contact order, you have to appear before a judge and satisfy the judge of the need for this ? If so, you need to get details of what was lodged by R with the court even if this is by going to a solicitor and obtaining a release order or a FOI ( freedom of information) request. Does the ex have pre convictions for DV ? DO NOT answer this on this thread but treat as a form of rhetorical question and if yes then obtain these . DONT DISCUSS on this thread though unless you do it by private conversation because nobody has been named a POI so against WS policy.
Did R still reside at same location as ex? Is she still co owner?Does mum have a key and authority from R to go into the marital home without warrant ?( If LE saying no crime therefore they don’t have probable cause for a warrant then surely if mum has key and an unconditional permission to enter , why not do so to ensure that R is not at the location? ( seek advice from @gitana1 ). My post is long so I will move onto a new post to break it up…. To be continued @laurawlms

RB did have a victim's advocate. It is my understanding the victim's advocate can not speak about any conversations between the two of them.

RB moved from Mineral County MT (where marital home is) to Missoula MT where she took up her own personal residence. She is still co-owner of the marital home.

 

[laurawlms]

Apparently R met with a third party for belongings to be transferred at the gas station. Is there CCTV at the location? How remote an area is it - is it likely to have CCTV on the arterial routes to and from
both the gas station and the location she was last ? Or ANPR hits on her vehicle or even ex husband vehicle. ? You don’t need to answer all these questions in the main thread , especially any questions that relate to ex as he’s not a POI. If you want to answer then use the conversation thread to pass information.
Regards the dog - what breed was he? Some dogs are water dogs . What was the approximate temperature outside that day ? Can you find out the approximate temperature of the river water ? Normally cold water is a preservative. How long after R was last seen , was her dog recovered? Was he still wearing his electric collar? Was the collar removed ? ( I’m thinking of any possible data retrieval). Where is the dog now buried/cremated? It will be interesting to have these answers as to how the dog was unable to have further examination due to the passage of time and the state of his body . Strange question but did the dog still have his eyes when recovered? You can tell by small burst blood vessels called petechia which settle in the eyes and are not always visible by the naked eye and this will tell you if strangulation occurred. Was the collar swabbed for forensic retrieval? The dog allegedly travelled 10 miles. Where does this shallow river feed into and is it ever a fast moving current ? Were photographs taken by LE/forensic investigators of the found dog ? And the vet who made the Decision that no further examination of the dog could take place. Request their records made at the time along with descriptions of the dog .

To be totally transparent we need to consider the following:
Some animal lovers do not agree with electric shock collars . Some make their feelings known vocally ( had own experience of this using check chain which is a similar method to stop the dog running after whatever they desire, so you check the chain which tightens around the throat and breaks their train of thought so they become controlled again - this was when training K9 police dogs ). Some people can be aggressive towards the people who use these methods. So with that in mind- were there any witnesses to R presence at the river that day ? Anyone witness any altercation or argument between R and third party ?
Re searches- submit FOI request to ascertain if LE approved search teams to join in. If you are told that they cannot provide this information then you need to question why not if they are not conducting a criminal investigation and say it’s a river drowning.

And lastly. Again I don’t want you to answer this on the thread but you can always make enquiries regarding military vets and service and obtain basic information which can show a persons course of conduct and their provenanced behaviour displayed which may or may not feed into the current feelings and theories that you have about truthfulness or otherwise of the people involved in this situation.
I will continue to read this thread and if I think of further lines of enquiry then I will post . @laurawlms

Cerb was a malinois. He was found 6 days after they went missing. Cerb was still wearing his E-collar. The family said it was embedded in his skin and he was cremated with it on because the vet could not get it off. The family has since learned there is no formal veterinary report regarding Cerb. I'm not sure about the eyes.

 

[Steve McQueen]

@Steve McQueen it’s a difficult one because without some answers from the questions that I posed, it’s difficult to advise further. The way my role works is like building blocks and you start with a small amount of intelligence and from that you develop lines of enquiry/questions to be answered and when they are answered you create more lines of enquiry which eventually give you enough direction to go in with provenanced information/circumstantial evidence to back you up leading to then presenting the information gleaned to someone who can make the decision to investigate further because you are offering them a fait accompli whereby they can’t not do something because of the package you present- DYKWIM?
Plus there are issues around the phone and the ex husband access
Last evening @NoSpoonFeeding stated that there was no need for a warrant for the phone which in the circumstances that were described by him/her in their reply to me, I understand. But two things struck me with that answer-
1. Why if they are not treating it as a crime, did they look at the phone at that time because that I believe was early days and at that point they didn’t know what they had . So by accessing the phone, they have broken the chain of continuity of a potential future exhibit in any court case ( criminal or civil ) and it could be argued, even if this hasn’t been done, that it’s compromised the integrity of any investigation. We are taught NEVER to touch the phone content for that reason but to bag it and submit it for forensic evidence retrieval so that all procedures and processes have been diligently abided by and followed through with ( because we don’t know if this could change for a MP enquiry to a Criminal investigation). An allegation could be made in any future trial that it has been tampered with and potentially cloned etc . I am not saying this has happened but it is to protect against it.
2. I have concerns about any property being handed to the ex as the NOK because of the previous DV situation that was ongoing right before she disappeared. For the sake of transparency, it would be better if the property was lodged with a solicitor so that any forensic investigation can be undertaken by both sides but under a legal representative so that it’s fair to both sides however, personally I would be going to see a solicitor/lawyer ASAP to get her property back due to the circumstances of very recent DV and threats.
It’s not necessarily because he’s potentially a person of interest, it can also protect him too by being transparent so it’s not necessarily a bad thing to hand over her belongings.
I think that the family should consider using any funds raised to look into cadaver dogs/bloodhound searches, forensic examination of her vehicle, witnesses, CCTV etc
It’s true that PIs can only do so much and don’t have access ( legacy anyway) to LE current databases but they will have contacts and can source contacts to get the ball rolling in certain areas and they can co ordinate the investigation so that it can be packaged together and put before the AG or whatever if they have enough in their investigation strategy that points towards a crime as opposed to a river drowning.
What size is the LE department in both of the towns mentioned? The lead LE should be where she was last seen, not where she lived .
I also don’t necessarily agree with what NoSpoonFeeding said about decomposition
I have never been to an animal autopsy but I have been to hundreds of suspicious death, suicide, murder autopsies for the age range of 6 months to 90. Every one is different. Yes No spoon feeding is correct about the heat and insect activity if the dog was floating for 6 weeks but I find it hard when looking at the images to think that nobody saw the dog in those shallow waters beforehand. And cold water does affect decomposition and preservation. I disagree with NSF there. For example I investigated a murder of a husband and wife who were left for 6 weeks in the hottest temperatures ever recorded for the month of July in their year of passing. However, unlike what I would normally expect whereby decomposition would have liquified the corpses in those temps, it didn’t. It actually “mummified “ the two of them and they looked exactly the same as they did when living apart from a more tanned complexion. I won’t say further in this thread but if you want to start a conversation about this, it was interesting about the decomposition inside the body . But the point I make is each is different.
I accept I’m U.K. based but from what little I have already gleaned the DV charges, threats to kill and no contact order in being right before her disappearance, she would be classed as a DV Gold victim which affords a set criteria of intervention and protection in the event of any escalation irrespective as to how small the escalation may be and would be subject of weekly MARACK review meetings with all different agencies to ensure her safety. I just can’t understand the approach that LE are taking. Yes sadly, she may have drowned but at least investigate all leads to the nth degree to ensure you have covered all bases . It’s very troublesome to me and personally I would write to the top , Kamala Harris the VPOTUS and collate the evidence of her press releases, policies and tweets where she has prioritised women and violence especially DV. Then include these in a full and detailed report asking for it to be investigated, but being careful not to slate LE, just make mention that the family are at an impasse and have different views to LE and aren’t even able to engage outside agencies because LE has to invite them. I wouldn’t be unprofessional by slating LE, I would pen it as a plea for a more detailed investigation due to the DV aspect of the case.

@Angleterre, I'm enjoying reading your posts. I have learned so much. Regarding the drowning of Cerberus and the condition of his corpse, instead of six weeks, it was six days later that they found him in the Clark Fork River. <modsnip> That Cerberus was found ten miles downstream of the supposed drowning site is what is suspect to me. I have always suspected that someone (DB?) killed the dog and dumped him in the river much further downstream than the Alberton Rocks.

 

[Angleterre]

@Angleterre, I'm enjoying reading your posts. I have learned so much. Regarding the drowning of Cerberus and the condition of his corpse, instead of six weeks, it was six days later that they found him in the Clark Fork River. <modsnip> That Cerberus was found ten miles downstream of the supposed drowning site is what is suspect to me. I have always suspected that someone (DB?) killed the dog and dumped him in the river much further downstream than the Alberton Rocks.

Wow I didn’t realise it was 6 days
Even more worrisome
Thank you for your kind words

 

[Angleterre]

Cerb was a malinois. He was found 6 days after they went missing. Cerb was still wearing his E-collar. The family said it was embedded in his skin and he was cremated with it on because the vet could not get it off. The family has since learned there is no formal veterinary report regarding Cerb. I'm not sure about the eyes.

Even more concerning
Malinois are athletic fit intelligent dogs and used in some countries as K9s for LE
This was our Police Dog “Blade” a malinois and he was tall and 48kgs and very strong.

 

[Angleterre]

RB did have a victim's advocate. It is my understanding the victim's advocate can not speak about any conversations between the two of them.

RB moved from Mineral County MT (where marital home is) to Missoula MT where she took up her own personal residence. She is still co-owner of the marital home.

Very interesting
Leave this with me for the time being please

 

[iamnotagolem]

I think I must have missed this in my previous reading of articles about Rebekah.


“But police say they’ve run down every lead, and ruled out her estranged husband being involved.”
Rebekah Barsotti trained her dog by the river before disappearing


That says a lot to me, they’ve investigated thoroughly enough to clear him of involvement which we rarely see in missing persons cases, especially while the person is still missing.

I hope her body is recovered soon for the family’s sake, my heart really goes out to them.

 

[?!?]

I think I must have missed this in my previous reading of articles about Rebekah.


“But police say they’ve run down every lead, and ruled out her estranged husband being involved.”
Rebekah Barsotti trained her dog by the river before disappearing


That says a lot to me, they’ve investigated thoroughly enough to clear him of involvement which we rarely see in missing persons cases, especially while the person is still missing.

I hope her body is recovered soon for the family’s sake, my heart really goes out to them.

"police say they’ve run down every lead" - seems to conflict with the statement that it's being treated as a drowning and not a crime, doesn't it?

 

[Steve McQueen]

I think I must have missed this in my previous reading of articles about Rebekah.


“But police say they’ve run down every lead, and ruled out her estranged husband being involved.”
Rebekah Barsotti trained her dog by the river before disappearing


That says a lot to me, they’ve investigated thoroughly enough to clear him of involvement which we rarely see in missing persons cases, especially while the person is still missing.

I hope her body is recovered soon for the family’s sake, my heart really goes out to them.

BBM

I wouldn't put much stock in that. This was LE responding to a one off out of town reporter. @laurawlms will correct me if I am wrong, but LE has only ruled out the estranged husband because they say he has an alibi. I am not sure if they have even formally interviewed him. From watching the video of the council meeting it appears he lawyered up as soon as people began suggesting his involvement on Face Book.

 

[Angleterre]

"police say they’ve run down every lead" - seems to conflict with the statement that it's being treated as a drowning and not a crime, doesn't it?

Excellent point

 

[Gina20]

It seems to me that if no formal separation/divorce documents had been filed, and Rebekah had no will (we don't know), and no designated beneficiaries on her bank accounts, the marital assets would go to her spouse after death, in the event of accidental drowning. Also, any insurance policies that covered an accidental death would be paid out, assuming Rebekah was declared dead at some point, and the right documents were filed. Likewise with mortgage life insurance.

However, murder would be another thing.

Although I have asked this before, and do not expect an answer, I will ask it again. Were there any life insurance policies in Rebekah's name, and if so, who is the beneficiary?