Respectfully snipped for reply
Re the red truck, yes we can assume LE identified the person who was driving the truck the night of the murders. That information should have brought them much farther along in their investigation, though. For LE to use the red truck against JM, when they likely knew someone sold it to him to set him up to look guilty is a whole other kettle of fish. Why would they do that? Didn't BCI, Junk & PCSO realize this move would make their motives look suspect? If they were so eager to use trumped up evidence against JM, why didn't they exhibit the same zeal to go after the person who was driving it the night of the murders?
If the driver of the red truck was JW or someone close to him, LE should have had an arrest on some charge before he was given custody of S and allowed to move to AK. If LE had access to JW's DNA, as a result of a paternity test, and it matched DNA found at the crime scene, why was there no arrest or sting of some kind? Is LE trying to protect JW and family in hopes of going for bigger fish in the drug trafficking network? If so, why did they try to set up JM, then force him into the PC Grand Jury system? Are they trying to get more evidence and information or trying to squelch discovery of more?
JMO, linking JW to the red truck LE claims was connected to the murders coupled with being the last person to see HR and the ongoing custody battle should have been enough to warrant an arrest before he was allowed to move to AK. Add in DNA evidence and it should be a slam dunk. Even if the DNA at the crime scene came from someone else in the W family, the familial DNA connection should be sufficient to make an arrest. I can't imagine JW's other family members spent much time hanging out, leaving DNA in the Rhoden homes.
Well, no, we can't assume they knew who was driving that red truck. Who saw that person(s) in that truck and could make them out, in the middle of the night? Just because someone's vehicle was somewhere it shouldn't be, doesn't mean they were inside of it, or knew it was even there. We
can assume that someone saw the red truck tooling around, and that LE had been looking for it, and when it showed up in JM's driveway, they had enough to go to the judge, and get a warrant, to put a tracker on the truck. They had to have convincing evidence to do so.
JM is probably under a gag order, so we don't know what he told the grand jury. I don't think that JM is stupid. Especially not stupid enough to fall for a set up, re; the truck, in your scenario. This region may be denigrated by others, and we may have our own language, and way of life, but we are far from stupid. He knows cars and trucks. He's knowledgeable in that area, and my guess is, he's knowledgeable about people who try to screw you, especially if you don't have a lot, and would see a set up coming, a mile away.
We also do not know how many other trackers were put on other folks' vehicles. Only reason we know about JM, is that he took it off and destroyed it (I'd have likely left it on and drove the same ole boring route to work and back each day, or, it would have "fallen off" on my way to work...
That text may have perked their ears up too. The one that JW claims never happened, JM's Dad said it did happen. I guess only LE knows for sure. The Ws handed over their electronics to LE early on, gave their DNA, were repeatedly interviewed by BCI, and told authorities that they were moving to AK, have had their properties, the properties of their acquaintance, and their family members, searched, twice now,
that we know of, so yes, they've been treated with a focus from the git go.
I've been up to my elbows in alligators, so, I'm not remembering JW, or any of the Ws, owning that old red truck. Dropping off or picking up a child, as one has, for the past several years, is not enough to charge someone with murder. If stopping by someone's home, prior to their being murdered, is a reason to jail and convict someone, then this country has strayed far from our constitution.
The Ws may have very well done this, or had it done, (I recall repeatedly stating that I believe it to be possible, jut not custody as the primary cause, but I'm allowed other theories as well.), but, dropping off a child, or, riding around in an old truck, does not show me the burden of proof that they murdered a family of eight in a most heinous, manner. I'd have to have more proof than what I've seen, thus far, to send them to jail for life. Four percent of the folks on death row are innocent. That may not seem like a lot, but it does if you are in that four percent.
I'm not privy to what LE has or doesn't have. Anyone on here connected to Pike County LE who might be knowledgeable about that?