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I know it doesn't sound natural for a family to do this. Unfortunately, I have seen it too often in missing persons or murder cases that the family does not want potentially embarrassing information to be released. They convince themselves that "it won't help bring___ back," or they think the public would judge the victim and thus wouldn't want to help. And if you look at cases in which the victim was engaging in any type of criminal behavior, the police are also reluctant to investigate because they are many times biased against people who break the law.
If you look at murders of prostitutes, those cases do not get investigated unless there is strong media pressure or pressure from family. The key is for the family to step forward and say, "Yes, he/she was doing this, but didn't deserve to die. Don't forget, there is a killer walking around among the rest of us." That is the logic that gets lost when ego and reputation are a higher priority.
If the public would have known sooner, that detail about Chase possibly dealing drugs, especially if the type of drugs had been announced, there is a LOT of help the public can give! It makes me sad for Chase, for Champ, and also for the family. But they make their own choices based on what they think is right for their own family.
In trying to relate to this idea that they are embarrassed, I was reminded of a situation in my own family. A relative was murdered by her boyfriend, who was also her pimp. She had told family before that he had a ritual whenever he got mad at her, that he would make her kneel on the floor and beg for her life while he held a gun to her head. Sometimes he wouldn't have bullets in the gun, and she would get angry when he would pull the trigger and nothing would happen. Well, she told another relative that she wasn't going to "play that game," and she wasn't going to beg for her life any more. Not long after, the family was notified by police that she had committed suicide by shooting herself and she had been in a kneeling position. I remember all the adults in the family felt he killed her, she was never ever suicidal in her life, and he was horribly abusive. She tended to get with abusive men. But all they did was go to the funeral. I asked my mom why they didn't tell the police there was no way she would have committed suicide. She said, "What is it going to change? Will it bring her back? It's not worth fighting with cops because [victim's mom] was already embarrassed that the cops knew she was a prostitute." I disagreed, but being a kid, nothing I could do. I'll never forget the sense of injustice I felt. They didn't want to pursue it because she was a prostitute, and didn't want the cops to act scornful. Also, I think that even though they are devout Christians, they would rather think she killed herself instead of think she was murdered by her pimp.
I don't want to stray off topic too much, but I feel like the way Chase's family is acting reminds me of how my family acted back then.
