Man, it's been some time since I've visited this case. Just watched the whole episode of this case on Investigation Discovery's show, "
Disappeared." (S9:E12 - 2018)
Considering that the show aired in 2018, and we have had new developments since then, here are some of my key takeaways :
-
Michael was very much a doting husband. Opened the garage door for his wife (BC) when she would return home, would frequently meet her outside to carry her purse for her, frequently cooked for her, was at her beck & call, etc.
- LE learned through the course of the investigation that BC had an affair. BC said that the
affair ended approximately 5 months before Michael's disappearance. She also said that she believed
Michael knew about the affair but never confronted her about it. (the affair participant has a strong alibi and was fully cleared by LE)
- One of Michael's adopted sons (JC) had a
strained relationship with the rest of the family before and after MC's disappearance. Family finger-pointing and infighting reach a fever pitch, accusing each other of being involved in MC's disappearance.
JC had an especially strained relationship with MC, with MC essentially cutting JC off from the family money spigots approximately 6 months before MC's disappearance.
- MC's Son-in-Law came forward to LE a couple of months after MC's disappearance, reciting what MC had allegedly told him when they were both watching an investigative
TV show:
"A person could easily disappear and make it look like an accident - and nobody would ever find them! It'd be very easy to do."
- Day of MC's disappearance, MC visited a local Walmart (around 11 am) to purchase personal items that his wife had requested. This was confirmed with Walmart cameras, and MC did not appear to be in distress whatsoever. (the items were found at their home, in a spot that he would normally put them for her)
- After MC left Walmart, LE tried to track MC's vehicle back to his residence along his usual route, but
could not locate his vehicle in any of the business cameras along the way.
- LE brings in a Cell Phone Expert to better analyze MC's phone pings. They discovered that
MC's phone had visited the area of the bridge "in the morning" (LE did not give a concrete time for this), and data from the ping purported to show that
MC's phone loitered in an area just past the bridge for 10-15 mins, then he returned home.
- LE says that the pings from where MC loitered were near a residence that he shared previously with his wife, BC.
- LE says the phone returned near the area and permanently ceased sending/receiving signals around 2:30 pm. LE says that - with the expert's data - it took over three hours to reach the bridge from his residence and that it averaged out to a pace of 4.2 MPH.
(The show seems to have given somewhat contradictory info: Early in the episode, the sheriff pings MC's phone the same night MC went missing while they were canvassing MC's property. That ping showed the most recent activity to be at 5:50 pm in the area/vicinity of the bridge.)
- LE concludes that 4.2 MPH is too fast to walk, and far too slow to drive, so they immediately honed in on the idea of a bicycle being used. (I find this somewhat erroneous; generally even beginner cyclists, at a leisurely pace, average about 10 MPH). This is when LE came to find that MC's bicycle was missing from his usual spot in the garage.
- LE brings in an expert to review the blood splatter in the garage. The expert finds that the blood belongs to MC. The professional opinion of the expert was that the
blood was staged and was likely splattered with the help of a container such as a vial. The expert also noted that the particular color of the blood indicated a possible presence of an anticoagulant.
The single most important thing that I took away from the episode was this quote from LE :
"[...] some things had happened that we believe had caused MC to commit suicide. However, at this time, we are not at liberty to discuss, pending an ongoing investigation.”
Obviously here, LE is privy to information we simply do not have access to. Perhaps MC recently had a terminal prognosis that he kept from his family. Unfortunately, LE has decidedly kept this info close to the chest. Either way, Michael Chambers' life had appeared to be especially tumultuous in the months leading up to his disappearance.
We need to find out how geographically accurate the expert was able to triangulate the phone pings. Michael's loitering visit to the area just past the bridge lines up with where we know his body was ultimately found.
Personally, I was a fervent supporter of the idea that this was foul play, but after watching the episode, I can begin to understand why LE has stuck with the suicide story. Just seems like Michael had been dealt a sh*tty hand, and I could see him wanting a way out.
There are still plenty of variables at play, but I'm still holding on for hope that the autopsy yielded useful information and that, hopefully, the phone will be recovered someday.
