Ok, so here's my take on SH now after today and revelations of her childhood and foster care situation.
I feel badly that any child would have the type of life that SH had growing up. It must have been scary, sad, loveless and life altering.
SH is a survivor. Her formative years in foster care made her a survivor. She knows how to get by and she has proven it. She is smart and manipulative. In fact, I think she's smarter than him. She works NM. She plays on his moods to get what she wants and needs. She gains some form of control even though he may not realize it. She gets knocked around and gets back up. She is not one to be taken lightly. She doesn't close her eyes, sway back and forth, hangs her head and cries. SH isn't crumbling at all. In fact she looks pretty strong and forthright after today's performance. She looks straight on and tells you what's what. She laughs at comments or suggestions that she deems ridiculous. Her mental strength is much greater than NM's. She doesn't appear to have much of a moral code. She seems not the least bit concerned that they are playing and manipulating the system to keep their benefits intact and that NM was getting paid cash and most likely not reporting it.
I am not a psychiatrist nor do I have any training in psychology but I do have real life experience with mentally ill family members with personality disorders. SH shows no empathy. I see crocodile tears where warranted. She knows how to work a crowd. She lies easily and tries to say all the right things and my guess is that she has had to lie her entire life to get by. She may have sociopathic tendencies. She tells you what you want to hear to get what she wants.
But we also know that she CLAIMS that NM was extremely controlling of her, i.e., what she ate, smoking, hair length, ability to go out on her own etc. etc. My big question is....if he was that controlling of her, how can we believe that he did not demand help of her during the whole thing, from murder to clean up to dismemberment to getting rid of the body? She may have put herself in the corner with NM on that one.
I think the lies will come undone, the discrepancies will widen and we will see her for what she is.
IMHO SH has just as much ability to kill someone, if not more so, than NM. She has the fortitude and the brains to pull it off.
