You know... just looking at and thinking on my and Nationals' posts above a little deeper.... Hmmm. Don't stone me, guys, but let me just throw this out there for thought and mostly for asking for clarification of a few things, if anyone knows:
Suppose...just suppose for one second that Nicole DID stab herself. If NK and DE "plotted" to lure Nicole out for one or the other or both of them to give her "a talking to", as Nationals put it...and Nicole, despondent that it was obvious DE was giving her the brush-off and maybe even that NK was his "real girlfriend", grabbed something (granted, I don't know what it could have been) and stabbed herself...well, since DE had, by legal definition, had some kind of inappropriate relationship with her and since, by his premeditation (with NK) she had been abducted (by legal definition) that night ... could they not STILL be charged as they are? Death in the process of committing abduction, whether death is planned or not = premeditated murder?? And even more emphatically so if they did not then seek medical attention for her, etc.
In media reports, we've seen a lot of quotes that NK allegedly said to investigators...but the thing is, a lot of them have been part her own words, in quotes, and then a paraphrasing of what is, I presume, LE's thought/theory. (Such as something like: Keepers said she was "excited to be part of something so secretive and special" in planning the murder.)
I know this is way out there, folks. Tell me it can't be what happened...? It wouldn't explain buying a shovel. But it would explain buying cleaning supplies AFTER rather than before.
I don't know how the statement(s) that NK said they decided in their planning that cutting Nicole's throat would be the best way to kill her would fit in here...unless they DID discuss that, either jokingly or for real, and maybe even brought along a knife...whether to kill or threaten.
Just a crazy idea, I guess. But even so -- could something like this at least be what DE and NK originally planned to claim happened...?