Now, about that email. Is this the email that was shown to Tara Lintz? Did he forward the email, or copy and paste the text only, so that the header wasn't shown? Or did he paraphrase it? Discovery will tell.
Chris might have offhandedly mentioned it to Joyce, or to his supervisor, or to another employee. How it was handled is almost entirely based on how CC reported the threat. Did he say, "just thought I'd mention it, no problem, nothing you need do, I have a cop neighbor and my own video surveillance system--and the threats were about Joyce, they were about me, and I'm a former Marine and I'm not scared, we'll take care of whatever threats there are, after all--I'm her bodyguard."
That could constitute "reporting it." Who says who reported what to whom, when and under what instruction? "Go tell Mike--he'll tell Joyce if he thinks it's necessary."
Playing a game of "telephone" with threat reports is one way to make sure the report is overlooked or dismissed. "I don't know, he said he got a threat email--or was it a letter at his home? Mike, were there two messages or one? I'll have to get back to Chris and see. If another one comes, let me know, otherwise we'll just sit on it."
Possibilities:
1) The threat report never reached Joyce's desk, therefore she knew nothing of any threat to Chris or his family, whether in December 08, January or April of 09. (Actually, I think it's been proven that some report was made within the walls of JMM.)
2) The threat report reached Joyce but was downplayed, ignored, and forgotten. If there is a pattern of threats coming to Joyce, X number per month or per year, it might have been put in the "Kooks" file and forgotten.
3) Joyce knew the content of the threat email and/or letter. An investigation turns up nothing because no one thinks that Chris is sending them himself, so no one checks his laptop or computer files. He accuses others at JMM, sending the investigation off in several different directions. (He may have deliberately chosen people whose employment at JMM was marked by conflict or misbehavior or turmoil, the better to deflect blame.)
4) Joyce knows Chris sent the phony threats. She doesn't want to fire him because he's a long-time family friend, someone she's known since childhood. She doesn't want to fire him because he's so close to her that it would reflect badly on her to have hired a threat-maker, and fired someone for this kind of weird threatening behavior. She doesn't want to fire him because he might raise a stink and cause a scandal--especially if she's overlooked bad behavior on his part in the past. If she fires him she can't control him anymore. She figures it can be handled internally, Chris can keep his job, Sheri and the boys won't be out on the streets, and Joyce won't look like an idiot or a hard-hearted shrew.
I believe that JM knew of the threats, but not that they came from Chris. I believe LE knew before May 10 that the threats were coming from Chris, simply because they had better tools for investigation and no motive (as Joyce would have) for protecting anyone within an organization or for shielding that organization's internal workings from public view.
I believe JM didn't know the threats weren't real because if she did, she'd never come within 100 feet of the murder scene. She wouldn't put herself at Chris's side.
I believe she found out the threats came from Chris about the same time that LE told her of his adultery. She fired him and cut off all connection or contact with him. That, necessarily, means not addressing the tragedy of three lives cut short, but Joyce has her empire to think about, and three dead people don't look good on the lawn.
The smoking gun would be an email from someone between Joyce and Chris, saying, "Hate to tell you this, but Chris sent that email himself." That would bring down JMM quicker than any tax-cheat prosecution.
