Hello all. It has been a few years since I read or posted on this site, but I have been "catching up" with this thread for several days, going back to read all the way through. Please be patient with me as I relearn how to work all the tools, etc., here, as I'm sure I will make some goofs.
I am riveted by this case, for several reasons, but largely I'm sure because of its location here in the central Georgia area where I live. I grew up and have lived most of my life in a mostly-rural county neighboring Bibb County, where Macon is located. Going to Macon has been and still is for me "going to town" to do shopping or whatever. I have worked there and my daughter is a college (not Mercer) student there now.
I've been having insights and thoughts to share as I read through, but wanted to read all the way through before I jumped in. So no time like the present...
I have to say I don't know what to think about SM. It isn't looking good for him, IMO, though I can truthfully say I would like for things to turn out that he did not do this and be totally exonerated. Like some others indicated a few pages upstream, I feel a real sympathy and empathy toward him and his family. But I also have to admit that I had a weird reaction to him from the very first, when the interview with him first aired on local TV -- sort of an undercurrent thing, but definitely there. Seems a lot of folks did, though that in itself need not mean anything.
I also agree with what a few others have said (paraphrasing), that, unlike with some other POIs sometimes, I have a gut reaction that if he did this, he is very disturbed, probably in a way beyond his control. I don't see sociopath here (though of course I could be wrong) and that makes me feel this could be one of those "if only someone had intervened in this guy's life earlier" situations that are so incredibly sad to me, for everyone, from the victim and her family and friends to the perp and his.
Now to jump right into some thoughts...
(But ---OK, folks, can someone give me a dummies tutorial on how to quote a post...? I've tried everything I can find on the site, but can't seem to do it!! Sure I'm just missing something perfectly clear... The post I'm wanting to quote is back in thread #2, #603, where angelaanalyzes said -- and obviously this is not the correct way to do this, just need to get this post on out there so someone can help me --)
I see a scenario that could explain some of this very confusing (with only what we know now) stolen condoms issue.
Suppose (and again, I really don't WANT to) that SM is the perp. We know, from much discussion on here, that as sad and horrible as it is to think, LG may have been sexually attacked either before or after death or both. Suppose SM left used condoms or, even more likely, opened condom packages, in his apartment (a major slip-up, maybe, but so, one would think, if not done for display, is running out of time and trying to dispose of the torso in the trash by the apt.-- not thinking clearly, disorganized).
In LE questioning along whatever lines, perhaps SM volunteers that he is a virgin (and maybe that's true, in the normal sense). Then LE finds either used condoms or open packages and wants to know, "Well, what's with this, then?" SM maybe pleads masturbation of some sort. Maybe LE wants to know where and when he purchased the condoms...maybe letting on that condoms and/or packaging are traceable in some way, by lot number or whatever (and maybe they are?)
A run out to buy condoms at a critical point in the crime timeline may have occurred ... and wouldn't look good, and SM knows it, so he invents the story of taking them at some time in the past from neighboring apartments. To make it all sound real, he embroiders a lot of detail about where the neighbors kept the items, etc. -- as we have seen him go into detail about some other matters. That could be why LE apparently was trying to trace those now-moved-away neighbors, to see if the embroidery was true! I'm not saying that SM, with a master key, didn't browse around some apts. over time -- in fact, if he is the perp, that activity might have been much to the forefront of his thoughts, and just weaved itself right on into the story he was presenting.
Any of this sound plausible to y'all?