I think both accused are guilty of murdering TB. They planned the truck theft together over a long time and had not been able to steal one by the time they went on the 1st test drive. Frustration and failure was getting to them both. I do think that IT got away only because they thought he'd pose a possible threat to them both. They were not going to let a solid opportunity pass again to get the diesel truck DM needed. On TB's test drive I believe that neither DM or MS were going to accept failure again. They went up TB's driveway with the full intention to take the truck and the owner to succeed in their mission at any cost, and I believe TB paid that cost with his life. I think he was doomed the moment he agreed to allow the later evening test drive. After that it was all systems go for both DM and MS.
In texts to and from DM, MS and even AM you can see DM's desperation building and he was fully prepared, and preparing others for more risky business than any of them had done in the past. It was time to dangerously escalate things and if violence was necessary to get that truck, so be it. DM succeeded in recruiting MS to be his accomplice. I think AM likely wanted no part of the plan and opted out because I believe it possible that DM had let others know he was ready to take a truck by force if need be. All DM and MS needed was the right truck and the right owner in the right circumstances. They decided on May 6th that TB was the right match to carry out their plan. They didn't have time to delay. There was no plan B to come back later to take TB's truck. Once they left the driveway with TB there was no looking back.
I believe that both DM and MS were armed and fully prepared and willing to use their weapons on the test drive with TB. Two men - fist to fist - with one victim could have easily overpowered that lone victim had TB put up any resistance and they knew it. They could have let TB live. They could have taken the truck and let TB out on a remote side road in the dead of night. They were cowards. They never planned to let TB leave alive. They took a gun or guns on that test drive because DM wanted a truck and wasn't going to keep scoping them out indefinitely. I think once he spoke to TB on the phone, DM determined that TB was a "nice guy" and that perception likely emboldened DM and MS in their plan. DM and MS thought that TB wouldn't put up a fight against two young and threatening guys while out alone on a test drive drive in his rural area on a Monday evening. I bet seeing SB in the driveway, and if TB had mentioned he just out his baby to bed, that DM and MS would be encouraged that they indeed chose a nice decent guy who had every reason to live and no reason to resist their plan. I believe they were right.
I think TB was killed by both accused once they got to the Bobcat location, a location I believe was pre-planned and one that DM was familiar with. The reason they killed TB there is by that time they were quite close to the farm and the incinerator and a reasonable distance from TB's area. I think the plan was to order TB out of the truck at gunpoint to shoot him outside of the truck and transfer his body into the bed if the truck, but something interfered with that plan. DM or MS may have shot TB before TB could comply with their command. Whichever of the accused deviated from the plan to shoot TB outside of the truck, it doesn't matter. TB was dead. TB's phone was discarded almost as an afterthought in the ensuing aftermath, in those adrenaline rushing moments. The interior of TB's truck was then covered in blood, and the mad getaway by two madmen began and the clean up and cover up went into full swing. Together. Two monsters that created a living nightmare. Together. And the accused stayed together throughout that terrible night as they coldly continued on. Together at the farm they put TB's body into the Eliminator. Together they headed for the hangar where together they incinerated TB's body as the truck was getting stripped and being prepared for SS to do his thing with the VIN and a repaint job would soon be in the works. The only f-up of their plan was TB being shot inside the truck. All in all though, the next morning they were each celebrating mission success and thinking they had pulled off a brilliant crime. Perhaps I should say another brilliant crime when I think of LB. Neither DM or MS expected TB to be making headlines at all, let alone in the immediate days after he went missing. LB had, by May 2013, been missing for almost a year without much public interest in finding her after all. I believe that DM and MS thought they got away with the crime of the century - perhaps twice - no reasonable doubt in my mind. They thought they were the untouchables. They were deluded.
DM and MS by their own intentions, words and actions before, during and after TB was killed, convicted themselves. No matter how bizarre and unbelievable each of their stories are as they each get their versions out to the jury, I do trust that the jury will see that the only thing that makes any sense, given the totality of the evidence in the context of the big picture, is that both DM and MS were compatible partners, each with a need - one for a diesel Dodge Ram truck - the other for a classic Cadillac - and as difficult as that it is for the average person to comprehend or accept, the truth is that they both planned and equally participated in the crime. They should be held equally responsible for TB's murder. The alternative fictional theory penned by DM in his letters to CN or communicated for him through his lawyers, or the other creative twisting of the truth by the rap lyricist MS are not convincing. Thankfully these two accused turned against one another because that fact did provide a good glimpse into their characters and credibility, but for me, the Crown's version of events is convincing and once they sum it all up, I am hoping the jury will be convinced too.
All MOO. All of the above is my own opinion and speculation.
So well said.
A couple of my own thoughts to add to yours:
- I am not sure when TB was murdered but, like you, I think at some point, whether in the Bullmann field or, more likely, at Bobcat, some attempt was made to put Tim's body in a tarp or sheet and then into the bed of the truck. The luminol tests seem to back that up as well. To get Tim's body from the front seat onto the tailgate and wrapped in a tarp would likely require the work of two people, bad shoulder or not.
I am surprised NS wasn't all over this. Unless I am missing something, MS's testimony goes from seeing TB's body at Bobcat, to going to the farm and seeing TB's body on a sheet in the barn, to DM putting TB in the incinerator by himself. Maybe it incriminates his client even further <shrug> but I think the Crown brings it up next week. That blood got there somehow.
As painful as it is to say, I think that is exactly what they are doing at Bobcat, in addition to ***possibly**** changing the plates. It was only half an hour, 45 minutes tops, since they had left the Bosma residence, and I don't think changing the plates was that high on their priority list. Getting Tim's body out of the front of the truck was a bigger priority. IMO
Speaking of wanting to change the plates, why the need to do it there, instead of just continuing to the farm (less than half an hour away)? They were at Bobcat for 18 minutes, if I am reading the timestamps correctly. In that time, maybe another five to seven minutes tagged on, they would have been at the farm. The odds of them seeing police would have been slim and none, anyway. I think they were more likely to have been discovered pulled over at the side of the road by a cop doing rounds in the area. If that happens, they were screwed either way, so why they stopped at all instead of just going to the farm is anyone's guess.
If they don't go to Bobcat, they are at the farm by 10:10 and it is highly unlikely cops would have been on any lookout for TB's truck that quickly. They didn't end up leaving Bobcat until 10:04.
At Bobcat, Smich says (according to tweet): "He walked back to the Yukon and proceeded to grab stuff from the back." (I believe part of that "stuff" was the tarp or sheet, maybe the plates)
I think they stopped at Bobcat for another reason, and that reason could very well be to murder TB or, if he was already dead, put his body in the bed of the truck. I believe they went to the Yukon to get the tools they would need, put the tarp or sheet on the tailgate and then, together, lifted TB's body onto it, wrapped it up and slid it into the bed. At this time, they also went through TB's pockets and found his phone (maybe it rang with SB or WDB calling to see if everything was all right) and they powered it off at 10:02. They then get in the vehicles and leave at 10:04, throwing TB's phone out the window and onto the lawn of Kemira on their way by.
-I keep going back to the point if this was a scoping mission only, and the plan was to come back later to get the truck, why the need at all to take the gun? Or have the extra set of plates in the truck? If you were going to rip that truck off from the driveway of that house in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night, there would be no need to change the plates as no one is going to see you. I don't buy the GPS bull****. You could have found that out with a simple call to TB (and maybe the ad even said it).
DM: "Does this truck have a GPS?"
TB: "Yes, it does."
DM: "Thanks. We may call you back and come see it." (as soon as he hangs up, that truck is scratched off the list)
Sure, you cannot simply steal a vehicle by punching a hole in the steering column and then turning the ignition with a screwdriver anymore, but career criminal and habitual car thieves know how to steal vehicles, even today. If they want it, they are taking it.
-If the plan was all along to go back to the Yukon parked over by the Bullmann residence, why the need for MS to go at all, as others have said? Both SB and WDB were able to get a visual description of both DM and MS. According to MS, he would have been in the truck for maybe 30 seconds. Why would he not just stay in the truck and pull out behind TB's truck when it went north on Trinity?
- Thanks to the great work Ianman did with those photos, I get more and more convinced that is the same truck in those photos, which means MS is lying about that particular part of the night. That doesn't necessarily mean he shot TB, but it does mean he is trying to limit his involvement.
All MOO.
. That sociopath needs to rot in jail.
