To me the thing that stands out about this crime is the number of houses visited that night. If this was all over drugs then I feel only CR1's or KR's house would have been targeted and the only way DR and the kids would have been involved is if they were there at the time. I cannot see any drug dealers/cartels bringing that much heat down on themselves over a few hundred pot plants or going door to door hunting people down. Yes, whole families are killed over drugs but that is usually because the family was in the house at the time with the primary target. Ditto for a robbery. The cartels/dealers are fully aware of how hard it is to do business with tons of LE wandering around and killing 8 people would bring every cop in the state (not to mention DEA and FBI) running, so I don't think the drugs had anything to do with it. Burglars don't go door to door either, if they suspect money then they go to where they think it is in a smash and grab sort of way so that kind of rules out robbery as a motive.
The only way I can put this together is to start with the assumption that the primary targets were CR1, KR, FR and DR since they are the heads of household in the targeted houses. GR, HG, CR2, and HR were just there. In other words I do not think the killer would have hunted for them if they were somewhere else at the time, like at a friend or relatives house. It also explains why other relatives living close by were passed over on the way to kill KR.
So I wondered what these 4 had in common. Not drugs since I think LM was correct in saying he didn't think his daughter was involved in the grow operations. She might have known about it but it is unlikely she would have been actively involved in the selling. As someone else on here said the only thing that all 4 had in common was cars e.g. selling, fixing, buying.
So I started looking at that and found a statement made a few months ago about the AG of Ohio saying he was cracking down on used car lots for not giving titles and stolen cars being "refurbished" with VINs from salvaged cars. That meant the risk involved in such activities increased greatly. I looked at the car lot DR kept linking to and found the owners name, looked on her website and noticed her manager's name was the same as owner of the BB lodge they all worked at and the same one who gave interviews to the press.
I don't think stolen cars would be motive to kill 8 people though so I wondered what would be worth killing that many people for. Hunting them down at different houses even. The only thing I came up with is a career. A career that could potentially be worth many millions of dollars (e.g one mega hit song).
The public is fickle where their entertainers are concerned. Drugs don't ruin a career. The public has sort of come to expect that of entertainers thanks to Elvis, Michael Jackson and others. They might frown on them being connected to selling them but they could also deny knowing about the selling and it would be hard to prove they did know. The only thing that will tank a career is something that affects the public directly, like Milli Vanilli who lip synced their songs and tanked overnight because their fans felt deceived.
Being involved with stolen cars could potentially be (or be perceived to be by someone who had a direct interest in that career) unforgivable also since it affects all of us in the fact that if it is not our car that was stolen, a spike in stolen cars causes a rise in car insurance all over the nation. The insurance companies are not going to lose money and we see such rises after every hurricane or other natural disaster. That costs everyone who owns a car. Serving time in prison for selling stolen property could tank it too since extended time spent out of the spotlight usually means people forget about you. Protecting such a career that could be worth millions would be a good motive if you had a substantial interest in that career.
I also read somewhere that throwing money on a dead body is a sign that person got too greedy. Given that and the AG's vendetta on stolen cars I am wondering if CR1 and KR decided since the risk was greater the pay should be too. That they may have communicated that with a threat to go to LE if they didn't get that pay raise. Extortion would be a motive and would also explain why everyone who knew about it had to go. Killing that many people would also serve to warn anyone else who knew about it to keep quiet. (LM's statement in an interview of "Are they going to kill me? Maybe or maybe not. I don't know." could be interpreted as a sign of fear for his life or his surviving families lives because of what they knew.)
It would also explain why those all those cars were towed. It would even explain why LM's son JM's truck was towed since relatives and ex relatives usually buy vehicles from family feeling they would get a better deal. Could also be the reason he didn't have tag since you need a title to get one. Maybe the reason LM was so angry about it being towed is he knew and he was fearful about his son buying stolen property?
Any thoughts on this theory anyone? I hope I have not broken any TOS rules with this post. If so please delete it.
