This is a long hypothetical post only, so please feel free to disregard it as i am speculating only (just a heads up!)
This case is still puzzling me immensely. As much detail as the sentencing transcript went into (shudders), it seems to open up more questions about the curious case of The Stanfords. Forgive my post if it skirts over the emotional aspect of this horrible crime, i've been nothing short of devastated by this crime, especially since following the case from the start. I'm trying to step away from that for a minute to try and explore and maybe explain or understand something possibly feasible in relation to the questions and curiosities about the entire family, my focus being on Marcus primarily.
I've seen some posts about MS that speculate further involvement or perhaps sharing the same sick fantasies, possibly being in competition, egging him on etc. If i could speculate in the opposite direction for a moment, i'm wondering if it might answer some of the questions we're all confused by. Surely VS could not have lived his entire 25 years without a family member suspecting something was not right in his head, how could one man be absolute pure evil (since childhood by his own admittance) and be living in close proximity with his mother and 2 brothers the whole time and this behaviour and these thoughts were kept adequately hidden and secret in his own mind alone. As far as has been revealed, there was one incident when he was 12 that clearly sparked concern but after that, nothing. No criminal record to speak of. It sickened me that VS seemed almost proud of himself that he had never acted on these impulses before, but for all intents and purposes- it is true that he didn't act on them before 2015. Which leads me to think what changed in the immediate years BEFORE he did act on them? MARCUS did. His identical twin brother that always had his back, had his back at school, had his back up until the very end in fact. MS decided to pack up and move to the other side of the world by himself.
If i could try a little bit of character analysis on MS, I've watched all the clips of him very closely and entered into lengthy discussions about his behaviour with my husband every time another piece of news was thrown our way. Though reports have mentioned that MS has also struggled with being socially awkward due to anxiety, he's a far cry from VS. MS liked to travel around the world, he made friends, he seemed to fit in, he had a lot more social media footprints that showed him enjoying himself in Thailand and other places, social media accounts that appeared he had friends, IIRC the housemates he was living with were friends he made backpacking. He put his face out there and strangely enough put his whole name out there on a lot of his social media accounts. He even had sms's that went back to 2014 on his phone. He also seemed like a confident person: When the journalist turned up at the side entrance to his home, he was in a bathrobe sitting down having a cuppa enjoying the views of Adelaide Hills by the looks of it, but he didn't seemed phased at all! He was polite, yet firm with informing the journalist that 'Marcus' wouldn't be interested in talking to him. If a stranger was suddenly in my face with a camera while i was having my morning coffee in my bathrobe, i would've freaked out! When he was being escorted by police officers, his posture was straight with a confident stride, his head held high and even appeared to be making jokes with one of the officers. I watched that clip half a dozen times and i swear it looked like MS said something to the officer then grinned and in return the officer looked to be stifling a chuckle, and once again MS was clearly taken by surprise considering he looked like he just rolled out of bed and was still in his Star Wars pyjamas! Not only does MS seem confident but over confident. Look what he said to the judge on being 'returned' to NSW, correcting a judge in that fashion?! Subsequent interviews show him to be confident to the point of smugness even. There's no denying that MS is a confident person that knows who he is and won't be rocked.
MS also seemed to be aware of how to get out of his predicament with the lightest sentence, and without throwing his brother under the bus until it was clear VS had dug his own grave himself. Anyone else find it odd that MS continuously used 'legal buzz words' regarding his misplaced/misguided loyalty towards his brother. That was his ONLY explanation as to why he did what he did, and though i don't condone it, it IS a reason that will stand up in court to a certain degree. As for keeping the Adelaide Jewellers business card in his wallet, was that stupid or was it smart? At first i thought it was stupid if he was trying to get away with this crime, but the more i pondered it, the more i thought it was smart as it is proof that MS had no intention of keeping 'souvenirs' himself and was just doing what VS apparently told him to do (the majority of that money actually going to their mother!). Does MS seem like the type to take instruction from anyone? Something interesting from the interviews is that MS referred to VS as 'strange' at least twice. Once while describing that he always thought his brother was a bit strange, and then once again when he said that VS sounded 'strange' while he was on the phone to him when VS told him he was just driving around. Is the usage of this particular word maybe one of the biggest hints that MS knew what his brother was? This brings me full circle to before MS left for Australia.
There's nothing to really indicate on MS's twitter that there was a falling out in the family and that MS was ostracised, if anything it appears that Marcus wanted out. He was planning it all on his own, counting down the days, saying how he couldn't wait, etc. Who would know VS better than anyone? His twin brother of course. Was Marcus his brother's keeper? Did Vincent go to him with his sick thoughts and maybe just maybe Marcus in some way helped him retain his grip on some semblance of reality so Vincent didn't keep spiralling out of control with his 'strangeness'? as Marcus put it. Is it possible that it got too much for Marcus and he either needed to bail for his own sanity to get away from his twisted twin or bail because he could see Vincent was going to do something that he wanted no part of? Marcus left by himself approximately 2 years before the rest of the family seemed to just jump ship and follow. Once Marcus was gone to maybe equalise him, was that when the rest of the family became aware of how serious VS's problems were and needed to hightail it out of there without paying their rent and bills with practically only the clothes on their back and try and follow MS so VS didn't explode? IIRC VS only went to visit MS once or twice and MS never went to Leeton. The ostracism in the family imo looks like MS wanted out, not the other way around. Also keeping in mind that VS started stalking females in Leeton almost immediately.
I believe there is a lot more to this and i think only MS is the one that could shed any light on it. MS wasn't stupid, he seperated himself from his twin and despite the family following him over to Australia, MS still got off with time served. I think there's a strong possibility that MS wanted little to do with VS knowing it was trouble. MS had a decent lifestyle in Australia, he was travelling, living independantly in a nice place with great views with mates he made while travelling - now he has a criminal record being implicated in one of the most horrific murders in Australia, communities in at least 2 states that would want to lynch him, no hope of employment or future travelling and living in a dinky caravan with the elusive father that bailed on the family when he was only 3yrs old while still being hounded by media. It just seems kind of bizarre that MS would have been in on this with VS (wherever MS's headspace may lie), as MS doesn't strike me as that stupid whereas VS's actions were idiotic in trying to cover up what he did. MS almost seems like the enigma equation in all of this...
*In no way am i condoning or trying to defend MS in any of his involvement in this. I've had a lot of in depth discussions with my husband about this entire case and we have been throwing our hands up with hypotheticals as so much still makes no sense. Something that i think blows our whole hypothetical out the window is when MS started to say 'room' when VS asked him what he did with the stuff before it was clarified that it was the envelope with the rings that he was meant to hock. That alone makes me think that MS may have received more than what he is telling and it irks the hell out of me!
