I do think this was his first. IF he had 12 before this, why would he go to the counseling center and bring up that he was thinking of hurting someone? I could see him going for the alcohol issue and drugs.... but he has ostensibly killed 12 times before. Why would he now, after killing 12, all of the sudden worry about maybe killing someone? Why would this "expert at avoiding detection" blow his cover to someone? Yes, HIPPA (not sure if that is the right acronym) would make him think that he was safe telling a counselor/therapist who wouldn't be allowed to disclose information to someone -but it IS taking a risk. The first murder you do in town, what if that counselor gets worried and makes an anonymous tip to LE? An "expert at avoiding detection" who has been at it since the age of 19 should know that patient-physician/counselor privilege would not be an absolute shield from him being uncovered.
No. He was a rookie, F-d up in the head, cruel *advertiser censored* who decided to go for it -and needed Liquid Courage in the form of a damn bottle of cheap rum to power through inhibitions and a sense of self-preservation to do what he had already decided he wanted to do months before -and poor Yingying was the unfortunate, sweet, innocent soul who was in the wrong place at the wrong time when this rum-infused monster happened to stumble upon her.
This was his first; but, if he had been successful in getting away with it, I'm sure it wasn't going to be his last......
There is no evidence that he imbibed the rum prior to killing her.
She was not his first.
Girl in graveyard 2013
Furry animal/guinea pig was mentioned.
More likely his marriage became destroyed because he was a sex addict.
FBI state they interviewed many sexual partners.
Just because the defense are saying he has a drug and alcohol problem does not mean it's the truth or that it is so severe that it ended his marriage or indeed that his marriage ever actually ended, even now.
His defense is blaming women for his crime.
Michelle was considering leaving him. Was she really?
Why sleep naked beside him, if so?
It is possible he killed before but not in broad daylight.
He was upping the stakes, he needed to up the insurance.
He told the therapists very little .
Probably his first murder would have been someone like a prostitute, a dark night...
Maybe a strangulation, a drowning, a shooting, a poisoning? Simpler methods...?
Just speculating on possibilities.
He may have purchased the rum in order to offer whatever victim he trapped a drink?
He may have planned on a seduction type murder...
Damnit, I don't believe we will ever know until someone writes his book. And even then...