Morning all
Just to reiterate a post from late last night, and to see if I can put it in a better way, more logical:
All the speculation about cause of death, including everything from plastic bags to carbon monoxide poisoning, injection of insulin or whatever, etc is all good conjecture, but I think it boils down to two possible scenarios:
1. The murder was pre-meditated, and planned, in which case ANY method could have been used, no matter how complicated it may appear to be. This could include steps taken to cover up the crime and hide the method used.
2. The murder was a "heat of the moment" thing. In this situation, what we normally see is something that is very quick and very final as the cause of death, eg stabbing, a blow, a gunshot, etc etc - the type of thing from which there is no pulling back. Once done, in a split second, it is done.
With the No 2 scenario, the slower methods, such as suffocation, strangling, head in the bath, etc in MOST cases (not necessarily all) would be aborted as the victim fought, and the realization of what one was doing dawned. It takes a very prolonged "brain snap" to continue with something that takes a significant amount of time, if the victim is fighting back, scratching, kicking, etc.
Having been involved in several murder cases over the years, these heat of the moment ones have almost always been the blow to the head, (maybe from a push, may from a fist or blunt instrument), a stabbing, or a shot. So quick that it is impossible to abort the action. It's only when it's done that realization dawns, and usually the perpetrator is then in varying degrees of panic as to what to do next.
So, the autopsy and the prosecution releasing the cause of death will tell us a lot. if the method used was one of the slower methods, including drowning in the bath, plastic bag over the head, or whatever, we could reasonably assume that it was a carefully premeditated action. Which, in turn, would imply that the subsequent actions to dispose of the body and clean the murder site would have already been thought of.
Going on the above logic, I get the feeling that this may have been a heat of the moment job, so a blow, stabbing, etc - something instantaneous - would have been the method. Of course, that is pure speculation on my part, but tempered by the knowledge of the ones I've seen in the past.
The call to NBC in the middle of the night would suggest a degree of panic as to what to do next, although again, that is pure speculation. It may have been to report "mission accomplished" - we just don't know. Although I find it hard to credit a father plotting in this way with his son.
Hope that stream of thought logic makes some kind of sense....
