I am not one of the better sleuthers on here but I had 2 questions related to this.
1. How did they get around?? Wouldn't ATV's be too loud at 1-6 am? Even in rural country? All the ones I have seen you can hear for a country mile. That does not mean they don't make quiet ones. I did think horses, but they would have to haul them there, unload and load, tie/hold them during the murders and they would have certainly left tracks. That risks someone finding a rig & trailer sitting empty and surely we would have heard something about that ?? I'm hoping as part of the investigation LE covered the distance between these crime scenes with various methods and timed out how long it took.
2. In regards to the "weed", in the beginning it was 2000 plants, then 200, now I haven't even heard it mentioned which says not an amount to speak of. SO, why all the surveillance ? If not for illegal growing, not for hunting then obviously for security right? So why would you not check them? Or have them on? Or notice if they were off? If your safety is so jeopardized you need that many cameras then shouldn't you pay attention to them?
Very good questions, your second point in particular. Possibly it could have been to keep tabs on the autos they were flipping. I think most of them had to be kept outside and security fencing is really expensive.
The sheer number of murders, unsolved and solved, in that region would concern me. And, let's just state the obvious, trailers in remote areas don't feature the most secure building materials, and then the remote nature of everything and lack of cell reception add to the risk.
The car auctions around here require a large percentage of cash down and the rest within 24 hours, or you're out the significant cash down or "earnest money." So most people just pay it all up front in cash. Some people may have assumed there was a decent amount of cash on hand or the Rs may have thought so.
Working on cars isn't cheap, even without inventory on hand. The tools alone cost a decent chunk of change.
I haven't read when the security systems were installed. But even where I am now, no longer in a remote area, nearly all of my neighbors have at least one security cam at the front door/main entrance.
I am curious if anyone has read about or knows how heated the discussions became over custody. We don't know yet how threatening the texts became. Maybe they installed cameras or additional cams partly due to that??
Anyone else have any ideas? I'm sure I'm missed many potential reasons for the security.