Motive?

[Bartleby]

I still think he doesn't have an alibi because he was expecting not to need one before his plan got diverted. He was probably thinking he'd play the victim of jilted husband at the end of the week or whenever, claiming she was there and he went on this camping trip and she was gone when he came back.

Your post prompted me to look up the dictionary meaning of "alibi", because I was unsure of the true meaning.

You're right, Josh doesn't HAVE an alibi as I currently understand it, because he has failed to demonstrate where he was when Susan went missing. He has spun this camping story, but has failed to present any evidence to LE back it up, and refused to give them the help they need to verify the story.

It is probably too late now to prove his alibi through physica evidence (assuming he didn't manufacture some). His two boys might be able to verify that he drove somewhere at night, and maybe they actually did the s'mores thing <shudder>, but I doubt they would be very useful witnesses in court.

 

[gwenabob]

See, I have completely had the wrong end of the stick on this case...on the surface I thought that perhaps Josh was fundamentalist LDS...and that Susan was too challenging to his status as the "be all and end all" of the family unit. Has anyone read "Under the Banner of Heaven"? Before I dove into the case, that was my misconception...that he thought he had a right to bring her to heal in any way he deemed necessary, based upon his religious beliefs.

I have been disabused of this, so that got me thinking about what caused him to torpoedo the bread winner and the person who brought stability into their lives.

So, does anyone believe that he had friends or associates who might have helped him dispose of her, ala Drew Peterson....albeit unwittingly??

I think Josh acted alone, unless he had his father advising him via long distance.

And, I think he is exactly like every other wife-murdering man we read about ad nauseum. It was easier to throw her away than divorce. Men like Josh consider their wives disposable. Has nothing to do with religion, politics, or class status. People like that are all around us.

 

[fran]

IIRC, through their marriage counseling, Josh had a deadline to do certain things. The first one was to be going to church regularly, by the end of the year.

Here it was the last month of the year, the first week of the last month of the year, and Susan WALKED to church with the boys, while Josh did NOT go to church.

This is pretty self explanatory, imho. It didn't matter what the second deadline was (it was in spring), because it was already obvious, Josh was NOT going to comply and Susan would leave him.

I know often times men get custody of the children, but in this instance, no way. Josh was way too unstable. Susan would have taken main custody of the boys while Josh would have visiting rights. THIS was NOT acceptable to Josh, from what I've read about him. He means it when he says in a number of interviews, "MY boys." Plus his family history of his parent's divorce shows how emotional and draining a court fight is over custody of the children. IIRC, his parents argued back in forth in court for ten years or so.

The fact Josh controlled EVERYTHING in their life, there was NO WAY he was going to loose control of his boys. NO WAY!

JMHO
fran

 

[grayjay]

The fact Josh controlled EVERYTHING in their life, there was NO WAY he was going to lose control of his boys. NO WAY!

JMHO
fran

This sticks in my mind as the biggest thing in this case. Susan might have said the wrong thing at the moment, but I think Josh just made a plan knowing it was coming then built up the justification with a fight. A year is a long time to b
e that unhappy.

 

[Doctorwoof]

Here is a link to a paper titled Modus Operandi and Personality Disorder in Incarcerated Spousal Killers that was written by a professor of psychology and a prison psychologist.

 

[grayjay]

Here is a link to a paper titled Modus Operandi and Personality Disorder in Incarcerated Spousal Killers that was written by a professor of psychology and a prison psychologist.

Thanks, woof- very interesting article and maybe TMI. I got this out of it:

the personality disorder most likely to actually kill his spouse is dependent and passive-aggressive

By contrast , Antisocial Personality Disorder. engaged in instrumental killings that were more likely to be planned. (See Table 4). Antisocial Personality Disorders were more likely to hide the body ( t = 3.4, p <.01) and less likely to report post homicide suicidal feelings (t= 4.1, p<.01).