Hi guys. I just joined the site. I've got ties to both communities Tom was involved in so I've been following the case somewhat which lead me here. It seemed to be a good resource as you guys were posting the most recent information, but I feel it has somewhat gotten a little off course so I felt compelled to join and post some of my own deductions on both the case and what you guys specifically have noted or mentioned.
1. Emphasis on LE saying that foul-play was not suspected and the public shouldn't worry about their safety. This has been dropped so I probably shouldn't bring it back up, but I didn't read or hear any direct quote where LE or the Dean B said foul-play was not suspected. If anything I think they deflected and it seems pretty obvious the only reason they would do so is because it was very apparent that there was foul-play and they didn't want anything released to get in the way of the investigation.
2. The state of Tom's body. We know that his death was the result of a "violent homicide" meaning that someone inflicted injuries on him that killed him. I don't believe this has been mentioned, but if you remember right, the police did not identify him immediately. He had the same clothes, so they had that figured out, but they still had to wait before positively identifying him. Now, maybe this is a matter of procedure, that to make the affirmation some steps need to be taken, but what I think is more likely is that they couldn't identify him because of the injuries to his face. It sounds to me like he was beaten to death in the face. I'll tie back in to this.
3. "Flap house." CM said "trap." Flap sounds a bit like a knockoff IHOP. Yes, you're absolutely right that a trap, or trap house is a drug house, but not in this context. Suburbanite college kids like these, or formerly myself, like to use slang they hear in rap songs and apply it to real life. CM saying he was at the trap was nothing more than him trying to find a cool way of saying "We're at my house."
4. Tweet cover-up theory. Nothing in the way CM has responded to this is indicative of guilt. Tom/JW sent that tweet everyone has seen and CM responded with something along the lines of being drunk, but to send him their location presumably so someone could be sent to pick them up or so he could direct them. After that tweet, he continued to tweet normally, nothing that was suspicious.
5. JW involvement and the lack of information on him. We haven't heard of anything from him and his twitter account has been deleted. I'm thinking the deleted account and not hearing from him could be either he has some clues and the police told him to keep his trap shut so the perps don't get spooked or people like us and hundreds of others have been invading his account and his friend was just murdered so he probably doesn't want the attention. I don't think he deleted it because he's hiding from guilt, I think he wants some privacy.
6. Emphasis on CM and JW - You can probably sense that this is the direction I'm heading and it's because it is what I think many of you have gotten hung up on, it is also where I tie back in the state of his body. These two did not have anything to do with this and I'll tell you why. The main theory involving these two is that Tom's death was accidental. That there was some kind of fight and he died and they got scared and hid his body. When you get in a fight, you don't beat someone until they are unrecognizable. It just doesn't happen and especially not at a college party where the victim is friends with the guys that live there. Also, there's no way you could convince me that in a room full of timid MN and ND kids, all of them kept their mouth shut after seeing someone die? Not going to happen, no way.
Here are the scenarios I think are plausible:
Drugs - I think it's possible that JW and Tom picked something up or tried to and ran in to trouble before they went to the party, leading to them wanting to get picked up and whoever was after them could have followed and waited outside the party.
Racially Motivated - It really sucks to go this direction but it's possible. Fargo/Moorhead and especially the ND State campus is/are the safest place I've ever been to, but there were places that I did not go when I was a drunken college student wandering around in the middle of the night and those places were between where that house party was and where his body was found. I'm not sure this looks like he was picked out at random, but it happens. A year or two back a kid was murdered in my town during one of those stupid knockout games where the guy just runs up and punches a drunk white person. Drunk, skinny, white kid walking alone at 4 in the morning. It could happen.
I've rambled enough, if there's anything I forgot to jot down I'll add it.
His ethnicity isn't really relevant I think anyway even if it was race related because I doubt he was involved, so I probably shouldn't have assumed anyway.
