I agree that suicide is extremely unlikely (from what has been reported). To completely rule it out, I'd want to know about the rope marks, internal injuries to the neck and how the hands were bound (loosely or tightly, near the hands or further up the arm/wrist, neatly or sloppily). But, in the end, you're probably correct that suicide is not in play.

On the speculation side, I have personal experience with the ramifications, at least one of which was hilarious (photo with Diana Ross appearing in tabloid with headline about being her new flame…I spoke maybe two sentences to her in my life), the other two threatening and very scary (which I will not detail).

dr.e. is correct that people will speculate regardless of my opinion, and I respect your right to do so.

It is always good to remember the days in Carthage, even to dark memories.

z of c

Which facts? Or how many of them? All? How will we know when that's happened. There could always be more facts out there.

The point with the Sparkman case is that some facts are in — and it's not out of line, in my view, to speculate on what those facts — and only those facts — might indicate, and also what they rule out.

Two speculative conclusions that are certainly legitimate to make at this point are (1) Whoever killed Sparkman, and for whatever reason, wanted his corpse to be found as it was; and (2) Sparkman's death was NOT a suicide, contrary to your assertion, which I think is a very illogical assertion. It's pretty much physically impossible to gag yourself with a rag, tie your own arms and legs with duct tape, put duct tape around your neck, write “fed” on your own chest, tape your own census identification tag to your own forehead, and then kill yourself, and hang yourself from a tree after you're dead, with your feet touching the ground.

Having said all this, there are absolutely no facts whatsoever that could justify speculating that Sparkman was a child predator. That's malicious and irresponsible.

Right now, it would appear the seeming eccentricity of the investigative protocol and public dissemination of facts, the vaguery of report by local LE, as you pointed out… raises more questions from the public than usual.

As Sparrow was pointing out from her research in the county in question, the median income 15k… can you imagine, the literacy and hs graduation rate, dismal. Lack of financial resource often means inadequate investigative techniques/ methodology/ crime scene data gathering, as we know.

It would be interesting to be a fly on the wall as they say, and listen in on the turf 'stuff' between local LE and feds.

Psych profile of victim released thus far leaves much to be desired in this case imo. As you point out ME's report is eccentric, as to make one wonder where ME trained.

In one way, it is no wonder there is so much speculation in every direction by general public; the LE's release of seeming conflictual, vague and disorganized data leaves too much story untold. It's normal human psych. that the mind hearing a story with holes like swiss cheese, try to fill in the holes. Remember the psych test: 'complete the drawing' tests (with essential parts missing of a drawing of a dog for instance) given to children to test perception and judgement? It's like that … complete the case.

In that sense, people speculating is actually a sign they are instinctually intact in perception and judgement, even though there are not yet enough facts to state anything unequivocally.

There are two things that I keep wondering about. Esp odd to me, is if local law enforcement was withholding evidences in order to pursue unknown antagonists, why not just state that crisply and clearly, using the time-honored proto? What is the reason behind the reason.

The other thing Tidbits, as in Carthage, remember those who lured the older men with promises of delight and then did them dastardly? Throwing their bodies out in the shallow pools and alley ways where only the old women came pulling out the hair of the dead with which to make wigs?

Dont hold me too it, but there's a cloud in this case of perhaps having been lured deeper and deeper into something. Maybe just the outback. Maybe something like Ted Bundy used to do, calling for help with a fake cast, asking for help for a wounded creature that is just over the hill over there… but maybe something farther out than that.
dr.e

Yes, I've gone on too long. The real point is not that one person's speculation is more morally defensible than another person's speculation. The real point is that speculation, of any kind, can interfere with the investigation. Investigators can be forced to pursue, or devote excessive resources, to options that may not be viable, or, often the worst case scenario, can be forced to go public with information to confirm or disprove certain speculation, providing information to an unapprehended perpetrator, though much depends on the sophistication of the perp and the authorities.

In the end, Kathy, you and others engaged in various forms of speculation may be right…or wrong. I advocate only for waiting until the facts are in. If you turn out to be correct, feel free to thumb your nose and say “na na na na na na” to me all day long. You won't be the first.

The first kind of speculating turns the victim into a villain with no factual basis for so doing; the second kind uses actual facts (sparse though they may be) to make reasonable guesses at possible motives for the murder.

There may actually be some instances in which the “pox on both your houses” philosophy is not appropriate or meaningful.

No, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

We should all, right, left or center, get off the speculation express and wait to see what actually happened.

He was one of the diehard supporters of the Iraq War who even as recently as 2006, continued to repeat the lie that Weapons of Mass Destruction had been found in Iraq. As proof, he cited a Fox News report from May 2004 stating that sarin and mustard gas had been found in Iraq. Yet in that Fox Report, it clearly stated that experts suspected that both the sarin and mustard gas came from weapons used back during the Iran-Iraq War, a fact that Mr. Riehl conveniently neglected to mention.

And just in case some of you out there DO still continue to believe that we found the WMD that were the reasons we went to war in Iraq, this is a myth that was debunked by the Iraq Survey Group's final report in 2004 as well as by David Kay (the Former Chief UN Weapons Inspector & Former Iraq Survey Group Chief) himself back in 2006.

It seems to me that the people who were completely wrong about their predictions regarding WMD in Iraq(and refused to admit it…and continued to perpetuate this myth even after expects had debunked it) are precisely the LAST people we should be turning to regarding future predictions.