Druggies did NOT kill the census worker!

[Joanne98]

If the census worker stumbled upon a marijuana field or meth lab the druggies might have killed him but they would have NEVER hung his body in a tree. That would bring heat down on their drug operations. This "drug dealer" angle is getting thrown out there by the local police. And it's stoopid.

Example...

Census worker stumbles upon a meth lab. The cook kills the census worker, hangs him in a tree and goes back home to start cleaning his house before the cops discover the body. DUMB!

Another example:

The census worker stumbles upon a marijuana field. The growers kill him, hang him in a tree then bust ass to get their crops pulled before the cops find the body. DUMB!

Drug dealers would have BURIED THE BODY!

The person that killed the census worker didn't have anything to do with drugs. He's straight! AND the local cops probably know who it is because they're STALLING.

IMHO

[Kievan Rus]

1. We still don't know who killed this man

It COULD be wingnuts that hate the government. It COULD be druggies that were about to get busted. It COULD be a jilted lover who was pissed off. It COULD just be a crazy person and the census worker was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I believe it to be wingnuts, quite frankly...but refuse to rule out druggies or anything else until more information on this tragedy is available.

[Joanne98]

3. Druggies would have hid the body. Why put it in a tree that says LOOK HERE?

Stoopid.

[Lex]

6. Makes sense drug runners/growers would bury him and be done with it

and hope he's just chalked up as a missing person. Doing all someone did to display the body is showing they wanted to make a statement with his body.

[Kievan Rus]

24. But if he's a missing person, there's a search ongoing

And the very real possibility that they could get busted in the ensuing search when their patch is stumbled upon.

[SoCalDem]

42. or they would drive the body to a different area, and just dump it

maybe even by a road, so it could be found quickly.. Drug cookers/growers need privacy,, They do not want police wandering around looking for clues..

This whole episode has a "Deliverance" feel to it.

[ohheckyeah]

44. why do you think they call it dope?

:-)

[Raine]

2. Good points

I was actually hoping druggies did it instead of hate mongers but I can see that they wouldn't be that stupid.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Oh lawd...

[Withywindle]

5. Druggies and government-haters are not mutually exclusive.

And no one has ever claimed that crystal meth helps with rational decision-making.

I'm just sayin.' Could be both.

[Joanne98]

10. Meth makes people paranoid. Meth addicts would have hid the body.

Hanging someone in a tree is something a drunk would do. Speedfreak no way! No a tweeker would have put the body in something elaborate then sealed it up.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. It's also something a freak would do -

using the government ID as a way to throw people off.

If it's just a plain old freak - no speed involved - that could be a hard, hard case to prove........................

[subcomhd]

50. I disagree. yes it makes people incredibly paranoid,

but that paranoia manifests itself in different ways. For some it is to hide away and peek through the curtains of their house. Others' paranoia causes violence. The one common denominator is irrational thinking.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

7. Good points -

the scariest thing is that it's someone from the area, someone not connected with drugs or hooch, maybe someone with a violent history, someone who just might have done this for fun and might get away with it.

The idea that he was naked, so wrapped up with duct tape, and that his truck was found with his laptop still inside, makes me think that someone random did this. Killed him somewhere else, and just left his body strung up. He died of asphyxiation, which might mean he was strangled somewhere else.

The horrifying part is that no one might ever know what happened......................................

[Barack_America]

9. Sounds like you no longer think this was AEA.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. The more we know, the better................

The people who decided, without any information, that it was a murder committed by people stirred up by Michelle Bachmann and Glenn Beck still have a way to go to prove any of their theories.

As usual, critical thinking prevails among intelligent people. The more information is disclosed, perhaps they'll be able to arrest someone.

Right now, there's nothing made public to suggest that they have any theories about how this happened. Not much has changed in terms of what caused this.

BUT, given that he died of asphyxiation, yet his body was found hanging from a rope with his feet touching the ground (I also read that the body was on the ground), it's possible that he died somewhere else, under a set of circumstances that would be interesting, and his body was left there, tethered and bound after his death.

The cause of death has been announced as asphyxiation, but it was not stated that he died as a result of hanging. A small, but vital detail there.

As I said, no one knows yet.

But, are the lynch mobs still out for Bachmann and Beck? And, if they are, why?

[Joanne98]

12. Someone with a lot of balls. Someone who is used to getting away with shit.

A model citizen maybe.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

20. I know that in my own little home town

in Pennsylvania, someone was murdered. Everyone knew what happened, even the State Police who investigated knew who did it, but they could never make a case against him.

He got away with it. I watch my hometown paper online every day, looking for that bastard's obituary. The man he killed was a friend of mine, a great young man.........................

[Hassin Bin Sober]

34. I gonna bet the FBI catches this asshole(s).

Cell phone tracking, records on his laptop, last known approximate location. That plus forensic evidence - probably prints since we are dealing with some dumb-fuck red-neck.

We are not talking about some cunning serial killer or mob hit-man here.

50 bucks says they get the killer(s).

[tekisui]

8. It never fit the profile of a drug killing.

Not from the beginning, and less with the more details released.

[Barack_America]

11. The witness who found thinks he may have been killed elsewhere and the scene staged.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/09/25/us/AP-US-Census-Worker-Hanged.html?_r=1&hp

That notion has been what my gut was telling me happened.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6620731&mesg_id=6621101

[Joanne98]

14. Staged yeah that's what it sounds like.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. His clothes were in the truck..........

Curiouser and curiouser....................

[Withywindle]

17. Oh, that's very possible.

That the people who killed him are not necessarily the same as the ones who created the dramatic tableu.

[Beer on a stick]

13. How are the locals stalling? This is a federal investigation.

[Treo]

15. If the body were buried

people would look for it so you kill the guy and move the body and leave it in such a way that suspicion is directed away from your weed field. It's not that hard.

[Joanne98]

18. He would have been a missing person long enough for them to clean up.

Hanging the body out in the open cuts the amount of time they have to clean up. Plus it brings the FBI in. Why would local druggies want to do that?

[Brickbat]

19. A killer who leaves a body bound with a rag in its mouth hanging from a tree wants it to be found.

A killer who wants a body to be found has something to say. We just have to figure out what the message is. Hmmmmmmmm.

[kentuck]

27. "A killer who wants a body to be found has something to say"...

There has been a feud building up for over 20 years between some of the Feds and the locals that have been cultivating marijuana. I tend to think this is a specific message to the Feds working the area rather than the anti-government sentiments of Rep Bachman or the "tea-baggers" or the birthers or deathers. This is a more localized feud.

[Brickbat]

31. I've seen some of your posts on other threads on this topic and I see now that this is your people

we're talking about. I will back off from my position, having read what you wrote. It's sad either way, and desperate people are a terrible thing to see. I'm sorry it's happened to your home.

[Barack_America]

22. It should be noted that 40 drug traffickers were arrested in Clay County...

...during the week of the murder. So there could have been a fair amount of paranoia and panic in the drug community.

Still not sure this fits the bill of a drug murder, however.

[Joanne98]

32. That's interesting do you have a link?

[Barack_America]

37. Here:

It's noted in the AP article that mentions he was naked and bound.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9AULIJ80

[Joanne98]

39. Thanks. it would be nice to know what day.

On one day last week, law enforcement in the county rounded up 40 drug suspects, most of them traffickers, Johnson said.

[nashville_brook]

45. the arrests were made after the body was found -- prolly following up on the drug angle

article says "about a week ago" the arrests were made.

[kentuck]

25. Logic does not necessarily work here.

These folks cherish notoriety more than they cherish their drug business. Bring every Fed in Washington down, The more the better! That is how many of them think. They don't really worry about being caught. In fact, in the next few days, we may see a couple of folks turn themselves in just to see themselves on TV. This is the mentality we are dealing with.

[glinda]

26. None of this matters really. They apparently wanted to make a statement about

Government and Census workers and if they did drugs or sold drugs, it really doesn't matter. The proof is in the "message" they left and the fact that they murdered this poor man.

[Lifelong Protester]

28. Somebody was leaving a message....

and it was not "keep your hands off my drugs."

Sorry, I'm not the paranoid-conspiracy type. I think that this was directly linked to the frenzy whipped up by hate radio and the politicians they support.

Flame away.

As I understand it, free speech does not give one the right to yell \"FIRE!" in a croweded theater. The wingnuts on hate radio are yelling "FIRE" all the livelong day. Now they will reap what they sow.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

38. Actually, that

'fire in a crowded theater" canard was never true.

And since no one yet knows how he died or where he died or any of the salient details needed to start a hunt for a killer, it's absurd to claim that talk radio people had anything to do with it...................

[Lifelong Protester]

40. Sorry, should have said FALSELY shouting Fire!

which is true (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater), and Bachmann as well as Beck have been IMHO, FALSELY yelling FIRE! (or some twist on "government!" as a pejorative, for quite some time. Expressing an alternate opinion is one thing, but helping foment illegal activity is quite another.

[seabeyond]

29. that is true. a clear and public view of killing... why bring the attention. and this was

attention

and yes. still will wait to see what law comes up with.

but good point

[ThoughtCriminal]

30. Census Workers Are NOT Allowed to Report What They See

while performing Census duties to law enforcement agencies. Doing so is a title 13 violation that brings up to fives years in prison and fines up to $250,000. They are VERY serious about this. Now, this does not mean that a drug lab or pot farm is going to know or believe this. It probably means that the Census Bureau cannot disclose to the FBI what addresses Mr. Sparkman had visited.

See my post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6632218

[Joanne98]

33. Thanks. I didn't know that.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

36. Do you honestly think

that any of the people in that area know this fact?

I sure as hell didn't, and I like to think of myself as fairly well-informed.

An interesting fact, but without any value here - except as a sad footnote if it turns out that he was murdered because of his Census work....................................

[Seldona]

35. Drug related?

Then again this is coming from the same people who announced they weren't sure if it was a suicide or a homicide, despite the deplorable condition of the victim. Not exactly a vote for impressive deductive reasoning, to be polite.

[anonymous171]

41. Meh, I don't know. Druggies are kind of stupid.

[RidinMyDonkey]

43. That makes no sense what so ever!

I agree, that if someone killed him to keep him quiet they wouldn't hang is body where it is sure to be found! Also, scribbling "fed" on his chest, to make sure the most amount of attention is brought upon you as possible. Riiiiight that really sounds like someone trying to hide their drugs.

[rucky]

46. You don't do that to someone unless you're trying to make a statment.

I don't think the message could be more clear.

[mmonk]

47. They may have thrown that out there

to throw off the perpetrators about how close they may or not be to solving who did it.

[malaise]

48. I agree n/t

[BlooInBloo]

49. (shrug) It makes southerners feel better. And there's really nothing more important...

than southerners' sense of pride.

Beside - obviously this is a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

[pecwae]

51. Bless your little heart, really.