I know the boys stepmother and father. Brandon parents were divorced and apparently his mom had more bitterness for his dad, than she had love for her son. Sadly she would threaten to kill herself and her son if the father didn’t conform to her demands, and she did this in front of the son. Don’t want to judge because I’m sure it was and is painful. Just some points for reflection.
Also the boy wasn’t really known to be an addict. I’m pretty sure he was prescribed some sort of psychotropic drugs as a child and was still taking them, along with marijuana.
Don’t know about the girl other than she was gorgeous in person, and obviously the poor girl made some bad choices. They aren’t releasing any surveillance video and they say there is more to the story.
Both kids left suicide notes a week prior.
And I'll bet there is. Both kids obviously had issues but painting the boy as the cause of all problems isn't going to bring their daughter back. She stole shoes from her job and hid them under her bed (her actions). She cut herself to the point there was blood on her walls (her actions). For the sake of their other daughter, they need to recognize their beautiful daughter had issues and by acknowledging that, it will help them identify issues the younger one may have, as well.
Mom has a lot to answer for as far as culpability for this. Maybe not legally, but she molded her son into the person who shot and killed a policeman then turned a gun on himself and committed suicide. The girl's family are overwrought and their daughter/granddaughter is not blameless, but it certainly seems she went off the rails when she met him. I have no doubt he was a manipulative nihilist who was fascinated with suicide, and that he was the mastermind of the whole thing whether he actually shot and killed the girl or she did it herself, given such a background.
if the dad left the fam in order to bang the stepmother, I place the blame squarely on him
Sad but this is what happens when mom’s kick the dad to the curb. That plus being on SSRI’s (like prozac) is probably what really put this kid on the road to murder/suicide. Look at every major mass killing and you’ll see that those that did it were on Prozac or some other SSRI. Also the girl should have obeyed her parents but in this world with it’s “you go grrrl” attitude it just sets them up for bad outcomes.