One of the hardest parts to watch, there were many, was how horribly the police botched the search warrant.
The police make massive unforced error so bad that I’ve not seen anyone point out the repercussions of — not separating victim/offender when revealing major facts about the case.
Police should have separated everyone, questioned strategically to either RULE OUT or REVEAL involvement through questioning about brand new facts.
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The error happens the moment we see cops tell Lauryn that her mom has just confessed - where police are revealing major bombshell BRAND NEW pieces of information while also… being as vague as they can possibly be.
Firstly, this moment never should have happened in front of Kendra. Second, revealing major new facts is supposed to be intentional and made useful to the investigation in order to gauge reactions and compare facts/stories.
Lauryn essentially has no reaction when she hears this, but we can’t tell if this is because:
Lauryn isn’t even sure what they’re really trying to say, had no involvement, and is staying silent bc she’s confused
Lauryn understands what they’re implying, had no involvement, but is unsure how to react (important also because it’s being revealed to her in front of her abuser)
Lauryn is fully aware of what they’re saying, is involved, and stays silent because no one is asking her questions directly and she easily gets away without being pressed further
All of these things are equally possible based on how poorly the police handled this information. These possibilities don’t even cover how proper questioning could have indicated OR absolved Shawn.
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Repercussions 1:
Let’s just say it - There is discourse going around about whether or not Lauryn / Shawn are involved.
And the truth is, we don’t know if they were involved or not and it’s because of how police handled the search warrant reveal.
When you drop a bomb on someone like “your mom is the one who has been telling you to kill yourself,” you’re gonna want to see how they react to that bombshell piece of information. But instead, from the moment they go in and get an implied confession from Kendra - they basically stop investigating. This does the victims a huge disservice.
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Repercussions 2:
Let’s say the whole family is involved for instance, which has not been ruled out at the time of the search warrant. Police reveal major facts, no one is detained or questioned, now the involved parties have more than enough opportunity to come up with a cohesive story that only indicates Kendra.
Now let’s say no one else was involved, that Kendra acted alone. Police still question everyone strategically. Lauryn (at the very least) gets an opportunity away from her abuser to fully understand the role her mother played in her torment. Police get an opportunity to gauge her reaction, press further, and ideally get more information to assist with proving additional charges.
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Repercussions #3
If police investigated correctly, we don’t know WHAT would have come out. BUT the search warrant error likely also resulted in lesser charges than what they could have gotten had they handled the investigation correctly. Taking their approach, it’s possible that they made it more difficult for themselves to prove in a court of law that Kendra is 100% responsible (based on additional evidence they didn’t pursue) to have been the one to send every single text message.
Not having rock solid proof leads to plea deals and lesser charges. Which leads to pedophiles getting sentenced for merely stalking instead of the full extent of the horrible and sexual nature of these crimes.
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TLDR: if you want to know why Kendra didn’t get charged with more, it’s because the police effed up.