Identity Distortion: The Perfect Family

Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

Bryan Shaw

June 5, 2016: Two Days Missing

Mom came back from the restroom with her face cleaned up a bit, though her eyes are puffy and almost red from all the crying. She still insists that she wants to hear what more the detectives have to say. Detective Hawkins is walking us through what might have occurred with Nathan in the restroom based on the evidence obtained. He explains:

"Like Detective Macklin already said, this assault doesn't seem random. Considering that the perp chose to take Nathan away, instead of stealing his car, for instance, could mean that they had a strong motive for carrying out the attack and intended to properly dispose of the body."

Hawkins then showed us a picture of the crime scene which showed the restroom sink (smeared with a splatter of blood) partly detached from the wall — as if someone was shoved against it. He pointed out that the cap that we identified as Nathan's was found right-side the sink, which could mean that Nathan's head was bashed into it. He showed us another picture of blood spread straight across the restroom floor from the sink to the door. Detective Macklin consequently informed us that the lab results confirmed that the blood that was found in the restroom matches Nathan's. Mom looked as if she was about to faint.

"Are you sure you're okay listening to this? You don't have to," Hawkins said.

"This isn't something that any mother wants to hear or imagine happening to her child but I need to have an idea of what happened to my son. So continue," Mom said.

Hawkins continued: "Based on this picture with the blood across the floor, we suspect that after Nathan presumably got his head bashed into the sink that he was most likely stabbed and then dragged himself to the door to call out for help. But as we saw in the video, he was pulled back inside. We don't think he was shot as someone in the area would've heard the gunshot."

"Remember now, this is all just a theory. There is no way of knowing for sure what happened inside that restroom but there was definitely a struggle based on Nathan's bloody handprints that were discovered on the wall and on the floor. He put up a fight for sure," Macklin told us.

"Did you find any fingerprints of the culprit?" Scott asked.

"No. There most likely isn't any fingerprints of the perp in the restroom as if you look carefully at the video footage, you can see that the perp was wearing gloves," Macklin said.

"You said most likely. So that means there is a possibility then," Scott said.

"Perhaps if the perp took the gloves off at some point. Even so, a public restroom has a lot of different fingerprints all over so it'd still be a challenge to figure out the perp," Macklin said.

"So there is no evidence from the crime scene that can link to any suspects then?" Scott asked.

"At the moment, no!" Macklin said. "But on that note, we are looking for suspects so do any of you know of an enemy or enemies that Nathan might have had?" she asked.

"Or any enemies of the family as a whole seeing that someone has made you a target and is seemingly trying to extort a lot of money from you," Hawkins said.

None of us knew of any enemies of Nathan or our family so we had no response.

"Was Nathan involved in any fights or arguments with anyone recently?" Hawkins asked.

"Not that I know of," Mom replied.

"I don't think so," I responded.

"I overheard him arguing with someone on his phone but that was some weeks ago," said Scott.