I haven’t seen the movie but would eventually like to do so. My information came from a big newspaper feature that appeared when I was vacationing in Wisconsin in 2016. Tragic story from all sides.
In Alyssa Bustamante’s case the grandparents, her legal guardians, seem to have wrote her off. They had a nice hobby farm with a swimming pool and horses and a huge house. She was involved in fencing, which is not an inexpensive hobby. She was getting extensive mental health treatment, including daily home visits. When she killed the neighbor kid the grandparents seem to have taken the attitude “we did all that for you and this is what we get!?” and wouldn’t even hire a lawyer for her so she had to use a public defender.
The Kinkels were generous with the community, well-loved by many, and desperately trying to find a way to help Kip. They used a gun safe. He was more clever than they, and bought guns illegally and built bombs as well.
I was living in the region when all of that happened, and not only was the murder of a child such a big shock, that it was done by a GIRL blew all of us away.
Whatever her back story was, she should never get out.
There is a book, heavy on the Christianity, called “Now I Lay My Issac Down” by Carol Kent. She discusses at great length what it is like to have a son in maximum security prison for life. It’s kind of a heartbreaking case in every way - no winners there. She and her husband visit as often as they can, and her son leads a ministry in prison now.
I’ve read that book, and know more of the back story.
I personally think it was justifiable homicide, but there are reasons why we don’t have DIY justice in this country.
The son was dating a woman who had at least two young children, and there was some pretty convincing evidence that their biological father had molested them. He drove to the man’s house, several states away, and killed him.
I have a friend whose son beat another man to death and is currently in prison. He’d had a string of crimes before that, starting in his early teens, and she stood up for him every single time, making excuses as to how her son was the misunderstood victim. She did it when while on a crack binge, he beat a guy to death in a drug deal gone wrong, then attempted to outrun the cops. (There’s actually a video of the chase online.) From what I understand, she took out a second mortgage on her house to pay for his attorney for the crime that got him sent to prison–then lost the house.
She and her daughters (his older sisters) proclaimed his innocence–still do from what I understand. (We keep in slight contact via Facebook.) The mom lives within a few hours driving distance to where he’s serving time and goes to visit him, but I don’t know how often. At one point, she gushed about how wonderful his girlfriend was (whom he met after he had been serving several years) and I couldn’t wrap my head around someone who would think getting a convicted murderer as a boyfriend was a good idea. But, hey, whatever floats your boat. I didn’t say anything when she told me–I just let her talk.
She’s posted some pic of her visiting him–like for holidays and stuff, but doesn’t talk about it much. The guy has been incarcerated all of his adult life at this point, and I don’t think he’s eligible for parole any time soon. (I don’t know why he didn’t get the death penalty, as he committed the crime in a state known to put it into practice.)
What’s interesting to me is his brother, about 18 months younger than he is, has lead a pretty aimless life. He’s in his 30’s now and never graduated high school, still lives with his mom (and she thinks it’s great that he’s at home, “helping her out”) and has problems holding a steady job. It’s like his brother’s continued involvement with the law has overshadowed his life.