“Whodunnit?” Okay, this is the obvious question, right? “Whodunnit?” That’s what everyone wants to know. So let’s start to unravel that question… And see how far we get. One thing up front: I’m going to stipulate that we’re talking premeditated murder. You don’t just casually walk up to a car and fill it with a bomb. It’s not a situation where, hey, somebody gets mad and grabs a gun and then says… “I’m sorry Your Honor, the gun just kinda accidentally went off.”
No. This is the kind of murder that forces us to ask about motive: “Who benefits? Who benefits from this?” And there’s one thing we’ll eventually realize… If we didn’t know it right away: There seems to be a “prize” on offer.
His name is Neil Pfeil “Scotty” Mackay, the offspring of Muriel Pfeil and Neil Mackay. A child whom his father, Neil Mackay, regards with a complex set of emotions. Part of it included his “claim” on the boy. And I use the word “claim” fairly broadly.
The theory of the case – and I emphasize THEORY…
Is that whatever Neil Mackay’s feelings were toward his son, Muriel Pfeil had stood in his way. She had actively blocked any semblance of possession whatsoever. Remember: her last act before dying was to block expansion of Neil’s custody rights for two years, until Scotty, then three years old, turned five. The guy was losing power. The guy had lost control – if, indeed, he ever had it. He’s going to wrestle it back the best way he knows how. Because it’s also clear that the courts are also in his way.
But… If she – if Muriel – is eliminated, if she is gone, if she is dead, then he – the presumptive father – can stand there and say, “I'm the father, I'm the surviving father, give me my child. He's mine.”
Okay, sounds too simple, right? Or too stupid. Go straight to jail, Neil. Go straight to jail. Right? Well, the complication, of course, is that getting from that theory of the case to proof that Neil Mackay actually did it is not quite so straightforward. You expected that, didn’t you?
Because, as soon as they start investigating – they meaning the Anchorage police – the realm of possible suspects starts to expand. In fact, as the investigation moved forward, the cops ended up with about seventeen suspects. Seventeen. That's too many. I mean, what you want is to narrow the list down to the one person or persons who are directly responsible. Right?
