After Molly's death, there was a very rigorous and public attempt to paint Molly as a depressed and unstable individual, one who was more than capable and willing to take her own life. Molly's private journals were seized and various entries were used to explain that she had most likely committed suicide. One passage in particular was presented as a sort of suicide note. Molly had written:

"I don't want to exist. I wish I had the ability to disappear, and for no one to remember me."

This was presented to a six-person coroner's jury without an entry or date or an explanation of the context. This passage was written over a year before her death, at a time when Molly experienced a cancer scare. She had eventually undergone a procedure to remove a suspicious growth. She was young and ill, facing her mortality for the first time. Of course, the entries from that time period were understandably dark in tone. However, at the time of her death, Molly had recovered from most of her health issues and was optimistic about the future. She had made an appointment and put down a deposit to get a tattoo of a lotus flower, representing change and new beginnings. She was supposed to have gotten it done just 3 days after her death. Molly was feeling hopeful, not hopeless. But still, the choice was made to exploit her most vulnerable thoughts and feelings in an attempt to justify why the Carbondale Police Department didn't handle her case the way they should have. The CPD essentially put Molly herself on trial, when the whole time it should have been Richie Minton's character thrust under a microscope.

Regardless of any of his personality traits or quirks, it's important to recognize first and foremost that Richie Minton was given undeniable preferential treatment in this case. As previously discussed, Minton was a dispatcher for the CPD. Both of his parents and his aunt are employed by local police departments; in fact, his father Deputy Richard "Flip" Minton, is a Cyber Crimes Unit Investigator trained in Basic Computer Evidence Recovery and Network Intrusion Response Training. This might explain why Minton's lawyer arrived at the scene even before the Illinois State Police investigators. It might also explain why his parents arrived less than an hour after the 911 call, while Molly's family wasn't even notified of her death until noon. Even Lieutenant Stan Diggs, an ISP investigator, admitted that the CPD had been "allowing Minton some latitudes." Lt. Diggs also admitted that Minton was allowed to change his clothing and wash his hands before being taken to the police department, though CPD now denies this fact. It seems that Minton also had ample time to wipe down his gun, seeing as absolutely no fingerprints--belonging to Molly or otherwise--were found on the weapon.

Minton's close relationship with his father might have also afforded him some additional "latitudes." You may recall that Minton had inexplicably cleared his phone before handing it over to the police. When a Universal Forensics Extraction Device was used in an attempt to recover the information, something highly unusual occurred. The device wouldn't work. In fact, for reasons unknown, extraction attempts with multiple devices proved to be useless. UFEDs and extraction techniques happen to be Deputy Flip Minton's specialty. What also proved to be curious was the eventual allegation that Molly had spent the evening hours of March 22nd and the early hours of the 23rd searching for information about suicide. Records of time-stamped searches were produced to the public, but several witnesses came forward to refute the claim. Molly's close friend Cullen Stout says that he and Molly were attending a concert together, and had been in each other's company from around 8:00 pm on the 22nd until 2:00 am on the 23rd. Numerous people saw the two of them at the show and confirmed that it was impossible for Molly to be the one who had made those searches. Who would have had both the necessary knowledge and the technology to plant specifically timed searches on Molly's computer? Someone with Deputy Minton's expertise certainly would have been able to.

But all of that aside, who really is Richie Minton? Sure, he is certainly well-connected, but exactly what kind of person did the CPD give such blatant preferential treatment to? If Molly's words were deemed absolute enough to represent her character and state of mind, then let's take a look at Minton's.

A quick review of Minton's social media accounts reveal a fascination with the violent, the twisted, and the macabre. That in itself does not necessarily make him guilty, or even suspicious. I myself have an interest in the more sinister side of life. But Minton wasn't just morbidly curious about serial killers and their crimes--he revered them. Less than a month before Molly's death, Minton shared a quote from Son of Sam killer David Berkowitz:

"And huge drops of lead poured down upon her head until she was dead. Yet, the cats still come out at night to mate and the sparrows still sing in the morning."

About a month before that, Minton had posted on his Tumblr account threatening suicide. He also shared a short story he had written about a man who commits suicide after his entire family dies in an accident. On Father's Day, a few months after Molly had died, Minton posted on his father's Facebook page:

"Happy Father's Day to the man who taught me all the important things in life, like: If they can't breathe, they can't fight."

Minton's accounts were peppered with posts like this, statuses bordering on violent and photos of deranged criminals, both real and fictional. But in the months after Molly's death, Richie Minton, his parents, and a number of his friends began to delete massive amounts of posts. Larry Young and his family saved what they were able to, but many incriminating statuses and posts were lost.

One particular online correspondence was saved, however. It was between Minton and another one of Molly's ex-boyfriends. It occurred barely two days after Molly was killed. Reading through the conversation, which took place over a number of Facebook messages, literally made my skin crawl. Minton's tone is so cold, nonchalant, and matter-of-fact. It struck me as almost callous, much like his demeanor on the 911 call. Minton started off as saying:

"I can honestly say I think in the long run, a little good will come out of this [Molly's death]. And if good can come out of something bad, then...well, that's good. I don't know how else to put it."

Minton also revealed that when he and Molly were dating, he had briefly lived in a house that was haunted by a demonic entity that tried to possess him. Minton said that the presence was dangerous to anyone that visited the home, "it was grabbing people, moving objects around, opening and closing doors." Molly had tried to cleanse the house with frankincense. Minton said that he had burned some frankincense after Molly's death and it had made him feel at peace. He went on to say that "as much as I want to say things would get better for her, I don't know if they would have. Somehow a little dark cloud followed her and things always went wrong."

The part that probably struck me the most came near the end of the exchange, when Minton admitted that he had often been unkind to Molly:

"The times I hurt her, I will never forget... ...If I could rationalize a shitty act as not being wrong, even if I knew it was, I'd do it."

I want you to really consider those words. If Molly's despair in her journal entries was enough to convince CPD that she was suicidal, how are Minton's words not enough to convince them that he was capable of cruel and even deviant behavior? He said that he did terrible things even when he knew right from wrong, and that he had no problem justifying those things to himself. Does that not mean he is deceptive by nature? That his motivations were often selfish, by his own admission?

Though Minton still refuses to speak about the circumstances surrounding Molly's death, he is far from silent. He's still very active on social media, and spends his time making knives, watching hockey, hanging out with his dog, and posting about how "dead he is inside." Just this last month he wrote that he'd probably never make it to old age--"just let me get hit by a bus or a bullet tomorrow." He has plenty to say about the St. Louis Blues but no thoughts about how someone can allegedly sleep through a .45 caliber handgun firing next to them, or how a dead woman with her fists clenched can scratch someone during CPR. As I said, none of this necessarily means that Richie Minton is guilty. But one certainly has to wonder if Minton is innocent, why is he so reluctant to explain what happened in his apartment that night?

If you have any questions or comments, or you think that you can help with Molly Young's case, please contact me at theblackswanbooks@outlook.com.