I watched this last night and it was sort of eye opening as far as what gets covered by the National news media and what doesn't. Most of you probably remember the initial interview with Kai going viral in 2013, but few followed him as he rode his brief wave of popularity. Even fewer are aware of where he ended up just three short months after the media storm. Worth a watch for educational purposes about how we build people up and leave them to crumble when they lose their commercial value.
I had a lot of thoughts about this. I remember the murder new coverage and the manhunt since I live in NJ. Lots of folks saying they spotted him in my area, which makes sense since he was eventually caught in Philly. I get why he became a little of a viral folk hero. He was charismatic on camera for sure. It gets so hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t when he tells stories. Did he really dose that guy that picked him up? Was he actually sexually assaulted by the man he murdered? I was curious if the cops searched the victim’s house for any evidence of drugs that would’ve been used to knock Kai out. I assume that came up in the trial but there’s obviously going to be information the jury heard that isn’t public. Kai seemed to be pretty into conspiracy theories so it’s plausible that he got it in his head the guy was part of some secret pedophile cabal. I wish they’d gotten more into the details surrounding that murder.
The post script said his tox screen showed nothing in his system other than the weed. I don't know if there's a lot more to the story or that Kai was just a free spirited nutcase with a violent streak. They never followed up on the phone call from the opening scene, 'that's Kai calling me right now.' I wonder what that was about, clearly he's still in touch with the original reporter, who from the looks of it is doing rather well now. On the one hand he was a disposable commodity who was kicked to the curb when they realized they couldn't give him his own reality show. On the other hand, some of those people seemed to really feel bad for him.
There was also the situation with his mother and potentially abusive childhood. Her side of the story didn’t sound trustworthy to me. The whole situation is just sad. I think the guy needed help but didn’t get it for a number of reasons (some self imposed). And a man died because of it
I got the feeling that the Mom feigned ignorance of everything to put a roadblock up against further questioning of her. Yeah, I don't trust her...
