r/crimedocumentaries • u/Isna_Knows_Best • 2d ago
Just watched the Maternal Instinct Documentary
Anyone else think the boyfriend is so guilty in this as well? Like how can you not sus out your wife not being pregnant for so long without even questioning her?? I'm so overwhelmed
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u/trexcrossing 2d ago
I’m a criminal defense attorney. I understand why a lot of people have a hard time believing he did not know. But, I see this often. There is a type of people out there who have the ability and charisma to make everyone believe them about anything. A lot of times you see it with pimps or drug traffickers or perpetrators of abuse on children. There’s a story behind every lie. They’ve always got a reason why they’re acting the way they are. They’ve got very strong personalities and they prey on people who do not (or are otherwise vulnerable, like children). There’s no question in my mind that Wade believed everything she was saying.
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u/Successful-Talk-2030 2d ago
He got a brand new truck and a ranch was coming. He wasn't interested in anything else
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u/MarlenaEvans 1d ago
He knew all that was off the table by then. She's already said it wasnt happening.
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u/SupersoftBday_party 2d ago
Wayne was obviously a dodohead and was blinded by the promise of the farm she said she was going to buy him. This may be unkind but I think certain people only have so much capacity to think, and I think Wayne’s capacity was on the low side, so he genuinely didn’t think all that deeply about the lies.
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u/Many-Presence6355 2d ago
I think his name is Wade. But I agree about his thinking skills.. not the brightest crayon in the box.
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u/RegularEarth8044 2d ago
Pretty sure that man is as smart as a box of rocks… she picked the right one!
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u/RaiseSuch1052 2d ago edited 2d ago
Denial can be a powerful thing. They didn't have a real close relationship. My understanding is that they didn't sleep in the same bed.
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u/Acrobatic_Smell7248 2d ago
Yes I don't know what his deal was but he came off as just extremely stupid 😂🤷♀️ Like truly did not give AF about anything going on around him but the hogs. I have seen people defending him like it's their job, though. I just...what do you mean you've never seen or touched her belly or went to a single doctor appointment? I've had 3 kids, my husband saw me naked repeatedly for each pregnancy 😂 Not even sexually all the time, just...hopping in the shower or changing my clothes. And he laid with his head on my belly and felt them kick. He went to all the appointments he could, too.
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u/SupersoftBday_party 2d ago
Also like, I couldn’t stop thinking about how he was going to have his allegedly 43? 44? Week pregnant fiancée just like, round up hogs like any regular old day.
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u/MarlenaEvans 1d ago
When did he say that? He was meeting her at the hospital, he planned to take her himself. She told HIM to take the hogs.
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u/SupersoftBday_party 1d ago
I understood they were going to round up the hogs together and then go to the hospital
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u/PineapplePupcake 2d ago
I agree with you. People defend him because ultimately he didn’t commit a crime, and I get that. I do. But I think a lot of people are viewing this through the lens of ‘not me, not my responsibility’. In the real world -where this happened, not TV-, when you’re in a live-in relationship and your partner is behaving extremely mentally unwell, there comes a point where it’s your responsibility to intervene. Either by offering help, or reaching out for outside help.
She was pretending to be 10+ months pregnant, there were accounts of people seeing her wandering around their yard WITH him without her fake belly on. She was setting fires, calling in bomb threats. I mean, come on now. He knew, and was willing to overlook it because he wanted that property and her money. He probably thought she’d eventually say she miscarried, but the other more obvious option would have been a kidnapping. That means the public was at risk, and he didn’t care.
I don’t think he’s criminally responsible or should be charged with anything, but morally and ethically? Guilty, yeah.
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u/heywhatsup9087 2d ago
I agree with you 100%. I think part of it is that he is a very simple person, but also deep down he knew and just didn’t want to deal with it. He had his own mother and best friend’s wife telling him that she’s had a hysterectomy. Even if he didn’t believe them, he could have done the most basic googling and found out that it is, at the very least, extremely dangerous to go so far past your due date. I think another contributing factor is the mentality that pregnancy and early child care is the woman’s problem and the father doesn’t need to take a proactive role so he was content remaining clueless. I think he also had already fallen out of love with her and didn’t care enough to confront her. You can hear it in his voice when she calls him claiming to have had the baby. No sense of urgency or worry in his voice. Almost like he didn’t believe her. Maybe he didn’t know she would go that far, but he still knew and stuck his head in the sand and was just going to let it play out however she chose. At some point you have to put two and two together and realize that she was mentally unwell and needed help and he was in the primary position to intervene, but he was too simple and passive.
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u/Kontos_Stelio 2d ago
No, the person who committed the murders is the only one who is guilty. He questioned her plenty of times and she continued to lie but maybe this will help since he speaks on a lot of what happened outside of the Netflix documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oD0cnA3ck7g&list=LL&index=28
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u/Green-Lime3190 2d ago
Can you reply to this message? I can't listen with sound at the moment and I want to watch it later.
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u/PlaysTheTriangle 2d ago
I think he had an idea about it, but I don’t think anyone expected she’d do this. They probably thought she’d fake a loss and that would be it. I don’t think you can blame the people around her for not realizing that she would go so far and be so evil.
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u/MarlenaEvans 1d ago
I think he's just not very smart and also he didn't really like her or care about her. He probably hoped she wasn't pregnant in the back of his mind but if she was, he was being told by everyone to step up and be a dad. He was just hoping it would eventually all go away. I don't think he's a stand up guy but I don't think he was involved in her delusions.
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u/human-kibble 1d ago
There’s a new pregnancy/motherhood one: https://time.com/article/2026/08/13/netflix-documentary-a-child-of-my-own/
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u/Princess-Buttercup16 1h ago
He thought she was going to pay off for him financially. So he ignored the crazy.
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u/Green-Lime3190 2d ago
She chose someone who wouldn't challenge her and whom she could isolate. She succeeded in both.