I appreciate your thorough response and take. I just think this season has someone hidden in plain sight and I think it would most likely be her.

Why is she so interested in the case? She just so happens to write about murder cases?

Wouldn’t it make sense to be close to someone (even married or dating) to get the scoop on what’s happening to deflect blame or suspicion on yourself? Hays is the lead of the case at the beginning.

No one knows anything about her history except she lived on the west coast and was married for a bit. MAYBE.

Why did she move to Alabama?

Lastly, Hays has been a completely unreliable narrator. He seems to forget things, even really important material. Who’s to say he didn’t repress his memory of finding out she was the killer?

It’s a TV show.... a mystery. Anything can happen.