Those who knew him as either Baker's husband of 10 years—or Medley's white knight of almost two—say Bullinger showed no sign of a double life. "He was a pilot, so it could have been easy. But there was nothing secretive... he seemed great," says Medley's friend Rebecca Lorenz. For Medley, a massage therapist who had lost a baby in 2011 and her husband, Todd Medley, to a heart attack in '14, meeting Bullinger when he walked into the spa where she worked had seemed like a dream come true. "Mike was the first time I saw Nadja smile. He was a new start," says Lorenz. "Payton would call him Dad?" Friends say she had no idea that when she moved from Ogden to Idaho to live with Bullinger that he was also living with Baker in Ogden. And Baker— who had retired from a 33-year teaching career, mostly with blind and deaf students, just a week before she was killed—seemed to have no idea her husband was having an affair. "She just thought her marriage was perfect," says her brother Lyle Baker.
有人认为他是贝克结婚10年的丈夫，有人认为他做了麦德利近2年的白马王子，他们表示布林格没有表现出双重生活的迹象。“他是个飞行员，所以这很容易。但没有什么秘密……他看起来挺好的。”麦德利的朋友丽贝卡·洛伦茨说。麦德利是一名按摩治疗师，她在2011年失去了一个孩子，她的丈夫托德·麦德利(Todd Medley)在14年因心脏病发作去世。她看到布林格走进她工作的水疗中心时，就像美梦成真一样。遇到迈克后我第一次看到纳迪亚微笑。他是一个新的开始。“佩顿会叫他爸爸吗？”朋友们说，当她从奥格登搬到爱达荷州与布林格同居时，她并不知道他也和贝克在奥格登同住。贝克从前主要是为盲人和聋哑学生服务。被杀害一周前，她刚结束33年的教学生涯退休，这是她似乎不知道她的丈夫有外遇。“她只是觉得自己的婚姻很完美，”她的哥哥莱尔·贝克(Lyle Baker)说。
But in June 2017, when Baker decided to surprise her husband at the Idaho house they'd bought together, Bullinger's two worlds crashed into each other. "She shows up unexpected, and there's a confrontation," Donahue surmises, based on the evidence he's seen. "It was a spur-of-the-moment crime." Baker's other brother Byron still doesn't understand. "Just pick one and tell the other to go home," he says. "You don't kill them. He didn't show any signs of being a mass murderer."
但在2017年6月，贝克决定在他们共同购买的爱达荷别墅给她的丈夫一个惊喜，此时布林格的两个世界撞到了一起。“她出乎意料地出现了，而且发生了冲突，”多纳休根据他看到的证据推测。“这是一时冲动的犯罪。”贝克的另一个哥哥拜伦仍然不明白。他说:“选择一个，然后让另一个回家。”“你不会杀他们的。他没有表现出任何大屠杀的迹象。”
But Bullinger's first wife, Jacqui Garcia, with whom he has two grown sons and a grand-daughter, saw a darker side. Her marriage to Bullinger ended after years of infidelity, she told the Idaho Statesman. And his second marriage ended when he started the relationship with Baker. Throughout, she says, he was a master manipulator: Mormon when he met Garcia in college, he later attended a Hindu temple with Baker and told Medley he was an atheist, as she was. As Garcia told the Statesman, "He was whatever somebody needed him to be." Which is exactly what haunts Donahue, as the sheriff believes Bullinger could still be alive. "This guy was slick," says Donahue. "He obviously had charisma with these women. It's very possible he could've reinvented himself again, and there are some compassionate people who take him in. It keeps me up at night. I want this guy to be found."
但布林格的第一任妻子雅基·加西亚(Jacqui Garcia)看到了布林格的阴暗面。两人育有两个已成年的儿子，还有一个孙女。她告诉《爱达荷政治家》，在多年的不忠之后，她和布林格的婚姻结束了。当他和贝克开始交往时，他的第二次婚姻就结束了。她说，从始至终，他都是一个操纵大师：在大学里遇到加西亚时，他是摩门教徒，后来他和贝克一起信了印度教，又告诉迈德利，他和她一样都是无神论者。正如加西亚告诉《政治家》的那样，“别人需要他是什么，他就是什么。”这正是让多纳休经常担忧的地方，因为警长相信布林格可能还活着。“这家伙很狡猾，”多纳休说。“他显然对这些女人很有魅力。他很有可能改头换面，有一些富有同情心的人接纳了他。这使我夜不能寐。我希望找到这个人。”
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