While we don’t have precise details about the ins and outs of Nathan and Michelle’s home life before his murder, we can infer some reasonable things based on available evidence. We know, for instance, that Nathan and Michelle practically grew up together in Guam. As Daily Mail explains, they were high school sweethearts who got married in 2006, four years after Nathan joined the Air Force in 2002. At the time of Nathan’s death in 2010, both he and Michelle were 28.
This means that Nathan and Michelle got married fairly young, at around 24, and had been together the entire time before then, since high school. It’s safe to assume that familiarity and comfort had settled into their home, which might have sadly contributed to the type of discontent that led Michelle not only to an affair, but Nathan’s murder. This is especially true given the complexities and stressors of multiple jobs, double-shifts for Nathan, raising four children, scheduling their household, paying bills, etc., with no guarantees that either Nathan or Michelle had wanted to move to Las Vegas to begin with. All in all, it’s not too difficult to see how their relationship might have been strained.
And yet, Nathan was described as a “great father” by those who knew him (on Facebook). Even after his death, his children demonstrated a kind of loyalty to him, and fear of their mother, by not wanting anything to do with Michelle (via 3 News).
