Dr. Tristin Engels

It started as survival as we outlined from her childhood, but it transitioned into manipulation and a sense of power and identity.

If you recall, she also would get deeply upset whenever her past was mentioned.

So she has this enduring pattern of detachment from that part of her life.

So it's deeply ingrained.

And because of that, it's not surprising that she's unable to own up to the worst of her actions.

That would require confronting the darkest, most irreconcilable truth about who she really is.

So instead, she retreats to the part of the narrative that still allows her to preserve some dignity.

Theft is a survivable offense.

And at the same time, committing theft could be framed as survival itself.

It also fits with her curated persona, someone who is resourceful or even misunderstood.

But you can't spin murder, especially multiple.

So it's not uncommon for offenders like Dorothea to admit to partial truths.

In fact, partial admission is a classic strategy among individuals with antisocial traits.

It allows them to appear cooperative without actually surrendering control of the narrative.

By confessing to a lesser offense like theft, Dorothea signals just enough compliance to seem reasonable while still distancing herself from the more damning accusations.

So in that sense, it most certainly is a strategy to mitigate consequences.

But as I mentioned earlier,

There's really a deeper layer here, too, with regard to outrunning the truth of who she really is and how, like, to the core, how she is potentially just as bad or worse than the people who harmed her.

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