NBC’s Dateline plans a two-hour episode on the 2019 slaying of former Republican Sen. Linda Collins at 8 p.m. Friday.

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BUTCH SMITH AND TATE WILLIAMS: Former senator’s daughters in NBC interview.

The show will include interviews with Linda’s daughter Tate Williams and son Butch Smith, Randolph County Sheriff Kevin Bell, Arkansas State Sen. Gary Stubblefield, Linda’s friends and others.

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Stubblefield’s presence and some hints in the preview indicate to me that the show will dwell more than necessary on the wild-eyed conspiracy theories that popped up around her fatal stabbing. That is: Somehow she was in possession of QAnon style child abuse information linked to prominent politicians. A long fight has continued to see her computer records to check this unsupported theory out.

Concrete evidence indicates the crime was, though horrible, not exceptional.

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A close Collins friend, Rebecca O’Donnell, was using her friendship to steal from Collins. Did Collins find out? We don’t know for sure, but we know that after O’Donnell took lunch to Collins at her Pocahontas home a conflict erupted. O’Donnell stabbed her to death, with some of the incriminating action caught on home video cameras that O’Donnell probably thought had been disabled. While awaiting trial, O’Donnell also tried to arrange the killings of some other players in the case. In the end, she pleaded guilty in return for a 50-year sentence.

Bottom line: A not-sufficiently-crafty crook got caught killing and is paying for the crime. QAnon it ain’t.

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