I'll try Jeff. It's also hard to keep speculation at bay out here where "bits don't die". We'll see.
As reference, my line is George W(itfield) 1873, Amos L(anders) 1841, George 1807, Oldham 1765, to Oldham 1716. George adopted a boy, John S(cott), from Scottish parents, but that was before 1871, so he was not of this family. This is just the introduction, but (1) I'm curious if any Scottish families went asunder in Middleton, putting their children up for adoption, similar to the family in this murder.
John's wife, b. Ida B. Graham on 2 Apr 1861 in Nova Scotia, to parents Joseph & Mary, had me wondering. From somewhere, I heard that her mother's maiden name was Clark. (2) I'm looking to find more information on the McGranahans of Middleton, especially Azida Belle McGranahan, same age as Ida, her father Joseph, and her father's first wife, albeit not her mother, Mary Clarke, or so I'm also told.
And (3) have we identified the David Gates yet? I may only have half the Nova Scotia Gateses at this time, but the only David Gates that I have in my records, of a reasonable age for that event, is David Landers Gates, b. 1850. His paternal line is distant to mine. But his mother was Louisa's niece. I believe he later married in 1889 in Nictaux to a Sophie Parker.
I have a David Goucher marrying Elizabeth McGranahan (Calnek, p. 517), which I believed was our couple. He was the son of William, and not the son of Stephen, b. 1793, who m. Mary Ann Gage. William's wife was Mehitable Crocker, and her mother was b. Thankful Gates. (4) Was this the unfortunate couple?
That was as little speculation as I could muster. Hopefully it won't judged be too impolite.