Eleven years in, and it boggles the mind that there are still people who believe Maura was kidnapped by an opportunistic killer on Route 112.
There are two kinds of abductions: organized and disorganized.
An "organized abduction" is where the killer takes care and precaution related to the site of the crime. They find a way to lure the victim to them (John Wayne Gacy bringing the kids back to his home), they take care in grooming the victim over days to gain their trust so that they can remove them from a public location (as in the Amy Mihaljevic case) or they stake out a specific hunting ground and wait for the victim to come to them (I'd put Ariel Castro in this category, as he trolled the same couple blocks of West Cleveland). These are the type that are hardest to catch because there are usually no witnesses (due to the care they took in setting the whole thing up).
A "disorganized abduction" is where an opportunist killer sees a chance to take a victim on the spur of the moment and then takes it. No planning involved. These are the sort that are most often caught because they are reckless and don't think to mitigate the crime by staying out of sight of witnesses.
Now, there is no way Maura's accident was planned. And if it wasn't planned, there's no way she was abducted by an organized killer. So in order to buy into this theory, you must believe she was abducted by a disorganized killer. It would have been very disorganized, actually. The scene was, after all, in direct view of three homes, in which people were occasionally looking out of their windows to check on Maura. Think of it like three lighthouses whose beams light up the accident scene at least every thirty seconds or so.
But to believe Maura was abducted by a disorganized killer, you must believe he had the best luck in the world - that he happened to be driving along that stretch of road on a Monday night, alone, and just happened upon Maura at the right moment - in a window of 3 - 7 minutes before police arrived. Then you have to believe he somehow got her into the car in one of those 30 second windows when nobody was looking. There would have been a conversation (you need a ride - sure - okay, I'm Dan from down the street, hop in and I'll give you a lift - ok, I'll grab some things). And remember, someone had already offered a ride (the bus driver) and Maura had declined. A private investigator sat at the sight on the anniversary of her disappearance in 2005. You know how many cars drove by from 7 - 8 p.m.? Seven. It is not a busy road that time of year.
But, James, abductions like this happen all the time, even if they are statistically unlikely. No, they don't. Women are abducted all the time, yes. But they are abducted because they were either stalked by an organized killer (not the case here) or happened to wander into a place where a killer was waiting (again, not the case here). I challenge you to find one case that lines up with this one - where a woman gets into an accident, in plain sight of several witnesses, and disappears in a 3 - 7 minute window.
Some have suggested she walked into the woods for a bit or walked down the road and caught a ride, later. But there were no footprints leading into the woods. No footprints along the side, leading down Route 112. A police dog lost her scent a few feet from the accident. She didn't walk away.
So, what then?
I again return to the only explanation that fits the evidence -- Maura got into a car at the scene of the accident in one of those 10 - 30 second windows where nobody was looking. And the only way this could have happened was if Maura knew the driver and there was no time wasted for conversation. (get in - ok). Enter the tandem driver, who would have been driving ahead of Maura. If they were ahead and saw the accident in their rearview, and were past Bradley Hill Road, the next place they could turn around was Route 116. It takes approximately seven minutes to drive to Route 116 and back to the scene of the crash.
There are two kinds of abductions: organized and disorganized.
An "organized abduction" is where the killer takes care and precaution related to the site of the crime. They find a way to lure the victim to them (John Wayne Gacy bringing the kids back to his home), they take care in grooming the victim over days to gain their trust so that they can remove them from a public location (as in the Amy Mihaljevic case) or they stake out a specific hunting ground and wait for the victim to come to them (I'd put Ariel Castro in this category, as he trolled the same couple blocks of West Cleveland). These are the type that are hardest to catch because there are usually no witnesses (due to the care they took in setting the whole thing up).
A "disorganized abduction" is where an opportunist killer sees a chance to take a victim on the spur of the moment and then takes it. No planning involved. These are the sort that are most often caught because they are reckless and don't think to mitigate the crime by staying out of sight of witnesses.
Now, there is no way Maura's accident was planned. And if it wasn't planned, there's no way she was abducted by an organized killer. So in order to buy into this theory, you must believe she was abducted by a disorganized killer. It would have been very disorganized, actually. The scene was, after all, in direct view of three homes, in which people were occasionally looking out of their windows to check on Maura. Think of it like three lighthouses whose beams light up the accident scene at least every thirty seconds or so.
But to believe Maura was abducted by a disorganized killer, you must believe he had the best luck in the world - that he happened to be driving along that stretch of road on a Monday night, alone, and just happened upon Maura at the right moment - in a window of 3 - 7 minutes before police arrived. Then you have to believe he somehow got her into the car in one of those 30 second windows when nobody was looking. There would have been a conversation (you need a ride - sure - okay, I'm Dan from down the street, hop in and I'll give you a lift - ok, I'll grab some things). And remember, someone had already offered a ride (the bus driver) and Maura had declined. A private investigator sat at the sight on the anniversary of her disappearance in 2005. You know how many cars drove by from 7 - 8 p.m.? Seven. It is not a busy road that time of year.
But, James, abductions like this happen all the time, even if they are statistically unlikely. No, they don't. Women are abducted all the time, yes. But they are abducted because they were either stalked by an organized killer (not the case here) or happened to wander into a place where a killer was waiting (again, not the case here). I challenge you to find one case that lines up with this one - where a woman gets into an accident, in plain sight of several witnesses, and disappears in a 3 - 7 minute window.
Some have suggested she walked into the woods for a bit or walked down the road and caught a ride, later. But there were no footprints leading into the woods. No footprints along the side, leading down Route 112. A police dog lost her scent a few feet from the accident. She didn't walk away.
So, what then?
I again return to the only explanation that fits the evidence -- Maura got into a car at the scene of the accident in one of those 10 - 30 second windows where nobody was looking. And the only way this could have happened was if Maura knew the driver and there was no time wasted for conversation. (get in - ok). Enter the tandem driver, who would have been driving ahead of Maura. If they were ahead and saw the accident in their rearview, and were past Bradley Hill Road, the next place they could turn around was Route 116. It takes approximately seven minutes to drive to Route 116 and back to the scene of the crash.