Hey @Cieii57,
This is an excellent timeline and it shows a very plausible version of events that day! It also shows the strong possibility that both Suzanne and Jon are telling the truth. Furthermore,it totally discounts the timing of Reed's later sighting by the school, which under these conditions, could not have occurred at 1PM.
What about the possibility of the following?:
1.) Suzanne, Reed, Jon, and Dr, Jeppson are all in the house. Suzanne is preparing dinner for the family.
2.) Reed comes down from changing his clothes after the priesthood meeting and says,
"I am going to go feed the dogs" when Suzanne asks where he is going. She says, "
Hurry back, dinner's going to be ready in half an our."
3.) Reed tells her,
"Oh, I'll be right back." and leaves to feed (
and only to feed the dogs.) He returns about ten minutes later to have his dinner. It is possible that Jon and Dr. Jeppson are there. But Suzanne is either in another part of the house, or had to go somewhere. If the family had different schedules to keep, they would be old enough and responsible enough to eat at different times. A teen is not going to miss lunch or dinner! And I think it would be helpful for the dogs to digest their food first.
4. Reed finishes dinner and goes out to feed the dogs. Now, with the dogs being fed, Reed having his dinner, and free time that we did not assume he had, until we put the theory of
@Ciriii57's timeline in place he actually takes the dogs on a long walk. He looses all sense of time that he had to be back by 4:00 for a Church service, which, according to Jon,
"Dad would not be happy about Reed missing church." From these circumstantial pieces of evidence, we can conclude that Reed was not wearing a watch.
A. If he didn't have a watch he might have gone into those foothills and had an accident there. Or could he have been seen walking the dogs around 1:30- 1:45 that afternoon by a witness and this actually occurred. But the timing reported is wrong. What is the distance between the Saint Mary's school and the foothills? I am not good at map reading. I still think an accident or animal attack is possible, There are more natural predators up there in the mountains and fields of Utah that could strike an unsuspecting person or animals that could have spooked the dogs, than a pedophile looking to grab a kid walking two dogs. A pedophile would want an easy target, and those dogs would be a deter rant.
B. I think Reed had a secret that Jon knew and Keith saw that Reed was angry about it.This explains why Jon seems to suffer memory loss when talking about the tragic events specific to Reed's case. But has great recall when talking about things related to the church or his own spiritual experiences, as well as great recall of the things they shared together,
C. I think Reed was angry about something. This would have explained Keith's statement that
"any anger Reed had would have vanished in a year, six months." I think Keith witnessed the anger between Reed and another family member. Both he and Jon, knew Reed's secret.
What do I think personally happened to Reed Jeppson:
1.) He and the dogs suffered a catastrophic accident when Reed, after having his dinner,went out to walk the digs, (after feeding them before dinner) The circumstances of Reed's fate and the dogs were the same.
2.) Assuming Reed had eating following the above timeline, and without a watch, Reed probably thought he had several hours out there to explore with the dogs and adventure seek. This makes the accident theory more plausible.
D.Whether Reed had his savings account money or not does not change the accident theory IMO.
OR:
3.) There was no accident. Reed, on that long walk, decided to use that $60 savings to buy or something big, maybe sell the dogs, exchange money with a friend, and get pay this friend to get belongs to leave and start a new life This friend is the person whom we don't know, but Reed swore him to secrecy. I think that Reed, Jon, and the an "unknown friend" know the reason for Reed's leaving. This person helped Reed plan to leave. He/she arranged clothes, food, lodging, first-aid kit for him to leave. This person would be needed, because Reed could not run away without making preparations with someone for a survival kit and plan.
Could this have been the same "friend" who saw Reed at the school? The same friend who implicated Jon in Reed's disappearance? Not only that, but the friend who intentionally gave the wrong time about the sighting of Reed at the school to remove himself from getting involved because he/she knew the secret of Reed's vanishing and wanted to protect him? Than, the friend implicates Jon because the friend knows that both Reed and Jon had a big fight? The friend throws Jon "under the bus." because/he/he liked Reed, but not Jon, and this unknown person wanted to not get involved with this conflict?
4.) I think the big argument that Reed could have had with Jon, (with Keith hearing) was a life-changing thing! Reed told of his love and devotion to his family, but just could no longer take the demands and requirements of the strong LDS church upbringing anymore. Well, knowing how religious Jon is to this day, he really became very angry with Reed for making this decision that would shatter the family. R
eed- "Jon, I don't want to shatter anything. I love you and this family with all my heart, but I can't tell them I am leaving the church. Please, please, don't say ANYTHING!" The go back and forth, but Jon, simply can't get Reed to change his decision. Reed-
"I want to help people, but I have to do it in my own way. I have to be free. I want my decisions to be mine alone, not God's!"
That last bolded statement puts a dagger in John's heart and that could even explain his memory loss when getting the year of Reed's disappearance wrong. Jon fee's guilty, and responsible for
whatever happened to Reed. Therefore he knows that "Reed, my heavenly brother, needs God's help NOW!" That could stand to reason why even to this very day, Jon turns discussions about Reed to his faith in the All Mighty. He has no other way to deal with the situation. He has totally accepted that
"God has made that decision." And this could also explain his lack of emotion when talking about Reed. Showing emotion about a negative event in his life that he can't control, is like questioning God's will. And because Jon's religious views are so extreme he can't do that.
This is why it is easier for Jon to talk about Reed concerning the great things that they shared together, but Jon becomes confused when talking about Reed concerning his disappearance. He can't show emotion over negativity, because that questions "Our Heavenly Father's decisions." And Jon will never do anything that goes or speaks against what God has done.
Finally, I also want answers to all the unanswered questions below posted by
@Ciriii57
- Why is it that only Suzanne's versions of events made it to media reports, when we know that there were at least 2 other people in the house; including Reed's father. Isn't it more common to have a statement from a parent?
- Did anyone ever check if the dog's collars, leashes and licenses has actually been taken. I believe it was mandatory for a dog to wear a license on it's collar. Would this have included the dog's name as well? Reed probably had the dogs on a leash while he was walking in his neighborhood. So my thought is ...those dog tags are somewhere, they would be hard to dispose of, they wouldn't just rot away. If I were LE I would've released the names of the dogs/info on the tags-if say a metal detectorist or a family member going through a relatives possessions finds them, or even took in the dogs at the time- then at least they might make a connection. Find those dog tags and you probably find Reed.
- Did anyone ever check if the Dogs had actually been fed/eaten their food that day?
- If Reed indeed had $60 then wouldn't he have also had his wallet? It isn't mentioned in his possessions, what did he carry that cash in?
- LE only ever really gave a limited description of Reed's clothes (basic colours). Usually in a missing person's case we get a good description, brand names, sizes and even photos of the same items. All we know for Reed is a white shirt (was this a T-shirt or a shirt?), blue Levis, white tennis shoes and a blue/black parka. Why?
- And finally something I doubt they'll ever be an answer to: when Reed's dog went missing for 2 weeks previously what did Reed do? Did he post missing posters, get upset, get angry? Or did he know the person responsible...was it ever discovered who and why? Could this incident be more important than it seems?
Satch