Snipped by me to avoid making this a huge post.
Your questions about Barrantine and how close the girls were are very good. I'm curious about the grease stain too. To reply to your other questions:
8. I believe it's been mentioned before that Merritt and her daughter said that they left before the girls. They gave the girls directions and hung around until Tracie made the phone call to her mother. Then they believed it was safe enough to leave. It's also been reported (I don't know if it was by the witnesses or what) that the girls left right after them, presumably because the call had been quick. This means that the witnesses probably knew which way the girls went because they had just given them directions and maybe saw the girl or the head lights a few feet behind them before losing them.
9. Not odd. IIRC the girls thought it would be open too. I asked if the store had closed right after Merritt and her daughter bought the soda or if they too had gotten the opening hours wrong. Dime Detective replied to one of my recent posts (page 11) and clarified that there was a soda machine outside the store and this what they were there for.
10. I read in this thread (I think it's around the second or third page) that the witnesses came forward soon after they heard about the case. Dime Detective has a case file type post at the beginning of this thread that may be helpful to you, it's on the second or third page.
11. This is a question people have been asking for the past few pages. I don't believe that anything to that effect has been reported. The big question here is why, maybe they said something about it (such as being the source for the tire information) and the media didn't report it, or they just didn't see or notice the truck.
12. The timeline as to when the truck arrived has been debated because LE gave a time frame and it's been read in different ways - that the truck was there that whole time or that it could have been arrived there at any time during that period. I think that the Merritts arrived before the girls. I also think they would have noticed a truck driving into the parking lot so I assume it's probably white truck, then the Merritts, then girls if the witnesses were there before the girls were. If they arrived later, it could be white truck, Merritts, girls or Merritt getting there first and then the white truck and the girls arriving more or less simultaneously. As to leaving, I believe it's been reported that Merritt left the store and J.B. and Tracie left after them, with the security tape showing the white truck leaving between them. DD has a timeline on page 3.
15&16. Not that odd, to me at least. It's possible that they wanted to be at the party for as long as they could, you know? It was J.B.'s birthday party. I think it's also possible that J.B. waited for Tracie to leave work because nobody else would give her a ride, but that Tracie (because of her curfew) was going to leave earlier with friends with a similar curfew. The party was a field party at the house of one of their friends who lived in a rural area. I was confused by this too until I read DD's case file post. They were calling their friend's house.
17. Ozark was north of Dothan as was their friend's house, except the house was closer. It sounds very likely to me that they were indeed lost, or maybe decided to at least drive around and chat. I don't know where you got that at 10:30 they decided not to go for the party? The theory is that it's likely that they decided that they wouldn't go because they had to turn back and were lost anyway, but I don't think it's known with absolute certainty. From what Tracie's mother said I agree they were probably already set on not going to the party but we don't know exactly when they made up their mind. I do believe that either way, whether they were still trying to find the party or go back to Dothan they were still lost and ended up in Ozark.
19. I would like to know if there were fingerprints too... it's possible that there were no fingerprints but that it's a print of the palm area minus fingers IMO.
24. I'm not sure but I think it might be simply that Hawlett's family chose to handle their grief privately. It doesn't mean that the relevant details were not shared with LE or that anything shady was going on, just that giving secondary details to the press may have been more than they could handle.
I seriously recommend reading DD's posts in this thread (everyone's too but DD has made at least a couple of timeline/information posts and seems to have devoted a lot of time to this case... you can find one on page 1 and another on page 3).
Veidt - thank you for taking the time to give your thoughts to my post. Yes I have read DD's extremely well thought out and researched posts, a couple of times actually. But I guess the major point I have been trying to make in my posts is that we just don't have any facts, LE is keeping this one very tight lipped. To me it just feels as though if we had the info/evidence that they surely have(See list below) we would have a much much clearer picture.
1. analysis of girls clothing
2. analysis of interior/exterior of car
3. 2 shell casings (one with bodies and one at possible crime scene)
4. general knowledge LE would have of their small town - should have abled them to zero in on an area that would have made pants and shoes muddy and wet
5. pool of registered white trucks in Ozark and surrounding communities, including what should have been hundreds of white truck owners questioned
6. EXACT witness statements from Merritt and daughter including date and time reported
7. Specifics of witness statement re: the screams heard that night but reported 8 months later
8. The questioning of what should be dozens of people who were close to or had interactions with the two girls
9. The specifics of how Johnny Barrentine became involved (i.e. he came forward himself, his wife came forward, his original story and the changes to his story (oh how i would love to watch that initial 4 hour interview)
10. Specifics of Barrentines wife statements
I think i could go on and on here with the overwhelming amount of evidence/forensics and general police work info that LE would have in this case file, but the point is I feel as though if we had all of these specifics, we would have a pretty damn good idea of how this whole thing went down but the general feeling I get from local LE is that they are stumped. It may seem as though I might be being a bit of a contrarian here looking for the dramatics but I really smell either some sort of a cover up or some sort of diversion/interference by people involved with this case(could be LE as a whole, a small fraction of LE, witnesses or suspects). This case should be solved by now, should have been solved well over a decade ago with all of the information local LE SHOULD have. That is what my instincts are telling me now, but I am an extremely open minded and intuitive person and am very open to learning more and maybe my thoughts will change, but this is where I am at right now.
Also, just wanted to say thanks and shout outs to everyone here, this thread has really had some great insights. Although this case centres around a very horrific crime it is also quite intriguing and I am glad I came upon this thread. you are all awesome! a lot of great thinkers in here!