I was under the impression that she drove her own car from Yreka to Redding to initially get the rental car? If this is the case, maybe she put gas in her own car to get back to Yreka from Redding? I don't logically see why she'd do that before returning the rental, but maybe she went to her brother's house first for some reason and just decided to do that. But it makes no sense that the gas-obsessed Jodi wouldn't refill the rental car.
Yes, she drove her own car from Yreka to Redding, after having pumped $15.00 into its tank before leaving Yreka. Gas, at that time, was almost $5.00/gallon (according to Jodi's testimony), so $15.00 bought her 3.5 gallons, perhaps. Since she purchased an exact dollar amount, I'm thinking she pumped only enough gas to get her to Redding.
Her car had a 20-gallon capacity tank. (2006 or 2007 Infiniti Q35 Sport.) Highway mileage is approximately 24 mpg on that car, so the trip from Yreka to Redding on June 2nd essentially burned up the $15.00 gas she had purchased earlier that morning in Yreka at 5:37 AM (or whatever time it was).
When Jodi returned to Redding on Saturday, June 7th, her Infiniti would require gas before the drive to Yreka, and I believe she put the SLC Tesoro gas in the Infiniti. The Infiniti would've accommodated 10 (or 15) gallons, easily.
The $40.00 Valero gas purchase which took place 30 minutes prior to Jodi having returned the rental car on June 7th probably went into the rental car--even though the Budget receipt shows that the vehicle had been returned with an empty tank. Budget might've made a mistake in their reporting. Unfortunately, the entire Budget receipt is not available, so we don't know if Budget charged Jodi to fill up the tank after she returned the vehicle (which would've been the case, had she returned the car with an empty tank).
I used to think a bonfire took place between Salt Lake City and Yreka, using some of the SLC Tesoro gas, but Jodi transported Leslie Udi to the gatherings while in SLC, so I'm thinking any bloody evidence was discarded/destroyed before Jodi arrived in SLC on Thursday, June 5th.
If that were the case, it would mean that any evidence would've been discarded/destroyed between Mesa, AZ and Mesquite, NV on June 5th, or discarded/destroyed between Mesquite, NV and West Jordan, UT on June 5th.
(I've written previously in this forum about Jodi possibly having tossed the gun over the Hoover Dam, while driving over it in the middle of the night at 15 mph.)
I suppose Jodi could've stashed any evidence in the trunk of the Ford Focus before arriving in SLC and then simply hoped that no occasion to open the trunk would've presented itself.
Then again, would Jodi have succumbed to a Hoover Dam checkpoint with a gun and bloody clothes in the car's cabin or trunk? A gun could be concealed easily, but a bloody mess? Now I'm back to wondering if she didn't turn around upon seeing the sign for the Hoover Dam checkpoint to burn the items somewhere in the desert. Or perhaps she could've stuffed the bloody clothes in a suitcase, knowing that checkpoint officials don't have the right to rifle through closed containers?
The drive from Mesa, AZ to Mesquite, NV is 402 miles via US-93, so if she had 15 gallons of gas in the trunk from Pasadena, that would have afforded her approximately 450 miles of driving. With a detour for a bonfire on the night of the murder, that'd be cutting it awfully close...