Yeah, and that is hard to untangle. Did she clearheadedly hit the big red button on her life and relationships? Or did some misfiring in her brain make her ability to make sound choices and rational decision-making go completely wrong? Unless we find her, I don't know that we'll ever know.
MOO
I can't find "clear headedness" in the story, yet. She takes 2 days to drive to Phoenix (allowing that she may have left a day later than reported). Then she has lunch with a friend, but fails to show up for lunch the next day, instead apparently heading north, then west (toward home) then east again (toward?). With a bearded dragon in the car. She notifies her parents she's not going to the wedding, and begins a kind of photo shoot involving lost soldiers (and other poignant but unusual topics for her budding photography business - she had not, to my knowledge, had more than one paying gig as a photographer per her Instagram).
She posts unusual posts on her FB about disappearing and has pictures of herself reading unusual passages from the Bible. She tries to use Euros at a motel, while telling the clerk that she doesn't want to be "tracked." It's possible that she thought the ex-boyfriend had the ability to get into her phone account (but she could have changed the password).
Her parents say she was known for "spontaneity" (code for "not planning much") and had mental health issues, per MSM.
Many people who get lost simply make a series of questionable decisions, incrementally putting themselves at risk. When the situation gets challenging (or even dire), they continue to make questionable decisions. Someone here wrote "always stay with the car!" as advice - and that should be imprinted in everyone's brain (but, alas, some people have either never heard that or have not internalized it - or are ignoring that part of their brain - Safety Third people, is the emerging term for this). The elderly gentleman who perished on Mt Baldy a couple of years ago (during winter), had hiked to the top many times and was with a group of younger people. The younger people all turned back, they urged him to turn back, they watched as he disappeared. They expressed their concern to him. He was adamant that he knew what he was doing. I don't think he intended to die, I think he was into the challenge of this hike and the rare opportunity to prove to himself that he was...a mountaineer?
I'm sure I've left out a few more things about CG, but it seems to me that we do have a record of what most LE and searchers would call "questionable decision-making." If she did go to Love's, she apparently didn't go inside. Was she even eating at that point? When she left her car behind, how did she expect to keep Roz safe? Roz needed heat overnight. She was sleeping in her car, apparently. Overnight lows would have been in the mid-30's, high 30's at best. Very chilly for a bearded dragon, as I understand it.
This news about the tree being up under her car is another bit of information and I agree with the officer. OTOH, it looks to me as if CG wore over-the-ear headphones and was likely listening to...something...in her car (and out of her car, too). One would think she'd notice the steering was different, but not if the tree were merely in the undercarriage - the flat tires, though, should have alerted her to stop. She had to have gone off the road into that tree (probably one of the smaller roadside ones). But that's still unusual. Refusal to accept aid is another big red flag.
IMO. Lots of really thoughtful posts on this thread. I think we have a lot of younger people who are kind of in freefall. CG put SO much into her education and licensure, my heart breaks thinking about this case. I do hope she's safe somewhere, she seems to be social, caring and resourceful.
en.wikipedia.org
