I think it's pretty safe to say they probably aren't in the surrounding area at this point. Every article I've read talks about numerous search teams heading out on ATV's to search for them. The searchers have numbered in the hundreds.
That part of Arizona is very barren and flat as a board.....a desert environment in every sense of the word, pretty much just cactus and sand. In most places, the visibility across flat land would be 5 miles or more, and with binoculars, make it 15. The way they have searched in the last 3 days and by saturating the entire area, if this couple had been marched out there and left for whatever reason, someone would have come across them by now.
I'm at a complete loss right now as to who would have abducted them or why, but unless they are being hidden away on private property, I'm pretty sure they would have been located by this time. I can think of 20 different things that may have happened to them, but the part that is puzzling me now is all the dirt and grime that was found adhered to the car. This is indicative of going out and running up and down dirt roads, and according to what I've read, apparently a whole bunch of them. That isn't the type of activity you normally do while driving a Honda Accord. All the main roads around there are paved although quite a few of the sideroads are still dirt.
A carjacking at 5 in the morning sounds unlikely, especially the carjacking of a moving vehicle. The idea that the car may have been taken and then dumped off later by some unknown persons is starting to seem more likely. The question would be, where and when did they take possession of the car and for what purpose ?
The fact that the car was left abandoned and covered with an overspray of dust is pretty unsettling, it leaves one with the impression that it was ran around out in the desert, and then driven back into the city limits and abandoned where it was found. The fact that it was found about a mile from their residence may prove to be a total coincidence, but I think there is a reason for it. Maybe it was an attempt to confuse the police as well as the people that would come searching for them.
Another theory, this couple stopped at a convenience store that morning to get coffee. They were carjacked in the parking lot and driven out into the desert at gunpoint. Where in the desert remains a mystery. The car is driven back into town and deserted where found. Why? Because it was within walking distance of where the perpetrator either lives or needed to be.
That area is notorious for drug running and human smuggling. The crime rate in the area is sky high due to that. This may prove to be one of those senseless, stupid crimes perpetrated by a couple of drugged out sociopaths.
From the time they left home until the report was called in was 14 hours. You can drive many many miles in a 14 hour span, and still be home in time for supper. It's going to be a local that did this.