I think that's strange too - it is very close. However, in wandering around on maps.google this morning I'm seeing that there's more than one dropped pin out that way - with the name of a school. It's also an area where people go for geology fieldtrips (because of the minerals, because of the lava flow).
Yes, but that does NOT solve the problem of the decomp. In my view, the very earliest it could have been detected was 12 hours after death - and that would be highly unusual, out of the edge of statistical probability. For the decomp smell to have released enough into the home to be detectable on August 1, then perhaps whoever moved the body did so about 18 hours after death (although that's still stretching it - but it was hot out there, for sure).
IF JRF is the suspect, then I assume he arrived in Thermal in late afternoon/early evening. If JF was no longer alive at midnight on the 21st (just 1.5 hours or so after her last video), then the body had to remain in the trailer until around noonish the next day (and if the A/C wasn't on, then 18 hours would produce some products of decomp). But that means he didn't move the body to Thermal until about 6 pm - which is possible. We don't know what time the Thermal sighting was.
In that case, she is very near Thermal and probably not far off a road. It was done in panic and haste, IMO. Given that no attempt was made to remove JF's belongings from the mobile home, it seems reasonable to think he could have gone to Thermal with the specific goal of body disposal - but it really pushes the timeline into a specific position.
Because the smell of decomp was still detectable (even with the door open) on August 1.
Therefore, with this particular theory, I think we have to consider that there was a homicide (someone moved a body out of the mobile home - that's consistent with homicide, obviously). And it would have taken place at around midnight July 21-22.
On July 21, the high temperature in Morongo Valley was 120F (48.9C). The hottest point of the day for both July 21 and 22 was around 3 pm. The 22nd was a bit cooler (high was 114F), but the heat was more sustained (it was already 98F at 9 am on the 22nd). The overnight low was 88F (hot enough to heat a car past the point of sustaining life if the windows were up - I like to remember that 88F is still pretty warm). Surely JRF had A/C though?
It's still possible that he managed to leave the mobile home late afternoon/early evening on the 22nd and perhaps it was because the situation was rapidly and thoroughly going south (if it was an impulsive crime, JRF had to have spent time pulling himself together and planning.
This leaves his whereabouts on the 23rd a mystery. I'm sure LE is pondering these same questions. Rigor mortis, decomp rates, etc. And if someone used JRF's truck to move a body that was already into the second stage of decomp, then that truck will give evidence of that (cadaver dogs should be able to smell it, for sure).
It's even possible that JRF (or whoever was driving the truck) had the body with him at the Thermal campground (another explanation for the windows being down). In that case, the actions of that truck on the 23rd must surely be a big focus of this investigation. LE's first priority is to find Fang, of course. Organizing several desert searches is not easy - but I imagine they are making progress.
IMO.
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