I suspect the identity of the blonde woman would be the key to cracking this case wide open.
It's so frustrating that this woman is out there sitting on potentially vital information. That's assuming she hasn't passed away in the past 24 years or has a good reason for keeping a low profile.
1) I agree, IF the blonde "woman" was real and not a red herring / distraction.
2) The blonde "woman" may not have been a woman, it may have been a disguise (which has been suggested many times over the years).
3) If the blonde woman was real and indeed a woman, was she the perp? Or was she working for/with the perp? Was the blonde woman JL?
4) If there was no blonde "woman" then that would point back to the person who told the story as part of a cover up.
5) Its within the realm of possibility that it wasn't Kristin, but I totally discount that. I think the blonde woman was real or the entire story was made up to deflect.
The reason that I think the blonde "woman" story is real, is that this was the only time that Kristin never clocked out.
She left work, under what circumstances we do not know (a lot depends on how much you believe her co-workers, and one of them was connected to JL who was JO's gf)
To me it appears that she either was forced to leave from work involuntarily OR went on a break or to make a bank drop(no one has ever investigated that to my knowledge). And during that break or bank drop she was approached and coerced into leaving with said blonde "woman".
If Kristin left work temporarily and voluntarily, I fully believe she had every intention of returning and would have clocked out like every other day.
Personally, I would like the bank drop scenario ruled out. Back during that time, I managed restaurants in malls similar to the Galleria in another part of CA.
It was a periodic thing during the day and evening to send an employee to discretely make bank drops so that there would not be a lot of cash in the store in the event of a robbery. Typically, the zippered bank bag full of cash was placed in a paper fast food type of sack to make it look like food to avoid drawing attention.
One of my theories had been that insiders knew of these bank drops and there was some kind of plot to intercept one.
Obviously if the insiders were involved in the plot, they would cover in various ways... but they need not be directly involved.
Anyone with a brain would know that bank drops would be made, but would have to watch to figure out when and how it was done.
Back in those days, things were much more cash based so a drop could easily have been several thousands of dollars.
Now in that scenario why not just threaten her, take the bag and leave? Perhaps at that moment she recognized who it was and maybe said their name...
oops... now it's not a random robbery, now you have a witness... and maybe that's why they walked her out of there, never to be seen again.
If that bank drop / robbery theory was ruled out, then the abduction would have had a far more sinister motive.
Either way it's kidnapping and murder, but if the plot was to abduct and murder her from the start, the legal consequences might have been a little different (had anyone ever been caught and convicted). See, even though the co-worker connection to JL and then JO (who called in a different red herring report to LE) is really fishy... if JO wanted to rape Kristin or sell her into slavery, it would not make sense to abduct her at the mall. That group likely could have arranged for less public circumstances. Not that I am ruling out their involvement... it's just that the mall abduction makes more sense as a botched robbery than a targeted abduction. Although if the person were crazy enough, nothing would make sense.