I've been thinking about these poor missing people a lot.
There are so many different things that could have happened to them.
But here are my thoughts, and I hope it's OK to post them:
1. So many things were terminating that week, AL's business, their lease (soon, anyway), the 'estate' sale, the move to Mexico/Edmonton. This was the end of a chapter in their lives, and they were moving on, no matter what the circumstances. Given that this would have been the last chance for someone to get a hold of them, or confront them, I believe that someone they knew (I do not presume to guess who) from past dealings, felt an urgent need to confront them in their home before they left the country. I believe they knew them because there was not a break in, no other houses in the neighbourhood were targeted. Someone was desperate and angry. Or mentally disturbed in some way.
2. We know that one or all of the missing people were assaulted, or hurt in the crime. However, LE is leading us to believe that all 3 could possibly be alive, or were at least alive. If they had been shot, possibly neighbours may have heard. And they'd more likely would have had fatal injuries. I believe that there was a serious struggle, and the grandparents were defending themselves and their grandson.
3. It is unlikely that this happened early Monday morning. It gets light out early, people get up, walk their dogs, go to work. So it happened some time after JO left the house, most likely some time between 10 pm and around 5 am. This means it could have been a premeditated crime. Or someone who waited until the last minute to confront them.
4. A random predator, going after the child, can be considered. They could have seen NO at the estate sale, and came back that night. They had no way of knowing, really, if the child lived there or not. Perhaps they intended to just snatch the child, but were caught in the act. However, why, then were the grandparents abducted, too? To hide traces of the true crime? If that's the case, it would be difficult for just one person to do this crime.
5. If it was just one person, then they would have had to either move/transport each abductee separately at one point, even if it's just to the car. Very difficult, and risky. Someone could hear or see something, even in the middle of the night. It's summer, and people keep their windows open.
6. The abductees would have to be transported somewhere, somehow. Doing it separately, again, would be risky. Because the person left behind, unless incapacitated, could have a possibility of escape.
7. It is possible that the criminal used a threat against NO to persuade the grandparents to get in the vehicle of their own volition. However, this would then go against premeditation, because no one knew that NO was going to be there. However, the criminal could have thought of this upon the spot.
8. I imagine the grandparents at home, someone either knocks/rings at the door. Or, they just come right in. Maybe the door was still unlocked from the estate sale. Another reason I don't think it was a petty thief or opportunist from the estate sale, is because usually that sort of thief, interrupted, would run away. They wouldn't harm and abduct 3 people.
9. An argument ensues. We don't know why, we can only speculate. Obviously the person who did this has either no conscience, or is on drugs. It's probably not any sort of family abduction, otherwise LE would have labelled it as such, and worded the Amber Alert differently.
10. Either one guy does it, or more than one guy. It depends on the difficulty of transporting 3 people. If they were injured, they'd be easier to transport by one person.
11. How far did he get? LE is searching locally in landfills and in Airdrie. But could he have gone farther? Depending on when the crime occurred, he could have driven for hours into the country, hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away. LE knows this. Yet they're searching close to home.
These are my thoughts, and I hope they're allowed on this forum.