Sorry but it still doesn't make any sense to me. What person is going to risk dumping a back pack of a known kidnapped child in the middle of a neighborhood street? Everyone has cameras on their cell phones nowadays, it could take seconds for someone to see it and snap a picture of the license plate. I mean if they had to get rid of the bag why not drive into a wooded area and toss the bag into the bushes? Pull over on the side of a bridge and toss it over or on the side of a highway and toss it down an embankment?
SBM & BBM
I think that if the perpetrator is someone who lives near Jessica, the intensive searching of the area around Jessica's home may have been inconvenient and/or nervewracking. Particularly if he had potentially incriminating in his possession.
Wait until LE shows up to do a more intensive search of his home or create a diversion so that LE loses focus for at least a while on Jessica's neighbourhood?
I'm thinking this perp has a scanner or listens to it online.
I don't think he took that great a risk in dropping the backpack where it was found. The homeowner sounds pretty definite that it was not there when he left his home at 6:30 pm, which is almost dark. He saw it when he came home at 1:00 am, so it was dropped after dark.
Whoever the perp is, I believe he's already proven to be good at spotting when there is no one around to see what he's doing. I think he waited until there was a gap in the traffic, dropped the backpack and drove back home to listen to the scanner some more.
I also think there is an element of flaunting to both incidents (Jessica's abduction and the backpack). In both cases, I think part of the thrill for him is to send the message "I'm here and I have the power to scare you."
Tangential note: I think most people are honest and well meaning. Based on my life experience, which I realise gives me a skewed view.
For example, my husband loses his wallet all the time by leaving it on a store shelf (when he took his shopping list out of it), leaving it in the restroom, leaving it at the cash register, leaving it on the running board of our van while he loads it, etc. If there is a way to lose a wallet, he's done it.
And every single time, it has been returned to him with everything intact, including all his cash and the debit cards untouched.
It's a good thing he's my emotional anchor and knows how to keep me sane, otherwise he'd drive me crazy! But he always tells me that no matter what else he may forget, he never forgets he loves me.
Over eighteen years together and he still makes my heart go flippity-flop on a regular basis.