Eastlake may have been searched because there's a tree-lined bike and walking path/trail that goes from about the 13000 block of Colorado Blvd over to Eastlake. If she were trying to head home, but went the wrong way, she could have ended up at Eastlake. We had a problem a few years ago with someone assaulting females on that path, no one was ever arrested.
The trail to and around Eastlake is both crowded and secluded (I know that doesn't make much sense). There are always a lot of people on the trail, but it winds around quite a bit so it would be possible to be out of sight of people for a short time. There are also coyotes in the area, but I've never heard of them attacking people (they have attacked dogs). This is true of most of the trails in the area. There are a LOT of trails in the area, it's possible to go from the area where the girl was last seen to where she was found with minimal time on surface streets.
Going over to 129th and Colorado from where the girl lived, to go up to Hilltop (the shopping center they were likely going to) doesn't make much sense, either on surface streets or on area trails.
I live less than a mile away from the intersection where the kids got separated. My Ring footage shows that winds started kicking up about 9:11, and there was some lightning. At 9:07, footage doesn't show lightning or trees blowing. Police were driving through the neighborhood at 2:20am. I was driving up Colorado at the intersection where the kids got separated at about 8:15pm last night, it wasn't raining but I think it was cloudy. It was still light outside, not even really dusk. No flash flooding in the area last night that I'm aware of.