I agree that it seems like LE would have found some sign of her being dragged away.
In that area of the country, cougars scare me more than black bears. Because they are stealthy and stalk from a distance so you dont usually know they are even there until they decide to pounce and attack. My understanding is they will usually grab their prey by the throat if they can and they like to drag off their prey to a secluded area to feed on the prey.
If a cougar had taken her and was in a hurry to run away, my guess is it would go uphill because it is easier for them to run uphill. Have you ever seen how a cat can easily scramble up stuff but when going down, it is harder on them. Similar to humans too how we can sometimes climb up serious stuff but not be able to get down. So, if I had to guess which way a cougar would go, I would guess uphill too like BM did. But I would also have guessed search dogs or LE would have seen some sign around the scene of the bike so I dont put the cougar up there too high in this case. It is just interesting to me because I dont think a lot of people know how it can and does happen in areas where cougars exist. Not many states are known for a decent size cougar population. Colorado is one of them though.
I've never seen one in the wild but I have read up a lot about them and their behaviors.
The main attacks on humans are children and smaller frame adults although I would not put it past them to attack even larger adults if hungry enough. Cougars are very strong and powerful and could easily drag off someone the size of SM if one had attacked her. They could take someone even heavier if hungry enough, but they are not dumb and they want to take on something they know they could easily subdue and drag away.
The 2nd last link below states...
"Adult males are around 2.4 m (7.9 feet) long from nose to tail tip.....Males generally weigh 53 to 100 kg (117 to 220 pounds)...."
The 1st link and below article I found today is interesting as it gets further down in the article. Talks a lot about actual cases.
Killer Cougars
Cougar - Wikipedia