The phone issue is one reason why I think Suzanne is close to home. (And I think something happened before Mother’s Day Sunday, too.)
I tried to imagine myself harming another, and if my phone would give anything away, and it absolutely would—if I turned off my phone for a few hours, or had no phone usage for several hours, or if all of a sudden it was texts only when usually there were phone calls.
Historically, there aren’t many times my phone is turned off, and I don’t usually have protracted times of inactivity.
I wish we knew more about Suzanne’s phone, whether or not it has been recovered. (Heck, I wish we knew more about anything connected to this case!)
I think the phone records of both Ms are probably pretty revealing. BM may not be as foolish as PF, but I don’t think he’s a brainiac when it comes to covering tracks, either.
I think like you in a lot of ways. Anyone with half a brain knows that your digital trail can make you or break you. So, if someone kills SM in her home sometime on Saturday he has several things he has to do by the next day, Mother’s Day, when people, especially her daughters, will likely be calling or texting her.
He must clean up the crime scene.
He must dispose of the body.
He must provide an alibi for himself.
He must try to leave a trail that would lead LE to the conclusion that she disappeared while on a bike ride, (and away from the home).
My thought is that the perp would let the battery on Suzanne’s phone die, rather than turning it off which would raise suspicion. After cleaning up any evidence in the home, the suspect would load the body in his vehicle after dark and dispose of her somewhere not too far from the home, but well hidden. If the suspect lived in the home he would leave both his phone and SM’s at the home while he disposed of the body. He would return home, load the bike, and a couple of personal items, perhaps her helmet, in his vehicle and drop them where they would be found quickly. He would return home and wait until early morning to leave for Denver bringing his phone with him.
It’s possible he waited until the drive to Denver to dispose of the body, but this would increase the possibility that LE would trace his steps to the body.
This theory would allow for the husband to say he spent Saturday, day and night, with his wife and then left her very much alive on Sunday morning. There are no close neighbors who would necessarily see if SM and her husband were at the home on Saturday. BM could have answered texts to SM’s phone on Saturday night letting the receiver assume it was Suzanne texting.
As you said,
@windrower, the texts and calls on both phones will reveal multitudes of evidence to which we are not privy at this time.
MOO
but it’s not grief I’m looking for in him, it’s action. I don’t expect true grief for a while yet, even though it may seem obvious that she is no longer alive, I don’t think if it were my family I would be accepting her death at this point.
