I do remember reading about the dentist appointment. It didn’t state where, but if in NYC then the kids would have had to be picked up early, I think school got out at 12:30 that day? So either the kids dentist appt was in NC, but I think unlikely JD wouldn’t go with them, or if in NY the nanny would have had to pick them up early. It was reported that JD had a 1pm appt as well as 11am so this Could have been it.
But, if this was the kids dentist appointment and she was supposed to be there, wouldn’t they have called in missing person report before 7pm? If it was just her own appointments you might think nobody would be notified right away, but the nanny would have known that JD didn’t arrive at 1pm.
It’s possible the dentist appt was something routine, maybe braces, in NC so just the nanny, and JD had her own appt at 1pm too, so it was later by the time they got to NYC and they realized JD wasn’t there.
It’s also possible the NCPD was called earlier but they declined to file an official missing person report until later at 7pm. NCPD did find the Suburban almost instantly after the time of the missing persons report so it appears they were on it already, or knew exactly where to look for some reason. AWs both just use the phrase “received a missing person report” at 6:59pm so it’s not clear at what time NCPD took the initial call. Sometimes they want you to wait, to see if the person isn’t there by dinner time, etc. before filing a report.
Of course, with “sources” it’s also possible the 1pm dentist appt for the kids is a red herring.
Last thought: what did FD know about JD routine and plans that day? Housekeeper at 12? Kids out of school 12:30? Appts/dinner in NYC? Did he know he needed to be out of there by 10:30? Was it random and he was lucky the cleaner didn’t come earlier? Did he think it was routine for JD to run at Waveny on Friday mornings, maybe followed her a previous Friday morning?