Every time one of these kind of crimes pop up--the kind where it looks like the perpetrator was waiting for the victim--I'm always left wondering: How long was the shooter/attacker/rapist going to wait? An hour? Two hours? Six hours?
Why do I do that? Because waiting around isn't good for someone who's hoping to commit a crime without getting caught.
In Dan's case, my impression is the only thing that was a constant in his morning itinerary was dropping off his kids. Yes, he made other stops that morning but those were subjective. Meaning, maybe he stopped at those other places some mornings and not others OR he stopped at them but the time varied as to how long he spent at any one stop.
So, there's really no way the shooter could've known the exact time Dan would get back that morning. Yes, he could know Dan would return eventually that morning but not at 11am. Maybe 10:50am. Maybe 11:10am. And sure, ten minutes doesn't seem like much time to you or me. But to someone who is looking to pull a trigger, those seconds go by like hours I have to believe.
Even if the hitman was hired by someone who knew Dan's itinerary, the employer would never be able to give the hitman an exact time that Dan would get home. Only an approximation. In fact it's easier to predict when a person's going to leave their house in the morning to go to work than when they'll return home.
In this case, though, the hitman chose to commit his act when Dan returned home.
So, once again, how long was he going to wait? Remember, his getaway car--the Prius--is on that street somewhere. It's daylight. It's a populated street. And we're left with the impression the shooter walked right up the driveway and shot Dan. Didn't even try to creep from around the corner of Dan's house . . .
I think no matter how you cut it this shooter probably spent some considerable time on that street waiting for Dan before Dan came home because there's no way to the minute he could've predicted when Dave would come home. And since the shooter was already there when Dan got home I don't think the shooter was following him.
Not sure what this all means but it at least opens me to the possibility that the shooter might've tried to murder Dan before but Dan's schedule possibly got in the way, i.e. The shooter might've waited for Dan on another day but Dan's schedule just didn't take him home quickly enough for the shooter's time schedule.
I guess what I'm saying is there's no way this killer was gonna wait all day for Dan to come home. So he at least had a general idea of Dan's schedule. This would imply the shooter following Dan around (for quite a while) in the weeks before OR the shooter being hired by someone who already knew Dan's schedule approximately enough to give the shooter a general idea of when to show up at Dan's house.
Still, hanging outside a house with a motive to kill is a risky proposition. This killer must've wanted to do this VERY badly.
