I've finally read through most of all of these threads, watched all the newsclips, etc. I have a bunch of comments and a bunch of questions - and I don't really have them organized in any particular order (sorry about that).
Just an FYI - the term Trashy Trucker is a pejorative term used to describe what is probably a minority of professional truck drivers who do things like the following: leer/ogle female drivers in other vehicles, stay in parking lots and then leave trash and bottles filled with urine on the ground next to where their truck was (WalMart has banned truckers from their lots because of this practice - which probably only occurs on the part of some), engage in conversation over open band radios that is sexually explicit, engage in substance abuse on the road, things of that nature. Most professional truck drivers hate this moniker and they feel like a few bad apples ruin things for the whole industry. (For example, having WalMart parking lots closed to them overnight means they have to sleep in less safe locations or they are forced to drive longer when they are tired in order to find a location to sleep.)
On the Time sex offender article. If you read the article closely, what its actually saying is that gender preference doesn't seem to be a consideration for pedophiles. We think of pedophiles as being anyone who sexually offends against a child. Clinically though, true pedophiles are only interested in children sexually and they are looking for someone prepubescent, not for a particular gender. The vast majority of people who offend sexually against children (90%) are not "true" pedophiles in the strictest sense (hence the term sex offender, it covers all of the bases). These offenders, from what I've seen, have stronger gender preference. They also have age "preference," but that doesn't stop them from offending against a different age group if they have opportunity. For example, you can see a guy who both rapes women and sexually abuses minor girls - even younger minor girls - in his own household, or in the household of a relative - because it's easy access (in fact, one thing I think LE frequently overlooks is to check social services in each state the POI has lived for any cases involving the POI - or just anyone they haven't eliminated yet). Such an offender might also offend against a teen girl he found alone. I do not think the man arrested in Georgia is the killer in this case. He seems to have a preference for males around the age of puberty.
I cannot understand why, two hours after she was gone, the family had not been able to ascertain which backpack or book bag she took to school? I mean, she may have a few, but shouldn't they be able to tell which one is missing? Even now, there is apparently no consensus on which backpack or bag the poor girl took to school that day. I feel like this could be important in terms of LE and others needing to look for it, particularly if it was not found with the remains.
Why did LE ask the mother not to look at the remains? Could the body have been dismembered or cut in half in order to dispose of it in smaller and less suspicious packages? If that had occurred, then I would think that it would have needed to take place in a private residence or garage, yet LE focused on the burned house after they found the body, not before, so maybe the remains were just mangled in the trash truck.
I think she was killed in the neighborhood by someone who lives or works in the neighborhood. Emphasis on people who work in the neighborhood or who don't work during the day since she was taken prior to closing hours for most folks. I don't see someone abducting her, taking her away from the scene, then risking bringing her back to the neighborhood with all of the police who would be there by then. I also can't see a stranger coming from outside the neighborhood, grabbing her, raping and killing her (where would he do it with her sibs and parents and police potentially starting to look for her), and then finding a trash can, then leaving the area. Therefore I think its someone who has a legitimate place to be in that area where they would have been alone that day. I think that as small as that area is, its likely that she knows this person at least superficially or has seen him before on the way to school. That may have aided the killer in luring her into the place she was killed.
I would also take a look at which jr high and high schools are near there and see which, if any, kids from those schools might pass the children on the way home at that time of day (if any at all). If there are buses in the area, where are they coming from? How old are the kids? Do they unload while the younger kids are walking home? I agree with someone who said that dumping in the trash could be an immature response so that age range should be looked at.
By now, one thinks the police know just about precisely which trash can she was in because the remains would have been sandwiched in between bags with bills and papers from actual residents. If I was an offender, I think I would have chosen a dumpster that couldn't be easily tied to me - like an apartment complex, or a park barrel or dumpster, or a random home (but who would have already had their cans out at that time of the afternoon, that someone else could come by and put something in them? Seems difficult for anyone but the offender to put her in the residential trash - their own or that of a neighbor next to them.) This still leaves the dumpster at the burned out house. Why was there debris in it to search if it had been picked up? Don't you have to call specially to get construction dumpsters emptied? How does that work?
Would love to just have an explanation for where the mother's 13 yr old was during the initial missing time. Would be nice for LE to just clear him out publicly if they can. Would love to know the every day routine after school in that home and what made that day different. Why was SP there and who was there usually. Did she go to school with the same mother every day, or with different mothers? Any other adults in the neighborhood that took her to school, whose home she went to, or with whom the family associated?
Did she really wander around the neighborhood after school sometimes? For how long? Why was the mom so worried this particular time that both she and her bf came home? Does the mom suspect someone that LE is not letting her mention publicly yet? Did she have a specific reason to be especially concerned that LE is not letting her mention yet?
Anyway, I'm sure I have a lot of other stuff but this post is getting very long.