This is my first post, but I am a long time visitor to this site.
I dont believe JM would have traveled this far to discard one of his victims. I believe it is just too far away and it only increases the chances of getting caught.
With that being said, I live in Spotsylvania and I did visit the Ni River Trails this past Sunday (Oct. 5th) with the sole purpose of seeing and/or smelling if HG might have been discarded here.
The following link will give you a good map and satellite image of the trail area and hopefully help you visualize what I am about to describe.
http://fambe.org/trail-map-viewer/salamander-loop-mountain-bike-trail/
Upon arriving to the parking area, I did notice turkey vultures circling above the south-west corner of the trails. Seeing this I decided to walk the trail at the south-western end nearest the farm pond. The trails are surrounded by very tall trees that provide a very thick canopy over top of the trails. In fact, if you look at a satellite image of the area you cant make out any of the trails because of the canopy.
Looking at the illustrated map at fambe.org:
The trail I started on is at the south-west corner of the farm pond area. It starts where the ? is. At the ? area, I could hear a lot of crows squawking. I believe it as either a warning squawk or they were trying to chase the buzzards away. I walked about 130 steps down to the first yellow dot. The area of the first yellow dot is where I could hear that the squawking was coming from a south-westerly angle away from the first yellow dot. So I ventured about 20 yards until I could see the sky through the trees. There I could see the group of crows. They were in the tree tops to the west. They must have seen me because the whole group flew away in a south-easterly direction. Looking at the fambe.org satellite map, I believe I was looking towards the somewhat circular clearing. Beyond the clearing would be the rock quarry. I did not venture any further because it was private property. Other than the buzzards and the crows, I did not observe any- thing unusual.
Next, I walked back towards the farm pond and took my first left and walked the trail that eventually runs along the Ni River (its more like a big stream about 10-15 feet wide). This trail branches off before you get to the next ? and is not highlighted on the map. This trail runs downhill and is mildly steep as it meets up with the Ni. I did not see or smell anything unusual on this portion of the trail. I walked it to the end. At one point when I was walking along the Ni, I could hear the crunching of gravel by a vehicle driving super slow on the other side of the river. It eventually stopped but I couldnt see anything because of the trees. I then walked back to the parking area. I did not walk the upland trail (salamander loop) because I figured if you are carrying a body, you want to go downhill towards the swampy and river areas.
Back at the parking lot, I decided to check out the 4 sided wooden structure, that is supposed to hide a dumpster. There is no dumpster there but people do dump trash there anyway. There were a couple of small bags of trash, probably from someones vehicle. There was an unusually large pile of empty Newport hard back cigarette packs. It looked to be about 15-20 packs. This caught my eye because someone mentioned that JM might smoke.
Some background information on the area:
The Ni River Trails parking area is behind a vacant building that is for lease.
The building to the south of the parking area is the Spotsylvania School Board
The quarry behind the school board is not currently operating.
I visit the area to observe wildlife and to take pictures. I have visited the area around 15-20 times since it opened. I usually visit mid morning to early afternoon and Ive seen other people there maybe 3 times (a total of about 6 people). These trails are not well known or well visited. In fact, on my Sunday visit the trails in some sections were starting to overgrow. I have seen deputies cruise around the vacant building 2 or 3 times on my visits.
Even though these trails are not well visited, I think youd be taking a chance parking in the parking area at night and doing something illegal. My reasoning for this is that I am sure the School Board building and the High School on the other side of route 1 is driven by at least once a night by deputies. Also, it would be a good place for cops to lay low at night to fill out reports, make phone calls, take a break, etc
. If they get a call they can always say they are checking out the School Board building.
This is my opinion. I wouldnt risk it, but then again Im not a serial killer either.
I hope this clears some sleuthers questions about this area.
Update: I drove by the trails parking area Tuesday the 7th to see if the buzzards were still flying overhead and they were not.