I understand what you're saying, but she's also alone when both entering leaving the apartment building where she's caught on video in the hallway. The way I understand/recall it was that she had arrived and left that party alone, and then went to the next party where she also arrived and left alone (male friend offered to walk her home, she declined). After that, she shows up at McGrady's alone. So for whatever reason, she was going to various places -- not just the Mall -- alone. That makes me doubt that the reason she was alone on the Mall is that she was planning to meet up with JM.
I think it's sort of odd, because I always went to parties with other people (usually they were the ones who knew where the parties were and had charted the course for the evening and I was just going with the flow). But since she was on the ski team but also probably had friends from her first year dorm and other activities, maybe the parties she was attending were with different groups that didn't mix much, hence she would have gone alone without having friends from one group come along to a party with the other group or groups.
As a mom of lots of college kids, recently graduated and in college still, and having visited many "college towns", I can tell you that it's not at all unusual for singletons going with their own flows. I saw lot of college kids out on their own, and my kids do the same--and I've warned, am still warning them, and will warn them, to use a body system, but they simply do not.
The mother of Lauren Spierer, a missing IU student, very sadly noted seeing lone coeds in the very area where Lauren had walked the day she disappeared at the same time of the morning, and inebriated as well. As if this with Lauren had not even happened. The early hours when Lauren was out brought at least two other lone young females who were out and about, but had not seen Lauren during their walk in the same area. We just went out with a couple who are parents of an IU alum, and they said they'd seen the same in that area. All in the wake of a student who disappeared, going it a lone.
Two of my friends lost their children when they went off alone and not in good shape on a party night. Neither due to nefarious scenaris, but one most definitely would have been alive had he not been by himself when he started a trek home late at night and drunk, the other might have had a chance, when he tripped and cracked his head. But nope, they were alone. This is dangerous for men and women alike.
This never happened when I was in colleges, though that was back in the Dark Ages, I guess. We always went in groups. I don't remember a time anyone went of by herself. But these days they do.
My son often goes off without his roommates who have other interests, meets up with one group of friends and then continues to another. Considers it the norm. He tends to stay within the bounds of where the university students live, in a city much bigger than Charlottesville. When I was in Charlottesville this summer, I got the distinct impression that the offcampus undergrads tended to stay right in the Corner area, and did not tend to venture often from there and from university grounds. Other posters here who are familiar with UVA student culture indicate the same. I guess within that area, people come and go without much thought as it's all home territory Hannah was out wearing a scanty top, carrying no purse, and shoes not exactly made for the long haul. My guess is that she had a number of parties that she intended the hit that evening. Every indication from what LE has said about her contact with UVA friends via phone and text--and there was contact while she was "lost" (and LE thinks she was lost, went the wrong way) . She was heading to a specific place is what they indicate and did not get there, finding herself in the mall area instead.
Drunk and probably preoccupied with her cell phone, she probably took a circuitous route to the mall area, is my guess. Not quite sure of exactly where she was heading, but thinking she knew how to get there. LE seems to know where she wanted to go, and there were classmates, friends there with whom she was in contact. My guess is that she was surprised to find herself at the mall which Longo indicated was the exact opposite way that she had intended to go. She'd gotten her bearing backwards. She did let classmates know she was lost. If the case ever goes to trial or the info is released, we may get the entirity of the texts and exchanges she had with her friends and classmates until her phone went dead. I really think her battery died, as that's been my experience with young people, another danger of late night to early morning forays. Cell phone batteries could very well be at the end of their viability by that time. Just when the phone might most be needed.
Another guess, from the report that she turned down an offer from a student who said he would walk her home. She had no plans to go home, wasn't interested in him coming with her to wherever she was going. Whether she was trying to shake him because she had no interest in him and didn't him around that evening, or whatever, it is notable that he thought she was going HOME, and she did not correct him, it seems, as that is how his comments have been released.
