Wow...caught up again, finally. Last night of "vacation," lol.
I have been thinking about a possible scenario:
Girls have met and are groomed by someone who lives near the Carpenter's on Lake Ave (or Lake Dr or Lake St or whatever its called - I'm sleepy). They bolt from behind Lederman's, heading to that location. They know the way, they've been going that way a lot recently, therefore the Carpenter's sightings and knowledge of these girls. But today, they enter a garage and never exit. Bikes quickly get tossed into a van/truck, which then backs down Melody Lane into the woods - somewhere its been many times to go fishing so nobody suspects anything if its spotted. The bikes get tossed over the fence, unnoticed, the purse falls off the handlebars and onto the ground on the wrong side. The bikes are no longer at his house, and anyone looking will suspect they went in the lake, or were at the lake.
This scenario also works if the perp lives/caught up with them much closer to home. Bikes go in vehicle, vehicle backs into woods, bikes get tossed over fence, appearing to have been used on that portion of the trail.
Just a thought, just a conjecture.
And maybe TG's sighting is being avoided in hopes a perp will relax too much and slip up.
I will say it is disheartening that at first, gramma said they went riding at 11:30, then she saw them at 12:15, but by 12:30 she was worried enough to drive around for an hour. You can cover a helluva lot of Evansdale in an hour, fwiw.
Also, if I pulled in to the Meyer's Lake parking area, looking for my daughter on a bike, I wouldn't feel the need to completely walk the lake. Most of the trail is visible, and where it isn't I would just feel they'd have to pop out the other side in a minute or two. I'd likely scan the trail from there, wait a few minutes (and ask around), then scan again, then head over to where the trail heads north back towards home.
Also, riding down River Forest is not unheard of...it is rather busy, though. There are sidewalks, etc, however. Doesn't seem like the most likely route, but then, what about this whole situation seemed likely? Maybe River Forest is where something happened.
It's still frustrating that nobody's come to my house, in the way of LE. Maybe they did while we were away, but we had a live-in housewatcher who we assume would have let us know. I've not heard from any neighbors who've had their door knocked on, either, and there are 7 children on my street, each with fairly observant parents. I saw the police in our neighbor's (across the street from us, with property backing up to the lake) back yard, while we were at the lake on 7/14. We went home just in case they stopped by, but they never did.
lease:
