I only follow a few select Websleuther cases that draw me in, so that I am able to read all the threads and posts for a given case.
Even though I agree that all the theories have been covered by now, most likely, people here are still unearthing new details which (in my opinion) raise or lower the likelihood of each scenario. So I do appreciate the thoughtfulness. And I do believe that in some cases, law enforcement even follow along with our discussions just in case an idea surfaces through this sort of crowd sourced discussion that they had not previously considered.
So even if all the theories have been covered, I encourage people to keep thinking and offering suggestions, if for no other reason than to stand with Mollie. To say we care. That it isn’t acceptable when things like this occur in society. And to show there are many good people who are still intent on preserving goodwill and helping others.
I will say that in the cases I have followed on Websleuths in the past, dozens if not hundreds of theories and sub-theories are usually thrown out—some of which are astronomically unlikely to be true.
But in almost all cases I have followed, the explanation ends up being far simpler than the things our imaginations can come up with...perhaps in part because we want Mollie to be alive somehow.
In this case, my experience tells me to look for the simplest explanation:
1. My first pick is friend/acquaintance abduction, that may not have started out as an abduction. In which case I think it’s statistically most likely Mollie is dead (although I’d love to find out she is 1 of the exceptions and has been kept alive).
2. My second pick, nearly running neck to neck with the first, is an unintentional/accidental death or medical emergency that resulted in the body being temporarily concealed (cornfield).
As for number one, I haven’t personally seen much indication that Mollie would leave on her own, initially, but bc of certain comments from fam or LE, I leave room for the fact there may be other unknown details that support that possibility. If she left willingly (at first), I think she was heavily influenced by another party who is fairly close/known to her and didn’t intend for it to go this far. I think it’s FARRR more likely she was taken against her will, but I leave this open only bc family and LE seem to sometimes imply she could be being held and bc we don’t yet have evidence of struggle or foul play.
I don’t think it’s sex trafficking, organized crime, serial killers, a revenge abduction, killing by an ex or jealous woman, an electric customer, etc.
Doesn’t mean 1 of those exceptions couldn’t play out as true in the end, but in my experience, simple reigns.
In the Tad Cummins (teacher who abducted student)case, for ex., the simple version Websleuthers came up with ended up being pretty close to reality. Bc there was evidence he had groomed her and she had left willingly, we expected he would travel to a distant remote area and possibly try to cross the border (he was found in a distant remote place and it was revealed he had considered trying to cross the border but didn’t go through with it). The thing I got wrong though is I gave he perp more credit for planning than I should have. I really thought he would have gone to greater lengths to disguise themselves, to perhaps secure fake IDs and so on, given his education level. In the end though, their departure was more the story of a frantic couple on the run who were making decisions by the seat of their pants.
So my goal going forward is to think toward what is most simple and most likely given the circumstances and not to let movies and law shows influence me to think the average perp is a calculated mastermind. Many times they are people who struggle with mental illness who act impulsively and do only a fair job covering it up. We will see here.
