Certainly some great points made here in response to the possibility of the car being burned out.
The reason why I was thinking this is because I’ve seen it in a lot of other cases, specifically on a lot of ID shows, but thinking about this more, that’s often in locations out in the desert, California, Arizona, New Mexico. However, I have seen this in remote locations out in the woods, at scenes where there is a lot of dumped debris, like old couches and stuff, party locations, etc., in non-desert states. I’ve also seen cars pushed down embankments, cliffs, etc.
If the intent is simply to burn the evidence, destroy blood, DNA, etc., one could burn it up on a highway, say the car was stolen, etc. Of course that would insert them into the investigation, just talking out loud.
There is also the possibility the car really was stolen, which LE would likely be checking into all reported cars matching description that description being reported as stolen.
Good point also about if the car is destroyed, one might look suspicious when their vehicle suddenly disappears or can not be accounted for. If it’s a lone perp, he wouldn’t have to answer to anyone, or he could tell whoever the car was stolen. If he’s driving a different car, he could also say he sold his other one, or traded it in, or whatever, if someone asks. If he’s out of state, and others are not familiar with the details of this case and the car being looked for, it wouldn’t raise suspicion.
Which brings up another point: I’ve seen some say it’s unlikely there are people who don’t know about this case. Perhaps this is more true in the state of Idaho, but as aware as we are of these cases, not everyone watches the news, YouTube videos, etc. I could probably mention this to someone out of state, and there would be the chance they may not know anything other than “Yeah, I heard something about that, college kids killed..”, and that could be the extent of their knowledge. Or perhaps they may not know anything at all. I know it seems hard to believe when some of us are so plugged into the news and true crime, but honestly not everyone else is, as hard as that is to believe. Again, in Idaho, probably not so much, but I don’t think it can be taken for granted that every single person in the US is aware of a white Elantra being sought.