Kline, sorry for spamming up this thread.
![Big Grin :D :D](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
I promise to hush a bit after this.
But after reading over those articles, my head is full of scenarios. My thoughts on possibilities at this point are as follows:
- The killer was prepared.
He had a "razor-sharp" weapon with him. It's too much, imo, to believe that Lonnie's murder was not premeditated and the killer just happened to be carrying a razor-sharp knife with him. Lonnie's killer was looking for a victim, and found one.
- The road would have been lonely that time of night.
Since the killer appears to have been on the prowl for a victim, could he not have picked a more certain time and place to find one? Unless there were a LOT of kids hitch-hiking that road that late at night on a regular basis -- which there might have been, while the fair was town -- the odds of a killer on the hunt meeting up with Lonnie by chance seem quite remote.
- The killer could have been another hitch hiker.
Sure, he could have had a car. But he could have also been a hitch hiker. One of the articles quotes police as saying they believe Lonnie was killed not far at all (a matter of feet) from where he was found -- in the opposite direction from where he would want to be going, if I've got it right. The short distance from the bridge to the place where he was killed is walking distance - he could have been persuaded to accompany somebody, with the promise of a ride home once they got to Orofino, or something.
- The killer could have driven Lonnie in the direction of Orofino.
And simply ignored any objection from Lonnie that they were 'going the wrong way'. Or grew worried about Lonnie's objections and pulled over to 'deal with it'.
I'm wondering if the ground on the roadsides there would have been soft enough to show tyre tracks? I can see a trucker pulling over and leaving his truck in plain sight - but a killer in a car would probably not want his vehicle seen.
Unless the killer was the trucker who found Lonnie. He claims he found the body by sheer chance as he pulled over to take care of some 'stomach cramps' -- which I guess explains why he couldn't wait for home, or a truck stop bathroom or something. So, with all the wide back-woods of Idaho to take an emergency poop in, this trucker pulls over (in something of a hurry, I'd assume) and walks directly to THAT particular clump of bushes where Lonnie's body is. That's some pretty steep odds, there.
I wonder where and when he took care of those emergency-stop-inducing 'stomach cramps' after finding Lonnie's body and then looking around town for cop, making the report, etc. Maybe the shock cured 'em.
Or maybe it was his skilled-with-a-boning-knife step-dad, scared Lonnie was going to cramp his style. The recently married couple moved to Weippe that same year that Lonnie died. Lonnie's mother had left her son to be raised by his grandparents, for whatever reason. Maybe Lonnie was making a fuss about wanting to live with his mother.
Anyhow. That's the contents of my head after reading. I'll shush now (but oops, cross-posted with scriptgirl! I dunno, SG. A man divorces his wife and moves town with his brand new missus (and a brother I can't find records on in tow), and finds his wife's unwanted kid demanding attention that neither wants to give him. Sadly, it is a possibility - until it isn't. There's a couple cans of worms there I can't ignore just yet).
It occurs to me that Marner's son and Lonnie were roughly the same age in 1951.