In the Iowa case of Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook, I can understand why they were transported somewhere else. The location of the abduction, Meyers Lake, is a park in town located close to the interstate. From videos I have seen of the location, the park gets quite a few people that use it during the summer. I am going on what I have seen in news reports, but it looks like your typical large public park with houses that surround it. The lake sits inside the park. It is not the "woods" type atmosphere of the Monon High Bridge trail in Delphi, IN. To try and commit the crime in the same location at Meyers Park, especially a sexually motivated crime, would probably be a little bit difficult. In my opinion, in that case, it is more amazing that they were able to be abducted without any witnesses.
In the Delphi case, the location of the abduction and crime scene are relatively isolated from anyone. There is no need to move the victims because the place itself provides enough isolation to commit the crime.
And with public places you always have to remember that anyone can access them. So looking at a location and how it relates to a given crime is important, but I think what is most important is looking at the big picture, the entire locational movement. I think that gives a better perspective about the locational choices made within a particular case.
This is also a good time to remember that the FBI categorizes serials such that the
signature of the killer is what emotionally drives them and compels them to kill, and this will never change; the
MO is merely the details surrounding how the crime was committed logistically, and this
CAN change. Identifying which elements are signature and which elements are MO is part of the investigation. But the scene of the crime will usually confirm which is which.
A good example is Richard Ramirez was driven to attack and kill all kinds of different people, little children on up to elderly people. He raped, he murdered, and he used all kinds of weapons, and was active in two different cities. His signature had nothing to do with a specific weapon or a specific victim type. That meant his MO was all over the place and it's merely lucky his shoe prints helped link all his crimes, along with a friend finally giving a name that could be linked to a fingerprint because he was already in the system for petty crime.
If the killer behind the LG/AW case has a signature associated with choosing young girls—and I'll add, Lyric Cook (Evansdale case) and LG look very similar, and AW and Elizabeth Collins (Evansdale case) look rather similar—plus whatever other details that LE have kept quiet about the crime, then that will drive the killer's actions. But the logistical details—like where the crime is committed or how they are disposed of—may not be consequential and therefore can change.
So if we were to hypothesize that LG/AW are connected to LC/EC by the same killer, then we could hypothesize that the killer's signature is pairs of young girls as victims, especially friends/relatives, and that they must look a certain way. Given the difference between LG/AW crime scene and LC/EC scene, we can hypothesize that the killer picks out girls when they're alone and prefers seclusion to commit his crimes. But with LG/AW and the number of pedestrians that day, he's not beyond taking risks to commit his crime given that day hikers were around the area. In the LC/EC case, they were taken to a secluded location. If it's the same person, the LG/AW case means there could have been an element of desperation. Especially if he's a killer whose signature absolutely requires two girls who look a certain way/are a certain age—that's hard to pick out. Unless you devote a lot of time toward watching.
The choice of an isolated hiking trail to find two girls who match his type suggests, IMO, that he had already picked them out, maybe he scouted their home, or somehow knew they were going there that day. I would not expect a killer with a signature that requires a specific pair of girls to sit around on rural hiking trails hoping they'll just happen by. So it makes me think the killer, if he's connected to LC/EC, is local to Delphi to know about the trail and to know school was out that day, and he travels farther away to commit crimes elsewhere. The fact that both cases were attacks during the day suggests quite a bit about this person's life schedule. They either work nights or have a job where they sometimes have daytime off. I still think school teacher, principal, counselor, or athletic coach is high on the list; I think they spend time around young people regularly. But these are my personal suspicions. Could be totally wrong. But the main thing we know is this person fits into his community without anyone the wiser. This is another BTK in that regard.
