I know there are still a lot of people posting online who believe this killer abducted the girls in a vehicle & took them elsewhere but I just want to explain a few of the reasons why I feel it's very, very unlikely.
Firstly *IF* this case involved vehicular abduction I don't think he would choose to take the enormous risk of returning the girls to the place they were abducted, in the middle of the very area that was being searched rather than go to any other deserted &/or secluded place in Delphi or the surrounding area (& there are MANY).
Concerned locals were posting on news articles that first night & organising their own searches after the official one was called off. So anyone driving around that night or behaving unusually in Delphi, around the High Bridge in particular, was very much at risk of being noticed.
I also think it's important to note that if the killer did take the huge, completely unnecessary (& possibly unprecedented) risk of returning his victims to their abduction site, he wasn't just facing the massive difficulty of manouvring a huge weight quite some distance down steep, slippery inclines & over difficult terrain
TWICE, he would've had to do it all
in the dark - running the risk of being injured & unable to leave the scene or even leaving behind DNA evidence from an injury, or identifiable footprints, dropped items, clothing fibres caught on trees or fences etc etc.
Not only would he be doubling his risk of leaving evidence of his identity in an area police were already likely to search, darkness also reduced his ability to clean up after himself. Even if he used a headlamp so that his hands were free he was taking a huge risk. There was footage that night of some of the searchers & it was pitch black out there, visibility was poor even with more than one person using torches. On top of all that, the house on the opposite side of the creek overlooks the crime scene - if he's local or scouted the area he would know this & know that using a light source could draw attention to his activities even if the area was clear of searchers.
Aside from all of the above, there are also LE's statements on Amber Alerts in relation to this case, which appear to support the recent media quote re the girls being diverted from the trails straight to the area they were found.
"Even if we would've put an Amber Alert out, it would not have done this case any good," Riley said. "In the short period of time, and the location that the bodies were found it would not have helped us in finding any leads at all."
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/...iley-amber-alert-would-not-have-done-any-good
Personally I believe they were missed the first night because no-one had any idea where they should be looking. They didn't know if they were injured on the trails, lost track of time at a friend's place, or were abducted & speeding towards the state border. There was no reason whatsoever to focus a gridsearch on RL's property the first night so IF his place was searched at all it would've been a quick & cursory calling of the girl's names - because at that point they thought they were searching for 2 kids who at worst, might've suffered nothing more than a sprained ankle & bad ph service. RL's place is FORTY ACRES, much of it covered in gullies, steep inclines & wooded areas - I'm not sure people realise what an absolutely massive and difficult area it would be to cover on foot. It would've taken quite some time & manpower to search it inch by inch in the dark - & even then they could've missed them, depending on whether there were any efforts to conceal.
Short version : there's nothing strange or surprising in the fact that they weren't located the first night & it
definitely isn't an indication that they weren't there all along since monday afternoon.
HOWEVER *IF* it emerges RL's property was searched the first night ... I wouldn't discount the possibility of the killer insinuating himself into the search & lying to others that the crime scene area was clear to delay the discovery of the murders.
(also, please excuse my TL/DR posts - I have a serious tendency to talk too much if I post late at night & this thread doesn't open until after 10.30pm if you're in east coast Australia - after midnight if you're in the west :blush: )
