First post and just my opinion with a couple things to think about. IMO this was a SK or at least a random professional opportunity kill. Random. He could have been familiar with the area, but I am 99.99% positive that BG is not anywhere near local. He would have been found immediately. He was unknowingly recorded in video and audio and even if the photos are grainy there is a lot of information. His physical appearance & size, his clothes, his posture, his gait, his voice, etc. The FBI have unbelievable technological resources. Probably tech that isn't even available to the public. I believe investigators ruled out the likelihood of him being local within a few days. If they suspected he was local would the FBI have launched 6000 digital billboards in 46 states 10 days after the killings? I wonder if they have ever taken such broad action when the suspect ended up being local? Maybe it's protocol for all murders or abductions with certain criteria. Perhaps this could be figured out with some appropriate research. Unless it was a massive diversionary tactic to make a potential local suspect feel more at ease or had no credible leads at the time then I think they realized they guy was probably long gone before the bodies were even found.
I really want to to know the answer to one question. Was the area where the bodies were found searched on 2/13 or very early 2/14? I realize we probably don't have this info, but it seems improbable to me that they didn't find the bodies initially. Where the bodies were found from where the BG photo was taken was not far at all. It seems like less than 1000 feet. At the end of this bridge is the short but steep embankment on the left that leads to the private road where 'down the hill' was very likely recorded. Once down here the bridge is up to the left and the creek is straight ahead. Once you get up to the creek you can literally see the area where they were found across the way although it is upstream maybe a couple hundred feet. The searchers knew where they were initially headed via at least one snapchat image. If I were a searcher, one the first plausible scenarios would have been an accident and possible fall off the bridge. I think searchers were probably at the SW end where the abduction took place immediately. Once you're here you're very close to the bodies and if they were there all along, but weren't across the stream, they would have been found immediately. You would think there would be evidence of a struggle or maybe a foot print in the mud once they were here. I don't know, it just seems unlikely that they weren't found if there all along. I realize they may have been hidden or camouflaged and the perp could have covered his tracks. Still, if we knew for sure that area was searched and they were not there then that opens up a huge can of worms.
This is the first crude drawing I made, on my cell phone, of the possible path taken. From the opposite, NW end of the bridge, to the crime scene (around bends in the creek) is about a 1400 foot or so walk. The distance from the SE end (the red line I drew on the Google satellite map) is only 600 feet, give or take. The CS cannot be easily seen from the bridge, in fact the topography might help to obscure it some, although according to a MSM video from early on the bridge can be seen from the edge of the creek, below where the girls were found. It appears to me a
section of the bridge could have been easily seen from the general area of the CS that day.
Far as the search, early on virtually
nobody believed they were in danger, according to MSM reports and searchers. So after darkness fell, nobody thought, or very few people may have thought, they were in danger. So there was no urgency.
From the area of the bridge that crosses the creek, they could not have been seen, according to maps shared here since the beginning, MSM videos, etc. MOO is the searchers were looking around the area of the bridge, initially. By the time they got to RL's place darkness had fallen.
I don't think the girls would have been seen, early on, considering where they were found. There was no urgency, and there was no way to determine which direction they went in. I highly doubt any searchers thought early on they came off the SE end, down the hill, across the road and somewhat wooded area, and across the creek. From the SE end, despite the close proximity to where they were found, the scene is obscured, and the hill/embankment between the CS and the cemetery would have provided more concealment, it messes with the line-of-sight. In low light the searchers may have been able to see something from an area 100 feet or so off and below the bridge, with binoculars, but that might even be a stretch.
The SnapChat image of Abby was shared on SM quite a few hours after last contact was made with them, so during that time there was no frame of reference as to where they went or were heading towards, at any time they were out there. Did the searchers know there was a picture of Abby from 2:07 PM on the bridge? We don't know.