Yes, the Emerson quote is a favorite. And I think your point about the picture and the voice being potentially confusing is well-taken, and I agree that there is little audio that doesn't include the voices of the girls, which means there is audio of the crime. This is chilling.
Do you hear two audios after the background was removed? I heard "get" in the one I listened to on the official site after the presser (much clearer than the one at the presser that was so garbled), and then another on the official site later today. Did they alter it again?
I've thought a lot about this case based on what we know, what's not being said and how tight this investigation and release of info is, and now that my belief that the video stills of the suspect came from Libby's phone is confirmed, how much the video/audio tells the story.
I don't think this was a social media facilitated encounter. I think Libby was too smart to be baited on social media, her grandfather said he had talked to her about safety, he seemed to know how to check her social media/who she may have been in contact with when they were concerned about her, so he's no dummy about this sort of thing, and she obviously knew what to do, even under stress, because she got the suspect on camera and audio, apparently, as something was starting to happen. I may be wrong, but I don't think social media is center stage here.
I believe there is only one perp, that he is a skilled hunter, that he is very familiar with that geography, and had scoped out and planned how to do this sort of crime in that environment. I think it was not an accident that he was there on a school holiday where potential victims would be present. And I think he caught sight of the girls and not only were they alone, they were perhaps observed to be not paying attention to their surrounding, caught up in their activities, perhaps not always close to one another, and moving farther away from other people and toward more isolated terrain.
I really think this is too bold a crime, with two victims to manage, and where a phone is involved (I would think that he saw Libby snapping pics or texting because I think he was stalking them) for it to simply be random chance, or a spontaneous attempt by an inexperienced predator who saw these girls and decided to grab them. (However, maybe he didn't realize she had a phone because I would think he would have searched for that right away.)
I don't think he's just a drifter, but perhaps he comes and goes and knows that area from having lived there, or he is simply a resident hiding in plain sight. In either case, I think he is attracted to that location because it offers victims and terrain that makes his preferred crime relatively easy. I say this because of the ease he seems to have had in moving the girls to his preferred location, completing this crime on someone's private property, and in what seems to be pretty short order.
As far as his clothing and what appears to be layers, he could have been packing rope, zip ties, some sort of incapacitating device or chemical, a weapon such as a knife or a gun, and any number of things he uses in his crime. I do think he was dressed both not out of the norm, and in a way that disguised his features and any items he would use in his crime.
I also think he's not the brightest bulb at the end of the day, because if a 14 year old victim can see you coming and posing a threat and keep it together enough to get you on video and audio, you have not done your homework well enough to ensure not getting caught. I think these types of individuals can be smart as far as their predator instincts lending them to cunning behaviors and strategies, but they are so lacking in complex emotions and genuine inspiration or expanded ideas, they always have a blind spot. They have a dullness to them. As a friend of mine said, "Evil is creative, but unintelligent".
FWIW. I could be entirely wrong about all of this.
