I keep going back to two passages from the Rebecca Morris book, passages I think have implications that the writer didn't see. First this:
Immediately, it shows that the FBI weren't necessarily on board with the Terri-did-it POV. But more importantly, the bolded part goes to the core of the early finger-pointing towards Terri. On June 10th, almost a week after the abduction, the search took an
unexplained leap to Sauvie Island, after having stayed in the vicinity of the school:
A week later, the blog
Willamette Week revealed the reason why:
In the following weeks other media began to repeat
this info:
Here's a
screenshot of a mail showed by
KPTV, from a friend of Terri's:
Now go back and read the passage from the Morris book. Basically what happened was this:
* The MCSO, struggling with properly interpreting cell phone data, think Terri's phone ping means she was on Sauvie Island a few days into the investigation.
* When questioned, Terri denies being on Sauvie Island. She was driving on Hwy 30, across from the island, but didn't cross the bridge.
* The police, already suspicious (perhaps due to step-mother syndrome or Desiree's accusations), have now caught her in a lie (they think). They start searching Sauvie Island and soon the info is leaked to the public.
* Later they get professional assistance that show they were wrong - the cell tower (which isn't even on the island) services the entire area, including Hwy 30 - meaning there was no contradiction between cell phone data and Terri's account.
* However, at this point, the investigators have sunk a lot of cost in the Terri option. They've got the gardnener, the truck sightings based on posters with Terri in them - so this one slips away...
It's very similar to the Meredith Kercher case like that. Early suspicion based on poor hunches and misinterpretations, after which LE are pressured into getting more evidence (which in the Kercher case included dodgy DNA testing) to support their original theory, which keeps it alive even after the original hunches/misinterpretations get cleared up.