While it's clear there was a pedophile ring operating in this area, I just wanted to point out something regarding their modus operandi and how it seems different to what happened to Junior. (Please don't see this as a defence of their actions, it is not, but I felt it important to mention).
So these men seemed to operate by luring boys into an environment they viewed as safe by promises of computer games, money, gifts etc and then engaging in sexual acts which they would film presumably to sell online. I can find no evidence that any of them were involved in forcibly taking boys against their will or murder. Their whole operation seemed to be based on gaining the trust of these boys so they would keep returning and thus more footage for them to sell online.
I'm not at all convinced that forcibly kidnapping and possibly murdering a child would have fitted into their "business model" so to speak.
Before I continue I want to say that the majority of child kidnaps (especially those with a sexual motive) are unplanned spur of the moment things. It's not easy to know a child's whereabouts at any time (they don't follow routines like us oldies) or to know when they will be alone. Its usually someone who sees an unattended child and makes their move in the spur of the moment.
With this in mind, it seems to me that no one knew Junior would be where he was. He was supposed to have been gardening at a friend/neighbour's home and then for some reason he was spotted in the evening riding around the area. It seems no one knew what his specific location would be that evening.
Now location. Having looked at a modern map of the area where he lived and where his spare wheel rim were located by the tennis courts it strikes me that the whole area is very residential. Not big open spaces, parks or fields but just houses and gardens. It doesn't seem like an area where a potential kidnapper woukd just hang around looking for kids to take.
All this makes me think that this was a spur of the moment kidnapping. Someone happened to be at that place at that time while Junior was alone and took their opportunity. I believe that this was either someone who lived in a house nearby to where the tennis courts were located. Or someone with a vehicle large enough to yaks both Junior and his bicycle.
I favour someone with a large vehicle for one reason. After taking Junior and then throwing the bicycle in after, this person was in a rush to get out of there and left the spare wheel rim. A homeowner could probably have gone and collected this.
Since there was clearly a pedophile ring operating locally its quite probable that there were more people involved than the 3 we know about. Potentially someone who's name was never connected who had more violent tendencies.
It could also have been a strange coincidence.
Or is it possible that Junior had threatened to tell someone what was happening and had to be gotten rid of? (If this is the case the reverse happened as his disappearance ended up outing the pedophiles).
I have wondered whether LE's decision not to press Kowalski etc further in this disappearance was because they recognised there was a discrepancy in M.O. even though he is clearly a POI.
I have attached a map of the area below. The yellow line indicates the street where Junior lived and the red pin is where I believe the tennis courts were his spare rim were located:
www.landsat.com
