This case reminds me of the Heather Elvis case in a lot of ways. I didn’t know Heather personally but I’m from the same area and know many people who did. Her case is what first led me to WS back in 2013.
However... unlike this case, there were several details that became known fairly quickly. One of the more important details became known after her father obtained information from his mobile service provider (HE was on a shared plan with her family) and confronted the person who was the last known person to communicate with Heather. He was a married man whom she'd met thru work, had previously been intimate with over the span of four to five months, and had a lunatic of a wife. After her dad confronted the man about Heather's whereabouts, his wife began to post derogatory things about Heather all over Facebook and went into great detail about her husband's past transgressions to the public at large. A large part of what we (we being those of us who were following along on WS) knew about the case in the earlier states came directly from this man's mouth. At times, her social media postings were brazen and taunting. At other times, her postings epitomized braggadocio.
Anyway... you might be wondering how the two are similar because there isn't anything that suggests DS was involved in an extramarital affair. Regardless, there are still a few similarities:
- Both drove cars that were later discovered at a location different from where they were last physically seen (Danielle's car was located in the parking lot of her apartment complex and she was last seen at work; Heather's car was found parked at a boat landing and she was last seen at her apartment)
- Both cars were found locked, both girls left behind a majority of their personal belongings in the car, and the girl's keys and cell phone are missing in both cases
- Both girls lived in an apartment complex that lacked outdoor video surveillance
- Neither girl has been found (although LE has said they believe HE is deceased)
In HE’s case, it’s clear (at least to me) who is responsible for her disappearance.
- there’s camera footage that shows the married man calling her from a gas station pay phone the night she disappeared
- she called her roommate (who was out of town at the time) crying and said the married man had just called her saying he’d left his wife and wanted to be with her
- text messages show his wife had been harrassing and threatening Heather for a t least a month before her disappearance
- she tried calling the pay phone back several times about an hour after he called but there was no answer
- she eventually called the man’s cell phone and a six minute conversation took place
- shortly thereafter, her phone is tracked traveling to the boat landing where her car was ultimately found
- after arriving at the boat landing, 4 or 5 frantic calls were made to his cell phone before her phone died or the battery was removed at 3:41 am
- camera footage from a nearby residence shows a truck driving into the boat landing, from the direction of the married man’s house a few miles away, several minutes before her phone was disabled
- the truck seen on the video footage is the exact same make, model, and color as a truck owned by the married man
- camera footage from the same residence shows the truck leaving the boat landing, and heading in the direction of the married man’s house, several moments after her phone was deactivated
Despite this pile of probable cause, search warrants were not issued until more than three months after her disappearance. The husband and wife were both arrested when the warrants were served and initially charged with murder and kidnapping. The murder charges have since been dropped. The couple is being tried separately, and the husband’s first trial took place back in August or September. It ended with a hung jury. A retrial has been moved to another venue and is scheduled to begin in March, IIRC.
I said all of that to say this:
It's extremely difficult to charge and convict someone of murder without a body. It’s not impossible. But, it's an uphill battle with too many unknown variables. I'm not familiar with the kidnapping statutes in MI, but the kidnapping statute in SC is a big reason the kidnapping charges have stuck in this case. SC law states, “whoever shall unlawfully seize, confine, inveigle, decoy, kidnap, abduct, or carry away another person by any means whatsoever without authority of law…”
The use of inveigle and decoy are beneficial in Heather's case because it can be proven that she was lured out of her home to the boat landing under false pretenses (by the payphone call, telling her he’d left his wife and wanted to see her, etc.). He claims that neither he, nor his wife, left the house all evening and stayed up playing board games with their kids. Unfortunately for them, video surveillance and Heather's phone records say otherwise.
My point was to say that it’s very possible that LE may have a lot of similar evidence too. They just know what they’re up against. They know how important it is to find her. They might have just as much (or more), as far as video surveillance and phone activity goes, but they haven’t released the info yet in order to preserve the case. A lot of the video and phone evidence in Heather's case was not known to the public until after the arrests were made.
So keep the faith that headway is being made.
