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If the photos loaded right; they're what I'm calling; crime scene 1, crime scene bikes, JW map, L-R
It looks like I loaded the first photo twice, but, I'm not gonna try to fix it.
Your post made me think of a couple of things; part of which I had already been a little curious about, and then some that came to mind with your post, and a couple that came to mind as I was looking this over.
One thing, with your sentence: "He probably drove right up to them, which means he would have driven straight out of DR's driveway,"
With that sentence; I'm not certain if this is what you're saying, but, after reading your post, I had wondered, (considering the comment about discussing about putting the bikes in the trunk, etc...), whether or not Kevin in fact drove straight across the road to that little drive like spot directly across and next to the bikes.
With your point about how the car would have to be pretty much facing straight at the bikes for them to have seen them; something that I've just wondered about; kind of a curiosity, but, just something to think about, especially considering your comment.
This one six part picture is a lot of help here:
This is really better to visualize if you make the picture somewhat (somewhat considerably) larger. I don't know if you can do that or not with the way the picture will post here, but, if you copy & save the pic to your PC you should be able to do that. Or, if that doesn't work, you can Google JW crime scene photos and find it there.
Starting with the picture in the bottom right; if you're sitting in DR's driveway looking across, there really is a somewhat significant ditch, where they laid the bikes down.
Then go to the picture in the top right; looks like maybe a 10 speed, with the seat and handlebars, pretty much down in the ditch, and the wheels somewhat flush with the grass; so, it kind of seems like it wouldn't really have been that visible.
Then the pic on the middle right; I'm thinking that looks like it may be the scooter, and the wheels are pretty much down in the ditch, and the handlebars stick up somewhat, but, not too much; also, looks like they're not chrome, so, it could be that they wouldn't have been that visible.
Then the picture on the middle left, where the crime scene tape is in front of the bike; I'm pretty confident that this bike is like what we used to call Sting Rays; a smaller bike with high handle bars, and it seems like they had like a long, banana like seat. It looks like the wheels are pretty much down in the ditch, and the seat is pretty much flush with the grass, and the handle bars stick up just somewhat, but really just one side of them. Just checked, on "The Hunt" is shows a fairly clear picture of that bike, and it does look as I described it; also, handle bars, look like at least partially painted blue, but, not much chrome, and from the view on the show, looks like not that much of the bike was sticking up; whereas, in the pictures, it kind of looks like this bike is the one with the most sticking up.
Then, to the picture in the bottom left. This one you really have to blow up quite big to get a decent view of it; if you look at the crime scene tape, just about the middle of it, to the right, you can see a bike wheel, and it looks like a few feet over to the right, you can just barely make out that there's something there that is likely part of a bike. This one is pretty hard to see. But, anyway, it appears that this picture was taken when the bikes were still there in the grass where they had been left, and it's really pretty hard to see them, in the broad daylight. I just watched "The Hunt" (on DVR) 13 mins into the show, they show footage of the scene, pause it to get a good look; it shows the bikes in the ditch right next to the little drive, basically the same view as the picture in the bottom left, only moving, from further back, to forward, and those bikes are hard to see.
I don't know, it's just a curiosity to me, but, as you pointed out, that the car would pretty much have to have been pointed right at the bikes; and considering the darkness, it almost seems like the bikes could have been almost somewhat difficult to see; like not really something that would jump out at you, like you'd really kind of have to focus on them.
Another thing that hit me when I was thinking about this. Kevin, his GF and her brother and his wife, went out to see what the action was that they heard on the scanner and saw the emergency vehicles; so, they tried to follow the cop cars w/lights. Appears they lost track of the cop cars, and Kevin decided that since the rest of the road was a dead end, that they were in the wrong place; so, they decided to turn around and go back to T Thumb's (still chasing the action, not ready to go home yet) because, they had heard something about Tom Thumb's on the Scanner. Well, they had also heard something about the kids and bikes, on the scanner.
Here's quote from 'Kevin's Story' from Joy's Blog: "They hadn’t been listening closely, but thought they had heard something about kids, some bikes, Tom Thumb, and possibly a mask."
Well, it just makes me wonder, under those circumstances, wouldn't Kevin have figured that he had found something that was a part of the action that he was looking for, and maybe, wait a little while, to see whether any cops showed up or not.
Actually, if you stop and think about it, if you look at the crime scene area as illustrated by the other little map; Kevin, had driven that far down the road, looking for the cop cars, and gets to DR's driveway
Quote from 'Kevin's Story' on Joy's Blog:
"Kevin, on the other hand, decides to turn left (south) and see if there are any flashing lights down that direction. He gets as far as Rassiers’ driveway and knows it’s a dead end after that, so he decides to pull in and turn around."
Frankly, if he knew at that point that it was a dead end after that, then he also knew that going up to that point, and, he had already gone that far; well, why wouldn't he have just gone down a little further to see what might be down the road; it would be like 3 mins by car, and he would have seen the flashing lights. I've even wondered, whether with 3 cop cars with lights down at the Wetterling's, whether he couldn't have almost seen them from DR's driveway, but, I guess not.