Given that DR did not tell the cops of the car activity in the driveway until the next day, it seems to me the cops would have no reason to lean towards either an on-foot or vehicle abduction that night, right?
777
sorry to have snipped most of your post.....a good post btw but I will try to get to the point....
As for the voice of DR....I had mentioned years ago could he have hidden his distinctive lisp? On the other hand he does sound as if he has a cold...and his voice can be low at times if you listen to the interviews(with headphones).
Shoeprints....I agree with Sasquatch.....very difficult with the available info to judge or decipher.
As to your last sentence....IMO, it would be difficult at the time immediately after the abduction to determine abduction by vehicle or by foot. I presume the idea would be to search the area as quickly as possible for Jacob and so I lean towards the abduction by vehicle intuitively at first, as the farmstead is not visible from the abduction site, and it seems logical a perp would exit the scene by vehicle asap. Having said that, despite the volumes of posts on WS, Joy's blog + comments.....for me it still boils down to the cars. If by vehicle the perp saw the boys somewhere between their house + the TT then he had knowledge of or assumed they would be returning the same way. So if the perp decided to use the Rassier driveway to park his vehicle then he had 3 choices if proceeding south on 91st:
1. Simply back into the driveway far enough out of view, stop the vehicle(vehicle facing west), and wait. Stop the boys, send the 2 boys west into the trees, abduct Jacob, wait, then escape by vehicle.
2. Turn into the driveway, stop the vehicle far enough from 91st so as to conceal the vehicle(vehicle facing east). After the abduction, either make a 'Y' turn in the driveway or proceed east and circle around the actual farmstead and venture back west to 91st to make an exit.
3. Turn into the driveway, proceed east down the hill, circle around the farmstead, then proceed west and park the car on the driveway just far enough off 91st so as to not be seen by the boys. Exit the vehicle, wait for the boys, make the abduction, wait for the other 2 boys to run far enough away, then start the vehicle and escape.
If it's #1 then there's yet another vehicle(the small dark one with headlights close together, which DR said he saw). It can't be Kevin + girlfriend's because they were in a Grand Prix. So if DR's story his true....we've got 3 cars on DR's driveway in a small time frame.
If it's #2 then there is a vehicle other than Kevin + gf's as the vehicle is totally different by DR's description. So if this vehicle witnessed by DR is true....why did he not tell Officer Bechtold about this vehicle that night? And fail to tell officers at the scene in the morning as he was leaving for work? He has stated there was a crazy afternoon driver that Sunday afternoon which was highly unusual and he was worried that the nighttime driver could be the same....yet no mention of such.
If its #3 then the abductor had an accomplice in the car and drove through the farmstead prior to the abduction and DR witnessed this vehicle.....yet no mention of such until the day after when questioned by LE.