We don't know that she didn't turn her phone off at that point. She might have sent the text and turned it off and the GPS.
Then, when she gets to the location where she will dump her car, she would leave her phone. I think it's plausible that she thought her car would be found via the phone and possibly her pink slip in the glove box or something that lets people know she's ok. I have the belief that if I left my phone on and people thought I was missing, they'd likely be able to track my GPS to the phone. However, I don't even think they knew she was missing till late in the day, and I doubt they immediately went into lets track her phone gps mode.
The wikihow talks about leaving your car and pink slip in the glove box in a bad area. The point is that she might have wanted the car to be eventually found, but only after she's put distance between herself and her last trackable location. The GPS would no longer be sending data, because the car would be stopped.
Which is why I speculate -- how might this case have been different if they had been able to track the phone that first day and found the car? Whatever is in the car, might create a whole different perception of this case.
Thats why I mentioned that not searching starting at the location she was last seen first, or a logical location where she might have went next with a disappearance motive... might have been something that resulted in the car not being found before the phone battery went dead
But I agree with you in terms of probability. I think after seeing how the case has progressed, I am very concerned about her safety now. so... playing devils advocate to a point on this
I actually see your point, was just theorizing a logic.
