The circumstances don't fit. They left Hawaii on a Trimaran sailing for Washington State. How did they get from there to South Carolina?
I agree that the circumstances dont seem to fit, especially at first glance, but I think there are some interesting similarities.
If you look at it from the McMinns perspective, it does not seem to fit, however if you look at it from the Sumter couples perspective, the gap from South Carolina to Washington State becomes much shorter. There is an account of a mechanic in York, NE (one of the few places in the US with a Grants Truck Stop, the same as the matches found in John Does pocket) that recalled working on a van that he believes was driven by the Sumter couple. He remembered the van having Washington or Oregon plates. The McMinns have a connection to both states. The McMinns are from Oregon and they were expected to arrive in Port Angeles, WA at the end of their sailing trip from Hawaii. If the Sumter couple was first seen near the last place the McMinns went missing then the distances between the cases are much closer. The mechanics story is backed up by the fact he worked on a van and LE determined that they were taken to the crime scene in a van. Also, if you draw a map from Port Angeles, WA to Sumter, SC, it goes directly through York, NE.
The McMinns were last seen in late July, north of Washington State and the Sumter couple was first seen in early August at the Grants Truck Stop. This is mind bogglingly close together in both time and space. If you factored in the travel times between these two places you would have a near perfect match.
Also, I think it is important to mention that the McMinns were not intimidated by traveling long distances in short periods of time. They were both well traveled and experienced sailors. If they sailed from Hawaii to Port Angeles, WA then they would not have any problem traveling from Port Angles to Sumter.
Both circumstances point to foul play. At first, the McMinns disappearance seems to be most likely a sailing accident in the Pacific for whatever reason, but once you consider the number and reliability of the sightings near the Port Angles area it seems that the boat had in fact survived the long journey. So IMO one of the following must be true:
Of all of these possibilities I believe the following possibilities are most probable IMO:
1. The McMinns were involved in drug smuggling and were subsequently killed for unknown reasons.
2. The McMinns were high-jacked by a very desperate person, possibly a fugitive, who was waiting for an opportunity to flee into Canada.
3. The McMinns were high-jacked by a very desperate person, possibly a fugitive, and the high-jacker used the navigation charts he had currently available in the boat to travel to Port Angeles and the high-jacker was navigating the boat at the time of the sightings.
As it relates to the Sumter murders I think it is possible that the following is possible:
The McMinns left Hawaii in May of 1976 with a load of contraband. They arrived in Port Angeles in June. They immediately called the person they were instructed to deliver the drugs to. This person had been arrested which caused the McMinns to panic. Fearing that they were being investigated as well and that they would be arrested themselves they immediately fled. They fled without first contacting friends or family, possibly concealing the fact that had arrived in the mainland. In Late July, once the hunt for them intensified, they fled south to Sumter at which time the criminal organization dispatched a hit-man to kill the couple so that the others in the organization would not be compromised by the potentially incriminating information that McMinns knew. The boat was probably scuttled by the McMinns, the drug organization, or the high-jackers depending on what scenario you subscribe to.
