I don't think it should be discounted. The way I envision this happening is they are all at home and nobody has arrived to work yet. It was before 11:00 AM. Did Fazoli's serve breakfast? No, I don't think so. If his co-worker was at home and her FWB/boyfriend/whatev was there too and all communications (manager/co-worker/Jason) were naturally done over phone, then the guy would be privy to what was going on. I could easily see some unhinged guy get angry about this. Perhaps this guy is a with a record or is involved in criminal activity. Maybe he remembers Jason from a time he was hanging out at Fazolis and Jason came on to her or the guy perceived him as coming on to her? Maybe it had nothing to do with romantic advances and he saw Jason as an easy mark? Perhaps she left to go to the school and he decided to take matters into his own hands without her even knowing about it. Sadly, pointless acts of violence happen all the time.
I don't think this is what happened; however, Jason's vanishing is one of the most mysterious of all time. It's not that far-fetched tbh.
By the way, when did Fazoli's open for business? 12 noon?
oh yeah, there was a post on the R board where someone who worked with Jason mentioned some odd things. I can't recall exactly, but when asked about Jason's experience/relationship with his co-worker,s this person said something like "out of respect for Jason and his family, I don't wanna talk about his work experience." Matthew Tyler, do you remember seeing that post? I took it to mean that it was not a positive work environment for Jason.