Just some questions to ponder if one is to believe Maura was meeting up with someone:
1. Why did Maura only pack 1 outfit?
2. Why did Maura take the time to lock her car, but not grab the stuff she packed?
3. With no cell phone coverage, how would the person she was meeting with know precisely where to pick Maura up from (assuming her second wreck wasn't staged)?
4. Why did Maura take the time to pack up bottles of alcohol to bring from her wrecked car and nothing else (like toothbrush, clothes, sentimental items)?
(Sarcasm alert) Is alcohol the new form of identity to use to cross a border with?
5. Why did Maura have a book about adventures and death in the white mountains while she was entering the white mountains ... yet (if you believe the tandem theory) then she was going to Canada or somewhere else - So why have that book with her? Seems like an odd traveling book to take with you to start a new life. Kind of a Debbie Downer and really has nothing to do with Canada.
6. Why pack up your dorm room back at UMASS? You are supposedly starting a new life, why not leave things as they were. It seems like wasted time for someone who seemed very rushed and frantic those last few days before she went missing.
7. Why drink and drive (in a car on its last legs supposedly) if you are trying to make a clean break to a new life? IMO, you would want to be very alert during this time and make sure nothing went wrong, so you can make the bold move with very little problems.
8. Why leave late in the afternoon from campus? You are ditching your old life. Why not leave at the crack of dawn and have the whole day to get to your new destination?
I'll take a stab at answering my own questions. (Some of the answers turn into sarcasm, sorry, I couldn't help myself.)
Answering my own questions:
1. Good question by the way, you should be a journalist or something.
I would say you would only pack one outfit if you weren't planning on needing more than 1 or 2 days worth of clothes. Almost like you were taking a ONE WAY trip somewhere. But that is just a hunch.
2. Wow, another solid question fine sir.
You know, I would think that you wouldn't go through all the bother of packing up very specific things, only to leave them behind in the end.
So why did Maura only take her backpack and a few bottles of alcohol when she left her wrecked car on the side of the road? Because she was on foot, and didn't want to carry a lot of stuff. If she had a person picking her up just down the road, then Maura would've grabbed her bag of stuff (clothes, toiletries, etc.) and taken them with her. Being that she was alone, lugging around a packed bag of stuff wouldn't make much sense.
3. I guess the person (totally oblivious to Maura's wreck) could've just had incredible luck going for them that night. At some point they realized Maura was no longer trailing them, yet when back-tracking to find her -- they someone timed it just perfectly not to travel back too far to where they would be seen by the several witnesses who were on and off again looking out their windows. This mystery partner also may have known (some how) to just sit and wait for Maura in the middle of nowhere (knowing surely that Maura would catch up and walk to them eventually). Even though this mystery partner wouldn't know for sure even that Maura had a wreck if they were traveling in front of her. (What luck this person must have had to time everything out so well and have that intuition that Maura was coming to them and all they had to do was sit in their car and wait for her).
4. That is a real mystery. Taking bottles of alcohol and a backpack and nothing else will be a rather unusual combo to use to start a new life with.
I would at least want my toothbrush. I understand if you want a true clean break from your old life. But you can still use your old toothbrush, even with a new identity.
5. A book about the white mountains and (Maura's second wreck was at the entrance of the white mountains) ... I'm not good at math, so I can't seem to see a connection here. Maybe someone else could help.
6. As I have said before. Maybe Maura wanted to make the clean break to a new life and then months later, maybe she would don a costume and disguise and head back with a U-Haul and retrieve her stuff at a later date.
7. Maura was adventurous. Maybe she just like the challenge of drinking and driving. Making a bold move like starting a whole new life in another country, wouldn't be any fun unless you were at least somewhat impaired while attempting to do it.
8. I know If I ever want to start a new life and new identity, the best time to do so is in the midnight hours. So many things are open and travel during those times is so easy. (sarcasm alert).
Now if my destination, in fact, was the white mountains and I timed it to get there at the evening and I brought just enough money for one night in a hotel, then .... nah, that makes no sense whatsoever. (sarcasm yet again, SORRY).