Perhaps she did have an on again off again fling with him. Or maybe they interacted and were friends or acquaintances but she was just obsessed with him. They apparently have no proof at all of any money being transferred to Brain Flowers. She could have honestly done a million other things besides give it to him. That money could have gone anywhere.
Yes. People blow money on stupid stuff and lie about it all the time.
He may have been planning to head off on a fishing trip and originally that was the night. She knew this. But she wasn't even invited. She was going to SNEAK into his truck. That is why she brought almost nothing. Easier to sneak around. This is why she raced out of the factory before he got there. With just a small bag of lingerie? Seems suspicious. 'oh I'll pop out of the truck and surprise him at the lake he's going to fish at, he'll want me and we'll stay there together'.
In this scenario you're saying he was originally planning a long distance trip to a cabin up north? She told her sister he had invited her for a week's vacation. This would be a lie, and she would be found out if he rejected her.
Her plan would require him to leave for the trip shortly after work. It would be unpleasant if he decided he was tired and would get up early the next morning and go.
If she somehow knew he would leave directly and they had once even had a hint of a possibility of relationship, your scenario actually makes sense. She figures he's only going to drive a few hours. She figures he would like to be with her on some level but would say no to a premeditated affair. He she surprises him, now he has to leave her there or drive for hours to undo it and get her home. He can tell himself "the woman's crazy; what could I say?" and stay with her.
Now as to why he seemed startled and was different after his sister called and mentioned this trip, well yeah, you'd be to if it was something totally off the wall. Why did he stay on the phone? At the very least it's an acquaintance of his, at most it's someone he did care about but didn't want his wife to know, so yeah he's going to want to know what is going on too and where she is but not let on that they may have had something together at one time.
Yes. Even if they never had a relationship, if the sister of a woman at work called saying I had been planning a clandestine trip, I would stay on the phone and hound them for info. That's probably not the right thing to do. I should probably just dismiss it as absurd and hang up, but I would want to know what's this all about and what she's been telling people about me.
The blood? Maybe it's his from when he put the cover on. So small he didn't even know he did it. Why don't they test it? Because there is a big chance it's not hers or they can't get anything from it. As long as they have it then it's always that "what if". The police always have a pressure point to push with him. To always keep him on his toes and worried. But in reality it's probably not enough to convict him if it is even hers. Even if it is hers it's so small it doesn't necessarily mean anything.
Excellent idea about the police holding it out there to psych out the real criminal. I believe that's the whole point of the lie detector test. It's not has way too many false positives and negatives to be useful in finding the truth, but the suspect thinks
maybe it will work, and that freaks him out. He focuses on that possibility instead of keeping his story straight. Having this tiny drop of blood may do the same thing. They can always say to someone, "We've been doing more analysis on that blood, and we'd like to talk to you about where you were on such-and-such night." It's not going to make the criminal confess but it sure might throw him off.
"I worked with Mr Flowers a lot, especially during the weeks and months before she went missing. I saw a lot of fighting between the two of them(physical and verbal) during work, on-line and out in the parking lot on breaks. Patti confessed a lot to me about him, and what was going on in their relationship, the good and bad.... I was assigned to help out in her work area almost daily and for many months prior to her disappearance."
If there was physical fighting during work, I wonder if it was documented or at least if someone saw it and told the police.
Or think of this. He owed her money, lots of it. She was pressuring him to pay. He couldn't. We know they had argued before, the friend said so. He also says he's not going to leave his wife. *She's mad, real mad. We may need to consider that perhaps she snuck into his truck and had some plan to confront them or harm them after he got home. Somehow the whole trip thing could work out as an alibi, she could say the angry wife saw her when he had to stop at home and attacked her but she defended herself. But her plan didn't happen, maybe he found her too soon, she attacked him, he killed her. He had to get rid of her body since nobody would believe he didn't set it up. Who knows, crazier things have happened.
This means she would have had to formulate the story to her sister such that her sister think she thought she was going on a trip. But it would all be rouse to get into their garage and murder them. She would have to have a weapon and feel confident she could take them both. If she just killed this his wife, it wouldn't work because he might tell the police that it was not self-defense. It just seems like an very complicated plan with a low chance of success. I agree weirder things have happened.
Anyway if it did go down like had been already mentioned from everyone else and the show, and he planned it like that. That is just so grossly evil and horrible. That means he had been taking money for a long time. Then planned her murder that whole time he was telling her about the trip. Got her hopes up and was so happy. And when she got in that night he knew he was going to kill her. And to kill a amother of a 7 year old. That is just so heinous. Which means he already had a place he was going to dump her body. The whole time she was back there under the cover and excited he was driving her to her death. He drives out to some country road, she gets out very confused in the dark wondering why they are there, and he kills her, and hides or buries the body. Her body can be anywhere.
I think the wife knows about it too.
That's just ghastly I agree. And what's his upside? Was she threatening to ruin his marriage? Killing her in cold blood in not only heinous but risky. If his wife knows about it, it really makes no sense. They could just ignore her. The only way I could see killing her helping is if his wife was jealous and knowing or even suspecting he killed his alleged mistress ended her jealousy. That requires her to be heinous too.
