What a heartbreaking case
I apologize if this has already been mentioned but, it's sticking with me that he used her card to get gas. I live in MN and all gas is self-service soo really, one could steal a debit/credit card and use it to buy gas. Some stations require a zip code but if you know of one that doesn't, you could use anyone's card there.
With Oregon being an attendant-service state (I didn't even know that was a thing!) do attendants tend to verify the owner of the card verbally/visually (ID)/or with a signature? Do they even handle the card or does the person that's driving do all that? I just feel like if someone was handed a card by a man they'd at least want to verify that someone named Whitney was in the car? Or is it all pretty casual and they don't even check the name.....?
It would be pretty darn brazen to go to these stations with a broken window and use a card with a name that didn't match your gender, no? And I think she must have still been alive at this point if it was, in fact, her in the car.
I don't think she was alive or in the car at 9:14am at the gas station. I realize there is a report of an attendant saying he saw her. I just think its an erroneous report.
I suspect he abducted her at 6:45am, took her to Dodge park, assaulted and murdered her there, transported her body directly to Larch Mtn, then went to Troutdale. At this point he is driving on fumes, but he still had to dispose of evidence, so supposedly, he got a "small amount of gas" around 9:14am. (Who would drive around a congested area with a hostage/body in the car during peak commute time on a business day?)
After getting the "small amount of gas", he distributed her phone and other personal affects in trash bins and around the area. Then he ditched the car, parked backwards, hoping no one would spot the plate, at the edge of the Wal-mart parking lot (IMO, it's amazing it was found so quickly). It was a very bold action to remove the front plate at Larch Mtn b/c he could have been pulled over for not having it. I guess he thought it was less risk than having the plate visible at the car's abandonment spot.
Then he left the area. Who knows where he went from there.
This is obviously total speculation. And I am mind-boggled about the what/where/how/why of the events between 6:45 and 9:14am. It's incredibly fast. And why assault/kill at Dodge Park (assumption based on the jurisdiction) and then drive the body to Larch Mtn? Isn't Dodge Park a big, woodsy area?
But how did LE know he had been at Dodge Park and Larch Mtn? There are a gazillion forest areas around this area. He could have easily driven down 26 toward Mt Hood and left her in the woods there. That was closer to the alleged murder spot, (again, speculation).
When entering Dodge Park and Larch Mtn, does one need to pay an entrance fee and get a receipt? Maybe that's what LE found in the car which allowed them to narrow in on these areas. Although disposing of WH's personal affects but not such receipts is totally stupid. But how else could they have figured it out? If WH really did have a "find my phone" app on her smartphone, as suggested by a previous poster (brilliant thought, btw), that's an incredible stroke of luck for LE.
