Believe me, all of us who have known her since childhood have been beating the bushes trying to think of someone she could be hiding with, but haven't been able to come up with that one person. Unless of course, that one person would of course not tell us either . . .
That's what I have been thinking about for the better part of the night/morning. IF she were really upset and paranoid (and by saying that, I don't mean totally out of her head crazy, but scared, paranoid, worried - there is a huge difference there), chances are that she would not want to go to go where everyone would know to look. I wouldn't! I would go to that one place or one friend that no one would think to check with. Maybe the one person she knew who didn't have a computer (an older person maybe) or the one place she had been where no one even knew she had been (childhood vacation spot or something similar)
Could it be that she had the argument with MP on Friday (still appeared and felt ok, explaining why the police and MP were ok with her taking the kids to the lake) then got there and started thinking about it and became increasingly upset. (It is my understanding that paranoia and depression,etc can come and go depending on the situation) After sitting awake reliving the past 12 hours and getting increasingly upset, she noticed a strange car or person, etc and it set her off. She grabbed the kids and hit the road to the one place that everyone pretty much thinks as safe, home. As she is going, she makes calls to DN, etc and these calls with the already agitated state and the tension of facing Matt in the next few hours keeps the stress building. She gets home and realizes that if she is being followed (wheather for real or only in her mind) being at the house with the children puts them in danger too. She knows Matt is due home, so feels that leaving the kids there and taking herself elsewhere is the best for them. (I know that if someone were after me-or I even thought they were, I would be dropping my kids with someone or somewhere that I could know they were safe. I would die for my kids, without blinking, but if I was the target, I would not want them within a hundred miles of me)
Then, if she was afraid her phone was being track she could have tossed it as she drove away. SM is located very centrally, so within a few minutes she could have been on an interstate heading in any number of directions.
Everyone has made continuous comment about Matt waiting 48 hours to report her missing... how long would most people wait? Seriously, not defending him, but I wonder. Would it usually be that evening when she didn't come home? That's what I would think, so by that time if she left around noon, she could have had 6-8 hours to go pretty much any direction. That could get you a long way. As has been wondered previously, I would think since she was making plans and preparing for divorce, she had secretly stashed money somewhere, again, I would have done so. So, maybe she does have money to go on. And finally, like I stated earlier, I would not go into the woods or anything like that, but I would go for the last place that anyone would think to look. (for me personally it would be a little elderly lady I know who lives on a small family farm in a rural area and has not cable tv and no computer) If she has a friend like this, maybe they don't really know if she is having mental issues, just accepts that she is in need of help and willing to give it.
So, it's just bothering me so much, and this is what I thought about all night. It's another possiblity...and another that results in her being ok.