I'm still reading. I've noticed that my questions about Thanksgiving and motels were brought up by other people as well, around page 10 or so, and were answered.
I believe some good points were brought up and I think that if it was someone travelling on the Thanksgiving weekend, it was someone who was en route to somewhere else and stopped in Nashville, probably someone who left earlier under the excuse of going back home for work and then decided to make a long stop in Nashville. I also find this plausible:
BBM.
Maybe someone who could plausibly lie or have a good reason not to go away with family and stay back in town. Or maybe someone who lived in town with friends or a live-in girlfriend or boyfriend, who then left for Thanksgiving and the perp didn't have anyone paying attention to where he was going and when.
---
People have also mentioned a few times that Kathy may have taken a shortcut through the yards of nearby houses as people would have known her. Were local houses searched? Could any of the people who lived near her house have done it?
It's been mentioned a few times that Kathy wouldn't have gotten into a car with someone she didn't know well and that she may have even turned out a ride from someone who saw her walking outside alone (do we know what time that happened, by the way?).
This means that I think it would be unlikely to go into the house of a random stranger. I guess it's possible he could have pretended to be angry that she was trespassing or something, and then used that to throw her off-guard, but that seems less likely so I won't get into that unless anyone thinks that's an important possibility.
So if it was someone in a nearby house, I think it's more likely that it was someone Kathy knew reasonably well. Maybe he greeted her and made small talk and abducted her when nobody was around, or lured her inside the house or somewhere on the property under an excuse. Remember that someone who would do such a thing would be someone good at keeping up a facade, so most likely, he was someone nobody had any reason to be wary of and probably someone Kathy trusted.
Just an idea.
---
Do we know for a fact that she had a dollar when she was found AND her mother also gave her a dollar when she left the house? Because to me that would indicate that she never made it to the KK and to the rink.
Unless someone at the KK had given her food or a beverage for free but that would have been suspicious (if it was the perp, he would avoid doing so, IMO) OR if it was an innocent person, the waiter would remember having given free food to the missing girl everyone was searching for.
So I think it's a pretty strong indicator she didn't make it to the KK or the RR.
As to the bus, I think it could have been free? I don't know, but it seems like a business running a service like a bus to pick up and drop off costumers would run it for free, to promote business. Kind of as saying, costumers don't even have to pay for their own transportation, it's free! And so on.
I think it wouldn't make sense for the bus to stop at the house of every kid like someone suggested. That would be more complicated and not very practical. I think it's more likely that the bus would have stopped at key locations in the area.
In the town where I grew up, there were a few private buses associated with businesses, like extracurricular activity clubs and day trips for old people. They usually stopped at key points like near schools or churches, even businesses they had an agreement with or which were very well-known locally, places which can be used as reference points to local residents. Could the KK be such a location?
---
Snipped respectfully.
Could it be that Kathy didn't know in advance which friends she was meeting exactly? Maybe it was well-known fact that local kids would be going to the rink at that hour since it wasn't a school day. So maybe both she and her mother figured she'd just run into kids she knew once she got to the rink.
Another thing I've thought is that since it was over a holiday, maybe they assumed some of Kathy's friends out be out of town, but she'd still run into at least a few or maybe even other children she knew from school but which weren't part of her main circle of friends.
---
As per usual, this is all my own opinion and not authoritative statements.