I haven’t posted much (and in a long time), but have been following this. I’ve read through every post. I’m on the edge of my seat here…this is terrible.
I struggle to decide what is the most likely explanation for her disappearance, but the whole thing is unlikely. The most common explanation is that family is involved, but I just can’t see that for some reason. Stranger abduction while unlikely seems even MORE unlikely given that they appear to live in BFE, surrounded by woods, with the house a ways off of the road, ect. A person lying in wait seems like the most out there theory, to me personally.
My personal feeling is that she did something thus far out of character for some reason; that she went into those woods and got turned around. The father has said that he doesn’t think that she would do that, but something unlikely has happened for the situation to be what it is today.
Some thoughts that I have, based on some experience (which is searching for and tracking lost dogs) about how easy it is to get into trouble in the woods. The fact that Summer’s area includes difficult terrain adds to this significantly:
First, I’m sure that most of you realize most if not all of this stuff - You take too many steps off of the path or route that you know, and things become unfamiliar. You take some more steps trying to get back to where you were, and oops, you’re worse off and further away. It devolves from then on. While she likely knows a lot of the area around her house, the area looks thick with brush and plant life and could easily confuse someone while limiting their view that would help them reorient themselves to where they are. I’m kind of stating the obvious there - I’m sure you all know what I mean.
Another thing to add especially with terrain is that it’s easy to get somewhere and then realize that you can’t get back the way you came. It can be easier to go down than to come back “up.” That leads to moving in a different direction to find a way back up or around that difficult hill, ect., moving farther away and then to the process of getting lost. I once got lost in an area that I had pretty much figured out, and it wasn’t even quite BFE, because I went too far. Then I saw a way back but it was winter and cold so I tried to take a shortcut. That shortcut led to a hill that I couldn’t climb and it just devolved from there. I was a 20-something and not a child, so all the much easier for something like this to happen to her.
Given the terrain and overgrowth of plant life I feel that while the sheer area they’ve covered is an amazing achievement and a testament to their valiant efforts, it isn’t at all unlikely that someone has walked within feet of her without seeing her. In the earlier days of the search coming close to her would likely have led to her being found because she was more likely to have been able to cry out to searchers, but sadly the odds of her being alive, or at least conscious, seems low. In those early days I think that she probably moved too far out of the then current search area to be found or heard, and well sadly I feel that the chances of finding her that way has passed. It’s hard to type.. Like you all I’m hoping for a miracle.
Sorry for the overly long post. I’ve been following and I guess all of my thoughts added up over time to a long winded post.