I don't believe in flirting while your married and in my opinion she was definately flirting.
While I agree with you, I must first say that flirting NEVER excuses murder or sexual assault!! Laying buck naked spread-eagled in the middle of the street does not justify sexual assault or murder.
But the sad sad truth in life is that there are disturbed people out there that will look at any slight thing they can dream up or misinterpret to excuse their own horrific behavior.
And, IMO, and the opinion of every man I've ever asked, flirting "implies" an interest. For many on the receiving end, it implies "availability" also. Never ever ever a good idea to give ANYONE that idea if it is not true. If they are sick, they will take advantage of it, and if they are not, they will likely have a low opinion of the "flirter", even if they don't let on to her face. It is far too rampant among men to take "advantage" of a flirtatious woman only to run far and fast the next day.
My opinion (and I am not making this specific to this poor murdered woman, just to many women in general) is that there are many women whose egos are not totally secure and they need the attention and "interest" of men to feel attractive, even when they have no intent of following up on their signals. And the great tragedy is that modern culture promotes that as a norm. It's everywhere, in television programming, advertising, etc. Sexual ENTICEMENT is used in marketing EVERYTHING and our kids see this from infancy on. I cannot stomach waiting in line at checkout counters and seeing the numbers of magazines within eyeshot of little boys and girls with headlines like "Fifty-two ways to trap a man" or "Beat out your competition with these twenty tips for sexual ecstasy". I did my best to shield my young sons from this so that they would not develop a low disrespectful attitude toward women. It's hard to teach boys respect for the female gender when they perceive them all out to "trap" them in a fraudulent relationship rather than one based on mutual respect, integrity, and honesty.
It truly is no wonder so many foreigners tend to think Americans are crass, classless, and immoral. The signs are just hanging out in public everywhere you go in this country.