I don't discount the possibility of a carjacking (something similar to the Hedgerow Dr incident which occurred just 2 wks after AW's disappearance, within 1/3 of a mile of his house, and within 3-4 blocks of the Inwood-Lemmon intersection on his route home). But I'm beginning to wonder if that might just be because of how I define "carjacking"
"Carjacking" to me can simply be the theft of a car that occurs while the owner or driver of the car is present at the time of taking. It can also however be the taking of the vehicle along with the owner/driver of the vehicle (while the owner/driver remains inside the vehicle). This does not have to only occur when the owner driver is seated inside the vehicle while in traffic (where he/she could simply lock the doors and floor it), it can occur while the owner/driver is walking to or from his/her vehicle in a parking lot, and is then forced (back) into it.
In this sense I suppose the crime is more like a kidnapping. But it's a kidnapping that occurs in the owner/driver's own vehicle, and not in the perp's vehicle. When a plane is occupied by passengers and crew and there is a similar crime, we don't call that crime a kidnapping, we call it a hijacking.
A carjacking can be a form of armed robbery. Studies have claimed that it has an urban street crime connotation. When the owner/driver of a vehicle is taken along with the vehicle, it is often done for the purpose of extorting money (ATM, accessing accounts) from the owner/driver, or collecting ransom from the owner/driver's family in exchange for the release of the hostage(s).
Just a note, but for similar reasons, I think the recent AB kidnapping and murder in NC/VA could also be (and at times was) considered a carjacking (a carjacking followed by a murder). An armed robbery followed by murder of the owner/driver so there would be no witness.
In this sense, I think carjacking can sometimes "be to a car", as highjacking "is to a plane". Imo if somebody highjacked a plane that had no passengers or crew on board, that could simply be termed a "plane theft". So, by my definition, the fact that AW's car has been found - while he has not - doesn't necessarily mean that this wasn't a carjacking. It just means that it wasn't a car theft. This is jmo.
Also, as has been pointed out here before, the fact that we (the public) have not been made aware (by LE or family) of any attempts by AW or any possible perp(s) to use - or force AW to use - his credit cards, or to otherwise access his accounts, and/or that we (the public) have not been made aware of any (possible) attempts by any (possible) perps to make contact with AW's family to (possibly) seek ransom (both of which happened in the Hedgerow Dr. incident) should not be surprising: we (the public) would not have been told. We simply wouldn't know.
Although most local media reports referred to the early-Nov Hedgerow Dr incident as a carjacking, the two suspects in that case were eventually charged with aggravated kidnapping. I think that if AW perhaps stopped somewhere on his short drive home from the RT - maybe at the Starbucks or at his car dealership (both located near the Inwood-Lemmon intersection) something like the Hedgerow Dr. crime could have happened (just one possibility). Whether you call it carjacking or aggravated kidnapping with car theft (and possibly murder) might just be a matter of semantics. I hope that is not what happened.
Jmo