I don't live in TX, but I do hold garage sales somewhat regularly and many of my neighbors do as well. Around here, 8 AM is the common start time. Many run Fri/Sat or even Th/Fri/Sat here. Typically they last all day, like 8-4 or 8-5. However, as a PP pointed out, there are usually garage sale early birds that show up prior to opening. We will be out at 7 AM setting up for a sale that is advertised to begin at 8 and people will show up and browse. Liz probably didn't find it odd then that someone showed up early IMO.IMO, the truck is key in this case. Now onto the garage sale. On the day of the murder sunrise was at 7:16 a.m. JMO, It's interesting the placement of the treadmill. Seems it is placed in the way to block view of the Nest cam... I'm not familiar with garage sales. I've done one garage in my life and it was many years ago. I never go to garage sales and frankly pay no attention to them. What time do garage sales usually start? I would guess that 9:00 a.m. would be the time to open your sale? Any help/info about garage sales is appreciated. I ask this because it seems like Liz was getting an early start on the garage sale. I could be over thinking all of this. TIA and IMO.
As far as advertising, I do think it's a little odd, personally, to not advertise in a newspaper or something like Craigslist or Next Door, which are both popular ways to advertise sales here for free (whereas the newspaper costs money). However, it could be that sales were so common in her area on Fridays that she figured that would be enough to catch garage salers driving around. When we do ours (once every couple years), we do advertise online but that's not to say we wouldn't get sales without it, just never tried doing only signs.