Also interesting that in this article, it states that she drove herself to Dallas after returning to the home she shared with Collins. I wonder why she didn't drive herself there in the first place and cut out the doorbell-ringing step? Not judging, just wondering.
I can think of a number of scenarios that would make sense here. Since she was in restraints, he was obviously obsessed with controlling & knowing her whereabouts at all times. Meaning, not only did he have her in restraints, he probably wouldn’t allow her to get to her car keys, either by hiding them somewhere, keeping them in another room or a safe. She likely couldn’t quickly gain access to both her car and her keys while he was around.
Being that she was in restraints, she had to have broken free while he wasn’t paying attention. Had he stepped out of the room briefly (i.e. to grab a drink, to grab something from another room, or for the bathroom)? In this case, she had seconds before he would be back. So finding the keys in another room & getting to her car (possibly parked inside the garage) wasn’t an option. So, she broke her restraints in secret and ran out the nearest door or window. This would have only given her a small head start before he realized & took off after her.
Or in another scenario, if he had fallen asleep next to her, she might have worked quietly for hours in the dark (since it was 3 A.M. that she was spotted on camera knocking on doors) trying to break her restraints while also trying not to wake him. Maybe he was a heavy enough sleeper that she was able to get out the closest door or window before he awoke. Or maybe she spent hours breaking the restraints while he slept, and knew that her moving would wake him up. So, she woke him up and said she needed something (a drink, Tylenol, SOMETHING!) to get time to get out a door and run.
She was probably risking her life to make the escape (statistically, abused women are most often killed by their partner during an escape or just following an escape). If he caught her she probably would have been punished, probably would be tied in a way that would make it nearly impossible for her to get away again, or possibly even killed. There was no way she was going to be able to leave that relationship peacefully. He knew he had committed crimes & if he ever allowed her to break up with him, he knew he would be in legal trouble and likely would go to prison. So he likely ruthlessly guarded & controlled her every move, because his life depended on her never telling anyone.
So, assuming she had only seconds to get away before he realized she had fled. Imagine if her car was in the garage, and he had her keys in a drawer in another room. Since she was being restrained (likely in some type of bedroom) he may have stepped out of the room to get something. She may have literary had seconds to break away & jump out a window or door. Maybe while ringing doorbells and hiding in neighboring bushes, she spotted his van out looking for her (but he didn’t see her). She might have known where he kept her keys, realized while he was out looking for her, she could use the opportunity he was out of the house to to run back to the house, grab her keys, escape with her car. It was probably all very risky for her & she was likely in a do or die situation. She may have kept running to homes to seek help, but seeing his car was missing, she might have realized she was able to escape with her car to safety.