I just stumbled onto this thread, and knew nothing about the case until tonight. My wife's family is from Canadian, going back several generations. She has an aunt and uncle living there now, and I might contact them to see if they have heard anything.
On the google maps posted, I see that there are many drilling well waste-water storage tanks in the area. No doubt there are many oilfield workers there, and no telling what kind of "nefarious" activities might be going on.
What strikes me is how suddenly and completely Tom disappeared. Sending a text message one minute, and on the route to be home by his curfew, and then ... nothing. The phone had to be turned off (or destroyed?) by Tom or whomever he was with. And that's scary because it doesn't seem like a "normal" person would think about that.
Also, if Tom headed out to the lake....well, why would he wait until curfew to do that?? Especially if he knew his family would be up and waiting for him to arrive home? (Did he think they were asleep and wouldn't miss him until morning?) But then, wouldn't he leave his phone on to go out to the lake? And wouldn't he likely have been texting the people he was going to meet there?
Why would anybody.....Tom or otherwise.....drive through town in the middle of the night? It's a small, sleepy town, and I can't believe anyone thought they could make it through town undetected. And why were they driving the truck at nearly 6am? The truck must have been "placed" there as a diversion (by Tom or whomever). Then the person driving walked all the way to the river so that dogs couldn't pick up scent. Sunrise (according to weather.com) for Nov 23 is at 7:07am, which means it would have been dark still at 6am, and the truck was ditched before first light.
This case is just bizarre. I'll be following.
