It might not have been her money -- if someone helped her plan to run away. It does seem that Ruth had a careful plan to run away.
This is a very good point about the taxi -- she took them for convenience, because there was limited other transport available to her. I did wonder if part of her reason for taking them was that she wanted to be seen to have gone up to Box Hill as part of a plan to make her running away look like a potential suicide. But perhaps she simply wanted to meet someone up there, to be taken somewhere else (meeting them in the centre of Dorking would mean it was more likely someone else would spot them and perhaps identify whoever helped her). But all this is just my speculation as a potential explanation.
Do we know what Ruth looked at in the library? The language in Mr Wilson's Christmas appeal (Daily Mail, quoted below- is jarring:
Ruth Wilson was 16 when she went missing in November 1995. Her parents Ian, 56, and Karen, are teachers in Betchworth, Surrey. They have a younger daughter, Jenny, 24. Ian writes:
Dear Ruth
We still have the presents
we bought you for Christmas in 1995.
They're safe in a drawer - waiting for you to come
back, though I expect your tastes have changed so much you'd probably laugh at the music and clothes.
(Unnecessarily specific, interesting to use safe in relation to gifts, rather than Ruth. Why omit the word "home"?)
Though the house is too large now that your sister Jenny has moved out, we can't bear to move. It's your home
after all.(After all what?)
Jenny lives nearby. You remember how she adores horses? Now she's got a full-time job in an equestrian centre.
She's as happy as she can be without her big sister around.
(Ambiguous language, almost sounds as if her sister is actually happy. Also very remote, why not say "you" to Ruth?)
Your disappearance is
still a mystery. You were confident, independent minded and, apart from the usual teenage
frictions, seemed
so happy at home.
You enjoyed bell ringing and had
just started learning to play the organ. The congregation at the local church
still prays for you every week.
(Focus on time, what frictions? This an oddly specific word, also the first of many qualifiers appears)
Though you'd just
broken off with your boyfriend, you were
still close. You had lots of friends and had
just joined the sixth form and were talking of studying archaeology at university.
(Broken off rather than up? Qualifiers continue to be used for emphasis).
You had a Saturday job in a music shop, and were
so trustworthy that neighbours queued up to ask you to babysit. In fact, you were
so reliable that when you didn't come home from school
that Monday afternoon in November 1995, we assumed we'd forgotten one of your many activities.
(Qualifiers used to build up and emphasise his point which feels too laboured and too specifically anchored to a defined time of day)
It was late at night before the terrible truth dawned. Surrey police
swept straight into action. They've been brilliant and still keep in touch. They discovered that, instead of going to school, you had called a taxi to take you to Dorking library. You took taxis occasionally and regularly visited the library, but even so, this was totally out of character.
(Segue- how many scenes are being described?)
As the day progressed, your behaviour became even more inexplicable. You visited a florist and ordered an expensive bouquet for Mum. You left no message - simply strict instructions that it must not be delivered until Wednesday.
Then, around 4pm, you called another taxi from Dorking station and asked to be taken to Box Hill, a local beauty spot. You asked the driver to leave you by a bridleway a short way from a pub.
The light was failing as you got out. The driver says you stood there as he drove off.
You can imagine our terror and how we searched month after month.
(Why should she have to imagine it, he avoids confirming this is what he experienced and actually did. Why is search not used in the present tense? Why is there no concern for terror Ruth may have felt, or any reference to their fears for what she may be going through?)
I trawled London - hoping against hope I'd find you. We wondered if you had a secret, but your Filofax revealed nothing. The police discovered you had visited Box Hill before, but don't know why.
They also found that you'd been worried about your grades and had hidden your last school report from us.
(This sentence has been confirmed by people who knew Ruth, and reads very naturally as a factual statement)
There have been many false leads. Every time our spirits are raised, only to be dashed again. It's torture. Even now I find myself driving past bus stops and staring. Could that young woman - you're 27 now - be you?
Most of all, we want you to know that while we miss you desperately and want to know you're
fine, we have never been angry with you, whatever prompted you to go that day.
(Don't they want to know she is alive/safe - "fine" is such an odd thing to wish for)
We are
just so sad that a big chunk of your life has been lived without us. There is nothing to forgive. Mum and I simply want to put our arms around you and tell you how much we love you. All
any parent wants is for their child to be happy.
(more qualifying phrases-why does he cite the imagined "any parent" rather than himself?)
Knowing you are safe and well - even if you don't want to come home - would make me the happiest man in the world.
Perhaps just convenience, as the poster above suggested?
It is interesting. Ruth had run away before, as it came out -- but to friends' homes and not for long -- we don't know if police were called then. I read somewhere--perhaps here--that her dad had gone to one of her male friend's houses that night and asked him where Ruth was. Perhaps when he could not locate her at her friends' homes, her dad realized something bigger had happened and called the police?
We know that:
--Ruth's home life was not as happy as her dad and stepmum portrayed it to be. Her dad was aware she had run away before albeit just to a mate's house. We don't know what else was going on. At least one of her friends has said that Ruth didn't get on with her dad. Her dad must have been aware of that, although he has not wanted to talk about that publicly at all. Her dad has said the family were not aware Ruth had found out the real cause of death of her mum -- maybe this is not true.
-- the police were aware that Ruth's home life was not as happy as her dad and stepmum portrayed it--they have said that they did not publicize this as they didn't think it would help or something to that effect. Maybe they knew it was more than just a normal difficult teenage--parent relationship.
It's also interesting that her parents have not made any public attempts to keep her story in the news and find out what happened to her - which I wonder is because they are pretty sure she "just" ran away and was not abducted.
The police have never upgraded this into a murder enquiry, which they have with other (adult) missing persons -- eg Georgina Gharsallah. Is this because of a lack of any evidence that Ruth was abducted etc, would you say?
I have always found the style and the content of her father's appeals noteworthy. The language appears distancing and qualified.