So I've been following but haven't posted yet. Two thoughts I have:
2 - The other thing I can't get past is meeting him at the park. It just makes no sense. In my personal experience people who meet in parks at 3am are there for a transaction. Is it possible she was buying drugs from him, and she'd met him at the park before and felt safe doing so? Maybe that's a common spot for transactions like that? Maybe he said, meet me at the park and I'll give you a ride home? That could possibly explain his flush bank account?
SABBM:
I've entertained this idea more than once.
It makes logical sense to me, for this reason:
ML may not have wanted to have anything illegal on her person in a Lyft vehicle.
I doubt Lyft drivers are in the habit of transporting people to/from drug buys in the middle of the night.
AA may have come up with the ruse that he'd take her home after she got dropped off.
There's been 0 indication that ML was a drug user, though, so barring evidence of that, it makes this scenario less plausible than alternatives.
One of her friends that was interviewed spoke of ML and AA having some type of "relationship or arrangement" that made him uneasy/uncomfortable, according to the reporter who interviewed him.
"Arrangement" is an interesting choice of words.
We don't know the nature of any relationship or arrangement, if in fact there was any, that existed between the two of them, but I'm convinced if we did know that piece of the puzzle, we'd know why ML agreed to meet him in that parking lot at 3 am.
I think LE does know what the nature of their relationship was, courtesy of the digital/electronic evidence.
The public may have to wait until trial to find out.
JMO.