Hi everyone. I've been following this thread since about day 2 when I first found it, but the bickering back and forth has kept me from wanting to get involved. Seeing Atlantica being banned when he/she was a possible source of loads of information that's still in short supply here was as baffling to me as almost any other aspect of this whole case. I'm amazed and impressed by dangrsmind's ability to hang in through all the abuse which has been tossed his way, which ironically has at times been far more egregious that anything Atlantica did from anything I've been able to determine. I don't have time for that, so you won't be seeing much from me.
I have a few points to address re: Poorhouse Road though. First, it doesn't go to Rice, Virginia. It seems that area is served by the Post Office in Rice, so the addresses there are Rice addresses. A google search for 1400 Poorhouse (make sure its one word) Road Rice, VA 23966 will take you to where Sam was towed from and a street view will put you on the spot. It's hardly a "desolate" area. It's an area with substantial farms, and several new exurban commuter homes probably those of fairly well paid university employees. There are even what look to be two possibly antebellum estates. One being Rotherwood, near where he got stuck and another being Poorhouse Farm. That isn't an uncommon name for a farm. I know of a few others in Central VA. Now of course, none of that would have been obvious to Sam, who is a suburban Cali kid.
I can see two possible reasons for him being there. If he were going to the airport, he would have taken business 460 from the middle of town and would have merged with the 460 bypass right before Poorhouse Rd. If he thought he was gong the wrong way, which is very possible since those mergers can be very confusing at times, he might have tried to turn around at Poorhouse. I drive on roads just like Poorhouse Rd. all the time and have many times been stuck hoping to turn around at the next convenient place and not been able to find one for a very long way, especially if someone is behind me. Central Virginia rural roads are often very narrow with ditches on both sides. Driveways that meet them aren't made for turn arounds. He got stuck trying to do just that, which illustrates the point rather well.
Looking for a dumping spot for something is another very plausible explanation. If that were the case, then it may explain why he turned around where he did. There are several houses there along the road. He may have been looking for someplace with no one around and started seeing more houses, which would be exactly what he didn't want.
I'm a little skeptical of the dumping theory though. Going North East along River Rd. or straight up 1st Ave. to rt. 643 West would have taken him to an isolated area much more directly. He's a kid who probably didn't drive much at home, who has someone else's car, and who doesn't know the area, so I think that would be an important consideration. In the airport videos he seems to have had a bag with him. He was ready to travel. I don't see a reason for him to have been ready to travel if he was just scouting for a body dumping trip that would have had him go back to the house first.
Maybe someone can make more sense of what he was doing there with a closer examination of the map and street view. One thing I'm pretty certain of though is that almost everyone who volunteers on the local rescue squad or who works in the police or sheriff's department, or the local funeral home knows a significant number of the facts that seem to be so elusive and yet so interesting about this case. If Atlantica is from that area with extend family there to boot, he/she can't be more than one degree removed from someone who knows all of those details. That ban was a huge loss for this thread. I'm just stunned that the moderator hasn't invited Atlantica back.
My $.02 for now. Back to lurking.
