I'm finally all caught up and figured I'd tell where my head was at so far.
It's a strange case because facts that we could use to shoot down suicide, we can use to shoot down homicide and vice versa.
I agree that breathing is involuntary, and I see that a lot of people rule out suicide because of that. Thing is though, that involuntary breathing would work if someone
put a bag over her head too. All the autopsies I have read in cases of asphyxiation of grown, healthy, alert adults showed a struggle. They fought. Sure, it's
common to freeze up with fear when attacked I'd imagine, that may have given the killer enough time to get the bag over her head, but I feel she would have eventually struggled, the body would have that same instinctual response. The murderer couldn't have just walked up to her, put a bag over her head, and had Cheryl lay down and fall asleep.
I have read that if you purposely make yourself hyperventilate it causes there to be too much oxygen. If those levels are elevated by the time you put the bag over your head, then the body's usual
response to elevated carbon dioxide is delayed. It's not a foolproof method, so I can see why someone would want the added assurance of the water when they passed out. I know it's an odd method
of suicide, but it's also an odd method of murder, especially with zero defense wounds. If Cheryl was going to be still with that bag over her head then I can see it a lot more if it was something she wanted
than I can for someone forcing her to. If it was something she wanted, she could at least do the steps I mentioned to stop that body instinct from occurring before she was finished what she may have set out to do. I also believe Cheryl was smart enough to have done this properly.
I see the razor and the cuts on the fingers as related to this case. I don't think Cheryl would have loose razor blades in her pockets like that going to work. I think as mentioned earlier in the thread she was testing that method out and maybe she got scared and wanted something less painful. If a killer wanted to stage a suicide, why didn't he just slit her wrists? He could have made it look like she cut them and then used the bag to ensure she'd be gone before anyone found her. That would have appeared as a more cut and dry suicide case I would imagine.
Another reason I lean away from a killer is that I feel with all this craziness it would likely have to be someone she knows and I don't see how anyone could have premeditated this.
They would have to have known Cheryl would forget her badge, that she would realize she forgot it before going all the way to work, that she would stop where she did to look for it or to text, and that
she wouldn't just drive straight home to get it. They also would have to go to a pretty public place to do it and risk being caught.
The animal blood has got me, I'm not sure it is as weird as we think or that it is related yet though. They said there was enough blood to smear but I am not sure that they meant it was still wet. It could have been a smear that had dried. I wondered if they maybe were processing meat from their or a friends hunt and someone got some blood on their shoes before getting in the car and sitting in the passenger side. That is just a shot in the dark though since you think they'd wipe it off. I really have no clue.
One last thing I hesitate to mention but feel it could be relevant is the timing of her disappearance. Valentine's Day and an anniversary. I wonder if something hurt Cheryl recently? Could she have found something out that upset her over the weekend? Maybe she didn't even confront the person and just kept her pain to herself? This is all such a horrible mystery.
I don't bring any of this up to discount/discredit homicide. There are a lot of great posters on these threads that lean towards murder and I respect that. There are excellent posts on both sides and
I learn more and more here on Websleuths with each case to not be stuck on any one theory so my thoughts are fluid!
Another thing I learned while on sleuths, is that we get emotionally attached to victims and generally care a whole lot. It can make things a bit tense, especially when cases get up to this many threads
with not much info. I learned that a poster might make me want to tear my hair out when I read their posts on one case, but then on the next case I am liking all their posts and agreeing 100%. I see now that it's OK to view things differently!
P.S. Thank you to all who got verified for this case! Much appreciated!