This is my working theory as of today, it's subject to tweaking but from where things stand at this moment in time; this is how IMOO things may have played out the day MC was murdered.
Mackenzie goes to the boat ramp to meet a friend and pick them up. There is a purpose to this and it was pre-arranged in person earlier morning at or around the highschool. I believe it was a "mission of mercy" sort of thing, such as a friend who needs to go pick up a car they left out in the boonies after a party the night before or something of that nature; use your imagination. Maybe they weren't specific about where the car was (hence the normal 15 minute break procedures), but in any case MC is hooked in now and will do the right thing by her friend and take them where they need to go.
The person(s) MC picks up directs her to a turn out just off the highway in CB. (The one searched by LE that is up the road from the CB house where MC's body was found) After arriving at the turnout and driving for a minute MC realizes there is no car out here and starts to get a little leery. The person insists it was here and asks her to pull over so they can... again use you imagination... use their phone, pee on a bush, get their bearings, have a smoke... MC joins them outside of the vehicle while they use their phone. While there another car pulls in behind them. MC becomes even more apprehensive at this point. Out of the second car comes a person she has been having some issues with lately, they have been threatening her, or maybe there was just something about MC that made them angry and jealous. This person is also IMOO a friend of the person who convinced her to drive to CB that day. So yes, I believe it was setup and that two people were involved.
There is a confrontation. Two against one. MC tries to get to her car, but they keep blocking her way, pushing her around. She is starting to get frightened. She looks around, there's lights down the hill in the distance, the nearest house doesn't look too far away and it looks like someone is home. She decides to make a run for it. She doesn't get all the way there but gets close. On the way down the hill she is making a ton of noise, the perp is thinking about giving up the chase when she slips, falls and hits her head falling silent and limp on the hillside above the CB home. Perp 1 is shocked by this turn of events, and sees that it's almost dark now and there are people bound to be coming home from work and driving down this road any time. Just now Perp 2 pulls the car up beside the hill, and runs up to help Perp 1 load MC into their car (important: Perps car was used here, not MC's)
They are just starting down the road when MC begins stirring, they see a driveway coming up and decide to duck down it real quick to turn around and go back to the turnout. They realize that this house is empty and for sale and the perfect opportunity. With MC's car out of sight up the road at the turnout they have a little time to figure out what to do. One of the perps; I'm guessing the perp that met them out at the turn out is getting angry about the whole situation, they were just going to scare/talk to/reason with her, now it's turned into much more. The perp starts choking her, they doesn't stop until she seems to stop breathing. With the help of the other perp MC is pulled from the car and laid next to it. She is dragged down the drive, down the hill, through a creek they didn't see in the quickly fading light to the bank of the (currently high water) Columbia River.
Perhaps now with the cold water and the frigid air is where she makes one last gasp for life and the perp makes a frantic trip back to the car, fishes around in their trunk, finds their fishing gear, grabs a knife and just punctures a main vein in her neck. I believe the killer has fishing experience beyond owning the knife set, puncturing veins in the neck is a hunter/fishermans way of bleeding out their kills. It may have been the perps assurance that MC was indeed really dead. In a panic about what they have done and what is still to be done if they want to clean this up, the perp throws the knife into the Columbia, not realizing that the river is at the highest point right now and that fifteen foot throw will not be enough to distance the knife from the location of the victim. Perhaps they were even hoping the river was low and eventually the water would rise and wash MC's body downriver.
The killer and accomplice go back up the hill, get in the car and drive back to the turnout. One of them takes MC's car and the other follows. They ditch it up PCR because it's not too far from one of their houses, it IS far away from the crime scene, and if they take the debit card etc, it might throw people off for a few days... maybe they will think MC left on her own.
I can't pretend to know WHY these monsters did what they did, but this is HOW I think it may have gone down, at least from what I have garnered over these last few months...
and of course all of this is very respecfully IMOO
