Hello, everyone, I've been following this case for months now. It's a real head-scratcher!
I've read all the posts in this forum now (there's a lot of information! Come back, ColdCaseMan! <3) so here are a few thoughts I have that I don't think have been covered in too much detail. Sorry about the long post but I have 1001 questions!
1. This was a conversation on Lyle's Facebook group recently that I found interesting. I wondered what you guys thought. What on earth is this in the motel room under the towels?
Photo here. It looks like sheets of drawing paper to me (size A1?); someone else suggested it was a shelf liner but it looks too big in my opinion. If it's paper, the motel wouldn't have provided this, surely? I can't see any in the first room (room 8) either. Perhaps he bought it from the store; if so, what happened to the pens/pencils? If it is paper and it was Lyle's, wouldn't that suggest Lyle was a keen sketcher/painter of some kind? An insight into who he was a person? This would be a great place to come and paint; the natural landscape of this part of WA is beautiful. Thoughts on what this 'thing' is?
2. I'm confused about the motel to be honest. Why aren't there any reviews from previous guests anywhere? Why are they not featured on any travel guide sites? How do they attract travelers without a website*, a rarity in 2015? Not a single review in the 15+ years since they opened? Are there any locals on WS who can tell us more about this place? Why Lyle was attracted to this establishment? How did he know about it?
* They list their website on their
Yellow Pages listing as a computer repair business called '4D Computers' in the Lacey, WA, area. What's all that about?
3. Who was there on Monday morning when Lyle was found? I read on here that the maid said that Lyle was the only person checking out on Monday morning (so he told them when he was leaving) but yet BW and GB* were not on the premises, right? He came to the motel after being called by the maid; she was in Olympia as per the case file. So if Lyle didn't do what he did, who would have collected his room keys and the money he owed? The maid? Is that usual practice?
* It didn't dawn on me until I read the case files again but GB would have only been in his mid-twenties at the time, right? I know that nothing to do with anything but he had amassed a mini business empire by a young age (someone on here said he owned the grocery store as well)! Good for him.
4. The fact that Lyle left so much money puzzles me (enough for four nights I think), but that's been covered in great detail already on here.
5. Anyone notice that a whole roll of toilet paper has been used and thrown in the bathroom garbage bin? There's also what looks like rolled up tissue/toilet paper in the room bin too (the one with the newspaper). It looks hard - as if it's been wet.
6. To establish whether someone is "pacing up and down" the highway suggests that Lyle was being watched for a considerable amount of time. He wasn't just pacing, but rather pacing "up and down". However, the motel is not on the main road according to Google Maps, so I wonder how BW knew this. Unless someone who was working at the grocery store told her (echoing point 3 about the store/motel being connected).
7. I know eyewitness testimony are flawed at the best of times, but one would imagine that you could remember if someone had a backpack or not (BW said she couldn't be certain). They had two interactions - when Lyle checked in and when he changed rooms - and I imagine she would have seen him from the back as he exited the front desk area. How many people would she had checked in that weekend, anyway? Less than 10? This isn't a Hilton where hundreds of guests are coming and going; I thought a detail like this would be remembered only a couple of days after the fact, but obviously not. This also differs from GB's statement where he says that Lyle arrived with no bags of clothes.
8. "The subject was seen by several people standing on the porch of his room on Saturday afternoon." That's it? Didn't these "people" go into any further detail? It's all a bit vague.
9. Was Lyle wearing his underwear inside-out? Or is that the label from the Levi's jeans? Can anyone tell?
Photo is NSFW.
10. According to the case files, the maid never actually managed to clean the room that weekend (Lyle refused room service on Saturday but asked for clean towels, and then flat out "sent her away" on Sunday!). Yet, the bag in the bathroom garbage bin looks like it's been emptied to me (the bag isn't fitted to the bin like it is in room 8). I wonder if Lyle disposed of his belongings in this bag?
