Unfortunately I agree, if you plot it out on google maps from where she got into the cab and where her phone last pinged, the apt building, it looks like she was let out right before the driver got onto highway. I would guess that she needed to vomit and she asked/was asked to get out.
When I think about it, many of the trendier luxury apartments actually have fairly relaxed lobbies/front desks if you look the part (young, white, higher-income). Many these days don’t have key coded front doors to access the lobbies, just the upper floors.
It’s very likely she walked right in and past the front desk looking for a bathroom to vomit in. She likely found a garbage chute and vomited there, or even dropped her phone and leaned in after it. It’s more seeming to me that there was no foul play. I’m sure that the building must have video of her wandering around inside, if not the event itself.
I have no idea why I chose to do this, but I looked up a video of how these compressors work, it’s not pleasant
It seems very likely to me though that she fell through the chute rather than getting into it from the basement or something. It’s basically a funnel shape with an auto-sensing mechanical part at the very bottom, which then leads into the dumpster itself. But there is sort of a ledge if you crawled into it from the side door (which is usually locked). The gravity of coming down the chute is what would make it difficult to react in time to stop yourself from getting into the condensing mechanism, not to mention being inebriated.
Feel terribly for her family, being young and a Midwest transplant to the city would exacerbate her decision making in that state.
