I've been thinking through some hypotheticals regarding whether the murder took place near Keanae/Honomanu or "close to home" in Haiku. Please feel free to say if I am missing known facts of any thing to correct or why you would disagree.
I've been trying to look at SC's behavior through a different lens than when I first heard his interview and read media articles, trying to weed out assumptions. (thank you, heartgoesout).
One thing I have not been able to find for sure is whether or not Charli told Brooke Scott that Steven had asked for help with his truck. I've seen many statements that he was the last to see her, and stating from the family that he had asked her to drive him out there, but I have wondered if the only source that he ever asked for this odd favor is Steven himself. What I see in Steven's behavior is a lot of effort put into getting this story stuck in people's heads, beginning the day after she disappeared.
Kapua posted a fantastic interview with Kimberley Scott in the media thread, a couple days ago, which was published in July, but somehow I never saw it. Thank you Kapua!
http://www.mauinews.com/page/content.detail/id/587646/Scott-s-mother-wants-life-term.html?nav=5161
This snip from the interview seems to contradict itself as to whether the family members had direct knowledge from Charli of Steven's call and request for help. Please tell me what you think.
This part gives us his call for help as a fact.
Family members said she received a call that night from him, asking if she would drive him to Keanae so he could fix his truck, which had broken down there.
Followed by a line that indicates Charli did NOT say she was going to drive Steven somewhere, in fact hid her intent to connect with Stephen.
Carly Scott had been with her three sisters at one of their residences in Haiku when she received the call and left, but told her sisters she was heading home.
"We all went to bed blissfully ignorant that night," Kimberlyn Scott said.
One might think the contradiction could be reconciled if she did tell them about his request, but then told them she was not going to help him, that she was instead going home (tired, working in morning, etc.). But then surely they would have thought of Steven immediately when they could not get hold of her the next day, if they had any hint that he had made this proposition to her. But no, it was a whole other process that led them to Steven. Having tried all the obvious places and people, they then focused on what she would hide from them.
Kimberlyn Scott's youngest daughter, Phaedra Wais, was closest to Carly Scott and accompanied her mother to their missing loved one's house. After not finding her or her sport utility vehicle, they called police and asked each other "who else would she be with that she wouldn't tell us."
"We both said his name at the same time: Steven," Kimberlyn Scott said. "We didn't like him particularly so Charli learned to keep that part of her world quiet."
It also seems to me that from what this article says about the family's opinion of Steven, that they would have tried to talk her out of going if she had told them he wanted her to drive him out Hana Highway at night. Three sisters present when he called, but I've never seen one statement saying they discussed the situation with her before she left. I would love to ask them this, but wouldn't want to bother them.
We know from the family that one sister went to Mana Foods after they came up with his name. Then he told them he had asked for help and they had driven out there, and the story we have heard.
Later on Monday, we hear they called him and he "rushed out" to show them where the truck was supposedly broken down or stuck.
On Tuesday they learn that Nalu landed in Nahiku, and at some point before the Thursday search, family learns about the last phone ping near Honomanu Bay.
The Forerunner was torched some time between Sunday night and including Tuesday night, because it would be too risky to dump and burn by day, and it was found around 6 PM Wednesday. No story describes it as still hot or smoldering either.
On Wednesday, Steven agrees to take a polygraph, which he doubtless realizes was a fail.
On Thursday, Steven agrees to give an extended phone interview. It's not the expected tale of a highly distressed friend or lover or parent to be. It's denigrating of Charli and minimizes their whole history. This interview by Kimberley Scott explains that he always treated Charli dismissively and avoided being linked to her. She says they lived together in a house for three years, and in his interview, he calls that "about a minute." So it is possible that Steven was so used to denigrating the relationship that he didn't catch how bad he sounded, but still, the guy doesn't want to go to prison. His motive for the murder is to keep his life "options" open. Very risky and ill advised to give a long interview if he has not mustered up the ability to act devastated and worried.
What the interview does do, is it plants the story of the trip out the Hana Highway firmly in people's heads, in public perception. That is what doing the interview gives Steven. Steven only does things Steven wants to do, so this is important to him. Everything he has said and done since she disappeared has pointed people out the Hana Highway.
Therefore all I can think is he may not be a genius, but there's no percentage to send them where he disposed of her body, no matter how well he thinks he did. Ergo, she never went out there with him at all. Whatever seemed to confirm she was there was planted as misdirection. Misdirection is done so that a particular place that might be under a lot of scrutiny otherwise is not the focus.
Two things pointed to the Hana Highway prior to the clothes, tape roll, gloves, blanket being found. The phone ping near Honomanu and Nala at Nahiku. The phone ping was too late for it to fit in the story timeline, something like 11 PM IIRC. If you don't want a phone to give away location, you can power it off. He left it on; in fact the phone was still on while they were searching, just never pinged again. The phone ping was the reason they found the clothes and all that evidence, and I think he wanted that to happen.
With Nala, I don't think he ever intended to point towards Nahiku. I'm thinking his original plan was to leave her at this fake spot that would keep everyone searching, but then he realized she would most likely end up back on the highway and likely to get hit. He cared about the dog, so he took her to a nearby commercial area where she would smell people and hang out and be found. However, his concern for Nala hurt his coverup, because people immediately pegged Steven as the only likely person who Nala would have tolerated. Plus a stranger killer would not care about the dog's welfare, would certainly not give it a ride to a safe haven after killing a woman. Steven blew that one.
With the SUV, Steven was careful to say in his interview that abandoned cars end up on Peahi Road, stripped and torched. I think he wanted people to believe maybe she stopped for someone and was carjacked by a killer, maybe a serial killer. And that vandals ended up with her vehicle and did what they always do on Maui. Of course, it was also a site close to his home and comfortable turf for him.
Back to whether or not he really asked her to go help with his truck -- what if he just called her and asked her to come over that night before she went home? He could have said he wanted to talk baby names or baby anything, or just sweet-talked her, as she was susceptible to him. To me it makes more sense that she only planned to go to his nearby house, and had no thought of driving out the Hana Highway at night, didn't wonder why he couldn't get a buddy to help him, and so forth. She would not be thinking it was anything too unusual. She was in Haiku and he lived in Haiku, so it was close. She wouldn't be concerned about wearing herself out, pregnant and already tired, working the next day. She wouldn't have a reason to wonder what he was up to and be on her guard. Much easier than some plan to overpower her in the SUV or to lead her down some dirt road in the dark. Besides which, as she did not follow him back, there would have only been one vehicle, the SUV, so how does he get her to pull over when she does not see his truck by the side of the road? It doesn't seem like a situation he could well very control, the way he could control the scene in his own prepared ambush on his own turf.
There is enough information in the article about the motion to dismiss, to let us know the police presented what they considered evidence that he was driving his truck and was caught on traffic cam during the time frame when it was supposedly stuck. That tells us the police theory is going to be the truck was never out there. But do they think he killed her out there or dumped her out there? I think that is what he wants. He knows they need a body for the best case against him. I think his plan must have revolved around how to keep them from ever finding her, start with a wild goose chase.
Then take the clothes out there, and her jawbone, and gloves and duct tape rolls and everything suggestive of the body getting wrapped up and taped. Leaves the clothes in a pile close to a road, and scatters the rest of the evidence just a little to make it look like pieces fell out of a bundle in the dark. Near a beach of sorts, access to the ocean, everyone will be thinking that's where she is. I can picture him totally enjoying the idea they will never stop searching that area.
The area all this stuff was found was in a remote area of Maui, but it was not remote from the road that went in. It wasn't hidden. There's jungle and gulches and pali (cliffs) out there, impossible terrain, but he just happens to leave her telltale clothes in a single pile on the ground? I just don't buy it. It totally feels like he was planting Easter eggs for the searchers.
