I'll give it another shot. This one will probably sound like a plot directly out of a bad B level movie, but I'm running out of steam. Partially because there's not much to actually sleuth with the little we've been given, but more to get back to the tragedy that happened to MT instead of focusing on who may or may not lose money because of her death.
So, I'm going to start with CR and one of his 2 friends he was seen with a lot were in town and happened to pass MT along the way. CR made a comment about how he'd like to get to know her better, and his friend tells him to just go talk to her. They drive past her several (a few?, I don't remember what was said) times while he tries to decide if he should. This goes on for several minutes before she turns onto 385th Avenue and started heading to a more isolated area.
He finally decides to go for it, and the friend pulls over to let him out. He runs up behind MT until he catches up, and then he runs next to her and tries to talk to her. She gets freaked out for obvious reasons and threatens to call the police if he doesn't go away. He's mad and embarrassed since his friend witnessed him getting shot down, and he knocks her to the ground, hitting her head on the pavement. His friend pulls up and they throw her into the car. I'd prefer not to go into what I think they may have done to her, but eventually she ends up in the trunk. This is the only thing I could come up with that would make sense of the other car being involved... They realized they had screwed up and couldn't really go anywhere to get cleaned up because they'd be in trouble as soon as anyone saw their bloody clothes, etc., so one of them calls the other friend to bring them some clean clothes and maybe some wet rags and towels to get cleaned up with. They took her into the cornfield and waited there for the other friend to show up.
At some point, they cleaned the car and burned the clothes, towels, etc. and thought they were safe. When LE showed up at the farm and asked about the car, one of the "friends" could be who told them it was one that CR used. Once they arrested him, the other two took off, and CR confessed to doing it alone either out of loyalty (unlikely) or out of fear of retaliation if he implicated anyone else. Whether he actually did the stabbing or not, legally he would still be just as guilty as anyone else, so it wouldn't really benefit him much to say anything anyway, but maybe he just couldn't bring himself to say that he was the one who had actually assaulted and murdered her.
Turn in next week for another episode of "As the Stomach Turns". MOO