Jumping in with my thoughts after spending all day and half the night catching up from page 1.
I'm not convinced at this juncture that AL is the killer, although he seems a pretty likely suspect. Sure curious about his GF.
IF there was some sort of relationship, either real or merely perceived, between Alicia and AL, and she caught on to that...
That said, he's clearly not the brightest cookie in the jar, and IF he was responsible for the murder and new to the area, the workplace makes sense as a dump site. Simply because he was familiar with it, and probably not many other places since he had been in town no more than 3 months. And heck, it's pretty remote, they close around sundown, and offers impressive cover for a generally impressively flat state.
And he would grab the nearest, most accessible easily acquired accelerant. Plain old gasoline and a few matches. He's not smart enough for anything more, and why go to the trouble, especially if this was not premeditated (I shudder to think it could have been). IMHO, if he was the one who did this, she was burned simply because he thought it would destroy evidence. Meantime I can also picture him leaving a couple Marlboro butts behind. And oodles of evidence in the SUV.
I'm also not convinced that he necessarily ran because he was responsible for this. Mostly career criminal, likely on probation and maybe not allowed outside of TX depending on the terms of it, and the cops come knocking at his door with a search warrant. Bubba going to be scared and book. Of course that doesn't mean he isn't guilty, but I also would not be completely shocked if more info comes out to point to other individuals. Perhaps jealousy or an old-fashioned teenaged love triangle.
Still, at this juncture, with what info we do know, all roads seem to point to him.
I'm reasonably certain he picked her up, and her mother only presumed it was the ex-boyfriend. But that fact I don't think has been cleared up yet in reports. If she was picked up by an ex boyfriend and he has a current "love interest" she might not have taken that well at all.
He has been married in the past. In 1999 in TX. Do not know when divorced, but his ex shows a 2nd marriage in TX in 2005 (presuming it is the same EED in same county of course).
Please do NOT click on the link and download the zipped source file, or do so at your own risk. Just search for his name on this page and you'll see the one and only born @1974 and with the middle initial of J.
http://sortedbyname.com/soundex/d-412.html
I don't think it has a thing to do with this case, except they might have had children, so he could well have 2 children of his own, in addition to the two that are his GF's. Will eventually be clarified, but one hopes he never procreated.
There is an AJL Jr, claiming to be 13 out there (in Corpus). I hope he is the son of another AJL from TX. Has a little brother and sister. Myspace.
Somebody posted the below link earlier, before his very-much-matching description of criminal history in TX was mentioned by media today, and I think it bears reposting to demonstrate his clear lack of intelligence. In case it wasn't made apparent when he went on camera and stated Alicia had repeatedly texted him for rides. Something clearly was going on there (beer, drugs, ???), and somebody is going to pony up that info eventually, as girls will talk.
http://www2.mcdowellnews.com/news/2009/feb/04/texas-man-charged-last-weeks-bomb-threats-ar-1561/