I agree that it's highly unlikely that James somehow died on
the wooded trail to his house and just hasn't been found.
However, I feel like I can't say it's impossible, given
the recent case of Tyler Goodrich. Tyler was "found in a wooded area 967 yards from his home" and is "believed to have been in the location for more than a year," even though "the area had been searched by public volunteers." Tyler hung himself, and
searchers missed him because "volunteers did not expect to find Goodrich in a vertical position but were probably looking at ground level. He said Goodrich was found close to a tree trunk which made it difficult to see him."
I'm not saying this is what happened to James or that he took his own life, etc. But Tyler's case has forever given me pause and made me reconsider possible scenarios in missing persons cases.
I agree that a reckless driver could've accidentally run James over and then tried to dispose of him. But I feel like in this scenario, it's easier for the driver to just keep going, rather than to dispose of the victim. He risks being seen by other witnesses, not to mention becoming contaminated by the victim's DNA.
What stands out to me now, though, three years after my comment above, is that, according to the Doe Network, James "was seen leaving the bar alone... visibly intoxicated.
Witnesses assumed he was headed home on foot." This makes it sound like they didn't actually see James begin his walk home.
In this case, could James, for whatever reason, have headed in the
opposite direction,
towards Ritchie Highway (Highway 2)? Maybe someone driving by noticed he was drunk, offered him a ride, and that person had bad intentions? Have we been looking in the wrong direction this whole time?
