I just wanted to chime in regarding the theory that this was a drug deal gone wrong, which I've seen suggested pretty regularly at various places in these threads. Over the years, I've known quite a few drug dealers in my city, from 45 yo men that have financed their entire adult lives selling cocaine and pills to 20 yos who trade their Adderall prescriptions for weed every month. I can tell you unequivocally that none of them would ever in a million years set up a drug transaction at 4:30am in a public park a mile down a deserted road just outside of a small suburb. In fact, that would probably be the absolute last place they would ever set up a drug deal.
First of all, most of the time this kind of thing just happens at someone's house. That eliminates almost all risk of being caught unless one of the parties is an informant/cop (wherein you're screwed regardless). Second, if you did for some reason need to meet somewhere other than one of the parties homes, you would do it in a populated place during the day, where you can blend into the crowd and avoid suspicion. The parking lot of a big box store or grocery during business hours is common for this scenario. Going to a public park, which is undoubtedly marked for no trespassing after sundown, is an awful place:
-you're transporting drugs in one of the only cars out on the road in the middle of the night (in this case, when the highway patrol has warned people off the roads due to weather)
- if any LEO sees you turning down the dead end road to the park he's going to immediately be even more suspicious
- the park is going to be posted "No trespassing sundown to sunset", so LE immediately has probable cause to search both party's vehicles/person
Doing something like this is all about blending into the background and hiding in plain sight. No drug dealer would put themselves in a situation where they would stick out like a sore thumb like this. It would be like asking to get arrested.
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