I am not disagreeing with you here. Once she regains consciousness, how do you prevent her, from A) Exiting the vehicle. B) Running maniacally like instinct will have most people do?
How long do you think she could stay in the car while it's ablaze? At very least we know she wasn't found in the car, so we have to assume she exited it under her own power.
How would you explain what would IMO appear to be an evenly distributed body burn while some surfaces would have been oxygen deprived?
I'm not arguing, I want your opinion.
Don't worry, I didn't think you were arguing at all - these are really important questions! And I'm still thinking it through myself, but here goes...
I am operating under the assumption that she was either A) not meant or expected to regain consciousness (i.e., drugged or beaten + assumed that she'd simply burn up inside); B) never unconscious but beaten or drugged etc. enough that she was not meant or expected to be able to exit the car.
I don't think the perps expected she would ever be able to exit the vehicle on her own volition, and I really don't think they expected anyone else would have been the last to see her alive...suffice it to say they never expected her to run maniacally (if she indeed did).
Correct - we know she was not found in the car, so she wasn't necessarily trapped in there. This points back to the killers really not considering she'd exit, though! I do believe she left the car under her own power.
The evenly distributed body burn (if that is actually true) - if you've thoroughly doused someone or something with gasoline or a highly flammable liquid, the flame follows that source. I can't comment precisely on this as a definitive answer in Jessica's case, because I am speculating on the extent of the use of the accelerant (we do not know how much was used or where specifically). I suppose if the soles of her shoes had been muddy or dirty, that could have aided in resistance to flames, but I don't think that would be totally sufficient to prevent burns on her feet. My guess is that the soles themselves of her shoes were a better physical boundary than anything else, but that they would have eventually melted given enough time/exposure to heat.
I have cited a book previously that is a nonfiction account of a plane crash (
Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds) - and will relate that the jet fuel that had splashed on anyone + anything + caught fire was incredibly resistant to efforts at smothering or rolling the fire out. Particularly, passengers whose clothing got soaked + caught flame nearly all suffered unrecoverable burn injuries. :-(
That is just my off-the-cuff best guess response at this point. I hope it was helpful.