I'm wondering if the water searches (pudding pond, sacco river) were related to the phone not being able to be turned off unless you undo the screws and take out the battery or drop in water. Is the phone key to the thinking? Or is it the route and where she was last maybe seen on the route (Eagle's way or NS highway or possibly Wallmart?)--either by camera or by "sighting"?
We don't know about any of the "tips." We do know the route home.
If you wanted to meet up with someone who was going to pick you up after school and you wanted it to be a secret, wouldn't you head over to the NS Highway rather than going into town with the other kids? And wouldn't you do whatever you needed to do to make sure the phone wouldn't give your location away?
So, that requires a motivated and savvy runaway. It would require an assistant who wouldn't be traceable via social media. A vehicle. Some money. A lot of willpower. Motivation (most likely something more dire than following a dream? Arguable). Emotional commitment (serious depression, a lot of anger, fear--more than just experimenting with independence?).
What would the assistant need--?
To be older. To have a job that allowed flex time. Money. Privacy. An attachment to AH--to hurt her, to control her, or to "save" her, to "help" her.
How would she meet such a person? In person: Ski bums come through. Religious cults, Predators. Ex-teachers, camp counselors.
On line: Without leaving a trail? Seems dubious.
I'm going to put something out there I've been wondering so please allow for an opinion, not a statement of fact. I'll highlight facts in blue for those who might get confused.
I posted yesterday a side by side of the map of the area the FBI focused on for their search and a map of one of the routes shaded in the Green Hills Preserve. I posted it because I found it interesting that the area the search was focused on was the same as one of the running/biking/snowmobile routes in the preserve. I also believe, if AH was abducted, it was by someone she knew enough to trust and get into a car with. I don't know if she was intending on running away and secured passage with someone she knew, or if someone she knew came upon her in a vehicle and offered her a ride for some agreed upon purpose (getting a coffee and chat, a ride to a store, a bite to eat, etc) and it doesn't matter.
ZH says she feels AH got into a car and "things went bad" (paraphrasing) and I tend to side with a mother's intuition, she knows her child better than anyone. She carried that child in her body, tended her all her life and although
she didn't know AH was walking home, she has an attachment to her daughter that only a mother can have and we mothers are intuitive when it comes to our children. I have thought for some time that the someone she trusted may have been someone she met through running. At these running events you meet people, but you don't really "know" them. It's like when you go to the same grocery store day after day, and you have the same cashier. You "know" the cashier, but you don't really "know" them. It's my opinion that whoever grabbed her, if she was grabbed, was someone she knew but didn't know well. I think they used the trail to either subdue her or lure her to a place where she could be subdued. It's also my opinion that the person who may have taken her, if she was taken, knew those trails well. I believe she somehow either planned to meet or ran into this person behind Walmart and then somehow ended up on that bike/running/snowmobile trail, and may have even been heading in the direction of her home. I think this person lured her to a place she could be subdued or suggested they get a coffee and got her into his car, disabled her phone and took off. I just don't think it was coincidence that the trail and the search area were one in the same. The only part that doesn't fit my supposition is the
Saco River search. At any rate, if she was abducted I think it was someone who knew the trails and someone she met through the running events. JMO. I think what the running group has done for AH's family is incredible, but it's always worried me that one of them could have had something to do with AH's disappearance. I could be way off track, since we don't know if she was abducted or has run away, but I think it's worth putting the opinion out there since we're lucky enough to have someone posting here who is part of that group and would be in the unique position of being able to recognize anything suspicious.
Excuse the choppiness of the post, interruptions abound. Let me know if you need footnoted MSM of any of the blue highlighted facts. It may take me time, but I think can produce them. The rest is opinion, supported I feel from the aforementioned facts. I don't have any opinion on who that person who may have abducted AH is, nor am I of the opinion that abduction is the only answer, this opinion is one of many I have regarding AH's disappearance. It may well be she was abducted by a stranger, she may have gone for a walkabout and slipped off a rock, she may be sitting in someone's living room reading this post and shaking her head (preferred outcome), but this is one of my opinions on what happened, with all due respect to any family or friends that may be perusing the boards.