I wonder if Tara often asked her mother to come look for her if she wasn't back by a certain time. I get that she didn't want to miss tennis with the boyfriend later that afternoon, but as a young woman with a pretty packed schedule it seems curious to ask if it was just this one time. Especially since from what I've read this was a nearly daily ride for her. If she didn't typically ask, I wonder if she could have either been meeting someone/s or otherwise known someone/s might be waiting for her and wanted back up. If so, I don't think she was anticipating violence, and certainly not disappearing or she wouldn't have gone at all.
Per the article, I find the man "waving his arms" interesting. It seems he wasn't flagging another motorist down, so my first guess is that's something you do when annoyed. I'm sure Tara was aware of road safety, but as Devil's Advocate...could she have swerved out or (not hearing a car behind her due to her headphones) have spit her gum out on someone's windshield? Or something else to annoy a motorist and/or cause an incident between two cars? I'm thinking not a damaging accident since it was a short time before everyone was gone from the scene. If the two cars were together and known to each other, that's an even greater risk of someone noting license plates, etc. rather than just waving arms.
