Okay. Responding to your questions BBM above, with another question:
Wouldn't it be a shocker if it turns out Holt actually didn't shoot Whitney until he got her to Larch Mountain?
Yes, I do know the front passenger window appears open or busted out in the 9:13am Shell video. And I'm aware his confession says he killed her at Dodge/Roslyn.
Bear with me though. It's only a theory, after all. I've mapped it, and the drive times work out.
https://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&so....483725,-122.325211&spn=0.162236,0.31517&z=11
- [ A ]Whitney agrees to give Holt a ride to the bus stop at ~6:50am. Once they reach Hogan, a couple of blocks away, he takes control via gun. It is not known who is driving at this point.
- The Explorer heads southeast, straight out of town; they head east on Dodge Park Avenue. Perhaps they stop briefly for some reason? Anyway on this road, somewhat east of the fork at Orient, is reportedly where Whitney's sweater was found by searchers later that day.
- The Explorer heads ~6 miles further east, onward to Rosslyn Lake [ B ] by ~7:20-7:40?, where it is then parked on SE Thomas, and a sexual assault/attack likely occurs. Perhaps this is when the window is broken? The stolen phone is ditched here and later found by LE. Don't know how long they remained here, but they would have left the area by no later than ~8:35-8:40, with Holt at the wheel.
- Then the Explorer heads north, back in the general direction of town on the way to Larch Mountain, taking the back road (Lusted to Troutdale). At Stark Rd, Holt makes a very short, brief foray west to gas up at the Shell station [ C ] at 9:13, nearly 2.5 hours into the abduction. Then he reverses direction back onto Stark the way he came, continuing east. Note: Stark quickly joins Crown Point Highway, the shortest direct route up to Larch Mountain.
- The Explorer is on Larch Mountain within about a half-hour. [ D ] This is a hunting area where gunshots would not attract any undue attention. Could Whitney have been killed there instead of at Dodge Park? Could he have driven her here specifically to kill her and dump her body? Maybe she was restrained? Maybe she was promised her freedom until the last awful moment when he shot her? Whitney's body is left hidden on the mountain, along with the front license plate and other evidence.
- Then another half-hour back west toward town, perhaps using the Interstate. Holt cleans up the vehicle, gets rid of evidence in parking lot dumpsters, and abandons the Explorer at WalMart [ E ] ~11:17 - 11:39, first showing up on video at WalMart at 11:17 or so, about two hours after gassing up at Shell.
- P.S. *If* Whitney's card was used at the truck stop, as was reported early on, but which LE has not verified, perhaps Holt used it to purchase something there to aid in the cleanup? The truck stop is very close to the WalMart.
Disclaimer: Not saying this is what happened!!
But IMO the drive times match the known timeline points. The routes match the known evidence thus far. It's a total of less than two hours of driving -- one hour, forty minutes per Google estimates.
That would leave Holt
three hours to assault Whitney, shoot her, hide her body, and clean/abandon the Explorer. Plenty of time IMO.
Apologies in advance if I've made any factual errors here; I tried my best to get it right!
No problem with playing with the route theories! (I've been doing some of that myself.) At this point, I'm not sure I could be shocked anymore.
The questions that come to mind, though, with killing her on Larch Mt. concern two things. Just finished reading the pdf and plotting it into my timeline tonight.
The first thing is the amount of blood in the car. The affidavit states that Forensic Scientist Bell said that there was a copious amount of blood in the front seat area as well as the pool of blood (2'x3') on the floor of the back seat that Gleason noted. Why would he drive her all the way to Larch Mt. where gunshots would not be unusual only to shoot her in the car? And if he did, why would he keep her in the car long enough for her to bleed out before hauling her body away and hiding it? If he was going to shoot her up there, seems a lot easier just to force her to walk at gunpoint, then shoot and cover up the body. Less evidence to deal with in the vehicle, which the perp conveniently drove back INTO town for discovery.
(Warning...more graphic):
The second question concerns the window. I have had a theory about that for a couple days, now. And after reading the pdf, I believe it might even have a stronger possibility of being true. In the pdf affidavit Gleason states:
(p.39) "I know form [sic] personally speaking to OSP Forensic Scientist Bell on October 19, 2012 that during her examination of Whitney Heichel's vehicle on Oct. 18, 2012 that there was a
large quantity of blood in the front passenger seat area and the back seat area. She also told me there is what appears to be
bone fragments on the front passenger floorboard area where [sic] were covered up with the floor mat. OSP Forensic Scientist Bell believes that the
bone fragments are apparent skull fragments. She also confirmed that there were four spent shell 9mm casing located in the vehicle.
(P.28) ...The OSP Forensic Scientists did the following:
• Took photographs of the Ford Explorer
• OSP Forensic Scientist Bell
found a spent 9mm casing located on the floor in a pile of auto glass shards that were located between the front passenger's seat and the front passenger's door.
• Per OSP Forensic Scientist Bell the imprint of the casing was "S&B 9x19."
From this is seems to me that the window was not shot out from inside the car, nor kicked out during a struggle. Otherwise you'd not have the "pile of glass shards" between the front passenger seat and door.
To me, with the other evidence on the front windshield, skull and teeth fragments on the front floor and the pile of glass inside the passenger door...it just seems like that first shot was through the front passenger window. I'm guessing perhaps because Whitney had locked the door on her assailant, in a fit of rage he put the gun to the window and fired. After the window fragmented from the bullet impact, it was then able to be punched in and the the rest of the shots probably came in quick succession. Shots coming from the direction of her window would also be consistent with her falling toward the console. The console had a dark red drip streak going down to the back seat floor area. I believe the body was then moved to the back seat floor area, and driven for awhile, given the amount of blood that pooled.
[And Whitney, I hate talking about your last moments like this...but know there are MANY people determined to see your killer brought to justice, and that is what is motivating our discussions. <3]