I know there are parts of M's story that are possible, but I'm skeptical for a few reasons. Firstly, she told the story in 2002, 45 years later. That's a long time. We like to think the human memory, especially for traumatic events, is infallible, but it's not. Further, I believe there was a spate of individuals recalling traumatic events with the "assistance" of therapists in the 90s and early 00s that never actually happened. M's story was relayed to LE by her psychiatrist. The story had been presented in the national media several times by 2002, and M did live in the area when Joseph was found so she would have been privy to the situation at the time. I think M may have just been a mentally fragile woman who was conflating the stories she had heard regarding Joseph with her real life. That's my opinion only.