Great point, Oriah....I totally agree.
My daughter had a young man in her life once that scared the heck outta me. But not at first. Only after I had been around him and realized his anger problems. Everyone knew about them but brushed them aside because he was handsome and was a good athlete. He had quite the obsession with my daughter and once she realized for herself what his issues were, she had a tough time getting separated from him.
During this period I was actually worried for her physical safety. I was constantly calling her. He would drive up and down our street....he would stalk our daughter at her work. He came to the door one night to see her and simply grabbed the screen door open and pushed his way in. I was folding clothes one afternoon and walked through my family room to see him standing there. Let me tell ya, I was fairly terrified by these happenings.
My daughter thought she could reason with him...and to a point, she was correct. If he was upset she could often calm him down just by speaking with him. But if she didn't say just the right things, it made matters worse. For some reason, she felt responsible for keeping him calm and when he lost his temper, she felt responsible too.
Thinking of this makes me believe that Holly was abducted by someone she knew....someone obsessed with her. Perhaps she knew him well...or casually. Even if he injured her (accidental or intentional), she may have thought to herself, "I'll go with him...I'll reason with him....I'll calm him down."
I also believe this abductor was someone young. A young man not much older than Holly (from 21-29). She may have felt that she could influence him if she had a chance to reason with him.
I do believe someone in Parsons knows what happened. Perhaps a family member of the perp. They are probably terrified at how big this case has become...at how the community would react if they knew the truth...what it would do to the family and the family name. They, most likely, are dealing with some denial as well. I think the family has probably covered for this perp before but not for something of this magnitude. In small towns, the family name is everything.