I'm still stuck on the timeline and basic circumstances. I'll just put my thoughts here--as best I could organize them--in case it prompts discussion. I also welcome corrections, as I'm not as knowledgeable here as I am on other cases.
The husband leaves at 6:48am, after helping post signs around the neighborhood and take the sale items out of the garage.
Some of these items are both big ticket and unwieldy, including the Keurig and the treadmill. Unless it was broken, I couldn't see parting with the treadmill for less than $150. Was she prepared to give change for these sales? (Also, the treadmill seems like something I'd give family and friends first pick.)
What's always caught my eye in the news footage is the helmet (next to the top hat). I've got an extended family member who has spent a few grand on the raw materials to make his own stormtrooper costume and accessories (
it's a kit you shape to your body specifications). Another buddy of mine said the most realistic helmets cost north of $100. From the photos posted by the news and memorial sites, it's not her helmet (the hooded one).
Given their charity work and friend circle within the legion, I'm wondering why she chose to sell the helmet at the yard sale. Maybe they were flush with stormtrooper helmets, and this was just a cheaper model that took up space and wasn't worth selling via their network as a collectible?
Back to the timeline, it was cold and humid the previous night, so I'm assuming the electronic and fabric items would NOT have been put out the night before. I'll be conservative and say it took 30 min. to get the folding table out and assembled, then lay out neatly the rest.
Then let's say 10-15 min. to hang signs around the neighborhood? The news reports/interviews allude to the couple doing the sign hanging together. Perhaps they walked their dog during this time? Or did they drive around? It would have been much darker and chillier out, so maybe they drove to do this? I wouldn't want to leave all my stuff unattended, especially given the "feeding frenzy" yard sale culture that our kind Houstonian Websleuthers have described.
My own rough timeline starts to look like the following:
5:30am-6:00am - wake-up, dress, breakfast/coffee
6:00am-6:15am - neighborhood sign posting
6:15am-6:45am - driveway set-up (maybe moving vehicles to street?)
Assuming the shooter didn't camp out overnight, arrival of the Nissan is sometime in that block above. Did the couple cross paths with the truck when they went to post the signs? Was the truck parked elsewhere in the neighborhood waiting for the husband to leave? I can't imagine it would have been idling long, because the truck would have had to block the driveway of either the house on the corner of Smoke Lake and Cedar Walk or the one right next to it. A truck parked the wrong way blocking my (or my neighbor's) driveway would get my attention.
The second image of the truck (I know this has been discussed) is either from recon on a previous day or when the truck doubled back. If the truck then exited/entered via Kuykendahl, there would have been an additional image from this camera. I wouldn't risk stopping at a light or passing a bank complex, so I think Princeton is out, too. That leaves the back (I don't know when that newer development was being constructed), Barmby, or Haigshire. I'd guess Haigshire to facilitate an easy right (esp. important given morning traffic) and skip the intersection. Fourth option, I suppose, is that the truck never left the neighborhood.
If the truck leaves the neighborhood AND makes the right turn on to Kuykendahl as predicted, then I'd expect the truck would show up on at least one of the cameras of the numerous gas stations along that road. We'd never know if HCSO asked for that footage... but what troubles me more is that I can't recall seeing them ask drivers to check their dash cam footage. They ask for help identifying the shooter/driver, but not of the vehicle, even though HCSO was immediately aware of the neighbor's recording. In previous cases (as well as those that followed) HCSO has made public requests for drivers and residents to check their cameras. I can't find where this request was made in this case, at least in a prominent way reflected in news articles. This leads me to believe that a.) HCSO know where the truck went and can't identify it because of non-existent/altered plates, b.) HCSO did not think this potential footage was important for some other reason, c.) HCSO mishandled some of the initial investigation, or d.) all of the above.
Like others, I think the mysteriously evaporating search warrant was a dragnet that either revealed nothing, is ongoing (waiting for reactivation of a line via Stingray), or utilized DHS-level data that wouldn't be admissible in court or is a matter of national security. I think if her murder had ties to her employment, the case wouldn't be solely in the hands of the HCSO. Also, I'll learn toward the first two options because cell records seem to be this particular detective's jam. When he shows up in court records, his testimony tends to center on cellular records/location activity. I do find it a bit odd that he's dropped out of media sight entirely, considering his previous involvement in cases that received some public interest, including on television.
I'll wrap up here by being charitable to HCSO and suggest that another, more mundane reality is that prosecutors have the evidence they need and are simply waiting on availability for a grand jury. My impression, however, is that this is not a likely reality.
