I think she got in a vehicle. No one says she was talking to truck drivers so I think it was a passenger vehicle. She was said to be carrying her shoes at one point. Her feet were likely sore. Us girls who grew up in the country were used to going barefoot a lot. She might have set her shoes down or taken them off in the vehicle. I think at that point she was taken to the place she was assaulted and killed. Her clothes were left there and her body was loaded back into the vehicle. When they dumped her they probably saw her shoes still in the car and tossed them too. Unless the killer had some reason for keeping her clothing it was likely left behind and disposed of later. The idea of college kids could fit in with that.
If standing inside a restaurant or next door at the gas station how could you decipher the difference between a everyday traveler and a truck driver? If she took off walking north on 45, she would've passed 50 truckers who would've been long gone by the time she was found and not able to be questioned by authorities. You can't rule them out. Half the witnesses were already hundreds of miles away by the time anyone knew she was dead. I'm not ruling out anything. This is obviously a hard case to crack because there were probably at least 300 people that were there that can never be talked too. Between travellers filling up cars, truckers, and hookers. How many hookers do you think would openly go talk to a cop about what they might've seen while they were working as lot lizards?