Hi, I'm new here. I'm on websleuths due to a personal connection with a different case in Texas. Just this week I started reading about WCJD and made it through all 66 pages on the thread. I had begun to make some assumptions when I read the most recent article from the local abc news station that said something no other post (as I can recall) has said..."On Saturday, November 1, 1980, at 9:20am, a Walker County Sheriff's Office Deputy responded to a call of a body located on the shoulder of IH-45 north of Huntsville, one half mile south of the FM 1696 exit. The body had been reported by a passing trucker."
I find the 9:20 am time very important for a number of reasons.
-I had assumed she had been abducted while she walked this relatively short distance, murdered and dumped within the night.
-If her LKA was 6:30 the night before, this is a 15 hour gap until she was spotted. That is much longer than I had imagined, and a really long time for a trucker.
-I live about 1 hour from the Ellis Unit. At this time of the year it gets dark around 5:30 and the sun comes up around 6:30 (I checked the daylight saving schedule and this is accurate for 1980 as well)
-It took 3 hours of sunlight for someone to notice her body on the shoulder of a very busy interstate? (this is the ONLY route between Houston and Dallas)
-In three hours of daylight, it is really unlikely that she would have been spared by the vultures and her PM photos show no signs of wildlife "contamination". IDK what it's like in other areas, but here the vultures are very abundant and quick to action. (I'm so sorry I'm writing this and I really hope no one gets disturbed/offended. I can't help but note it).
To me, it seems that she could not have been dumped any time before around 7 am (probably more like 9). If so, she would have been seen by humans or vultures much earlier than 9:20.
I feel like this means that she was either abducted by a local, killed during the night and then dumped to make it look like a hitchhiker attack, or abducted by a trucker who sat with her in his truck all night and into the morning hours. It's most likely that trucker would have been parked there at the Hitchin Post during that time.
Thanks for listening. It's interesting - with fresh eyes, I really didn't think the theory that the trucker who reported her might be the perpetrator. With this last bit of time info (if correct), I think LE should hunt the guy down and re-interview him as the main suspect.
