Hi everyone.
So, I've been interested in this case for a long time, but never thought to look it up on Websleuths until after listening to the Gone Cold podcast. I read all the threads and was caught up until about 6-8 months ago, but now I've caught up again, and all that to say--I have a couple of things to touch on that have been brought up recently(ish).
First, the pretty startling (to me) revelation that FW Cat was friends with DA. I believe it was FW_Froggy who shared that, and I don't know if that was just based on the two seen talking to each other during the car-raising event, or if they (sorry, I don't know your gender, Froggy) know that Cat and DA are long time friends. But this occurred to me....maybe DA told Cat something about what happened during that time period. I don't mean a confession, or anything directly relating to the disappearance. FW Cat said that the infamous bowling alley fight started because TT found out (I believe she said or implied that he found out from DA) that Rachel was not pregnant when she and TT got married, which was the reason he married her. Maybe DA DID tell her that part. If so, IMO, that takes the "killed her in a rage when he found out she'd been with VB" theory a whole new credence.
Next, something that's been discussed ad nauseum--the letter. I don't know who wrote it (but I'm inclined to believe whoever said they'd seen it in or on the house before the disappearance). One thing I'm certain of, is that the person who wrote it didn't write the envelope--not one letter on it looks the same. So, for all that EVERYone else in this story seems suspicious and/or is hiding something, the letter brings it back to the two people who were present when it supposedly arrived. So....the podcast True Crime Garage did an episode on this case. No new info, but one of the reasons I like this show is that the hosts can sometimes be pretty insightful IMO. One of the things they said was, regarding the last L in Rachel that looks like it was originally an E. Nic's theory was that it was written by someone who's used to writing two Es.....he thought Renee wrote it. Under duress maybe, I didn't pay much attention because I don't see how it matters if Renee wrote it. But then....Beubeubeu shares that ST's middle name is Renee. Hmmm.
I've always wondered, as I think most of us have, about her allegedly seeing the girls at Minot. None of it makes sense, not only the confusion about where/who Shawn was supposed to be with that day, but also the fact that not one person who claims to have seen the girls when Rachel came to pick them up on Gordon have said Shawn was present WHY would she make up a story about being possibly the last one to see the girls? The only thing I can think of is to place her car on Minot in case someone saw it.
I can't figure out what part she might have played in the disappearance though. I can't imagine that DA and ST would cover for her if she did something--and I can't imagine why she would want to harm any of them--but I also can't imagine she'd risk serious trouble to help cover up for her ex husband, even for financial reasons. Of course, like most of the characters in this tragedy, we don't know much about who they actually are She might be just the type of person to do that.
Ok, that's a lot of words to say basically nothing important, but maybe something to mull over. I appreciate everyone who keeps this thread active.