The things that were odd about the car were the seat position, the handbrake being off, the purse in the door pocket, the passenger door being locked, the driver door being unlocked, and its being parked at a careless angle to the kerb overlapping a garage entrance. All this bespeaks haste. It's certainly possible that she could drive a car with the seat in the wrong position but it would surely have to depend how wrong. I literally can't fit into a car whose seat is positioned to suit Mrs WestLondoner. If she were dashing out of the car, perhaps pursued by her passenger, you have to wonder why he would then bother to lock the passenger door.
AS is quite good on this and describes what would have alternatively been required for SJL to have been dragged out of her car by a male passenger - across the driver's seat presumably given the locked passenger door.
It's a good one to bring up. Everything points to a short errand - not taking a handbag etc - meaning wherever she went was near enough that her car could be got to Stevenage perhaps as early as 2. Whoever did this worked fast.
Passenger door being locked is the oddest thing to me. As I can envisage a scenario where possibly habitually SJL drives the car with the seat pushed back because that's how the blokes in the office leave it. Having agreed to drive the perpetrator somewhere then realising she was in danger, pulled up and fled the car. However, that being the case, the dangerous passenger would have had to dash after her and overcome her and ... then what? Go where? And why would the passenger seat door be locked.
There could also be a scenario where someone has lured SJL to an emergency response to a situation whereby she's driven at full pelt and fled the car to get to them, not caring about the handbrake, her purse, or the quality of parking. That would mean whoever lured her lived right there.
Neither of these scenarios seem very likely at all but I am basically opening up all options in my thinking.
The passenger seat door being locked and the seat pushed back does certainly imply that IF SJL drove a perpetrator to a location, they subsequently both left the car and only one of them returned to it. Serious harm cannot have occurred to her inside the car or there'd be all sorts of evidence. Also her body would not have been transported in it, she was elsewhere.
So it's always the same two questions:
1) did SJL attend a location where she was invited / lured inside, killed and (temporarily or permanently) hidden, then the perpetrator hastily got her car away from the scene?
2) OR did SJL drive a perpetrator somewhere, not too far away, possibly involving a struggle and issues with losing control of the car en route, to a location where she was killed and hidden, then the perpetrator dumped her car within the same area they had never left or returned it to? Clearly the car couldn't be left dumped at the scene of the crime as it would create a connection to the perp but it would have been parked up for some time (very high risk of being seen) and in the cover up why wouldn't the perp then drive it many miles away and dump it in woodland or abandoned premises or drive it into a lake?
In terms of which is the most straightforward (occam's razor) it points to scenario 1 simply because scenario 2 is disorganised, very complicated, frenetic, and makes least sense. To me. MOO JMO.