I have to say that I feel very badly for LB's family, there is no closure for them and there may never be. It is very sad to think that something happened in LB's life to take her from a her good family and promising school path to a place of desperation where she may have been somewhat cast-off by her friends when they didn't or couldn't favourably respond to her calls for what I have to assume were seeking help of one kind or another. I agree with you, Snoofo that usually when someone calls after a long absence it is usually because they need or want something, and sadly, when people realize that is the point of the call, they often find an excuse to get off the phone and maybe not answer it again the next time they call. Or even if they call regularly, but lately have always been asking for things, it makes a person not want to answer their calls anymore. I can see that as being a logical reason why DM might have ignored the phone calls. I don't think the next logical jump is to kill the annoying caller though, and I cannot see why anyone would assume that, no matter what purchases were made that month. If DM had bought a chainsaw that month instead, or the wood chipper, or even a baseball bat, would it still be so readily assumed that he had killed her? Is it too difficult to also suppose she might have instead said to herself 'Screw all these so called friends who won't answer my calls, I'm outta here!'?
To me part of the mystery is that if she had a good friend like SL who cared for her and was willing to provide her with the things she needed, why did she still have to call around to everyone else, weren't her needs now met? Did she perhaps not want to be obligated to him? I am one of the people who are of the opinion that she may have only taken his help out of desperation, but was still perhaps trying to distance herself from their past relationship. In my personal experience, the only time I was in a relationship with someone who wanted to know my passwords, especially for FB and such personal sites such as email or banking, it was because they felt the need to control more of my life and snoop through my correspondences looking to see who might be hitting on me. And for what it's worth, that person ended up pleading guilty to an assault charge as a result of an email. That's only my experience, I cannot speak for Laura, but I believe that to LE this is a fairly common story, and I can imagine that LE might jump to the conclusion that she had left to get away from a controlling ex.
To me, the thing that gives me hope that she is still alive somewhere in the world is that she brought her dog back home before she left. From what I hear, in the world of escorts, there are a lot of opportunities for international travel, especially for pretty, fresh faced young blondes or those seeking adventure (or escape or so called easy money). I imagine it is often on short notice, and even if an animal had all the necessary paperwork and shots and possible quarantine in time, is there really someone willing to pay for their escort to bring her dog along? And would one really be able to take care of it in a foreign land while working full time (which, in that occupation could really be 24 hours a day or more)? In that case I think the only thing to do would be to drop it off somewhere safe, where you know that they won't just get sick of your dog and give it away (or try to keep it), especially if you are not sure how long you will be gone for.
But I have to be honest and say that dropping off her dog is also the same thing that makes me sadly also suspect that she may have killed herself instead. Before the escort allegations came out, when her friends on the the FB page seemed to be acting like there was something no one was saying, I remember seeing the word 'tendencies' pop up frequently in reference to LB, and I honestly thought that they were talking about suicidal tendencies, since 'suicidal' is a word that often comes before 'tendencies'. I wouldn't say someone has prostitutional tendencies, I would associate the word prostitution with words like 'dallying in' or 'dabbling in' or 'penchant for', but maybe I'm a word snob. And I have known people to kill themselves over lessor things than heavy drug use or feeling degraded from selling their body or being homeless. Some people will kill themselves because someone they really loved broke up with them, which could also possibly explain the large amount of phone calls in a short span that went unanswered.
There are many possibilities about what could have happened to Laura, but I feel strongly that someone does not drop their dog off with their parents because they are planning on being murdered. I believe someone also pointed out that there are some heavy drugs like meth that can so dramatically alter your appearance in such a short time that she could be living on the streets in Toronto and be completely unrecognizable, and also have her brain be so fried out that she doesn't realize what's going on at all. Or she could be somewhere great, doing well, and fully aware that DM is suspected of killing her, and thinking it's funny how when she needed his help he turned her down, now look who needs whose help. There are too many possibilities and no real clues. But, honestly, I really don't see any motive for DM to harm her either.
