Agreed, although AFAIK the pizza thing (and indeed the entire Brawley trip) remains an unconfirmed spanner in the timeline. I haven't seen on a map exactly where Audrey's sister's place is, relative to Audrey's start point and supposed direction of travel (I have seen exactly where the car was found). Would be helpful to see that approximate route drawn up, or as much if it as we can infer, if anyone has the time/inclination.
Re: phone pings, I'm a little sketchy on specifics - am I right in thinking you only get a 'ping' when your phone is switched on AND trying to send or receive information? In other words, it doesn't ping while off or idle, right?
Happy to be corrected, but if I've understood that right, then the only way a phone ping can only tell you where somebody *wasn't* is by a process of elimination after it tells you where they *were*. No pings coming from a particular location doesn't really say anything on its own.
I did also wonder if the location of the car might suggest a possible altercation with someone merging onto the freeway 100yds back. On-ramps are a common spot for near misses and suchlike. Although that scenario really would ask more questions than it answers re: where the car was headed at the time, so it's not especially helpful I know.
I'll address the phone-ping question first. Our phones ping even when we are not making or receiving calls and texts, because, especially now, any time our phone receives updates for apps, etc. (which is often automatic) the phone makes contact with a tower. And there are so many towers now, that this interaction can be constant, especially with those who are on their phones, and have all the apps, that most millennials have. From all reports, AM and JDR were on their phones a lot.
So if you are reading a call report and the tower contact goes to zero, especially when there had been a lot of activity prior, you can assume that either the phone was deliberately powered off; or the battery died; or the phone is in airplane mode, or the phone is out of reach of a tower. (this assessment might be different if you were looking at the call log of someone who doesn't use their cell a whole lot. and has no apps, doesn't download media, isn't on FB, etc.)
In this case, the reports are varied, but at the very least AM's phone only pinged in the East Coachella Valley (some reports differ and state it was Indio and Coachella) that evening, and then after midnight neither AM or JDR's phone pinged at all. Period. We don't know how close to midnight, these two were still pinging, though. What has been reported is that the last contact either of the two, had by way of their phones, (or at least AM had) was sometime after 8 when AM was in contact with her mother--by text or voice or both--this is unclear. But after midnight on May 10, neither AM or JDR's phones have pinged again.
Regarding a map, it's not that difficult to make your own. Put the following cities into a Google Map: Brawley, Coachella, Indio, Palm Desert & Beaumont--and you can see where each lie in relation to the other:
AM lived in Indio with her parents.
AM worked and went to school in Palm Desert.
JDR lived in Palm Desert--actually, very close to where AM went to school. (Someone on this thread actually found what looks to have been his apartment complex If you comb back, you can find this.)
AM's sister, apparently lives in Coachella. And the initial report was that AM stopped by her sister's home as she was going to meet and pick up JDR somewhere south of Coachella, in the direction of Brawley. He was apparently returning from B. But this has never been publicly confirmed.
And of course AM's SUV was found near the exit for Oak Parkway, on I-10, in Beaumont.
There are people on this forum who know these areas first hand. They may be able to help you out more in terms of specific details there.
Hope that helps.
