I think it would be a lot easier to believe it is a local because then we hope we would have a better chance of seeing him/them caught. I tend to think more out of the box.
I keep thinking about the case from Oct 2012 where the 11 yo girl from Cody, Wy was taken at gunpoint by Jesse Paul Speer when he approached a group of three girls about his missing puppy in broad daylight right near the library and the police station. He took her up into the mountains where he assaulted her before finally releasing her in the dark. She was able to make it down to a road where some hunters leaving for the night came upon her and rescued her.
Speer, a photographer with some Colorado ties, lived some 200 miles away in Manhattan Montana (near Bowman) from the site where the girl in Cody WY was taken. He had no ties to the girls or to Cody. He was said to have traveled all over through the national forests and parks with his truck that was full of pictures of naked young girls. He had a photography business with published works. I seem to remember seeing some of his pictures of lonely trees and maybe bridges in desolate places? I don't know if LE is working on identifying the photos or even the locations of some of his photo shots. What if he had pictures of one of the seven bridges?
As far as I'm concerned, he could actually be a suspect in this case. I would like to know where he was back in July. What if he was going to take their pictures as a surprise for their parents? Not local and no ties. There are probably a lot more like him roaming around with no ties to the area they may strike.
Sorry to go on with so much detail, but I couldn't find a link to her thread. Once WS removes an identity and moves or changes the thread category, it's sometimes hard to search for the case. I sure need to catch back up on this case.
Here it is! I finally found it by going through google.
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187167&page=1