Kimster, I am inclined to think that Kyron physically walked out alone;this could go virtually unnoticed,imo. That could have been to follow TH or to follow another person that was of appeal to him. It's not hard to get a youngster to a car with a simple enticement. What I really cannot get past, is why anyone would choose to do this at school of all places. It is a long shot to get someone out completely undetected, yet, that is what happened.
There is such a huge missing piece here. Because to be honest, while I think TH is involved, disappearing from the school in such a way does not fit a family or a stranger abduction to me.
Now that alien Christmas siggy does have me thinking though.
I just re-read some of the Ted Bundy books, so good old Ted is on my mind.
He described to Stephen Michaud and Hugh Aynesworth how he developed into a killer via a process of many, many successive approximations. He started out as a peeping tom and by doing it every evening when he had no other commitments, he gained proficiency. Then he started following women pedestrians at night, until he was skilful enough to follow them for many blocks without them showing any signs of noticing him. Then he started breaking into homes but leaving as soon as anyone saw him. And so on.
Bundy and/or the writers spent a lot of time on the emotions driving the behaviour but what I found fascinating as a dog trainer was the behaviour components. Setting aside motivation, Bundy basically taught himself to be an effective predator by giving each of the component skills a lot of practise.
And then I think about one of my best friends, who was a sniper in the Army. He was very motivated to hone his own skills because those skills would be a significant factor in his own personal survival.
So one thing he thought of to do on his own was to stalk and catch feral cats on base. He reasoned that feral cats are innately wary and cautious, so if he could sneak up on a feral cat successfully using the skills he'd been instructed in, he could do so to a human being. He would go out at night (when the cats were most active) and get close enough to one without using any sort of bait or lure to grab it. Then he put it in a cage and took it to the local animal shelter.
My friend was using his skills to serve his country and help keep himself alive while doing so. He's a good guy and obviously he did survive. But it's not too difficult to imagine someone with less honourable intentions developing the same skills for evil purposes.
All this is my rambling way of saying that there are predators who habitually keep practising their skills as often as possible. If, while they are practising, they spot a victim... well, then you have an Amber Dubois or Chelsea King situation, a Somer Thompson situation, etc.
