MLT news also reports another detail that I don't believe has been mentioned before:
On Feb. 14, DeBoer’s body was discovered by search crews in a culvert located at the intersection of 244th Street Southwest and Cedar Way, also in Mountlake Terrace. DeBoer had a plastic bag loosely taped over her head. The autopsy, performed by the Snohomish County Medical Examiner, determined asphyxiation and fresh water drowning as the cause of death.
http://mltnews.com/medical-examiner-cheryl-deboer-death-ruled-a-suicide/
If the bag was in fact taped, maybe the police were able to find Cheryl's finger prints on the tape? And also on the razor?
For me, the medical examiner's report has raised more questions than it has answered...but I do accept their findings.
I have known people that have hidden their unhappiness and problems from the world.
My questions about this case are not to why she may have chosen to suicide...her reasons may have been many and varied... For many, it is not heartbreak, financial ruin or bad health that push a person to suicide. For many it is the continuing, unchanging routine of life, the feeling of insignificance, the question of why tomorrow?
With the ME's findings we now have to accept that the car was not "staged", the 'blood' scattered about was not an act of subterfuge, just a sloppy meal.
I think, if we accept suicide, we must also accept that Cheryl wanted to conceal that from her family. And without the prolonged and persistent searches organized by friends, family and colleagues a month after her disappearance it is possible that she may have gone undetected for many months. If she had lain in that culvert into the summer months perhaps the evidence of suicide - the bag, blade, tape etc would have all but been eradicated.
I think Cheryl either took her missing possessions into the culvert with her (and water current has carried them off) or she ditched them en route, perhaps in a dumpster or trash can. And I also think it's possible for a person in dark, hooded clothes to walk a mile and a half in light rain and not one person register or remember, especially at 7:00am on a Monday morning.
Suicide is a bitter pill all concerned, but I can accept it.