happyday
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Welcome to WS @Nebenbei!Did the police ever catch the 7-11 robbers? If not, I think they are worth making an extra effort to locate as persons of interest.
The 7-11 was within two miles of the Racetrack. About 5 hours before Alan was at the Racetrack, the robbers fled the 7-11 after shooting the clerk. What the media articles did not mention was whether the robbers fled on foot or with a vehicle. And one of the media reports I saw was published around the same hour that Alan disappeared - and, at the time the article was published the robbers had not been found
If they were on foot - two miles is a distance most people can walk in well under an hour. So that suggests that there were two armed and dangerous criminals on the run from a crime scene within walking distance of the area where Alan passed through.
As previously mentioned, the DART station is a short distance up Inwood from the Racetrack.
Here is what I think might be worth looking into: Do a Google Maps street view search for the intersection of Inwood and Denton Dr. Then position the view to so that you are in the northbound lane of Inwood just before the traffic light.
There are two bridges that pass over Inwood at that location - bridges containing the DART rail lines. To the immediate right of the road are two support columns for the bridges. There are also some bushes right next to the road that appear to be perhaps two or three feet high.
Is it possible that the 7-11 robbers were seeking to flee that part of town by means of the DART rail and, either through observation or speculation, feared that the police had posted someone to keep a lookout for them at the station?
At the time that Alan was in the area, it was still dark. It occurs to me that the bridge columns and the bushes would work very well to obscure someone from being able to be viewed from cars traveling by on Inwood but, at the same time, allow them to observe the traffic on Inwood.
Perhaps they hid behind the columns or bushes to monitor the traffic light cycle waiting for just the right moment when a northbound car would be the only vehicle stopped at the intersection. Perhaps that was the situation when Alan approached the intersection. It wouldn't have taken more than a few seconds to spring from behind the columns/bushes and into the roadway in front of Alan's car with their guns drawn demanding to be let into the car.
If so, Alan would have had two choices: he could hit the gas and speed through the intersection hoping that they either don't shoot or, if they do, that they miss. Or he could assume that what they were after was just the car and that it would be safer to let them have it. But, of course, if it was the 7-11 robbers, their primary motive wouldn't have been to carjack in order to sell the car but rather to flee from the scene of their previous crime and do so without any witnesses.
I would think that if I could make such a connection between the robbery and Alan's disappearance the police would have already done so as well and looked into it. But that is a possibility that occurs to me.
That’s smart thinking. I can see this as a serious possibility. I don’t know if they’ve caught those guys or not. I think something like this happened anyway. For the car for the car OR for a getaway car like you are saying. I hadn’t thought of that. I wonder if Alan was someone who would roll down his window to someone who pretended to need help or ask him something?