IMO, While Mother Nature is beautiful, she can be very unforgiving.
Thanks for sharing...that article was very interesting. I’d like to read this book. I sure didn’t grasp the magnitude of disappearance into the wilderness type of missing persons cases. I also didn’t know that in the final stage of hypothermia people get hot enough to take their clothes off in the freezing cold! OT but one of the most traumatic memories I have of 9/11 was the people jumping from the towers and I remember thinking what a horrific choice to burn to death or fall to your certain death which seemed even worse. I wondered how they could actually have the courage to take that leap and some time later I burned my hand in the process of trying to put out a small kitchen fire on the stove. It was so hot and hurt so much that my brain reflexively took over and I flung myself backwards and landed so hard on my behind that I chipped my tailbone which turned out to be an even worse injury. It got me to thinking that maybe IF SM had gone on a bike ride and she had an accident and sustained a head injury, got disoriented, passed out somewhere, became dehydrated, cold, possibly hallucinating etc. and her survival instinct led her to do things which don’t make sense and caused her more harm such as wandering in the wrong direction or “getting in the river”...maybe that’s what BM meant when he said that? The area where her bike was found was not what I would consider in the wilderness but maybe instead of walking the short distance towards her home she went in the opposite direction across the road and up the mountain into the wilderness dropping a personal item along the way in her confused state and passed out somewhere, woke up later lost in the dark, injured and in pain, cold and lost... trying to make her way back and stumbled upon the river and fell in or tried to take a drink and slipped? It’s easier now for me to imagine this type of scenario after reading that article. But had that happened there should have been a scent trail for the dogs or blood found from such a serious injury. It seems like if she really had an accident that BM would have been talking to the media, asking anyone and everyone to keep searching, spent a lot of money (if he had 100K for a reward or 165K to buy new property) to bring in a private K9 search team with dogs trained specifically for that purpose like you taught us about. If BM knew he didn’t do something to her and with her then in his mind she had to be there somewhere nearby. How far could she have gone on foot? Surely that amount of area could be searched again and again until she was found? If BM thought she could have fallen in the river he could have arranged a search along the riverbanks and downriver. Why would you need to search a 200 mile radius if he thought she wondered off on foot after an accident? I know and have not forgotten that he also said she could have been abducted or taken by a mountain lion. I’m just addressing the bike accident and “got in the river” scenario right now. I thought the “got in the river” statement was stupid, far fetched and possibly subliminal. But after reading the article and thinking about it from his point of view maybe he based that on his knowledge and experience as an “outdoorsman,” hunter & firefighter.
IF BM is telling the truth then back on May 10th, Mother’s Day, when the bike was found he was considering these theories according to the TD interview: accident/got in the river, mountain lion & abduction. So he didn’t know which one actually happened so they all might have been running through his mind at the same time. And I don’t think he believes suicide or running away to start a new life are even in the realm of possibility.
So - if BM honestly did not know where SM was - or which of those things had happened then what could he have done within his power to help find his wife as it relates to each of his theories:
This experiment is all IMOO and based on IF BM is innocent and IF SM really took that bike ride. What would BM have been thinking if he was away in Denver and he and his daughter’s could not reach Suzanne. He would have had the neighbor go check the house and been told her car is there but she is gone and so is her bike. So he is worried and heading home now and asks the neighbor (maybe because she was going to be at the house waiting for LE to arrive since BM and daughters are not there) to call the police. Then he has gotten word that they found her bike down in a ravine and she is nowhere to be found. So now he is really worried and rushing back because his wife was now missing.
Disclaimer: all IMOO & speculation. I do not know BM or how he thinks and I am a woman but this is my version of how I think a normal man, husband, father would think in this type of emergency situation...ok so for each of his theories:
(1)
Bike accident with injury/“got in the river”:
I’m adding lost in the wilderness in this category. If she did go for a bike ride and she hit a rock, slid on the road, swerved to avoid a deer or bunny or turtle (I’ve done that in my car) let’s say something non-sinister happened to cause her to wreck and she flew off her bike over the handlebars and she was wearing her bike helmet...if I were BM I might think she could have been knocked unconscious and injured but still alive. I would ask LE where they have searched and if they found anything at all - blood, personal items (he probably know if she had her phone with her). I would want to look for her myself all around that area and look at the condition of her bike myself and talk to whoever found her bike. If the bike had already been moved I would ask to see it and to be shown exactly where it was found and what position it was in (so maybe that’s how he knew which way the tire was pointing). If her bike was damaged and found in a ravine my initial thought would be that she had a bike accident. I would be very surprised and upset that she wasn’t found in the area around her bike. I would give LE all the information I had about what SM had been doing when I last saw her and tell them when I last spoke to my wife and what the plans were that day. I would be talking to my daughters on the phone if they weren’t back yet to see when they last spoke or texted with mom. My train of thought would then go in the direction of if she had an accident she should be somewhere in the immediate vicinity unless she got up and was able to walk away on her own. I would be thinking she might not have been too injured to walk and possibly she headed towards the house so I would be checking to make sure she wasn’t back at home or somewhere along that route. If she wasn’t at home I would call the nearest urgent care or hospital. I might wonder if she has not been located could she have been thrown into the S. Arkansas River which has fast moving water (as seen in TD video). I would think it was a remote possibility but could that be what happened?? The water is cold and rough so that would scare the hell out of me and I would want to search along and down the river as fast as possible which might be difficult to do at night. I would also simultaneously be wondering if she could have had a concussion or be totally unconscious and drown? Then I would try to think of what else could have happened while I pray she didn’t get thrown into the river. Could she have wandered off in the wrong direction? I would want to search more of the vicinity very well and if LE wasn’t already doing this or was waiting until daylight I would probably get my buddies together and do as much of my own search as possible with flashlights calling her name. I would be fully cooperative with LE in every way. I would let them into my house, my truck, let them look at my phone - whatever they wanted. I would not want them to keep my phone in case SM called or the hospital, someone who found her, etc. If the police were acting suspicious of me I would flat out say look I get that you are doing your job and the spouse is always the #1 suspect but I have not done anything to my wife and I love her very much and I am worried sick and every second counts right now so please do whatever you need to do to so that I can be ruled out as a suspect and you can focus on finding her. My demeanor would be worried, upset, mind racing out of control but I would be polite and cooperative and if I was a controlling or take charge type of man I would definitely be angry if I didn’t think LE was doing enough or if they were spending too much time on me and I might be trying do things myself and arrange searches on my own to try and find my wife. I would not initially be thinking it could have been a crime scene and they handled the bike, trampled over footprints etc. but I might think that later on after she has not been found and an abduction seems more likely.
(2)
Mountain Lion: I am a hunter and an outdoorsman so I am familiar with bears and mountain lions and know they can and will attack humans if they feel threatened or confuse humans with natural prey. If LE tells me they actually witnessed a mountain lion walking by the cars on the roadside out in the open then that would concern me very much and my mind would go to OMG what if a mountain lion thought she was a deer and attacked her on her bike or she had an accident and a mountain lion drug her off? I know they attack their prey on the neck and and drag it up the mountain to hide it before they eat so we need to search up that mountain like NOW! If a mountain lion was actually seen in the exact area SM’s bike was found and it was walking out in the open around where people were that would make me terrified that a mountain lion took her and I would be very emotional when talking about it at the thought of my wife being ravaged by a mountain lion and the thought of parts of her shredded, bloodied body lying somewhere up on the mountain would cause me so much pain I could not maintain my composure or talk about it matter of factly. I would want that area where he said a cat would drag her up the mountain to be searched as soon as possible even if that meant doing it myself. I would ask my Army Ranger friend to help and go with me and take guns, flashlights and first aid supplies and you could not stop me.
(3)
Abduction: I might consider an abduction if I knew that SM had a stalker or anything strange had happened r/t her being followed or having an admirer or if it was known in the area that there was a known sex offender who had threatened a woman. Especially if the bike was damaged in a way that might indicate a trap was set or that the bike was hit by a car. That would be the situation the most out of my control to do anything about other than going to the media and I would shout it to the rooftops to be on the lookout for this man and that my wife could be being held against her will and if you see anything to call LE etc. If there was a specific potential suspect I would want to know what LE was doing to find him, if they had checked his last known address, acquaintances, relatives, where he works (if he had a job) and I would want his picture and Suzanne’s picture in the media, on flyers, FBI most wanted list, whatever was possible to be done I would make sure it was being done. Now if and only if LE told me to keep quiet so as not to scare him off or so that he wouldn’t kill her then I would keep quiet for awhile. But not for this long no way. So if that’s why he waited to make a plea then when I did make my plea I would have worded it much differently. I would have said Suzanne if you can hear this we love you and miss you very much, please be strong and do not lose hope. To whoever has you just please I’m begging you to let her go or drop her off somewhere immediately (maybe that’s what he meant by “no questions asked”?) and we will not press charges. Yes, I would have lied about this but I would have said we know you didn’t mean to do this but we have two daughters that need her and she has had cancer and if you just let her go everything will be ok but if you harm her I will spend the rest of my life hunting you down! I would definitely have said there is a reward and I would have said for any information leading to SM not just returning her unharmed. And I would have asked everyone to be on the lookout and call LE with any detail no matter how small. I would ask everyone to pray for her safe return and I would cry real tears and not shake my head. I would put that money into a special account with LE or Crimestoppers or however you do it. It wouldn’t have to be $100,000 but something more realistic. And if someone actually gave information that led to finding her I would probably give them even more than the amount of the reward. My plea would be way longer than 26 seconds long. Shocker huh? And if I had $100,000 to spend on a reward I would spend whatever it took to hire the best search team in the country that was capable of searching that terrain with specially trained search dogs where possible. I would want the river banks searched as far as possible and hunting cabins and the old mines in the area searched. And I would want the old cemetery searched and the area around the RV Park. And I would research all the areas LE searched. That article said most people are found in areas already searched. I wouldn’t give up until I did everything in my power to find her. In those first few weeks I would still have hope that she could be found alive in the wilderness. And I would still have hope that she could be alive somewhere being held against her will. I would never stop looking and I feel so sorry for everyone with missing loved ones that have to live in this state of being.
——————
I wanted to open my mind a little more to the possibility of an abduction and now maybe the possibility of getting lost and dying in the wilderness. I was really trying hard to see things differently by putting myself in BM’s shoes and not to only think he killed her by accident or premeditated plan and disposed of her body. It’s his behavior, not my closed mindedness, that makes it so hard not to get there. I would have wanted to be in a position to tell TD or anyone who asked that I had taken and passed a lie detector test. I could understand not wanting my daughters to have to deal with a media circus but if it would help find their mom they are old enough to handle it. And when I try and put myself in their shoes, if my dad was being accused of killing my mom during the darkest time of his life and I believed he was innocent, I would speak out and defend him no matter what. The silence is deafening.
