It's probably nothing but it is a little thing that could be noticed by someone.
And at least two people would have that chance.
One person that was sorting mail at the post office.
Yes, hoping that someone would read and think about every possible address written on the envelope would be crazy.
But this is an envelope without return address, and writing is done by a pencil. Pencil smears. So it's not that crazy that could make the person stop for a moment and take a mental note of how it wasn't a smart move to do it this way, cause big risk of it ending undelivered. Would be even bit more so if the envelope was empty.
Long shot, very long shot.
But there is still a postman. Who would put few seconds of attention to each piece of mail. Empty envelope, with no return address, and written by a pencil, name "Rachel" on the envelope, and he'd either knew already or learned about the disappearance not long after that.
Both of these people, living in the area would be more than likely aware of the girls disappearance pretty quick.
Also Christmas, so lots and lots of occasions to chat with people, share gossips, share experiences.
And it hits hard to learn that three girls disappeared from the shopping mall on the Christmas Eve.
It hits harder than it would on any other day of the year. So people would talk about it, and that should bring that little thing that they remembered back, as it was still fresh.
But would they come forward with such a little thing?
Would they feel like it's worth coming forward with?
Or know who they should notify about it?
Would it not get lost or dismissed without ending up in case files?
I guess it's irrelevant then.
But post office's drill should surely allow to narrow down the specific time when it had to be thrown into postal box to not end up with a stamp from 23rd, but end up delivered on 24th.
I'd tend to believe that it could not be mailed very early on the 23rd. Cause then it'd be delivered to the post offic, sorted and postmarked on the 23rd. So late on 23rd or early on 24th. Possibly bit after noon on the 24th?
There is a serial killer theory, but it doesn't make much sense for me.
So bold enough to kidnap three girls from very public area, or at least lure them out of there.
So either high risk taking, acting on impulse... but no, this level of boldness doesn't just go away, especially if it works: victims taken, LE focused on runaways theory, nobody tracking him down. He wouldn't restrain himself from doing it again in similar way.
Or not that much of a risk taker but methodical enough to plan it well... it just doesn't sit well with me. That kind of guy would want to watch girls for at least a bit... then abduct, then take them to location, force Rachel to write the note and address an envelope, and either assault and hem quick, or lock them somewhere to go and mail that letter, from the nearby of their last known whereabouts.
So lots of sophistication, lots of planning, access to a pen, some clear goal to achieve: to feed families with this lie... but he figures that using a pencil instead of a pen on the envelope and essentially taking a chance that all this effort will end up with it smearing and ending up undelivered?
Could end up like that in many scenarios, but it's a bit ridiculous.
Is there any actual, clear, good picture of the envelope?
What kind of pencil that was? Usual, HB one? One of those that was all over the schools, kiosks and bowling alleys? Cause HB pencil should leave marks, either on the note (so it'd be clear that it was inside), or on the other side of the envelope (making it clear that it wasn't).
Or was it softer kind of pencil? B2 maybe? That'd narrow down the suspect pool a bit, cause not that many people have use for those. Most people don't have softer graphite pencils just randomly lying around and easy to grab. Softer it is, easier it smears. Harder it is, more impact on the next sheet of paper it makes. Hard graphite pencils also have more specific use than just to be a pencil.
Does it appear so dark just cause it was made like this, to make it more readable, or part of it's darkness is caused by softer graphite used?
I tried writing with my left hand and I can only wish good luck to anyone who's aiming at reaching this level of smoothness that the note presents.
I was trying for good 30 mins. And my letters are still so angular...
With the reasons from the picture above I don't buy into a theory that someone wrote it with their non-dominant hand. After how many hours of trying and learning how to write not so angular?
It looks too sloppy to be a results of hours of trying. It looks like second, third attempt at best. No handwriting expert, but I saw dozens and dozens of notes from "parents" faked by their kids, to explain their missing time at school. These things looked exactly like that.
Pacing so irregular, "Sears" mispelled, double writing over some letters, kinda two handwriting styles mixed up, Looking noticeably smoother in the first line, and signature, three lines in between kinda messy and terrible.
One theory was that's cause such a letter existed, wrote by Rachel at some unknown point in time, unrelated to their disappearance.
To me it looks more like all the confidence was only in these two parts: the implication that Rachel is going to be punished for whatever "this" is, and that she loved Thomas.
Kids' faked notes were the same. Nice, smooth "
Dear teacher, please excuse my son's school absence on the (date)". Then something like "
He was sick and had to see a doctor." all hesitant and chaotic, cause the want for being excused was true and doctor story was a lie. And back to smoothness with almost perfected (cause well trained)
signature. And that signature, with no fail, always had some weird mark of hesitancy like letter written over, or corrected misspellings.
Organic name mispellings were happening as well, when they were signing their homeworks or tests, but it was a RARE thing, I mean difference on a level of 10/10 with faked parent's signatures, and 1/100 to actually mispell their name.
So... either TT wrote it to himself, or someone found him as the only relevant person, worthy of getting any explanation.
Cutting it down to probability, I mean all of this.
There is nothing that would hint at girls changing their plans. They were following them.
So they could only meet their fate at the location where they were expected to be.
Any other store that they could want to stop by?
T's home (to pick something up, ask Debra again, leave something), mall and possibly workshop. With mall being the most likely.
It looks like they bought nothing at the mall. And their purchases should be in the car before they'd drive to workshop. But they weren't. They brought nothing from the mall to the car. And it's not like someone removed their purchases, cause army navy were left untouched as did the wrapped gift on the floor. Someone could go into next level staging and remove all those purchases done at the mall to make it look like they never came back but how would they know what to remove? Ask? Possible, possible, but just ads trouble to get rid of that too and why even bother? It wouldn't be odd to get back to the car and leave purchases there instead of carrying them while still shopping. And tracing purchases to the store would only confirm that girls were there, no threat for the perp in it, unless clerk could remember selling these things to girls, accompanied by perp. But again, so complicated, with pretty blurry goal.
So either kidnapping at the mall, or girls leaving the mall not buying anything... to go where? With what reason? To get more money? That would increase the likelyness of clerks remembering three girls, hesitating over buying something expensive, maybe even asking to wait for them as they'll be back with money, and nobody said that. So also not that likely.
For someone who knew them, to figure out that's great time to kidnap all three... alone (cause it's the most reasonable explanation to why nobody said anything for 48 years: cause no one but the murderer knew what happened) makes no sense. Casually, cause they saw them around? Cause only then they had an opportunity?
But what kind of opportunity could be there? If girls would have enough trust to go somewhere with the perp on that day, they'll likely do that as well on some other day, while alone. Unless that was as "alone" as they got, cause they were usually going out with bunch of people?
It does not look like a crime of convenience: commited then and there cause it seemed like the best time and place to do so. For a serial killer might be, but serial killer seems unlikely with the whole note thing.
Note being unrelated to the abduction also makes no sense.
And here I'll end today's thinking session, with no conclusion at the end.
At least I like that I get an idea to think about the postman's possible insight.
Cause, if that empty envelope would be mailed, postmarked and sorted on 24th, but delivered on 26th, then we'd need to have very not observant, isolated, not aware of any news postman who would have not notice "Rachel" on the envelope, or the fact that he's delivering to the missing girl's home address.
Getting stamped envelope at the post office at the 24th possible, but if TT would get it on the 24th, then why not deliver it to the LE on that day but wait till 26th? It'd be surely way, way less suspicious to find it hours after they asked, than to search two days. And why pencil if not in hurry and with lack of pens in sight? With stamped envelope he'd likely fake it in same spot where he faked the note. So he should have a pen. "Just" lack of care and little attention to the details?
