When Kiely called her friend SS at 12:36 asking her if she needed a ride home, did SS indicate whether Kiely was sitting in her car? Walking to her car? I know SS said she knew she was still at the party because she could hear the noise from it while she talked to Kiely.
When LE works these cases, they have to work with what they know as fact, then work their way out from there. As new evidence and leads develop, your working theory changes to fit the evidence. Right now, LE has found no evidence that KR drove off the road despite numerous searches in water and on land. They haven’t eliminated this possibility, but they have to look at other alternatives more closely. So what do we know?
From all accounts, it seems like that Kiely intended to drive home that night. She texted her mother at 11:30 pm and told her she would be leaving the party about 12:15 am. I’m wondering if the alcohol she had consumed caught up to her by 12:15.
At 12:26 she and SS parted ways with SS telling Kiely she had found another ride.
At 12:30 LE said she was last seen at the party
At 12:33 her phone was no longer active. Was it shut off, run out of battery, dropped/broken/submerged?
At 12:36 SS states that KR called her and asked if she wanted a ride. This seems to contradict that KR’s phone was last on at 12:33. If this call did go through, was KR so out of it that she did not remember talking to SS 10 minutes before? I’m sure LE has by now subpoenaed KR’s phone records, but in the meantime did SS show LE her call list from that night?
This leads us to where was KR when she spoke to SS at 12:36? Was she walking alone towards her own vehicle? There was a sort of circle of vehicles that had their headlights on to illuminate the party area. The area outside this ring was probably much darker. I’m sure figures could be seen in the area, but probably not recognizable unless they were fairly close. So if KR was walking alone in the dark as she spoke to SS or sitting in her vehicle, she was probably not paying good attention to her surroundings. Was someone lurking in the area? There have been many cases where people have been attacked while approaching or sitting in a vehicle in a dark area. I wonder if people have had items taken from their vehicles during these parties. Unfortunately , this has become common at popular trailheads. Maybe Kiely came upon someone who was attempting to break into a vehicle. If her state of inebriation was as severe as SS indicated, it probably wouldn’t take much to overpower her. If she was stumbling around in the dark with her keys in her hand, a not so good sammaritan may have offered to assist her to her vehicle as others have mentioned earlier in the thread. There are certainly many possibilities.
Unfortunately if something like this happened to KR, it wouldn’t be surprising to have such a lack of clues. Kids partying in the dark, in the woods, are just not apt to notice a car pulling away, a couple walking off together, or be able to describe a stranger in a group of strangers. It would take some kind of altercation or unusual noise to catch their attention.
I still think the greater likelihood is that KR was involved in an accident, going off the road into water or a ravine. However, I don’t think foul play can be ruled out just yet.
If KR went off to a house party you would have a much more intimate group of people to witness some mishap like a drug overdose. I think if that is the case, it is just a matter of time before someone’s conscience gets the better of them and they spill to LE. MOO
