I’ve been mulling over how the information from the party goers has always seemed really odd, and why. I spent a little time reviewing some of the information released earlier on. Here’s a working theory that I’ve gathered. Fair warning, I am making many assumptions from the bits and pieces of information that we have.
Connection back to Fribjon
We know that Fribjon and Madison were both working in logging and that they had some kind of relationship together. I am wondering if they were both working together for her father’s logging company and had developed a relationship, even if just platonic. From a few clues, I’ve been able to gather the two were spending time together prior to the party, and that their parents were at the very least accustomed with each other.
This leads me to question whether Fribjon was the one who invited Madison to the birthday party at the lake that evening, not Jordy. We know Madison’s mother has stated that the girls were not close friends, though I believe they knew each other from high school. I believe Maddie and Jordy reconnected because they were both dating (or were close friends with) two older guys from the same friend circle, Fribjon, and Jordy’s boyfriend TG. I’ve able to gather that the birthday party was for an older guy who was also part of that friend group, GK.
Madison and Jordy are reconnected, and they travel to the lake together separately from their two guys. The party starts, it seems from all accounts that there’s not much to report for most of the evening, except that Maddie was maybe spending time in the tent early on. Was she waiting for Fribjon, and therefore uncomfortable around a group of older people she doesn’t know? She speaks to her father at 11:30pm, nothing out of thee ordinary. She receives a phone at 12:30am from the son of a family friend—Fribjon? Is he calling to say that he’s on his way to the lake?
What happened after 1am?
From the few accounts and assumptions made from the whiteboard, it seems after 1am a good amount of party goers have left, except for a core group of people who would include many of the older guys closest to the birthday boy. We’ve seen a few of these names on the whiteboard. A few sets of brothers, KG (birthday boy + his gf), TG (Jordys bf) and a few other guys who also seem to be close friends and close in age. Likely, they all overlapped in high school together.
My hypothesis wonders whether Fribjon arrives at the lake around 1am, except he’s brought a group of people that the party isn’t familiar with—his dealers, who are known to the town as being part of a violent gang. We heard a few accounts about a group of rough guys that no one knew. I always assumed these to be the names on the whiteboard, but now that I realize the party was actually for one of those older guys, that there was a different “rough” group. Jordy knew the guys who were friends with her bf, so when she stated that no one knew who this 2nd group was, it has to be names that have not been mentioned anywhere. It’s also been stated that Maddy didn’t know many people at the party, so I don’t believe there was ever a younger crowd there. It was always a group of late 20s partygoers friendly with GK and friends.
Maybe the remaining partygoers were interested in buying some party favors and Fribjon was connecting them. Or maybe the dealers are forcing themselves to arrive with Fribjon for some reason. We know there were rumors about addiction and debts to this same group who would eventually murder him.
What happens after Fribjon and dealers potentially arrive? Something alarming, there is a fight, and then everyone suddenly flees. The next morning, Maddy is missing.
Regardless of how it happens, I believe something terrible and deadly happens to Maddy after the new group arrives, and that the remaining group of friends is threatened by the dealers to help cover it up. Perhaps Maddy overdoses on something this group has bought, or there’s some very random, terrible accident like a misfired gun (I doubt this since there is no evidence of it). From youth experiences, I recall that it’s quite common for a dealer to hang out after they sell something. They’ll often have a hit of whatever it is that they just sold to the group.
After something, whatever it is, happens to Maddy, everyone starts freaking out. Maybe Jordy wants to call the cops and someone gets physical with her to stop her. The group is threatened to keep quiet about whatever it is that just happened, and are instructed to remove and hide the body. The dealers, described by the town as being from a “violent gang,” don’t want cops investigating their business, and the group of friends are terrified enough to comply. Madison’s body is hidden on the property where she was found. Perhaps because the two brothers who live at that property volunteered, or were paid to help out. They bring their quads to the lake to avoid evidence showing up in anyone’s vehicle and so that they can more easily hide a body off-road.
After the party
Anyone who was supposed to spend the night at the lake flees. The narrative of Maddy just going missing won’t make sense otherwise. There is obviously a lot of stress in the days following. Everyone passes their polygraph tests asking if they were present during Maddy’s murder, because they know she wasn’t murdered.
We have heard that Fribjon in particularly was very upset about Maddy’s disappearance. Perhaps he was dealing with extreme guilt, or perhaps it’s because he and Maddy had some kind of relationship. Perhaps it’s because he’s an addict and is unstable. Perhaps it’s because he’s still working for Maddy’s father.
The police receive a tip from someone in town that Fribjon knows something and they call him in for a polygraph test. No one had mentioned his name to the cops because it implicates the dealers, and he arrived so late that only that group ever saw him. The dealers catch wind of this and think he’s getting ready to flip. They torture him, asking for information about what he said. Regardless of whether they believe him, they eventually kill him by decapitating him—something that strikes me as a clear message and threat to someone else—perhaps the group of partygoers who were present that evening. The group disassociates themselves from Fribjon after his death, specifically to separate themselves and the events of the evening from drugs, to conceal the dealers involvement.
TL;DR
My theory is that a group of friends witnessed something late that evening that caused the end of Maddy’s life, and that a dangerous group of individuals were involved. The group of friends were forced to make a terrible pact to help cover it up, fearing for their own safety, which it turns out was no joke after Fribjon is decapitated shortly later. 12 years later, some are now even parents. They’re still afraid to speak, this gang is still active. Perhaps even, corruption in RMCP has allowed the cover up to continue.
