So, as promised, I went on my tour of the areas I have theorized about. And after the ride around, I really think I'm on to something. I'm going to add additional thoughts here, but I definitely need help with the plausibleness of this - I'm definitely new to this whole sleuthing thing, and I'm sure I'm missing some important details...but that's why we are all here together. I figure the only thing I have up on SOME of us is that I have been in this general West Orange County area my whole life and am very familiar with the lay of the land. Other than that, I'm just trying to go on gut and what I might have deduced...so here goes....
I drove down Bluford, and was right in my theory about the only potential spot being the woods at the corner of Bluford and 50. Any other woodsy area is too public, too open, or is just non-existent. This makes me even more confident that he was likely to go up Maguire, considering his road is one way. When I headed up Maguire, I felt like warning bells sounded everywhere - I noticed a lot of potential spots.
- If you make a right on to maguire coming west on 50 (which would be the direction they were headed in), you will immediately come upon a series of businesses....some of which butt up to the woods. The one in particular that stood out to me was the Brighthouse building, because their parking lot view is greatly obscured by very tall bushes....so it could be fairly easy to pull in there to fool around. Not sure how lit up it is at night, as it was still daylight when I drove through.
- Go a little bit further to where the road Y's off, and the railroad tracks run through and I noticed something important - the tracks are flooded in most of the areas, and both sides of the rail road tracks have a little river running by them...so you'd have to cross that or go up the railroad tracks to get to the woods. Not likely. We haven't had too much rain recently, and if I remember correctly, we were being bombarded with rain during that time...IOW, if it is flooded now, imagine how much more flooded it would have been on that night.
- To the left just past that Y is a industrial park. I believe there's a cut through that leads out to another road, but it's hardly travelled to my knowledge. I didn't go down the road because I was focused elsewhere, but at quick glance I could see that the road heads right up along side woods....so another quiet place they may have pulled off.
- On the corner of Franklin and Ocoee-Apopka/Maguire is a series of abandoned businesses, in varying stages of decay. I would imagine there's all sorts of homeless, drug use, etc going on in there and I have never seen cars in or on those lots for a long long time...so no one coming in or out of there. However, may be a sore thumb if there was a yellow car sitting there. These do however, also butt up to some woods. Hard to tell without trespassing if there is some hidden driveways, etc. This area also butts up to Little Mexico like I mentioned before.
- There's road construction on Ocoee-Apopka/Maguire and in some areas, the sides have been greatly cut away. So a vehicle like TO's would have a hard time crossing it without getting stuck. Something to think about if they are headed into the woods, etc.
- Another thought about TO's car...it sits close to the ground, so driving into any area that has a risk of being marshy in the rain, or is exceptionally overgrown would be near impossible. Hence, the thought that it would likely have to be something pretty hard packed that they rode back on.
- The wooded area to the left near Woodland (?) Nursery was a bit overgrown, easy to hide when you get a little ways back, and had the sign of tire tracks, as though vehicles ocassionally go back there. Wasn't highly trafficked because while it was clear vehicles had been back there, it wasn't packed down. Tracks were wide enough to be car or truck tracks.
- There's a ballfield on the right with a large open field attached to it. When I drove past there today, my first thought was of marshy grass, but then I noticed a pick-up parked back in that area. The pick-up wasn't much higher off the ground than TO's Colbalt, so this area is a possibility. As well, there is a dirt path that I noticed the second time by that. It's a big field and a long ways from the woods, but if the pathway was firm, they could have gotten away from Maguire/Ocoee-Apopka quickly without anyone really noticing.
- Just past that on the left there's a wooded orange grove area and an overgrown roadway headed deep back into some woods. It's still well packed down from what I can tell (look like there might be a house deep in there), but it is very overgrown around the outside, so a car going down that road wouldn't be easily detected. Another potential area.
- This made my internal radar go crazy!!! - just past that grove, on the right hand side of the road is another grove, which is fenced in. But there's a little revene (sp?) running through there that was deep enough that driving by I couldn't see the bottom and there was about 6 BUZZARDS stationed right there. They weren't picking at anything, but they were protective of the area. I drove past it twice within 10 minutes and they were all still there.....couldn't bring myself to look, but like I said...that made my radar go crazy!!!
- I turned down Fuller's Cross headed toward Clarcona-Ocoee....the only woods that would be a possibility anywhere right in that vicinity are all fenced. They wouldn't be able to get a car back there, and he's not likely to have tried to drag her body through barbwire....so I feel as though we can nix those areas as well. The other direction on Fuller's Cross is much more heavily trafficked and there's a lot of houses, so not likely an area.
Here's my final thoughts on why I really feel confident on my theory...
I've read through every posting in this thread and kept a mental note of everything that was posted, suggested, etc. I looked at the maps, made note of the roads, but was having a hard time following where we were talking about - got a general concept of the area, but I don't do well with maps (it's kinda embarrassing, but they get me really turned around...lol). So, after getting frustrated trying to read the maps, not remembering which road was named what (I know them, but I don't know a lot of them by name), I finally decided to just think about what I would do if I was him, in his shoes. So I thought....if I was leaving the tap room and lived in that general area, how would I get home. And I determined I'd take 50 or Old Winter Garden to Bluford or Maguire....and that's where the theory started to take ahold. It wasn't until I was driving it today that I truly realized where all these landmarks were, and that these were a lot of the places that had been suggested by you guys all along. So I think we are on to something pretty major here, and now we just need to take it a few steps further to narrow it down!!
Great idea to stop into that 7-11 - I think I'll do that tomorrow. I'll let you know if I get any response. Might try the ABC as well....it can never hurt to have some liquor on hand.
P.S. - Bond, I agree. Gotta lay off the coffee. lol
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