MI MI - Adrienne Quintal, 47, called for help, foul play possible, Honor, Benzie Co., 17 Oct 2019

[indicolite22]

Thank you @BetteDavisEyes
Guessing Adrienne thought she needed to always carry her gun - perhaps the area around her condo? I’m not familar with Southfield or that area in relation to safety/crime/etc.

Her sister said that she also had a gun back when she was married.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Adrienne Quintal has now been missing for a month. Where are you, Ada?

 

[indicolite22]

I'm leaning toward an abduction. Ada was completely panicked and apparently had some sort of idea of what to do if she felt threatened at the cabin (climb onto the mud room roof, position self to shoot assailants). However, it sounds like she practically emptied her gun shooting inside the house. It's possible she was having a mental breakdown but somehow it seems more likely to me that she had a real reason to be paranoid and frightened and was hoping she was safe at the family cabin. Boyfriend knows way more than we do.

BBM. I wonder if she took any additional ammo with her to the roof. It wouldn't make sense to only bring an empty gun. How/why did the gun end up on the ground? If she had more ammo, she would not have tossed it away, but reloaded. Why would she leave the phone behind?

 

[10ofRods]

Well, she was an avid hunter and my point was that people stalk others...for guns. Even if she had no guns, someone might have thought she did. I am not a huge fan of car tire analysis unless the conditions are just right (there had already been two cars in and out of that area recently). If the BF's car came back, though, it would not reveal "stranger" tracks since he was already there and tracks would be expected.

She called three people (because she was scared?) and spent nearly 5 minutes on the call with Family Friend, starting out with "I think I saw a cougar" and proceeding to (oddly placed) shots fired through windows and ceiling, then she takes her boots, phone and gun and climbs out onto the roof. She had to have been in the main area while firing most of those shots (did the Family Friend hear all of the shots fired? Sounds like she did).

Sounds like she fled upstairs, maybe firing through the floor - hence the bullet in the ceiling? She must have thought she heard something downstairs.

If Ada had a reason to be scared, already, then panicking like this while in the middle of the dark woods isn't so strange. If she was using drugs, I predict it would be meth, due to the parallels between typical meth psychosis and paranoid psychosis. Since no drugs or paraphernalia was found, I think that's unlikely (but not impossible as so many meth users keep their stash on their persons when actively using).

The attack on her and BF in July is very concerning. Surely the police were notified? And someone must be in trouble over it?

 

[10ofRods]

BBM. I wonder if she took any additional ammo with her to the roof. It wouldn't make sense to only bring an empty gun. How/why did the gun end up on the ground? If she had more ammo, she would not have tossed it away, but reload. Why would she leave the phone behind?

Leaving the phone behind is the main reason that my theory is some kind of abduction. Someone orders her to toss the gun down and then orders her off the roof, is in control of the situation.

Otherwise, to go from being on the phone (and using it frequently) to leaving it on the roof is really concerning. At this point, I guess anything is possible but she was relatively coherent less than an hour before she disappeared, so I don't think she ran off into the woods on a dark night without her phone. Dogs would not do much if Ada's scent was in and around the cabin, she had been in and out of her own car, it would be hard for a dog to unwind all that. A perpetrator would not want her to take the phone along.

If she were flagrantly psychotic, she could have hallucinated a reason to run off without her phone into the woods, but at her age, such an event would (IMO) be unlikely (although if drugs are involved, I guess all bets are off).

I wonder where she kept her extra ammo.

 

[indicolite22]

Leaving the phone behind is the main reason that my theory is some kind of abduction. Someone orders her to toss the gun down and then orders her off the roof, is in control of the situation.

Would that someone have known that she phoned for help and that the police could arrive at any minute?

Why would she go to the roof when she was more protected inside? If there was a ladder leading to the roof anyone could easily reach her.

Why would she leave the cabin lights on?

 

[allboys]

From the Brainscratch Podcast-Interview with Adrienne's Sister Jenny

• Adrienne worked in the auto industry as a database access programmer, very intelligent.
• Loved to be outside, hunting, gardening. She has a concealed weapon permit, never went anywhere without her 9mm handgun. She's skilled in shooting.
• Previously married, separated for four years, divorce was final earlier this year. Married for 12 or 13 years.
• Dating the current boyfriend for a little over a year, first name is Lundy.
• Adrienne lives in a condo in Southfield.
• There have been some challenges in the relationship with boyfriend. Sister says Adrienne's personality changed when she met him. She started dressing differently, she started facetiming with sister instead of using the phone. He was very possessive and want to know where she was all the time. She started wearing tighter clothes, sort of hippy in style, very different than she used to wear.
• Sister met Lundy, she is not crazy about him. There was a time during the summer when they were involved in an altercation and he did not protect Adrienne. She was harmed in the altercation, injured quite badly. Sister was asked if the altercation could be linked to her disappearance. Sister said she did not think so, they revealed the information to the police. As far as she knows the two things cannot be linked.
• The boyfriend and Adrienne went up to the cabin to do some repairs, she was not working and Lundy doesn't work. The uncle has bad knees so they were helping and were going to close it up for the winter.
• Houses are spread out in the area, nearest neighbor 1/4 to half mile away. One neighbor that backs up to the property heard something.
• Sister is 99% sure Adrienne came out of the window located next to the mud room, it was found open. Her boots and phone were found on the north side of the main roof. While Adrienne was on the phone with the family friend, it started out she was just hearing noises and that's why she called the family friend. If you hear noises outside you're not going to automatically call 911, she called the friend. She heard noises, called the family friend and then it began escalating. She did call two other people prior who may not have answered, the family friend did answer.
• It's pitch black out there, you can't see anything, she hears noises. She had a space heater on and all the lights were on inside the house. Someone could see in, but sister doesn't think she could see out very well.
• Sister knows the family friend well. Friend is not connected to the boyfriend at all. Family friend did not hear any shots other than Adrienne's. The call started out with the noises and what they could possibly be, it started escalating and Adrienne began to panic and said she thought someone is outside. There were times when she set the phone down, then the gunshots, picked the phone back up, and said "oh my God, I shot him in the face".
• Sister says they don't believe she shot someone in the face, what we are theorizing she shot through the window and saw her reflection.
• Sister is asked if any drugs or alcohol were found in the cabin, not to her knowledge. Asked if Adrienne is typically a person who panics, sister replies that in the injury from the summer altercation, she suffered a head injury and wonders if that could be related.
• No evidence of any gunshots other than her, there were six or seven in the window, one shot was in the rafters.
• Sister thinks it's possible she had a mental breakdown related to the head injury and ran into the woods to escape. But the police did a very through search and found nothing. It's very marshy in the area.
• No footprints or tire tracks were found, it's sandy/gravelly sand and grass in the area and there was no snow. No rain or mud either.
• Why did Lundy leave two days before this happened? Sister says they were told he left to take some tiles they found in the basement of the cabin to her condo. She was fixing it up to sell it.
• Interviewer asks about the height of the windows, says it doesn't make sense that you would shoot someone outside. Sister says the height of the windows to the ground outside is 7-8 feet. Any shots fired would have went over someone's head. But her car was parked outside, one of the windows was shot out. Sister says if she thought someone was outside, she had more bullets in the house. But she did not reload and stay in shelter, that doesn't make any sense to her. You would not have gone outside.
• The only reason sister can think why she went out on the roof, there is an attic space in the cabin. She could have been paranoid that someone was going to enter the house from the attic. There is a small attic window which is open for ventilation, did she think someone entered that way, maybe. There is a straight ladder from the attic which comes down in the house between the kitchen and the living room.
• It did take the Sheriff a while to get there. The family friend had never been to the cabin, had no idea where it was. When Adrienne asked for help, family friend said I don't know where you are. Adrienne put the phone down and was searching for something that had the address of the cabin. Adrienne picks up the phone and tells the family friend the wrong address.
• Lundy got a lawyer, are you as a family still speaking to him? No, he has not been in contact with us. I don't know if that's by design, when I last saw him I was angry because my sister was missing and I said some very bad things to him when he showed up. I was also angry because she went missing on a Thursday and he did not show up until Saturday after 5. That's a long time for someone who says they love someone to show up.
• Nick was working on some of the renovations of the condo with Lundy. He has not talked to Nick any further either.
• Sister thinks Adrienne may have been abducted. The reason is there was a ladder leaned up against the back of the house where the mudroom roof is. It would have been easy to go up the ladder and after her on the roof. The other reason is she never went anywhere without her gun. They found her gun with an empty clip right underneath the area where her shoes and phone were. Her gun was found outside in the leaves, not in the house. To separate her from her gun and it being found in the leaves, that is why I think someone took her.
• Can anyone confirm Lundy was actually at home that night? She sent a text message to Lundy at 1:40 AM. She had walked her dog and thought she saw a cougar out near the road. So I am assuming the police pinged his phone to check where he was, she was told his phone was down here. Sister was asked if he answered her text, sister does not know.
• Sister is asked if she thinks Lundy is involved. She says she has very mixed feelings. While she doesn't think he drove 250 miles to snatch her, she thinks he knows more than he has shared. Why wouldn't he cooperate no matter what.
• Who would have come after Adrienne? Sister says maybe a local knew she was a woman alone, random abduction. Maybe the person she was in the altercation with. Nothing about this situation makes sense to me.
• The cabin was locked up when LE arrived, they had to break a window to gain entrance. Adrienne and Lundy had recently adopted a dog in honor. Mid sized black and white dog, it was found in the house when LE arrived.
• Sister says some have thought she staged this and willingly disappeared herself. That doesn't make sense, she could have just left a note took her purse, phone, dog and car and disappeared. She could have gotten a lot further away doing that, could have sold her car. It would have been days before they discovered her missing.
• No legal or financial problems, she had not worked for years. She wasn't well off and would never do that to Nick.
• Any struggles with mental health? No.
• Adrienne's ex husband gave the money to double the reward. He was in Florida when this happened, by the way.

Random musings:

• I’m highly suspicious of the boyfriend. I haven’t heard a good explanation for why he left or why he didn’t go see her family until Saturday. Was he waiting for some signs of a physical argument to heal up? Why has he not spoken to her SON?
• What led to the altercation she and her bf were involved in some months back?
• has harm or death come to any of bf’s former partners/girlfriends?
• any chance he made some kind of food or drink for her before leaving (with hallucinogenic properties)?
• does the bf have any ties to “thugs” capable of abductions?

• Does the ex-husband pay alimony?

• were there any arguments within the family about what does and does not happen with this cabin?

I would lean toward thinking some kind of mental break/or drug induced hallucination, but it seems that there are some questions and negative behaviors surrounding the bf.

 

[10ofRods]

Everything about what happened speaks of hastiness. Also, when people are scared, it's really common to turn on all the lights (which shows she wasn't thinking clearly if she thought there was a human threat outside). If it was a bear or cougar, yeah, turn on all the lights (cougar seems super unlikely, no mention of bear).

It sounds like the roof and the ladder were frequently used as a "backdoor" and terrace exit from the bedroom. So again not a safe plan unless one had enough ammo to shoot whoever was coming up the ladder. None of this sounds like a thoughtful plan (some people have clear plans about where to hide/shoot from when in each of their homes). She would have been safer hiding in her upstairs bedroom and shooting anyone who came into it (rather than shooting blindly into the yard). She shot her own car, right?

Why was she awake so late, I wonder. If people really were coming after her in the middle of the night, what caused her to suspect that was about to happen? If she started out with mentioning a cougar and then changed to mentioning 2 men (and then shot at them, but police can't find evidence of them being there), it sounds like she was generally fearful and anxious that night. It's possible that a car came into the yard and no trace was found of course. But she apparently doesn't mention seeing headlights coming down the secluded driveway. Could two men have come through the woods? With sniffer dogs trained to follow the scent of the missing person, there might not have been any immediate evidence.

 

[MrsWatson]

I am completely befuddled on this one.

 

[Dayday7]

Is this a possible scenario.... she’s home, think she sees something, locks all of her doors and is inside with her gun. Someone sneaks up the ladder and comes into the house that way. There is a struggle and her gun goes off and shoots the ceiling. The struggle continues and she fires it again right by their face, it misses and goes through the window but when this happens she gets away and now she is thinking she shot them in the face. She runs upstairs trying to escape that way, person follows her and gets her gun and throws it off the roof. Then the person orders her down the ladder with their gun. And that’s it, they disappear, House is still locked, only her gun fired shots. Problem with this is the five minute phone call and I’m sure other things I can’t think of right now.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Random musings:

• I’m highly suspicious of the boyfriend. I haven’t heard a good explanation for why he left or why he didn’t go see her family until Saturday. Was he waiting for some signs of a physical argument to heal up? Why has he not spoken to her SON?
• What led to the altercation she and her bf were involved in some months back?
• has harm or death come to any of bf’s former partners/girlfriends?
• any chance he made some kind of food or drink for her before leaving (with hallucinogenic properties)?
• does the bf have any ties to “thugs” capable of abductions?

• Does the ex-husband pay alimony?

• were there any arguments within the family about what does and does not happen with this cabin?

I would lean toward thinking some kind of mental break/or drug induced hallucination, but it seems that there are some questions and negative behaviors surrounding the bf.

I have some of the very same thoughts and concerns. Until we know more about Lundy and/or associates, the summer 2019 altercation during which Ada (and Lundy?) were injured, and whether or not Lundy or the alleged "thugs" are somehow involved in Ada's disappearance, I doubt we'll get anywhere in our sleuthing quests.

 

[MimosaMornings]

JMO
To me, I’m imagining Adrienne as somewho enjoys the outdoors, comfortable carrying a gun and using it. Intelligent, perhaps not easily panicked? Seeing the cougar earlier, heard noises, she went to the highest elevation to scan the surroundings.
I’m thinking she has been on the roof many times before looking at stars and observing wildlife.

 

[eanspratt]

Leaving the phone behind is the main reason that my theory is some kind of abduction. Someone orders her to toss the gun down and then orders her off the roof, is in control of the situation.

Otherwise, to go from being on the phone (and using it frequently) to leaving it on the roof is really concerning. At this point, I guess anything is possible but she was relatively coherent less than an hour before she disappeared, so I don't think she ran off into the woods on a dark night without her phone. Dogs would not do much if Ada's scent was in and around the cabin, she had been in and out of her own car, it would be hard for a dog to unwind all that. A perpetrator would not want her to take the phone along.

If she were flagrantly psychotic, she could have hallucinated a reason to run off without her phone into the woods, but at her age, such an event would (IMO) be unlikely (although if drugs are involved, I guess all bets are off).

I wonder where she kept her extra ammo.

A good dog would be able to get a good scent at the cabin and imo would be able to detect whether Ada got in a car and direction of travel. There have been documented cases that a dog have tracked a passenger in a car for many miles on a scent that is days old. IMHO the only thing that would foul a dog would be too many cops tromping around and contaminating the scent so that a dog couldn't get on a good scent to start with.

 

[eanspratt]

Leaving the phone behind is the main reason that my theory is some kind of abduction. Someone orders her to toss the gun down and then orders her off the roof, is in control of the situation.

Otherwise, to go from being on the phone (and using it frequently) to leaving it on the roof is really concerning. At this point, I guess anything is possible but she was relatively coherent less than an hour before she disappeared, so I don't think she ran off into the woods on a dark night without her phone. Dogs would not do much if Ada's scent was in and around the cabin, she had been in and out of her own car, it would be hard for a dog to unwind all that. A perpetrator would not want her to take the phone along.

If she were flagrantly psychotic, she could have hallucinated a reason to run off without her phone into the woods, but at her age, such an event would (IMO) be unlikely (although if drugs are involved, I guess all bets are off).

I wonder where she kept her extra ammo.

Ada's sister did say that she had more ammo and that makes it hard to understand why she would leave the inside of the camp where she had cover and more ammo. There appears to be evidence that the doors were still locked and hadn't been breached. The evidence suggests that she was not under fire, she had emptied her weapon inside the camp and then left the camp, no shots were fired outside.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Cougar | National Geographic

...Cougars like to prey on deer, though they also eat smaller animals such as coyotes, porcupines, and raccoons. They usually hunt at night or during the gloaming hours of dawn and dusk. These cats employ a blend of stealth and power, stalking their prey until an opportunity arrives to pounce, then going for the back of the neck with a fatal bite. They will hide large carcasses and feed on them for several days...

Cougars require a lot of room—only a few cats can survive in a 30-square-mile range. They are solitary and shy animals, seldom seen by humans. While they do occasionally attack people—usually children or solitary adults—statistics show that, on average, there are only four attacks and one human fatality each year in all of the U.S. and Canada...

Could Adrienne actually have seen a cougar and climbed on the roof to escape it?

 

[indicolite22]

A cougar would not have broken into the cabin. She would have been safe in there.

 

[indicolite22]

Ada's sister did say that she had more ammo and that makes it hard to understand why she would leave the inside of the camp where she had cover and more ammo. There appears to be evidence that the doors were still locked and hadn't been breached. The evidence suggests that she was not under fire, she had emptied her weapon inside the camp and then left the camp, no shots were fired outside.

BBM. Do we know for certain that no shots were fired from the roof?

 

[indicolite22]

JMO
To me, I’m imagining Adrienne as somewho enjoys the outdoors, comfortable carrying a gun and using it. Intelligent, perhaps not easily panicked? Seeing the cougar earlier, heard noises, she went to the highest elevation to scan the surroundings.
I’m thinking she has been on the roof many times before looking at stars and observing wildlife.

If she suspected that she was being attacked by two armed men, she would have been more of a target on the roof than inside. Or was there a spot on the roof that wasn't visible from the ground and she went to hide there?

 

[indicolite22]

Why was she awake so late, I wonder.

Maybe she is a night owl.

If people really were coming after her in the middle of the night, what caused her to suspect that was about to happen? If she started out with mentioning a cougar and then changed to mentioning 2 men (and then shot at them, but police can't find evidence of them being there), it sounds like she was generally fearful and anxious that night.

She was going to spend at least a few more nights alone at the cabin. Why would she be more fearful that night as opposed to other nights? Why couldn't she have left with the bf, if she had anxiety about being alone there?

It's possible that a car came into the yard and no trace was found of course. But she apparently doesn't mention seeing headlights coming down the secluded driveway. Could two men have come through the woods? With sniffer dogs trained to follow the scent of the missing person, there might not have been any immediate evidence.

Someone with a nefarious plan could have turned off the headlights on approach.

 

[happyday]

Random musings:

• I’m highly suspicious of the boyfriend. I haven’t heard a good explanation for why he left or why he didn’t go see her family until Saturday. Was he waiting for some signs of a physical argument to heal up? Why has he not spoken to her SON?
• What led to the altercation she and her bf were involved in some months back?
• has harm or death come to any of bf’s former partners/girlfriends?
• any chance he made some kind of food or drink for her before leaving (with hallucinogenic properties)?
• does the bf have any ties to “thugs” capable of abductions?

• Does the ex-husband pay alimony?

• were there any arguments within the family about what does and does not happen with this cabin?

I would lean toward thinking some kind of mental break/or drug induced hallucination, but it seems that there are some questions and negative behaviors surrounding the bf.

This is pretty much how I’m thinking right now too. I can’t help wondering if bf was involved in some bad stuff and with some bad people. What was this attack/altercation about this summer and why didn’t Ada go back to Southfield with bf? Why stay alone at the cabin? Were the same people involved with the altercation involved with Ada’s disappearance?