She had just had the accident with her father's car a few days before. More than likely she was having a lot of stress between that and school. She probably bought that booze to drink it and have time away by herself. She very likely had been drinking that wine when she was driving and wrecked again. She wanted to get away from there ASAP. I think as soon as Butch was out of her sight, she grabbed some booze and headed somewhere to get out of the area. She maybe thought she was closer to an area she could stay. When she saw more cars or even police, she may have shot into the woods. She was a runner, so she could have gotten quite a distance away, so there would not be tracks in a close area. She might have sat down and had a few drinks to warm up, passed out and froze to death.
Another theory I had was that she may have stopped off at a bar somewhere and had a few drinks, maybe got to chatting with someone. That person leaves and stuffs a rag in her muffler, knowing that that will mess up the carbon dioxide. She gets dizzy and has the wreck. She knew she had to get away from the scene, especially after just wrecking her dad's car, and along comes the person she was chatting with at the bar. She jumps in and that person kills her.
As awful a person as her ex was, he was accounted for in OK. I don't think her friends are involved, they were probably all just doing things that college kids do, and don't necessarily want their parents to know about.
I don't believe she could still be alive, unfortunately. There are too many cameras all over for someone whose case has reached all over the world, for her to be able to stay under the radar. Her case has been on many different tv shows, there are podcasts, forums, webpages devoted to her, and other social media, she would have been found by now, I am sure.
I hope that one day her family will get their answers. I thought the Drexel family never would, and now they have her body and the suspect is in jail.