Can't argue with any of that...and that puts the "Preacher Melvin" theory to rest.
Not really. It's one thing that those events within "Melvin's" storyline aren't backing itself up. With first (for me) HUGE "waaaait, waaait a minute, but HOW EXACTLY DO YOU (meaning the person who shared the story) or ANYONE knew that guy who creeped out Debra on the road got her family home address and phone number through her licence plates"?
Cause for the road creep there were different, easier and easily available ways to learn her private info.
First - through stalking. As soon as that first assumption (that he just met her there on the road for the very first time and allowed her to drive back not following ger
) goes away it's pretty reasonable possibility, right?
Why even come up with this weird theory that he got it through licence plates? Doesn't seem like they learned that from Melvin. It wasn't easy at the time, unless "Melvin" was a cop or worked at DMV or something like that.
Second - if he indeed was the same guy who had some sort of relationship with Rachel or was stalking and creeping around her school he wouldn't need to run any licence plates through anything. If their relationship was consensual, then he could easily learn that from Rachel. If it wasn't consensual, he could be stalking Rachel prior to stalking Debra. If he had reason to be at her Highschool, then sure as hell he could get access to her address and her parent's phone number.
The other stuff I stated in earlier post.
This whole "Melvin's" story is told so weird. It doesn't sound like someone really thought it through and shared their best conclusions.
For me it sounds like pretty lazy attempt at connecting some dots, quick brainstorm and here we go: there is a theory to share.
OR to plant some suggestions that aren't supported by facts/information that are suppossed to back (those suggestions) up.
Cause well, first time I read that, I followed and wondered if that "Melvin" guy could be a cop or closely related to a cop who could help him get access to car owner's private info. And of course - why it always looks like Debra is dishonest.
All those things aren't really putting the preacher "Melvin's" theory to rest.
They're opening it up even more. Cause if Debra never saw/identified "Melvin" as the creep we're not ending with one creep. We possibly have two! Even three actually. Or even four.
If those things happened, and nobody actually confirmed that it was the same person, then it's possible that those things were done by different people. So as many as:
- creep who stalked and scared Debra on the road,
- creep who called Arnold's home and spoke to each girl at least once, pretending to be a highschooler who didn't exist,
- creep who showed up at their door and tried to persuade Rachel's parents to send her to live with him "as a nanny",
- creep/mystery guy who was meeting Rachel at school, gave her a ring and with some reason wasn't openly introduced (or even spoken about?) to anyone.
It's not like we have a story in which guy creeped on Debra, then he called their home and Rachel recognised him as the guy she got a ring from... who later showed up at their door, pretending to be a preacher and scaring the ... out of Debra who recognised him as the road creep, leading both girls to confirm that's all and same guy and causing their parents to stop Rachel from meeting him.
If it would be like that, we could be sure that's all "Melvin".
Otherwise nope.
Unless Dan James actually FOUND "Melvin", spoke to him, got him to admit to all of that and explain how he did it, and "confirmed" that with Fran's notes.
That's awfully lot of creeps but it's also theoretically possible that ring and meeting mystery guy at school was a gossip.
Without assumption that Rachel actually knew him it could be a single creep fishing for victims.
Stalking the girls, calling their house to learn more, figure out how things work at their home, hoping that they could tell a thing or two to a local highschooler... and finally showing up there in hope that he could get "official" permission to take Rachel, or to learn more about the family in this weird way.
Btw. no matter how shady, business is business - great excuse to call someone pretending to be a customer. No way to identify the caller, few people at home. Such a creep could call them many times pretending to be different people to learn more about family habits. No distinctive voice, some time apart, good excuses and likely they wouldn't notice.
