What gets me is the money - not sure which one of you mentioned it, but he may have withdrawn that from an ATM and I bet the store has an ATM inside of it. I didn't see any notes about interviewing the staff at the store. He got the newspaper(s) from somewhere. He got the cup from somewhere. From what I could tell on Google maps, he had to have gotten those things from the store. I can see why they didn't see if he got off the bus. The store appears to block the view of the bus stop. Someone made a very valid point that if he came from Canada, he either had to have come by road or he had to have flown in prior to the planes coming down on the 11th, which would have been before 5 am on the 11th on the west coast. The more I think about it, the less I believe he came from Canada. As far as being missed if he was a medical professional, he wouldn't be missed if he had resigned his position first. Paramedics and EMTs would be even less likely to be missed and students do drop out. I think he was older than the general consensus is. I think he was around 35 years old. He paid for one night then said he would be staying a few more days. Why was that? Did he decide while he was there to commit suicide and do it there? Had he intended to commit suicide the first night, then have second thoughts, requiring more time to talk himself into going through with it? If he was intent on committing suicide, I would think that he would get up every morning thinking "today is the day" - but he asked for fresh towels on Saturday. So, had he set a date that he intended to do it? If so, why wouldn't he pay in advance for days up to the day he intended to commit suicide? The pacing out on the highway is weird. There were more pleasant places to walk if walking was his sole intention. Was he trying to get up the nerve to jump out in front of a moving vehicle? Was he waiting for someone or something that didn't show up? Was someone supposed to come get him from the motel and he got stood up? It's really starting to make me wonder if he came there with the intention of committing suicide at all. For the record, I don't think he was murdered. I am starting to believe that what he wanted to happen at the motel did not go as planned, though.
They should have interviewed the store employees if they didn't. He would surely have been noticeable, since he was so tall and skinny(and maybe already acting strangely at that point). Getting money from an ATM is a good possibility - and I think you're the only person I've ever seen mention it...!
He doesn't strike me as the type who'd jump out in front of a vehicle(or do this at the spur of the moment at all). It's so potentially painful and messy, and can backfire disastrously. I think he was just trying to "outrun his demons," so to speak, on the highway. He was on the edge of an enormous decision. I think he was maybe waiting for a certain "last thing" to happen, before he could "go," and was getting restless because he didn't know when that thing would happen(but would have figured that it had to happen sometime within the next few days after checking into the hotel).
The method he chose seems to have been decided upon before he got there, what with him "messing up pillows" in the first room already.
I agree with the bolded text, and I also don't think he was murdered. I've talked to people who think he was, and think it's natural to feel sadness when someone dies in such a gruesome way. It's very tempting to imagine someone's still out there who could be held accountable for what happened.
It seems unlikely to me that he flew to that location - even though he would have had to arrive pre-9/11, I'd think that the lists of people who had been on
any flight that landed in the US shortly(days, weeks, 1-2 months?) before that date would have been meticulously searched.