[Snowdog]

Moderator note:  this thread split from murder investigation thread.  Let's try to keep the speculation and noise limited to this thread.

I had a thought (I have lots of those on the trails) about the investigation.  I believe there is currently an award for information leading to the arrest of guilty party(s). Is it $5000.?  What if concerned citizens began to add to that sum?  Surely the 'friends' of the perpetrator would be motivated by the allmighty dollar? Those types would turn in their own brother for enough moola.  What do ya'll think, worth a try?

I have convinced myself that the women in the Pinnacle Lake area were the victims of a drug related crime. I think if two men  stumbled on whatever it was they came upon, the result would have been the same.
I've had countless people reinforce this theory by telling me stories of meth labs & pot farms that one can stumble on up & down logging roads all over  National forests, etc.

I am chosing to be proactive about this and attempt to raise the reward for info that may lead to an arrest. The Mountaineers have put up an initial amount ($5k I think). I personally plan to add to that & solicite others to do the same. Somewhere, someone knows something about who may be responsibile. For enough cash, my hope is they will turn in the guilty party.

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Time is the coin of your life, only you can determine how it is spent.

[Backpacker Joe]

Snow Dog, while I respect your opinion, I cant accept that *any* drug people were doing anything 1.5 miles from the road!  Nobody is going to be screwing around with drugs that far from a road.  These guys are opportunists, not nature lovers.  Can you imagine someone carrying drug equipment 1.5+ miles when they don't have to???  Let alone having to carry the created product that far to a vehicle every time... Nope, this was either totally random, or a contract killing.

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"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

- Abraham Lincoln

"Backpacker Joe...There are some people even bears won't eat!"

-Dave Workman

[jimmymac]

I agree with BPJ's general take on this. I don't think these women found a wilderness crime operation. I think urban or rural crime made a trip to the mountains that day and found them.

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Sometimes I think I glimpse eternity.

[ActionBetty]

I think another thing they should look at is all of these post war veterans we have been coming back to the states.  War changes folks..sometimes for the worse.  I wouldnt be suprised if some vet is slinking around the woods with the war still going on in his head.  I am as clueless as the rest, but this theory hasn't been posted as of yet..so I posted it.

[Markus]

[Dante]

[kate]

Yes, I agree. No meth maggot would have a lab that close to the trail.
They were murdered right on the trail. It must be a random act by
a sick person who is a control freak.

[Dayhike Mike]

[Snowdog]

Well....... hmm.......... Respectfully,  I think it is far more plausible that drug/ illegal activity was involved than a contract killing.  That  specific area is riddled with old, abandoned roads that could be accessed by ATV or dirt bike, thus eliminating the long hike that  addicts would find unacceptable. (being the lazy sort I would imagine)
Do you really think that someone was out for those two special women, who by all accounts lead exemplary lives?  Also, they did not go where they had originally planned, so it would have been impossible for anyone to  ambush them.
The veteran possibility is a good one too- there are many people who come back from war damaged beyond repair.
It's good to bounce around ideas, and I'm sure all of our theories are being considered by the authorities.
In light of yet more senseless killing recently, it will be all too easy for this tragedy to fade from the public's awareness.  Let's be sure that doesn't happen in the hiking community as well.

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Time is the coin of your life, only you can determine how it is spent.

[Snowbrushy]

Last weekend C-Span (TV) had a show on about Theory's About 9/11. It was speculation about 9/11, etc.. This forum has never censured spectulation. But some have ridiculed it. I think that it was brave for C-Span to air the show. I believe that spectulation is a natural thing and I thank the moderator for encouraging a thread about it and the tragic thing that happened ..

My theory is this:  There were bears reported in the area. And outlaw types were looking around for the bears to kill for food, claw's, penis bone. The outlaw types are not supposed to have guns, let alone be out hunting this time of year.

When they got to the trailhead that weekday they saw 2 vehicles. At that point they knew that any game had been scared off by the people on the trail.
And at that point they went up that trail to murder as a warning to others to stay away.

Again, Thanks for allowing rampant speculation. 

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Ride a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin' to find a woman who's never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.  Zep.

[Malachai Constant]

My guess in all this breezy speculation is someone wanted something from one of them (sex, money, car keys, gear etc) and got it or did not and eliminated the witnesses. Probably a tweaker or at least half nuts.

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We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard
-JFK

[David]

A question:

I keep seeing the term, "tweaker," used, but I am not 100% sure what it means.  Is this someone who, e.g., breaks into cars at THs?

[tazz]

"tweaker" is someone who is addicted to meth.  When on meth it is called tweaking.

[redmond_r]

The silence from the authorities is tweaking the speculation.

From  what I've seen in the mainstream media, these are basic assumptions:

- the mother and daughter were seen near the trailhead about 10 AM
- they were found up the trail at roughly 2 PM to 2:30 PM
- when the authorities arrived, 4 vehicles were at the trailhead, and the owners and passengers of the vehicles are known
- the victims' vehicle was not stolen, and neither were the victims possessions [1]
- the authorities say the victims were killed by gunshots

Is there anything else that isn't speculation?

[1] That by itself doesn't rule out a motive of robbery.  Potentially robbery was the intent, but the perpetrator(s) couldn't complete the robbery.

[David]