SJ went home after the Pizza Party. She may have had a call (remember calls can't be traced because of the switchboard) She reluctantly agrees to meet caller(because she is tired) after she drops off the keys. See PS, has social conversation, states she's tired and just wants to go home. Drops off keys, walks through the gate and gets right into waiting car with the now killer.
Yes, certainly possible. Probable? Well, as you suggested, let's look at some gotchas (as you suggested):
1. Here's something I just thought of... something that may be quite significant. I'll bet Suzanne had only one phone line. This means she could neither receive nor make calls while logged onto the Yale computer network.
Let's review the time line:
8:30 - Drives another volunteer home in a borrowed university stationwagon.
8:45 (guess) - Returns car to the Yale owned lot and heads for apartment two blocks away.
"Sometime prior to 8:50" - A few friends pass by her window and ask her if she wants to join them at the movies.
9:02 - Logs onto her Yale e-mail account
9:10 - Logs off
9:15/20 - Meets Peter Stein near Phelps Gate en route to returning keys to borrowed car.
Thus, if we stretch it, we have about 17 minutes (8:45-9:02), and maybe a minute or two (9:10-9:12) for Suzanne's phone to be "free". For this scenario to work, we have to assume the mystery man is 100% anonymous. This would mean that if he got her answering machine (assuming she had one), he would just hang up and try again. Either the person a) got extremely lucky he got ahold of her, b) kept calling all night until she answered, or c) knew her so well that he could be sure where she would be at any given time.
If we assume "a", then we are left with someone who just happened to reach Suzanne, Suzanne just happened to say yes even though she was tired, and the caller just happened to bring a knife with him... and brutally kill her. Sorry, way too many low probability events all have to occur. If we assume "b" or "c", then we are dealing with an obsessed individual and likely someone who has already thought about killing her. Somehow I don't picture a 4-5 inch carbon steel knife as a planned murder weapon.
2. Even if we get past #1, we still have the problem of just because the caller may have urged Suzanne to not tell anyone, he can't be sure she didn't. Did he tell her not to even say "I'm going to meet someone"? If so, wouldn't that make her a bit nervous and all the more reason to tell someone... just in case?
3. While Suzanne did go out Phelps Gate, she apparently didn't stop there to look or wait for someone. Recall she was "walking north on College" when last seen. Yes, perhaps the meeting place was somewhere further down the street, but not likely.
4. Finally, we still have all the aforementioned problems with a single friend is the killer theory.
- Jeff |
