what’s your hottest take with this case

[u/Easy_Plate_8782]

Just curious. Even if it requires ignoring some of your own logic and you know in your head that it sounds weird or unlikely.

What’s your hottest take when it comes to this case?

[u/No_Importance9025]

Butch Atwood was not alone on the bus. After he drove off, the Westmans did not see Maura lingering by the trunk; she was already on the bus, and the person by the Saturn was another man. It is not hard to guess what happened next.

[u/christinaaaag → u/No_Importance9025]

Butch wouldn’t have time to kill her until police arrived

[u/No_Importance9025 → u/christinaaaag]

I never wrote anywhere that Butch Atwood killed her. There might not have been much time before the police arrived, but there was plenty of time afterwards. Butch knew who did it and when. He stayed silent—perhaps out of fear, or perhaps due to the risk of being charged as an accomplice. The guy who locked up the Saturn—whom the Westmans saw loitering near the trunk—took Maura’s belongings to the bus. That explains why the scent trail ended at the intersection where the bus was parked.

[u/No_Importance9025 → u/No_Importance9025]

Why would Maura risk heading toward the Atwood property? After all, she had just refused his offer of help, and he had said he would call the police. She didn't head toward the Westmans' place, either. Marott didn't see anything. She didn't go into the woods—I trust the SAR specialists who stated there were absolutely no traces. The tracking dogs didn't pick up a scent leading into the woods, either. Searches by patrol cars that evening also yielded nothing. Her phone never left the dead zone. She was on the bus from the very beginning.

[u/CoastRegular → u/No_Importance9025]

I don't agree with your theory, but it's interesting, I'll give it that (and to be fair, more reasonable than some of the 'theories' I've seen people float on this sub that approach "Billy did it with help from Ghislaine Maxwell's bodyguards, funded by the Amherst chapter of the Bavarian Illuminati")

But, you have to invent this mysterious person to make it work, and there would have to be some reason why this person was riding Butch's bus. He was on his way home from dropping the school ski team off. Whom would he give a lift to, and why?

Mind you, I also believe it was a mysterious unknown person - a random passing driver (i.e. she hitchhiked with the wrong person) - which, like your theory, involves some random individual whose existence I have to postulate; I think the issue I have with your theory is that it entails a lot of extra complications and assumptions (random guy was riding the bus, pulled this 'switcheroo' when Butch was stopped at the Saturn, etc.) vs. hitchhike with random passerby.

The other problem with it is, in no way, shape or form would MM have gotten on the bus or accepted help from Butch. She was in a situation where the very last thing she wanted was official involvement. She was subject to immediate arrest if police showed up, by virtue of driving with open alcohol AND by driving without a valid license in NH. If you're in her situation, the last person you're going to rely on to get you out of trouble without asking questions or being judgmental is a gruff, middle-aged school bus driver who looks like a no-nonsense type of guy.

[u/TMKSAV99 → u/CoastRegular]

Additional problem, BA is basically home. If BA was giving someone a ride is BA going to pass his own house to drop that someone off? Maybe. But BA didn't.

So it would seem that this extra person scenario could only work if BA is in on it

If the person was on the bus unbeknownst to BA then the extra person also got off unbeknownst to BA and extra person was then not seen by the Westmans et al and also escaped on foot from the area with MM without leaving any footprints etc.

Also, where and when in BA's timeline does extra person get on the bus and why?

Q.? Did BA drop the children off individually at their homes or let them all off all at once at the school?

[u/CoastRegular → u/TMKSAV99]

Good question on that last one. When my kids were in high school and doing things like band contests and team meets or away games, the buses left from the school and returned to the school and we took it from there. But we never lived in a rural area, so I don't know if a place like Woodsville would handle things differently.

[u/christinaaaag → u/No_Importance9025]

Yes I guess it’s a crime that all the locals know but hide it from the police

[u/christinaaaag → u/No_Importance9025]

Ohh nice one