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The Evidence Trail: Shoes, the Rental Car, and 51 Mystery Miles
At 12:25 · chapter starts 10:30
In the days after Alberta's death, the investigation gains momentum — and confusion. Her shoes turn up near the bridge exit ramp, apparently tossed from above. Then police realize Alberta wasn't driving her distinctive pink Thunderbird that night but a rented white Ford Fairlane. When that car is finally located on a residential street two miles from the river, it's a crime scene: blood covering more than half the backseat, upper dentures on the floorboard, bloody newspaper fragments, small pieces of brick, and fingerprints everywhere. Yet someone had also taken time to ditch Alberta's shoes separately — a puzzling decision given everything else left in the car. Most mysterious of all: the odometer showed 51 miles driven during a 12-hour window, far more than Alberta's known movements could account for. Someone drove that car somewhere, and no one knows where.
A couple was woken at around 2:00 AM by screams and saw a man dragging a woman toward a white or light-colored Ford, where another man reached out and pulled her inside. The car sped west toward the river — directly toward where Alberta's body was found.
When police compared the odometer to the mileage log on Alberta's rental car, 51 miles had been driven — far more than her known movements could account for.
