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What's peculiar to me is that he ended up in Altoona PA, of all places.
For those of you who aren't familiar with central PA, there's a big-ass mountain range that runs diagonally across the state. Large portions of it are taken up by state and national forests, and even the parts that aren't tend to be sparsely populated without much in the way of paved roads.
There isn't really a good way to get from NYC to Altoona. You either have to drive 45-60 minutes north from the turnpike, drive 45-60 minutes south from interstate 80, or you have to wind your way through miles and miles of land so rustic and bleak that it has been used more than once as a shooting location for post apocalyptic horror movies.
I've stopped at that McDonald's on my way North before. It's not bad so far as fast food goes, but not worth going to jail over it. Why stop and eat inside, rather than hitting the drive through or even carry out? Why hold on to the fake ID? Why hold on to the murder weapon? Why hold on to the silencer? Why carry a manifesto on your person? It almost seems like getting caught was a personal choice.
But if getting caught was a choice, why Altoona? Why not Bellefonte or Bedford? Why keep driving to Altoona? It's very odd.
If he’s caught he’s caught. Doesn’t matter if he has the ID and gun on him or not. Probability that an officer will go through his bags yet not arrest him is super low. Likely he kept the gun in case he decides to off himself rather than life in prison.
I agree with @Rov_Scam below. You find this guy and he's only his own ID, no manifesto, no gun, no silencer, he can just brazen it out. Even if he'd kept the gun (and different ammo) he might have gotten away with the murder (the ballistics wouldn't match without the silencer, I don't think), but the silencer and IDs point right to it and the manifesto seals the deal.
"Ballistics" means how fast the bullet is moving, in what direction. Most silencers have negligible effects on ballistics; they change point-of-impact and can increase velocity slightly due to freebore boost, but nothing that would be forensically relevant. What would really get him would be the rifling pattern on the fired bullets, which would match the barrel of his gun and which the suppressor has no effect on.
Otherwise, much agreed. ditching the gun seems like such an obviously good idea that I can't understand his not doing it.
I would guess he had some perfect plan for how to destroy the gun without a trace that required him to be in a certain place.
That seems like a plausible motivation, but goddamn is it stupid. Disassemble the pistol, douse the pieces in gasoline and burn them. Take a bus somewhere near the coast, walk to the beach and chuck it into the ocean. Either of those would be more than sufficient.
I've been tossing around the idea that you can probably use a consumer drone to drop a murder weapon in a lake without much hassle at all.
He was in rural Pennsylvania. One hard overhand toss would put it in in a forest thick enough that they can't even find prosecutors.
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Easier to use a boat, and less likely to attract attention.
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