The bosky dells of Connecticut are no less dangerous than the meaner streets of New Haven. Just a different kind of danger. Maybe worse, since one might not expect it.
Yeah, that ridge is full of bears. You see one wandering through the parking lot every once in a while. I am on the alert for them when I am walking in the area.
As for the kind of perpetrators you’re talking about, I have walked the vicinity many times at all hours, and never seen a one. It is truly solitary in the woods, except for an occasional dog-walker. The bicycle path gets a fair bit of use in the warmer months, but if you cut through the meadows and walk the footpaths in the woods down by the water-treatment plant, you’re very unlikely to encounter anyone.
My own take on this crime is that something very unusual happened. If anyone wanted to target this specific person, they would have waited until the bicycle path goes away from the road by the Ensign-Bickford plant. You could easily hide in the woods there if you were waiting for a specific person, and then take a footpath to the parking lot of the Chinese restaurant on Route 10 and make a clean escape. It just doesn’t make any sense the way it apparently happened.