Except nobody became immediately suspicious of anything. In fact, Ed Brown was telling Maria to stop running away until the wife came forward.
I live in Jacksonville, about 16 miles from this house. Marines go off on deployments and it is very common for them to leave their vehicles in someone’s backyard. Right now where I live I can drive down the main street of my subdivision and see at least 3-4 parked in someone’s backyard. It wouldn’t seem strange.....UNLESS THEY WERE LOOKING FOR MARIA’S VEHICLE.
That makes sense about extra cars being around. But you are right, if they had actually been looking for her car, they likely would have found it. It seems like there were a lot of dropped balls, miscommunications, you name it. She was likely already dead by the time the family notified someone on Dec. 19, so the outcome wouldn't have been much different. Everybody involved in the search is busy pointing the blame at the next guy. Here's a latest article from the AP,
Urgency of Search for Marine Questioned
Seems like the family thinks the sherriff didn't treat her case very seriously up front. It appears the Onslow county sheriff's dept. was contacted by police in Ohio, initially (where her family lived?). They then contacted Naval investigators. Not much happened from the Marine side of things. It doesn't seem that anything much happened until Monday when the family flew in and met with various folks. Then the search became serious. Very, very sad.
Usmcobra, yes I noticed the diving rod thing. Sounded goofy to me. (And yes, I know some swear by it for finding a good spot to dig a well.) Wasn't the ground disturbed or burnt or new grass growing in that area? I doubt it would have been too hard to notice, but who knows.