Look I am a chemist and a caver ....you don't do a "quick dip" in CaO it takes a helluva lot of the stuff to do anything plus moisture and you'd have to buy it and then lug it ( all traceable) and the idea while obsessive is just a blind alley....caves are explored too often at random by members of the JMU/GMU/GT/AU/UVA and 50 other Grottoes / caving groups...also the vast majority of all caves are mapped not only as to location but every level and turn....only an experienced caver would venture beyond the twilight zone....get rid of this idea also ....I know the tourist Agatha Christie appeal of Luray is great but get rid of it.... Luray is just a place on the country road loop with a MacDonalds and a phone where Condidit had probably passed with some of his biker buddies ( and they ain't all squeaky clean as their posts suggest) and a good place to get away while the deeds were being completed...hell get a life ...the perp is on the intelligence committee....he knows calls are easily traced....he just thought his silent charm had captivated AMS more than it had and he also underestimated the fact that this savvy gal would whistle up the Marines when he and his queer goons threatened her....
Well, I don't think it would have been too hard to obtain the lime (btw, I said dip in quicklime, not quick dip in lime) (Darrell could have bought some with cash or "borrowed" some from an open mine site), but yeah, I agree the corpse good have frozen or stuck in a "regular" hole in the ground somewhere in north-central Virginia. (I've been caving a few times before but not in several years. I'm doing graduate work at one of the institutions you mentioned; perhaps I'll look up the caving group.) Some of the other Condit connections to this area mentoned by others are intriguing.
Agree that Condit was relying on his charm to carry AMS. Pay phone could have been used only b/c the cell was out of range (mine was in Luray last August). He probably figures he can get away with murder(s) because of what he knows, or rather thinks he knows, about everything from suitcase nukes to TWA 800.