This is what I think the problem is.............
Sac
all the wailing/gnashing of teeth about this guy's complex 'scouting of the area' is playing right into his plan, to wit:
a) a shooter who's quite familiar with his weapon and general tactics will need to expend little mental effort to keep those aspects squared away during/after a shoot;
b) relative familiarity with road layout would only be necessary in high population urban areas if he/she planned on e&e via side streets/back roads;
c) given that most major highway commerce interchanges such as that in ashland are relatively similar, short-term memory of where one is/needs to go afterwards would well suffice to e&e;
d) a non-local would be wisest, in a relatively rural setting such as ashland, to avoid back roads, as the chance of standing out would be exponentially higher than on, say, a side street in falls church;
e) especially in light of (a)&(c) above, our boy needed only to toodle on down 95, pick an exit based on whatever criteria is floatin' his boat and, esp. at night, spot a good shooting stand in less than five minutes of recon;
f) imo, this guy was back on 95 within one minute of taking his shot, and halfway to dc by the time the local roadblocks went up around ashland;
g) bottom line here is that it's not taking him nearly as loong to scope these sites out (pardon the unintended pun) as the 'accepted wisdom' seems to believe;
h) if there's a 'white van' involved, it's merely as a completely clean diversionary tactic, while the shooter slides on through in a totally non-descript sedan ...
$0.02