The crown jewel of District Attorney Marian Ryan’s “evidence” that Mikayla Miller killed herself is her allegation that Mikayla’s fitness app recorded her walking to the place where her body was found. Nevermind why anyone about to kill themselves would want to know how many miles they walked or calories used prior to dying, it’s difficult to believe Mikayla wasn’t able to find a tree to hang herself from at the forest next to her apartment. We’re supposed to believe Mikayla walked about half a mile searching left and right to find a suitable tree to kill herself until finally she found an appropriate tree near a busy highway at 34 West Main Street. At a press conference on May 4th DA Marian Ryan stated that, “Mikayla’s cellphone indicated between 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., the phone traveled 1,316 steps which is the approximate distance from Mikayla’s home and where her body would be subsequently be located.”
I’m not sure how tall Mikayla was but a 5 ft. 1 inch tall female taking a “slow walk” (3 miles per hour) would walk 943 steps to go .4 miles which is the distance as the crow flies from 1 Revolutionary Way to 34 West Main Street, a house near the address where Mikayla’s body was found. The trail from the Windsor apartments to 34 West Main Street is curved and I’m not sure if the police alleged she killed herself before or after crossing the highway, so the 1,316 steps Ryan said Mikayla had walked is approximately half a mile; therefore, if Mikayla had walked to the location her body was found it’s reasonable to assume the distance would be 1,316 steps. However, Mikayla’s mom debunked Ryan’s allegation that her daughter’s iPhone recorded she walked 1,316 from 9 pm to 10 pm. Yet, even if that allegation were true, it’s difficult for me to believe Mikayla walked about half a mile before finding a tree to hang herself from since there are hundreds of trees next to her apartment.
The sun set at 7:30 pm on April 17th, which is approximately when Mikayla was speaking to the police to provide a victim statement and the last recorded time her mother saw her based on news accounts. The next morning the sun rose at 5:58 am, so the forest was visible when the jogger found Mikayla’s body at approximately 7:45 am. Therefore, from the time the police spoke with Mikayla on April 17th till approximately 2 hours before her body was found the next day, it was nighttime in the forest. If Mikayla killed herself during that time she would need a flashlight to see anything because the moon was only 25% full.
I know because when I lived in Hopkinton I visited the Berry Acres Conservation Area where Mikayla’s body was found. That forest is identical to the forest a few yards from my door at my Hopkinton home. There are no picnic tables, facilities, or lamps for night walks, therefore, people are only allowed to visit “from dawn to dusk” for their protection. It’s too dangerous to walk in a forest where even if you have a flashlight you can only see the narrow lit area of the flashlight and nothing else.
At my Hopkinton home I couldn’t see anything beyond the night lights. I often heard a large animal walking through the shrubs and grass and the sound was close, perhaps a few yards away; but I couldn’t see anything most nights unless the moon was full. On the night of a full moon I could see vague shadows. I was scared to go into the forest at night even with a flashlight, because it’s unnerving to be only able to see a few yards and be completely blind beyond the little area around my body.
If Mikayla did go into the forest after 7:30 pm on April 17th as the DA implied, she would be completely blind unless she had a flashlight to see a few feet in front of her. The idea of Mikayla walking around a zero-visibility forest for half a mile searching for an appropriate tree to hang herself from is utterly ridiculous. She might have left at sunrise, because that would give her enough time to go to the location where she was found and kill herself before the jogger found her at 7:45 am. Yet, the DA insists she walked for about half a mile from 9 pm to 10 pm the night before, which, coincidentally, is the same time the two boys who were involved in her assault were videotaped at a Wendy’s restaurant 34 miles away.