Following Dorner's Tracks: Mapped Out

With all the different incidents and their corresponding times and places, it's hard to grasp exactly what happened when in the ongoing Christopher Jordan Dorner story. A few news sources have put together useful timelines, and we've taken the important events from those and mapped out the movements of Dorner so it's easier to visualize.

Click on the map to see it in full size.

The most important events tracking his movements are this:

1.  Sunday, Feb. 3 Monica Quan and Keith Lawrence found dead in Lawrence's car in a parking garage at 2100 Scholarship, Irvine CA.

2.  Monday, Feb. 4 at 9:07 a.m. Dorner spotted on surveillance camera tossing evidence into a dumpster next to Platinum Auto Sports in National City, near San Diego. Address: 3280 Main St San Diego, California 92113.

3. Wednesday, Feb 6 at 10:30 p.m. Dorner attempts to steal a boat at the Southwest Marina near Shelter Island in San Diego.

4. Thursday, Feb 7 at 1:25 p.m. Dorner shoots at 2 LAPD officers in Corona, CA.

5. Thursday, Feb 7 police find a burned-out pickup truck near the Big Bear ski area in the San Bernardino Mountains.

As you can see, he started in Irvine, CA with the death of Monica Quan and her husband. He then drove south 1.5 hours to San Diego to throw evidence in a dumpster and 2 days later tried to take off on boat while still near San Diego. After the boat hijacking failed, he drove back up north 1.5 hours to Corona where he shot at LAPD officers. His last step that we know of was traveling 1.5 hours northeast near the San Bernardino Mountains, where his burned-up truck was found. Since then there's been no sign of Dorner.

Questions: Why was Dorner trying to toss away evidence in a dumpster? It's not like everyone doesn't already know that he's committed murder and it's not like if he were stopped by police unarmed he'd be let go. You'd think it would be in his interest to keep the most weaponry on him, as he seems intent on continuing to kill and evade the police, with the obvious conclusion of a Dorner going down fighting but ultimately ending up dead. Although, perhaps he had plans of boating to Mexico and arriving with no weapons or evidence, in disguise. The burning of his truck equally doesn't make sense. We already know of his murders and his weapons, what's the point of burning evidence? It makes sense that he'd want to part ways with his vehicle since police are on the lookout for it, but we don't see how burning it makes a difference one way or the other. Some are speculating that he did that in order to confuse the police, and that with each action he's taking it's some sophisticated calculated move. That's possible, but we doubt it. Our guess is that he found his way into some random unlucky person's home and is currently holding them hostage. It would be too stupid for him to hide out among friends or family.

We've read through the manifesto and it does sound convincing that maybe there were quite a bit of problems at the LAPD. However, the moment he starting killing innocent people is the moment he crossed the line, and no past injustice can justify that. Surely he could have gotten a job somewhere else, outside of law enforcement, and lived the rest of his life in peace.