From: charlie
Date: 5/25/02
Time: 8:03:28 AM
Rose, Back a few years ago when we first started doing the trip to Dana Point and we looked it up on Map Quest, etc.--ALL of them routed the trip past Dana Point on the interstate and came back. It was only in the last year or so that they started routing the trip off one of those highways over to Dana Point.
It would also depend on WHEN the Browns left the Mezz as well. In the Grand Jury, it started out at 9 PM and thru the Prelim Hearing too. It was only after the case developed more that the DA (Clark in particular because she had said 9PM herself during the GJ and PH) started trying to back the time up to around 8:30.
I drove an interstate for the distance approx that it takes to get to Dana Point (without the part that goes off on a highway) and it took me an hour and I was really hitting the speed. (approx 75 miles it was)
At the time of the murders (94-95), the Browns, Phil Vannatter, Faye Resnick, the media and others called the trip to Dana Point an hour and half trip when they referred to it.
It was only later that it got "morphed" down to less than an hour or approx. an hour.
It all depends on when they left as well. An hour from 8:30 is vastly different than an hour from 9:00 for instance...if they made it in an hour.
When I timed my 75 mile trip on the interstate, every bit of it was on the interstate--no side roads or highways. I started at a sign that said Cincinnati -75 miles. And I watched the Odometer from there.
When I say construction, I also mean that certain exits weren't available at the time it appears. There must be something "different" about the route for the map sites to go from NOT having the driver get off at one of the exits to go over to Dana Point to being able to get off at one of the exits to go over. They recommend the fastest route. There was something about those crossover to Dana Point roads that caused them Not to recommend them. Later that changed.
And I believe there was something that was said about the trip by Denise or others that made me think that they had to drive back thru town to get home.
Also, one of the posters we were in contact with said that she had been there shortly before the murders and had to drive the interstate on down and get off at the Dana Point exit which was actually past Dana Point (where it curves back towards the ocean) and drive thru town.
Perhaps if those crossover roads existed, there was no exit ramps or the ramps were blocked with construction.
I do know I looked up both the fastest and the scenic route. The fastest took you past Dana Point to the DP exit and the scenic route took you down HW One. No crossover roads.
There appeared (then) on the map to be only one road that you could cross over and it was before Dana Point and it took you at least 10 miles after you got to the ocean along the Pacific Coast Highway (HW One).
I have also looked at AAA maps and others of the area that existed before 94 and there does not appear to be any exits on these roads. Don't show the roads that cross over as they do now.
charlie