
They stated "they had seen Cheri Jo near her car the previous night". If they knew it was her vehicle, there is a high probability they saw the young woman either exit her vehicle to proceed to the library, or enter her vehicle to drive away and place the books she had acquired from the library on the passenger seat. If we coalesced the two statements of Walter Siebert and the four workmen as a one time event, then it's clear that the four workmen saw Cheri Jo Bates, but Walter Siebert didn't. If this were the case, the young woman couldn't have been exiting her vehicle at 7:15 pm to enter the library, because shortly afterwards Walter Siebert entered the library with a few friends "but did not see Miss Bates, whom they all knew". Had Cheri Jo Bates been exiting the library and entering her vehicle at 7:15 pm to drive away, the four workmen would have noticed her failing to start the car and being offered assistance by the "good Samaritan", but they mentioned neither. Therefore, the workmen couldn't have been present on the fence opposite her vehicle at 7:15 pm at the same time they saw Cheri. They must have seen her at a different time.
A Mexican-American student: stated 'he knew Cheri Jo Bates and had noticed her in the library the night in question. He said he saw the girl "writing something with a ball point pen in her blue spiral school notebook". The boy told us he was outside about 5:30 pm, waiting for the library to open at 6, and it was then he saw the girl'. In part, this is an ambiguous statement, but clearly states that he saw Cheri Jo Bates "in" the library that evening shortly after it had opened. If the four workmen saw Cheri Jo Bates when she parked her vehicle to enter the library around 6:00 pm, then we have to consider the Confession Letter mailed on November 29th 1966, which stated "I first pulled the middle wire from the distributor. Then I waited for her in the library and followed her out after about two minutes. The battery must have been about dead by then. I then offered to help". The idea that her car was disabled shortly after she exited her vehicle and entered the library, before leaving two minutes later, would have required the four workmen seeing neither the man disabling her vehicle, Cheri Jo Bates failing to start her vehicle, or the man assisting and talking to Cheri Jo Bates. They clearly recalled none of these events, otherwise police wouldn't be at a loss as to what happened that evening.

At approximately 9:30 pm, a female student purportedly noticed a man standing in the fateful alleyway smoking a cigarette and exchanged brief greetings with him. She later failed to identify anybody from a photographic line-up, including 'Bob Barnett', the prime suspect in the Riverside Police Department investigation. He would later be excluded using mitochondrial DNA retrieved from blood-clotted hair found at the base of Cheri Jo Bates' right thumb. The female student eyewitness was certainly credible enough to police, because they later retrieved a cigarette butt from the alleyway close to where the man was last seen standing. She mentioned no body lying in the alleyway. Then we have the screams heard by people coming from the alleyway. A female earwitness described "an awful scream between 10:15 pm and 10:45 pm, and then about two minutes of silence, and finally the sound of an old car starting up". For Cheri Jo Bates to have been killed shortly after 6:00 pm, we would have to disregard both of these statements and believe that she wilfully left her vehicle in the state it was eventually found.
The last known sighting of Cheri Jo Bates was her arriving and entering the library at 6:00 pm, so this had to be the time the four workmen saw her. The four workmen were again seen at 7:15 pm by Walter Siebert and friends. If the four workmen remained sitting on the fence opposite the Volkswagen Beetle throughout this time period, they clearly didn't report any suspicious activity around the vehicle and didn't hear any screams from the nearby alleyway either. They could have spotted Cheri Jo Bates around 6:00 pm, then vacated the area and returned at 7:15 pm, but this doesn't change the fact they saw nothing untoward in the near time Cheri was spotted leaving or returning to her vehicle around 6:00 pm. Her Volkswagen Beetle must have been disabled at a later time. From everything we have learned, it is apparent she went off the radar for about 4 1/2 hours until her death at around 10:30 pm. Whoever she was with has never come forward - and this is likely the person who disabled the Volkswagen Beetle and murdered the young woman. If she walked away from the library shortly after 6:00 pm (in absence of her vehicle) with a friend or somebody she trusted, then this person may have lived nearby. It is my contention that the disabling of her vehicle and subsequent murder were one continuous event by somebody she trusted. You may have a different opinion.