She was a mission specialist. So, she had one area of expertise that she excelled in and like many experts, was book smart and street stupid.

And we don't have enough info to determine whether her car would have been inevitably found, but, from a newsclipping....sure sounds like there wasn't a search warrant requested.

Hmmm, I seem to recall something about searches from social studies. Seemed kind of important,
And the whole no sleep thing, there seems to be some discussion as to whether she waived her rights in the initial interview at all. So, the judge considered her sleep deprivition sufficient to question whether she was capable of waiving her rights and threw her statements out