Theory #1: Glenn Warburg is responsible.

Although in many ways Glenn emerges as the knight in shining armor of Katie’s blog entries, there are reasons to doubt that their relationship is exactly as it seems.

First, the tone of the blog entries after April 13 is radically different from that of the earlier entries. Katie writes about reuniting with Glenn as though it were perfectly comfortable. He immediately welcomes her with open arms, he tells her the truth about his jail time, and he offers her the wonderful solutions to all of her problems. Since Katie quit working for him in November (and Katie acknowledges she only worked for him for “like a week”), this seems extraordinarily generous. These pages read almost like a fantasy of what needed to happen for Katie.

Second, the blog entries of mid-April talk about Glenn in the exact way he might talk about himself. On page 271 the blog entry compares Glenn to a romantic interest, saying, “I felt so excited, like when you dump a boyfriend but then decide to get back together with him.” Did Katie ever feel romantic feelings toward Glenn? None that she admitted to in earlier pages. In fact, she found him physically unattractive. Then, on page 285, the blog says “But once [mom] meets Glenn, I think she will see what a wonderful man he is. He is not at all the same person who committed that heinous crime.” This sounds exactly like the sort of thing Glenn would want said about himself. It is suspicious.

On page 286 the blog offers the ultimate hint, revealing that Katie told Glenn about her blog. But Glenn claims not to like blogging, “He thinks it’s marvelous to keep a diary or a journal, but that there’s something dishonest about showing it to the world.” Why does Glenn use the word “dishonest?” Is someone trying to tell us that these pages are not real? Is Glenn writing these blog entries himself? Or is Katie trying to tell us she is lying about the events?

But the last, biggest sign of Glenn’s guilt is on page 291 when Carol Grantham is blogging. She reveals that Glenn claims he never spoke to Katie after she quit. So every entry after April 13 would have been a fabrication. Glenn wants the police to believe Katie invented these interactions. But is that even possible? Could Katie have come up with such a believable story about Glenn? In these pages she shares Glenn’s advice to her, much of it gleaned from his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. He talks about taking things “one day at a time” (p. 274), a phrase central to AA. Since Katie has never been to AA, how would she know this was the exact phrase a man like Glenn would use? How would she have known about the treatment of the Japanese in World War II (p. 281) if Glenn didn’t tell her? Not only does Katie lack the motivation to invent these interactions with Glenn, but it seems very unlikely she could have parroted Glenn’s advice so perfectly without hearing it herself.

While it is possible that Glenn lied about their recent contact, not to cover up the fact that he killed her, but merely to shield himself from that suspicion, the fact that he has a violent past gives us every reason to suspect Glenn played a major role in Katie’s disappearance.