Venue Vexation

When you open a discussion by saying "I came across a really interesting venue issue the other day," reactions typically range from "I doubt it" to "could we please talk about something else?" But hear me out on this one -- it's a puzzler. The Scenario Two people get in a car in Asheville, planning to drive to Wilmington for a long weekend. When they arrive, instead of heading to the beach, the driver pulls into the nearest police station. He walks in and informs the desk officer that at some point during the trip, he got into an argument with the passenger, pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the chest, killing him almost instantly. The driver says that he "zoned out" afterward, and he has no idea whether the homicide happened 5 minutes or 5 hours ago. The medical examiner is able to give a rough estimate of the time of death (a window of a few hours, give or take) but on these facts that means the stabbing could have taken place in a number of different counties. Did the homicide occur in Davie? Forsyth? Guilford? Alamance? Orange? Sure, maybe. Or maybe not. We don't know. Where is the proper venue for prosecuting this case? The Statutes We Have In the vast majority of cases, determining the proper venue is far more obvious and simple. The crime occurred in X county, so venue lies in X county. See G.S. 15A-131(a), (c) (venue "lies in the county where [...]