I'm all about self-sufficiency and self-rescue, but gosh -- she just stepped out to walk the dog, not take a hike -- and then some crazy criminal chased her with a knife! Do you take a GPS to walk your dog? If so, what kind of a dog do you have??
If she were some random city slicker, I would be skeptical of her story and would suspect that alcohol was involved. But she is a very experienced outdoors-person (and a dedicated boondocker). So I'm reluctant to play the "coulda-woulda-shoulda" game in this case. From what I know so far, she was the victim of bad luck.
