Martin could have gone home if he chose to. He chose not to - you’re correct up to that point. But there is zero evidence to suggest he ‘returned’ or ‘went back’… in fact, there’s no evidene he went anywhere at all; the fight and his body was pretty much right where Zimmerman last saw him; for all we know he just hid between one of the buildings waiting for Zimmerman to leave the area, only for Zimmerman to approach him after hanging up from NEN? Perhaps Martin didn’t want to go home and let the crazy stalker guy following him the last quarter of a mile know where he lived?
Zimmerman could have gone back to his truck if he chose. He chose not to. Instead, he continued wandering the area searching for Martin. There -is- plenty of evidence for this, because that’s the only reason he’d have for not going back to his truck.
The Dee Dee phone call suggests Martin is ‘near’ his house; ‘near’ could be damn near anything depending on context. I live ‘near’ a train station, but it’s a seven minute walk. My office desk is ‘near’ the printer, it’s on the desk next to me. Since Team Zimmerman loves to point out how ‘close’ Martin’s house was to the T and how quickly Martin could get there, it makes sense to suggest that ‘near’ would include being in any area around the T.