There is no telling what could be lurking behind the scenes left behind by the other user's habits. My advice would be a Clean Cycle or two with bleach, but if the machine were in my hands, I'd search on the backside of the front panel (you may have to dip your head in upside down and look just beyond the top of the tub ring, on the lefthand side of the cabinet) and see if the service diagnostics booklet is still there. In there, you'll find the manual diagnostics sequence, and the instructions on how to manually control every component of the washer at will. If it's not there, I'm sure Google will be the next best thing.
If I recall correctly for that version of Cabrio, if you press any of the buttons, soil level, wash temp, spin speed, etc., in a 1-2-3 fashion, repeating that three times, you should see the control panel light up, and you'll be in service mode. I could be wrong though, because the WTW4800 requires you to turn the cycle dial right-right-right-left-right to enter the mode, and the Bravos XL requires pressing a single button for 3 seconds on, 3 secs. off, three times. All are Whirlpool machines but with slightly different logic boards.
At that point, you could manually fill the tub with true hot water up to the top of the basket and turn on the long stroke agitation to stir up the water pretty well without having to get your hands in. As long as you don't let the diag. mode time out on its own (5-10mins I believe), and instead just press and hold Cancel, you should be able to let the machine sit and soak for as long as you want without it performing the "safety drain". Unplugging it could also work, but I'm always leery of just jerking the plug out, considering the electronics on board.
