Oklahoma is an odd place. I've lived in rural NE OK for eleven years now---about two hours from the scene of this disappearance---and, while I've also lived in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and all states have their little peculiarities, there's something deeply different about the less-populated areas here.
That's not to say there aren't plenty of warm and friendly people. There are. There are many. Great neighbors, salt of the earth people. An abundance of them.
Law enforcement is not known here for solving the big ticket mysteries---yes, it's easy to solve family quarrel murders or known drug user crimes, but once something out of the ordinary comes up, all bets are off. (I can cite the Locust Grove Girl Scout Camp crimes in 1977; the rural Welch murders which precipitated the kidnappings of Ashley Freeman and Lauria Bible; the murder of the Weleetka girls---Taylor Paschal-Placker and Skyla Whitaker; the killing of Pastor Carol Daniels in Anadarko, though this case is still fresh and conceivably could be solved; and numerous others.)
Three people missing from a truck in which there was a substantial amount of money is certainly out of the ordinary. Here in rural Oklahoma, once a thing is done, if it's not mentioned, it didn't happen. And many folks tend toward the clannish, with a deep distrust of LE. It is a state in which favors and past agreements govern an abundance of situations, no matter the seriousness of the activity involved. These situations can also cross the lines between LE and civilians, with predictable results---crimes can go unsolved for many reasons.
Many Oklahomans grow up cherishing the memory of Pretty Boy Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker and her sons, persons of that ilk---they have become, to some, not gangsters, but folk heroes. It creates a curious dichotomy in terms of our relationship to LE.
Okay, that's my lengthy preamble, and let me just say this is a fascinating thread with superb comments, one I just finished reading, though I heard about the case when the first news of it broke.
The family could have happened onto something as seemingly innocuous as poachers using guns out of season. People have been killed for less. Also, as has been well-noted, perhaps the family happened upon a pot harvest---a second seasonal crop might be ready along about now---or a meth-cooking operation. The truck could possibly have been returned from another location where the bodies are hidden---although we pray that they are still alive---in order to create confusion and shift the crime scene. The dog might have been then left in the vehicle in order to create the illusion that the driver was returning shortly.
Of course, around here, when LE reports a "substantial amount of money" was in the vehicle, it's natural for us to assume the worst, knowing, as we do, the wreckage the drug trade---particularly the meth trade---causes, that this was some sort of drug deal gone awry. True, we also tend to distrust banks---the Great Depression did not end in many rural areas of this state until the 1950s, and it's still deeply felt, and that feeling can be passed down to the generations; as well, survivalists and those who distrust any form of government can be leery of banking institutions, and this may account for the cash on hand, however much it turns out to be---after all, they're reported to have been looking at properties, and if the purchase of mineral rights were to be involved, that will drive the price of 40 acres of land up considerably, even in a remote region in Latimer County.
But the most likely thing, I think, is that they were followed by another vehicle, someone who knew they were searching for property and possibly paying cash (although that in itself is deeply weird), and were then taken to another area. If so---why was the money left in the vehicle? Perhaps someone driving by saw the other vehicle, and perhaps this spooked the perpetrator(s). Although they would have then had access, one would think, to the keys, perhaps after whatever happened, the person(s) decided to cut their losses and not return to a spot where their vehicle could have been identified.
One safe bet: someone in the Red Oak area knows something. But relying on them to relay this information is not a safe bet.
The protective order filed by this man against his own father is deeply interesting; LE may be playing this down in order not to play their cards, thus to create a false sense of security. Or, of course, it may just be happenstance.
Fascinating, eerie stuff, this. Let's hope that, soon, LE will turn up something. But let's don't count on it.