I live here in Florida and am thankful for the Sunshine law! they tell us everything!
I think LE found something like a hair and maybe after it was analyzed they found it was from a dead person like the hair in Casey A's car Just a thought and MVOO
That maybe the scenario but they really need no physical evidence to consider a case a homicide case. Think of a case where the person has vanished off the face of the planet and the three people closest to the missing person say the spouse of the missing person had discussed killing them, was attempting to collect life insurance money, and is found to have forged a document changing ownership of the assets to them.
With or without a deathring hair, a crime scene, or murder weapon they are going to consider this to be a homicide case in most situations. They may call it a missing person case early on if it keeps the spouse talking under the charade of wanting to find their missing loved one.
In this case you have a child reported missing at an elaborately staged kidnapping scene. Missing person case.
Then the investigation leads to dogs indicating there are human remains in the vehicles used in the kidnapping staging. Shortly after words the childs caretaker admits to writing the ransom note that is part of the elaborately staged kidnapping case. There is no rational scenario where a child is truly missing and the parents stage a kidnapping and ransom.
That is really all they need to deem it a homicide investigation.
They also have to explain to the judge why they want the searches they want to complete and why they believe these searches should take place.