So full disclosure, i’m a descendant of the McCracken’s in the reports. After reading the reports, it does seem like there was some mental illness involved. Knowing the area (my extended family still lives in the area now), foul play or suicide also aren’t the only possibilities. Even today the area is pretty dense and hilly, and back in the 30s in particular, there were a lot of natural dangers, from the land and waters themselves to bears and wolves. The roads in the mountain/horseshoe lake area are still treacherous, so it’s not implausible that if he was going to the store (as referenced in the reports) or going on a walk, he may have simply had an accident. If he died from injuries sustained in an accident on land and not in the waters, there’s enough wildlife around even today that his body would be strewn across the countryside within days.
That all being said, if once the spring and summer come you want some help searching the area, I have a metal detector that I’d love to take out and do some exploring with; everyone would have had something on them made of metal back then.
