The odd behaviour was odd only because that was the way it was presented in the affidavit. Allthough LE can't lie on an affidavit, they dont have to tell everything. For example, when they say that SA claimed he had a fight with his supervisor, they don't say
when he had the fight, a small fact you think they surely would have asked. And if they had asked, they would have been more specific on the affidavit. The fact that they weren't means that they didn't. So, when exactly did this fight happen and how did they find out about it? If it happened the previous week or month or whatever, and SA was simmering about it, him just taking off would not be that odd. And the boss would have said there was no fight that morning, which would have been true.
Then there is the trip to the mother's house. Again, if they had asked him about it they would surely have also asked the details. SA says they didn't. Instead, they show that he went to the mother's house via CC, and not directly. SA had a reasonable explanation why, but they apparently didn't ask about which way he went, because if they did they would have SAID so. And they didn't. If he said he went route X but they could show he went route Y, they would have caught him in a lie, and that
would be incriminating. They would have said that in the affidavit for sure if that was the case, and they did not. So, again, there is a critical detail missing.
You have to look at what is said in the affiavit, and also what is
not said. That is the telling part, there is critical information which should be there and is not. Overall the information in the affidavit appears to have been constructed mainly to get a warrant, not because there was reasonable grounds for suspicion.
So, while this all casts the "guilty" spotlight on SA, if you actually read the affidavit closely it is pretty clear that SA is probably not the source of what he supposedly did that morning, which begs the question just who was.
Or maybe I'm just an old sceptic who asks too many awkward questions when I sleuth.