Interesting.
Knife sheath may have fallen out of his pocket and he didn't notice. Why not wear on a belt? Perhaps he felt a belt was too bulky and noticeable with a knife attached.
Why not put knife back in sheath? Probably wanted to clean it off.
Because knife sheath was touching his clothes (and his gloves did touch items) your probably right that
he probably did assume his DNA was on knife sheath.
As you mention, I definitely think the neighbor's trash and baggie situation was him:
"....trying to keep found DNA samples from LE for as long as he could. "
Bryan trying to mitigate the damage from leaving behind the sheath.
Yep if you have ever worn a knife with a 7" blade on your
belt while trying to do anything such as climb a slope or stairs, you'd think again.
No one wears belts over coveralls, that I can tell - and BK needed to have a layer of protection over is regular clothes.
I have a self-defense knife, but would never wear it on my belt (and I actually wear belts on many occasions - including in the woods).
So I think you're right - it was too pointy and uncomfortable (those horizontal sheaths are better, but harder to access - not designed for murder, designed for self-defense).
He wouldn't want to put the knife back until he was finished killing (which he wasn't - he fled due to possibility of police coming or neighbors hearing, IMO).
Therefore, he tried to mitigate. To me, this part of the puzzle is quite complete.
In his (stupid) mind, he did think he'd get a chance to clean off the knife and put it back in the sheath (so as to avoid slicing himself and thereby leaving wonderful amounts of DNA for LE to discover). That makes me think he brought some kind of...cleaning/wiping material. I picture just a tub of Chlorox wipes or similar. If that was his plan, he must have been quite upset to discover he no longer had the sheath.
That makes me feel as if Justice might be served. WS is very victim friendly, but there are an inordinate amount of other places on the Web taking the stance that LE is always biased.
IMO. Sorry for going on so much about this but it's really hard not to. This is such a horrible crime.
IMO.