I watched the show for the first time this morning via Amazon streaming. Of course, we know more now than when the show was made, therefore I was able to watch it with the knowledge that he was in fact on the mountain.
I just can't help but think it was suicide. Just the way they found all his work items neatly placed all together, as if to say "Here! Take your stuff. I don't need it any longer." The officer on the show said that it is not unusual to not find usable fingerprints inside a car because the surfaces are not conducive to holding on to a print. He said something about the surfaces being too rough. IIRC, they used the term "usable prints"....not that they didn't find anything at all. They just didn't find any they could use.
No matter what he found or anyone else found during the audits, I sure hate to think that the poor man may have thought that was the only way out, but as the saying goes, sometimes still waters run very deep and sometimes it's hard to really know what's down in the depths of their psyche.
Did I understand correctly that Dillard's had to restate their earnings and it was due (at least in part) to the way that CDI was doing the accounting? I really don't get the feeling that it was anything intentionally devious on his part, but maybe he made some really, really big mistake and the knowledge of that just crushed him? The show said he worked Saturday and Sunday before the disappearance, so who knows what he discovered.
I'm not sure what to make of the dogs, other than I assume that sometimes they can probably be mistaken. Maybe weather/wind patterns played a part? They described scent as pooling like a fog. I seem to remember them saying it was quite blustery on the mountain in the days following, which I take as meaning windy. Could the wind have literally blown away some of the scent? Not to mention that during the grid search, the dogs still failed to pick up his scent. I'm not sure what part of the mountain they searched, but it sounded fairly thorough. We now know he was there.....but the dogs still didn't smell him, so that tends to make me wonder about their usefulness around the car area.
I think the dogs that found his scent at the convenience store, motel and Waffle House were just flat wrong.
If it were foul play, one would think that he would have had to have been taken against his will and literally shoved off a cliff, because there is no way someone was going to be able to lug a deceased person down those trails into the woods. That is VERY rough terrain! It just doesn't seem likely that someone would have taken him all the way up to Petit Jean to dispose of him, if for no other reason than there is really only one way in and out and there are lots of tourists and hikers around. It would have been very risky.
I'm glad the family has at least a few answers, but it seems like this could be one of those situations where the answer just leaves more questions. Maybe the new searches will turn up something that will give them some answers, but sadly, they may never know for sure.
They are certainly in my thoughts and prayers. It was very obvious that they loved him and I know they must feel his loss deeply. Very sad.
