I snipped this off of the last quote in my post about Qualters' statements, but it's interesting that by June. 12, (when these statements were made), by the POI's own accounts, LE had talked to them and searched at least some of their apartments and reportedly CR's car and phone records. CR and MB had already given DNA samples. But they make it clear that they want to talk to POI (I'm guessing JR, and possibly JW since they mention leaving town, but probably also CR if he had 'amnesia'). A few weeks later they made another statement emphasizing their frustration with Lauren's friends' refusal to come forward. So they obviously had more they wanted to question them about.
Meanwhile, they say that all of the sex offenders were compliant. And they later publicly cleared the only other suspicious element that was known -- the white truck, while specifically saying that none of the POI had been cleared.
Every time I look back at the early press statements, I don't get the impression LE didn't take the case seriously enough. I get the impression they had their eye on the POI from the beginning, and the POI knew it. In the chance that they didn't have anything to do with Lauren's disappearance (that is, besides letting an incapacitated girl stumble off alone at 4 am), I would fault them anyway for holding up the investigation by not doing anything they could to help and clear themselves.
JMO.
