I'm so torn on what I think happened in this case. I haven't seen very many people mention suicide but I lean towards either suicide or death by misadventure as my top theories. Many people seem to jump on inconsistent statements or the impressions that Tyler's wife and friend might be holding back info as an indication that foul play happened to Tyler that night. I've followed so many cases here that I see it differently. A lot of times if a missing person is mentally ill or has expressed suicidal thoughts in the past the family does not want to talk about that as a possibility. They just want their missing loved one found and sometimes, even if they know deep down suicide is a possibility, they are in denial about it. So their answers to some interview questions may seem evasive. This happened in the
Paul Swenson case. His family and friends were actively searching for him while simultaneously hiding from the public that he had told friends he was "going to die" on the day he went missing and they also hid that he had also been struggling with mental illness for several months.
My other top theory is death by misadventure just because of what we know. We know Tyler, his wife and his friend had been out all night bar hopping and drinking. We know Tyler was drunk, "in a mood" and seemed confused at the time he disappeared. We know the outside temperatures were low enough that he could have died from hypothermia and he wasn't wearing a coat. Alcohol and cold weather are a dangerous combination because the person who has been drinking thinks they are warm enough. One of the symptoms of hypothermia is confusion. Tyler may not have even realized he was in danger from the cold. He might have wandered far beyond the search zone and then in his confusion mistaken another building for his hotel. In the case of "death by misadventure" I would explain the inconsistent statements or statements that seem to be holding back info as possibly being because they were doing something else illegal or semi-legal that night. Perhaps they also did some illegal drugs that contributed to Tyler being more wasted than he usually would be. Or maybe they were all just wasted from drinking and not remembering everything clearly and in hind sight perhaps they are embarrassed. Few people would want to admit that they were too drunk to stop their also drunk husband/friend from wandering off and disappearing. And from what they are saying about Tyler usually being a grumpy drunk person it might have been impossible to keep him from wandering off. He was a grown adult, after all, and usually he came back. Unfortunately, this one time he didn't return.
MOO.