Look at the location of the camera on the map. News reports say his apartment was located in 1900 block of Wharton, and the camera was two blocks away near Giant Eagle. Go to street view on google maps, and you'll see that he was walking towards his apartment. In the video, he is BETWEEN the Giant Eagle and his apartment, heading towards his apartment that is less than 2 block away.
The articles stating he was heading towards the 10th Street Bridge were just using the 10th Street Bridge as a directional description instead of north, south, east, west. Since the 10th Street Bridge is about 10 blocks past his apartment, there's no reason to believe he was heading to the bridge when his house was less than two blocks away.
The question is where was he prior to heading home?
Instead of going home from Smokin Joes, he could have went to Ruggers Pub. The video could be catching him walking home from Ruggers afterwards. Last call is 2am, but people don't leave bars at 2am. Back in my drinking days, we didn't end up at restaurants for breakfast until 3am.
If that's what happened, that would mean his roommates time for their encounter with him at home wouldn't be accurate. They could have used a prior trip to McDonalds as their alibi by establishing seeing him before leaving for McDonalds as the last time they saw him, when they really saw him later at night.
Or, he could have simply left for Ruggers Pub to catch last call after they left for McDonalds.
Understanding that he's actually heading home in that video makes it easier for me to eliminate suicide, falling into the river, and going to the hospital type scenarios.
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