Let me get this right...
Tyler went missing and most likely took his own life.
Emily (Tyler's sister) died shortly after Tyler's 19th birthday and it's assumed she took her own life too.
<modsnip - not victim friendly >. Is there any other missing children or deaths related to this religious church group they're involved in?
I had thought at some point it was possible Tyler walked away to start a new life. But with the death of his sister, Emily, I no longer believe that. IMHOO, I think if he were alive, he would've surfaced for the funeral. How painful it must've been to Emily to lose her brother, and how heartwrenching that the family has lost two so young
Tyler's backpack was reportedly found near this bridge.
That's a great video. It's a long distance away from Mukilteo, though. If he wanted to jump off a bridge, there are certainly closer bridges to choose from. Hmm...
His family are missionaries to the Slavic peopleI noticed the FB pages for the youth group and the church and nothing was said. I'm confused that the church is a Slavic church though.
When Tyler's backpack was located and the fact that he kept his ferry and food receipts told me that he wanted his family to know where his life ended. MOODeception Pass comes to mind. It has a pretty high frequency of jumpers. He may have thought that taking the ferry and traveling the peninsula would give him more time, more cover, less likelihood of being thwarted by LE. If he were to hop a bus or hitch up I-5, it would have been much easier to track him quickly. But I think that looking at teenage boy's plan for suicide from a logical or practical perspective is a futile effort. Whether he left to start a new life or to end it, I think there was some specific reason he wanted to get to the Olympic National Forest - maybe it had meaning for him.