Your thought about LE and how they might manage a seeming dead end is interesting. I see it just the opposite. One hundred days later, LE has to manage the hopes and expectations of Caleb's family. But without a shred of direct evidence, how does LE anywhere advise families that someone is most probably dead?
I think of Caleb as I saw him in that short doorbell cam footage, with the roomies, the friend of the roomies and Jenny the dog. Smiling, super relaxed, hands in pockets, affable. A comfortable, confident young man outside on a Sunday night. Life, alive. I don't believe that up and disappears, I believe it gets taken.
Jeffrey Dahmer operated in my city. Gradually, men began to disappear. Sometimes media covered a disappearance, sometimes they didn't; it often depended on how vocal or local family members were. (Some of the victims were from out of town.)
My point is, considerably more than a hundred days passed with no movement on the cases of some of the missing men. No comments from LE, no asks of the public, nothing. Sometimes all there is to do is wait.
Not until Dahmer's last victim escaped screaming into the street did LE realize that a serial killer had been operating in the city for several years. Even then, they would not have been able to ID some of his victims without his help.
I'm not saying a serial killer murdered Caleb, I couldn't possibly know that. I'm saying I believe he is dead and I believe a person intentionally killed him that night. Just my opinion, as it has been since early on.
If LE suspects the same, I don't know how they message that.