BBM. All very good points!You don't think he knew that he was a suspect?
I think since he drove a white Elantra, even if he isn't the murderer, he surely must have thought about it. He's alleged to be very bright. He has a master's in criminal justice. Then he gets stopped twice in Indiana (and to me, looks seriously and intensely bothered at the time). He's putting things in the neighbor's trash (which I suppose an innocent person might do if they thought they were a suspect). I think he was worried. If innocent, he would be worried anyway. Surely he isn't that unaware of what goes on around him? There's a massive hunt for a white Elantra (sure, slightly different year announced, but still, if I drove any form of white Elantra, and lived in the area, I'd be thinking everyone was expecting me to contact police and suspecting me of murder). I don't think I'm alone in that.
If he did do it, then of course he knew what was happening.
But even if not, I doubt he thought this was a random break-in out in the middle of "the woods" in the Poconos, not when he was feeling anxious enough about his trash that he had to baggie it and carry it next door. I know people keep proposing good reasons for this behavior, but even his one sister was apparently suspicious. While his juvenile record had been expunged, since he was an MA in criminal justice, he knew they'd start running all white Elantras against the FBI's database at some point using names of all Elantra owners in the immediate reason (and they'd find minor convictions even though unexpunged - like his stealing of his sister's phone and selling it). They might even find evidence of his former treatment for heroin addiction. He surely knew that in a case like this, a list of some 200 suspects might include him (just as Joe DeAngelo was aware, and kept moving and changing his MO and then somehow apparently stopped being a serial killer).
He also knew he was in trouble with his prof, that his university was ejecting him, and since his prof was a criminologist, surely he wondered if that prof might not speak to police about him? Most profs I know, criminal justice or not, will reach out to at least campus police if they suspect someone of a major crime. We're actually trained to do that - and the police are professionals who take it from there. Most campus police are trained to be fair and tolerant toward students, so it's not like starting a witch hunt.
He's smart enough to know that he was a suspect. And he knew he had a missing sheath with his DNA on it, somewhere (no matter how it got there, I believe he knew about the sheath and had interacted with the sheath).
IMO.
JMO