JMO, but it was anything but dumb for RA to go and speak with the conservation officer. He knew people on that bridge spotted him, he knew it for a fact. The really dumb thing for him to do in that situation would have been not to approach anyone at all. As it was, there were a host of parties he could have approached to try and cover himself to the extent possible. He could have contacted ISP, sheriff, FBI, municipal police. But he went to the conservation officer, who is armed, yes, but as far as I know, conservation officers have weapons more for wildlife control. This isn't some slight against the authority of a conservation officer, I'm not saying this because a conservation officer is somehow not as significant as these other parties. But who would a murderer probably rather approach to discuss his whereabouts at the time of the crime in an effort to deceive/conceal? A sheriff, a police officer, an FBI agent, or a conservation officer? My guess would be a conservation officer because a murder investigation isn't part of a conservation officer's anticipated duties. To me, it would be riskier for him with the tip line than the conservation officer. If the murderer is trying to avoid giving info to people who actually work actively in homicide investigations as part of their job, the conservation officer really may have seemed the safest option for him by far, MOO. He had to step forward to someone in light of the fact that he'd been seen at all. Otherwise, we'd all be sitting here now or in the future viewing his refusal to step forward early on as a red flag, which it would have been. Even if he'd spoken to no one, his luck in evading LE couldn't have lasted forever.