Speculative opinion....For them to not have crossed the creek, then the only way they could have accessed the area of the crime scene assuming they were forced from the area and returned at a later time that night would be from north of Deer Creek. Deer Creek runs E/W and W300N the same, E/W. They would have had to enter the CS under cover of darkness from a point near the field west of the Cemetery, to a point somewhere in the vicinity of RL's home, and east of there, south to the creek. The region of woods just south of RL's home, and a wee bit east, where there is a bend that approaches W300N, the terrain is quite steep at the creek bank, and likely not passable. So the area in question to return to the CS site would have to be the trail itself, leaving the trail before the bridge to pass through the woods, the field along W300N to the immediate west of the cemetery, and the area along W300N over to RL's home. One would have to assume that area of W300N was unoccupied overnight. I've highlighted in blue the area of concern, assuming they never crossed the creek to arrive at the CS site.
Edit to add...the length of roadway inside that blue circle on this map is around 2,000 feet, less than a half mile.