Exactly. I also haven't seen a news or police source state that his computer was accessed. I can also think of a number of reasons, if it was, that it could appear to be including remote access, program updates, etc. Daniel most definately was having a mental health crisis. That is clearly documented through interviews of people he had contact with in the police report and why people were so worried about him so quickly. That's not to say there couldn't be foul play also, but the investigating officials have not stated they suspect it. Most likely they know a lot more about Daniel's state of mind and what he was up to in the days before his disappearance than has been shared.
Could you maybe point to an official (e.g. by a psychiatric professional), source that diagnosed a mental condition or a "mental health crisis"? I can only find hearsay or casual observation.... IMO there's a difference between someone having a VERY difficult time and maybe doing some odd things and someone who has a diagnosed mental condition. Also IMO having a VERY difficult time does not bring one to going missing during a work trip to the desert. Many people work when their lives are a mess. Many people mess up their professional lives when their personal lives are a mess. So, I don't see any relationship between being a MESS and going missing out in the desert while doing one's job. There's no diagnosed "mental health crisis" in any of this: it's just how humans behave at sometime or other. It's a hazard of human life. IMO most people get "crash-y" in their lifetimes at some point.
Plus, it doesn't take a "mental health crisis" to go missing nor to leave a trail of incomprehensible "clues" while doing so.
And if a person is unused to being in the pitch black dark at night, no light, in the desert, lost, by themselves, this alone is crazy-making! So easy to freak out.
IMO once labeled "mental health crisis", that label gets highlighted in many sleuthing cases, and determines the course of the investigation. In the meantime, other possible explanations fall by the wayside.
As far as I can tell, when I've read through this case, DR could have spotted something in the distance related to his line of work, and he went to investigate. This would not be at all unusual for a geologist. He had the misfortune to take the wrong road, for whatever reason.
Substitute a snowy landscape for desert, and this kind of stuff has been happening all winter out West. Folks are following GPS in their cars and are ending up on remote roads, marooned by snow, sometimes for days. And do they wander away from their stuck cars? Yep! Are there fatalities? Yep! Can this happen in summer, too? Yes, you can "spin out" on dirt roads. It's happened to me in the back of beyond.
I'll add that in remote areas, people go missing and are never found by SAR, drones, helicopters, or informal searchers. If remains are found, often it's years later, by chance. For example, this is common in the sere landscape of Joshua Tree National Park: Paul Miller, Bill Ewasko, Rachel Nguyen, and Joseph Orbeso. I would guess, against desert landscapes, clothes blend in, which makes remains especially difficult to spot, or the temptation is to crawl under a rock; in a snowy landscape (provided there's not new snow, e.g. Sands who was obviously buried by a blizzard within a day or two), clothing is more noticeable and often brightly colored.
Here on Bill Ewasko:
You might not know about Bill Ewasko around here, but he is well known around Joshua Tree National Park and around the U.S. Over the years, his story has appeared
www.crossville-chronicle.com
