RBBM This follows my theory. By personal effects I meant what ever it was that he removed from the bag (my thought was some sort of keepsake, contact list, burner phone, etc). The scent trail gives the "appearance" that Bryce was not disoriented, at least not enough to prevent him from crossing the dam to the parking lot. Ditch the SUV and meet up with an as yet unknown party and exit stage right.
He has not surfaced in the lake, even in the warmer weather and with a lower lake level and no discovered remains on the ground in the immediate area, even with normal public traffic.
It's just my theory... Everyone has their own.
Yeah. This case is a tough and very sad one.
Ive shared my opinion before and I think he is in the water. And here is mainly why I feel that way. There was an initial search dog (lets call it #1) used that tracked him directly from the vehicle in a straight shot down to the waters edge. I am putting a lot of weight into this 1st search dog even though the authorities did a second search with supposedly more advanced search dogs (#2). The #2 is the one that had the proposed track going over the dam.
All dogs have really good noses and of course when trained some can do better but I am not discounting the dog search #1. It makes the most sense to me. The track for #2 could have been residual scent while he was still in his vehicle driving over the dam and going back to where his truck was found (not away from it).
The bottom line for me so far is I think #1 is the correct track and I think what basically happened is that he was suicidal partly due to the rumored pills he had been taking in the day(s) leading up to this event. We know the type of medicine that was talked about and it can cause dramatic bizarre behavior and suicidal thoughts. I think the medicine combined with what was going on in his personal life made him very despondant.
I think he purposely was trying to drive into the water when he crashed instead because of the gate. I think the crash injured him worse than we know with some blunt force trauma that made the situation worse and I think he walked down to the water looking for the water to help relieve some of the pain from the injuries. Once he waded out in the water, I think he didnt realize how the water could drop off suddenly and I think he was in over his head in no time. The weight of the soggy clothes combined with his injuries made it difficult to swim. And he may not have wanted to try to swim at that point.
We previously looked at TOPO maps and a lot of spots have sharp drop off slopes in the water. If he went under near his vehicle area, I could easily see where the slope of the bottom allowed his body to move quite aways from shoreline till it flattened out. Then with future boat traffic, the movements of the current may have moved it till it got snagged between rocks or submerged tree trunk which could explain why it never surfaced.
If I was in control of a new search party, I would focus on the water nearest the vehicle but further out from shore than most people would realize. The boat traffic and bottom slope features could have allowed it to move much further than we would normally think.
I hope I am wrong and hope he did just run away although as more and more time passes it becomes less likely scenerio to me. It is so sad this case remains unsolved.
