Wow, that's ridiculously tacky, in my opinion, if this filmmaker intends to use the case to his benefit. I agree that that seems to undermine my theory (unless the filmmaker is trying to double-benefit, given that John is gone.)
That said, I still am skeptical that John committed suicide at the bridge. Had you asked me a day or two after his disappearance, I would have said that was the most likely explanation, given his trajectory to the bridge. However, at that time of day, there would have been people on the bridge, and it would be difficult for him to climb over the fence undetected. Furthermore, even if he did manage to climb over and jump, no body has been found or washed up on any of the beaches, and it has been a while. And even if his body was lost at sea, he was carrying a thick folder of papers. What happened to them? Those would have had to be left behind, where they would have been found, or he would have had to be holding them, in which case they would have scattered all over the surface of the water and would have been washing up on beaches (speaking of which, perhaps someone should do a very thorough check of the ledge underneath the bridge for that folder.) All of this complete lack of evidence that he committed suicide suggests to me that he is alive and in hiding, which should give his loved ones hope. I wonder if his family has asked to see CCTV from all of the smaller airports, Greyhound, and Amtrak stations in the North Bay, especially regional airports. My strong hunch is that he found his way to a place where he traveled far from California. So if we assume it was a coincidence that he was photographed on the trail and he didn't intentionally want to mislead people in focusing north, then that significantly narrows down which direction he headed. North. He could have taken a train or gotten to SFO or Oakland or San Jose airports from the BART station in Oakland and wouldn't have gone to Land's End if he was traveling to any of the major airports or Amtrak stations. But he would have to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to get to regional airports north of the city. Hmm... Honestly, if I remove the possibility of the trail photo being staged or the possibility of a suicide (the latter being unlikely in my opinion, but still possible), then it seems most likely that a second person was involved who would have picked him up north of the bridge. It would be illogical for him to head north to get out of the area quickly, unless he was going to a regional airport like Sonoma for a private flight, or if his final destination is north via Greyhound. Marin/Sonoma Counties have the worst options for transportation. I lived there. No trains, no large airports. What is north for him?
Just thinking as I type...Thoughts?
