"This is pretty similar to my 13 yo daughter's theory. She doesn't find the dead cell suspicious at all. She said it happens with her friends a lot. She thinks the phone went dead on the ride home from the airport. It was an older phone, probably didn't have the best battery life, and was burning through what life it had searching for a signal. She thinks Dylan got to his Dad's, plopped on the couch, MEANT to charge the phone, but was feeling lazy and didn't feel like getting up right that minute. He drifted off and didn't feel like getting off the couch when Dad woke him early the next morning. My daughter doesn't think it odd that he wouldn't get out of bed right then to see his friends, especially if they were just going to hang out. So Dylan finally does wake up, flips through the channels and finds Spongebob on Nick, and grabs some cereal. He knew he missed his ride to his friends, but had a whole morning to kill, so she thinks he decided to drop by someone's house. She doesn't think this would've had to be a "friend", exactly. It could've just been someone he knew and wouldn't mind hanging with for a few. It could have even been an adult. She thinks he probably grabbed his phone to text the friends he was supposed to meet that morning, but discovered/remembered that he forgot to charge it. (direct quote from DD-"we're scatterbrained like that sometimes.") My daughter doesn't think Dylan would have had any particular urgency to contact his friends, because he wouldn't be able to make new plans with them until his Dad got back, anyway. She figures that he just decided to take the phone and the charger with him and would charge it when he got to wherever he was going, instead of waiting for it to charge before leaving the house. She also thinks that wherever he was heading, it was far enough away that he took his stuff with him, and was probably planning on calling his Dad later and having him pick him up from there to take him to his other friend's house. "
So I have to ask. Did she think it strange or odd he didn't text in all that time when he was known as a prolific texter? I find it very strange.
I am sure your daughter has friends that text a lot and those that don't. This boy was know to always have that phone in his hand.
It seems very strange to me he wouldn't be charging that battery the minute they arrived at dad's house...if he ever arrived at all!