i think he expected the police to accept his mountain lion/bike theory immediately, and when they didn't, he went into panic mode. when LE side-eyed the cat theory, he decided to sell the bike theory even harder. maybe he had thrown the helmet or clothes or whatever the item was that was found, in that trash can, and was desperate to find something additional of suzanne's to throw into the bike-ride mix. maybe he found the item, (or bought a new one) and someone tossed it on the day the search got weird and his buddy disappeared. it does sound inconceivable, and risky, that if it was a helmet, he (or a friend) would be able to get away with carrying something like that around undetected during the search.
if it was a helmet, was suzanne's hair in it? she had long hair, so surely there would have been at least one hair in it. i have short hair and putting a bike helmet on pulls my hair out. we still don't know what the item was though, so now i'm thinking it was likely something smaller, and something easier to carry and dispose of. maybe he left it right on top of the garbage, hoping someone would find it, and when they didn't, he took it closer to the "scene of the crime."
but it's very interesting that as he was digging through the trash and specifically asked the guy if he'd seen a helmet. doesn't that action/statement tell us he was, indeed, looking for the helmet?
i wonder if they used the dogs around the area of the item. maybe it didn't smell like suzanne, but it smelled like garbage.
however, i still circle around to him knowing where all the cameras were at the hotel. this guy did his homework, so surely he wouldn't make such a rookie mistake. right? on the other hand, morgan did say he was in town all day saturday. and now the footage is, very luckily for mr. morphew, gone-pecan! i wonder if that is a fib by LE to see what his next move is if he think he got away with it.
just throwing out some ideas. seeing what'll stick. lol.