All of this came back to mind in listening to the Up and Vanished podcast. With respect that podcast, I have a few "local perspective" thoughts of my own. First, and there's no nice way to say this, everyone in the area knows that local cops are corrupt. The area is a drug epicenter, and it never gets better because the cops get kickbacks. It's just the way of life down there, and locals aren't surprised at all to hear they are involved in covering things up when it suits them. Murder is certainly taking it to the extreme, but, the point is, as someone who has been in the area for 20 years, I don't bat an eyelash at the thought of a police cover-up. Many of the friendships run deep, going back generations because their parents and grandparents were also friends going up. Local police are the law down there. If they want to bury something, it gets buried.
On a similar note, the podcast spends considerable time trying to paint the young man who committed suicide as mentally unwell. His story about the dirt road encounter is almost viewed as a work of science fiction. I didn't know that young man, and I have no personal knowledge about his circumstances. But, I can say that it didn't sound crazy to me at all. I can't tell you how much shady stuff goes down on these back roads, from affairs to fights to drug deals. When my local friends and I heard that, we were all like "yep, could totally see that happening." You stumble upon something you weren't supposed to see and have the proverbial fear of God put in you. I'm not saying it's true, but I'm just saying that it didn't seem far-fetched to me.
