This may end up being one of the biggest unsolved mysteries that current Websleuths members have ever seen.
This is not the first time something like this has happened out in the wilderness, and it probably won't be the last.
Normally, I would give a sideways glance and a snort when law enforcement proclaims they have done an intensive and exhaustive search....... but not in this case, I think they have inspected every square foot of ground within a 1/2 mile radius of the campground, and most of it 2 or 3 times over.
I have no doubt that the searchers involved in this are frustrated beyond words. It's frustrating to everybody, including cheerleaders on the side, such as every member of Websleuths.
There is a logical explanation for this disappearance. It may be one huge event, or it may be a series of smaller events stacked end to end, but there is an explanation for it.
I think LE is tapped out. I think the parents and granddad passed a polygraph with flying colors. Why do I think that ? ......because LE doesn't seem to have any direction left to go. They are giving statements along the lines of "We're gonna check into this, and we're gonna check into that, blah blah, blah............stuff that should have been verified 8 days ago, and probably was.
While they were out searching, they had detectives running background checks on the entire family and then some. It all led to nothing-ness. Anybody that doesn't think the cops were investigating foul play while this search was going on, underestimates how cynical the cops can be.
There's a chance we may never know what happened to him. I come across numerous threads here on Websleuths that go back 20 or 30 years since a person was reported missing, never to be found.
They just didn't happen to be in the middle of a campsite when they were last seen.