They searched at night, trained volunteer firefighters, sheriff deputies, police, as well as untrained people for hours. The trained people were out at least 4 hours. From the video that was posted from the news of the night of the search you can actually see 5 Delphi firefighters in the woods east of the bridge on the north side of the creek. We don't get to see how far they went but if they searched 15 minutes in more or less of a straight line they would have crossed right in the area of where the girls were found. I am strongly of the opinion that the very area the girls were found was searched and they were not there yet.
What people have to keep in mind is that many of untrained and almost all of the volunteer firefighters would have been very familiar with the woods there. For the trained searchers they have trained there - Delphi has a high water rescue team and they train for that - and most if not all of them very likely have lived in that area all of their lives. It isn't as if that area is an unpredictable black box. Not to mention there are well worn paths in those woods that lead right to the bodies. All someone would have to do is walk the paths and if the girls were already there they would have been found. I can't imagine that the paths would not have been traversed by the searchers because if you are looking for people that are on the move (as opposed to bodies) they very likely are also taking the existing paths rather than randomly traipsing through the "forest" debris off the beaten path.
Considering that LE took RL's truck it seems rather obvious to me that LE believes that the girls were transported in a vehicle prior to their bodies arriving where they would be found. I don't believe for a second that it is RL's vehicle they should be looking at, nor do I think RL has anything to do with the murders nor do I think RL knows anything about the crime except what he may have heard through all the talk in town and the rumor mill and gossip that went on.
Others will disagree. But until LE says otherwise I firmly believe that the girls were removed from the bridge area, murdered elsewhere, and there bodies placed where they were found. Consequently, it is my belief that LE is still looking for the murder scene,- which could even be in another county. I doubt it is anywhere near the bridge area.
My opinion is LE is flailing about hoping beyond all hope to get lucky. They might try releasing some more information because when the DA says that they have a lot of evidence and they just need to tie it to someone it usually means that they don't have the slightest clue and that they absolutely need someone who absolutely knows who did it to turn over a name and, in my opinion, that isn't likely to happen if it hasn't already. The killer(s) are out there. I doubt they are concerned that LE might be breathing down their neck because LE has given every impression that they are no closer to identifying the killer(s) than they were on Feb 14th.