I had to skip through many pages of posts so it's possible someone could have already pointed this out. If so, I'm sorry for repeating.
In looking at this photo, the top of his jeans look weird to me. At first I thought it was his tshirt hanging out the bottom BUT......his hands are in his pocket and you can still see the "red rim" around the top of his jeans (looking at the photo on the left). The picture on the right looks more like a fanny pack or tshirt. If it were his shirt, his hands would have it "bunched up" but yet you can clearly see the tan/red line below his hands. I don't really know what difference this would make, and it could be the lighting/shadow from his jacket but just looks weird to me. IF his jeans are "colored" with something, it might be something that would stick out to someone who saw him later or picked him up. Could it be blood from something previously he had done and that's why the girls started recording? And look at the pic on the right, what is that "blur" on his leg? I know it could be the enhancement/pixles or did LE block something out? It just really looks like blood around his pant line to me
I also listened to the "cleaned up" version of the recording and the voice doesn't sound demanding to me, just talking. It's so easy to say "I would have done x or y" but I've been in situations as an adult, nothing near like this or as scary, where I look back and think "why didn't I do x or y differently??!!" These poor children were scared and uneasy and one had enough thought to record. Unbelievable! I don't even know if I would have thought to do that.
Prayers and hugs and thoughts to their families.