Reading back through this thread, and the links, it seems that many assumptions people made, and took as facts, are things that are known not from police statements but only from what friend(s) / party attendee(s) told reporters (and presumably told police too) over the course of the first couple of days of the search. That he left alone, that he left at 1:30, that he declined several rides, that he said he was going to take the path through woods, that he told people that he and his brother had taken the path once before, that the trail is tricky and "it looks like he took a wrong turn", that he charged his phone a little at the home but it was dead when he left, that he was coherent and talking but had "obviously" been drinking. What of these things have been confirmed as true? Or was there just a desire to get this out as the early working narrative? As someone else wrote, it's not really known that MD even left the party alive, and while his scent, or scent of his sneakers, suggested he was across the brook in Bellingham, that scent might have been from someone planting the sneaker over there (someone close enough to him to remove shirt and sneakers might have also gotten some of his scent on him or herself). Police didn't say or confirm anything about finding any clothes or shoe(s) until Tuesday morning, but it was told to reporters by friend(s) on at least Monday, if not Sunday. That poor MD's body was found not far from the party house and in the opposite direction of where early stories would have suggested he went, and that his sneakers were said not to have appeared to have traveled through a rain soaked trail or a swamp, casts at least a shadow of a doubt on many of the early statements that were then assumed to be facts. There are still too many unknowns (unknown to the public at least) to speculate on what could have happened (if he was wearing pants, socks or underpants when found, what kind of condition were they in? Is there evidence that they traversed a swamp twice? Were there any earlier pings on his phone found from a location closer to where his body was found? What will pathology or toxicology reports show?...). I hope it is simply a tragic case of a young man disoriented from something and getting lost on a stormy night in the woods and unable to find his way home, but i still have nagging doubts.