Sounds totally off the wall - but hey, I'm on a roll here
Would they release a statement like that to throw him off the trail if they are closing in on him? Say, he's really heading north, but they say their tailing him going south to maybe have him "relax and let down his guard a bit"? Not sure if that happens in the mindset this guy has to be in, but just curious.
He seems to have friends/family some type of support going on. So I do think that he's aware of what the media is saying, either by him personally knowing about or him getting updates from somewhere...Heck, for all we know someone is reading here and feeding it to him!