The phones and all of their info IS ALL ACCESSIBLE TO LE.. each and every phone number dialed, each and every incoming call whether answered or not.. Even if the *67 was used to block an incoming number, this is still all included in the itemized statement..even the blocked number shows up, every exact time and date stamp for each call incoming/outgoing, with the precise time of each and every call.. Every single text or media msg(pic/video) is also easily accessible as well, with time and date stamp and every word of the text msg.. Along with all pings of the phone.. All of this info is easy accessed WITHOUT HAVING THE ACTUAL PHONE.. hundreds of pages of detailed and itemized data of every single thing done on each of these phones.. Included in that as well is all Internet usage from each phone.. Each download or Internet or website surfed is time/date stamped.. The actual phone is not needed for Any of this easily accessed data from each of these phones..
The only thing that is not able to be accessed are photos/videos that were taken with the phone.. But the catch with that is all that has to be done if there were a photo that someone wanted to hide is to delete it from the phone.. There is no process to retrieve deleted photos/videos.. So the truth Is there is nothing that could have been hidden or concealed by these phones being destroyed or hidden.. Every single tiny bit of the data and details is easily accessed.. The phones being physically hidden would not have kept anything hidden whatsoever..
As far as perps taking the phones being stupid due to gps Tracking.. Well the truth of this is that dependant on the model phone they wouldn't be traced when they're powered off and if happened to be a newer model cell still would be untraceable or untrackable by simply popping the battery out of the back of the phone.. Takes 2 secs to do this and the phones are rendered absolutely UNTRACEABLE IN EVERY WAY WITH NO PINGS WHATSOEVER, period..
In knowing the ^above^ described information there is nothing that Debbie or Jeremy would have been able to conceal from LE by their destroying or discarding the cell phones.. Therefor IMO I do not see it as a motive for hiding the phones when the truth is hiding the physical phone in reality hides NOTHING WHATSOEVER!