Something else to be considered concerning those circumstances; whereas you mentioned that, DR may have been unlucky enough to have the crime occurring where he happened to live, and his social idiosyncrasies, etc... - is that, DR did become a POI after 21 years, (in which case, he hadn't really been previous to that), and the thing that triggered that, was when "Kevin" came forward, giving information about his having driven through the crime scene that night; and then, as a result of that happening, LE somehow or another (that I Really Can't Understand), then concluded that, because of that, there had not been any vehicle involved in Jacob's abduction. Well, if it were concluded that there were no vehicle involved, then, DR would in fact come to mind as maybe the one individual who could have possibly committed the crime, just due to logistics.
Like Phantom mentioned in post #576 "Frustrating to ponder that an abduction took place and police quickly arrived -- FBI immediately got involved. Choppers, dogs, forensics people, LE, three searches, interviews, blogs, TV shows, tips from the public - twenty five years later - no arrest..... What's going on?"
So, with the circumstances being that the immediate area was pretty much flooded with LE quite quickly after the abduction, then, it's hard to see how someone, Not DR, could have pulled it off, on foot! Where did they go, so quickly, taking Jacob with them, and having no vehicle. It would be hard to see how someone, not DR, on foot, would have been able to pull it off. Again, where did they go, so quickly, On Foot?
So, given those circumstances, seems like DR surfaced as the only realistic possibility. The problem I have, is that, I see no sense in LE having concluded, in 2003 that there had been no vehicle used. This just makes no sense to me at all. I expect that it's way more likely than not that a vehicle was used. At least that's my thinking.