I'll bet LE had it from the very start; it's one of the first things they'd logically do....and if they interpreted it the same way some here are doing, all it'd do is cause them to say "He really DID walk away."
I'm sure everyone else, once they saw that ping data, saw a familiar last name living within about a mile of that last tower ping.
Okay, I know I'm a little bit out of the loop these days but IS THERE a familiar last name within a mile of that last ping and that is the reason things have kind of "cooled off" in the family, PI, police area? Or, are you guessing that happened?
Frankly, it's hard to tell the context in which you say it by just reading that sentence?