Yikes, not much of anything to catch up on.
I have to add that even though I'm local I wasn't aware he was missing until they arrested the 7 people. I don't see anything after that online or on SM. His body wouldn't be hidden in Akron or in the town of Wadsworth without being found by now. Any farmer would have discovered a body or burial this past spring. So, in my mind, that leaves Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Here are some possibilities. Y'all, please feel free to add to my list.
It depends upon how well they know the region and/or the entire state. One of the articles shortly before or right after the arrests, I thought seemed to indicate that they had been moving the remains from location to location. I may have read it wrong. If I didn't, however, that indicates that at least one member of the group knows a fair amount about the region or possibly the state on the whole. Were any of them employed? Any short haul truck drivers?
Other thoughts:
Large swaths of land are privately owned, with a modest cabin, and kept primarily for hunting during deer season. I know several people who live in NE Ohio, but they own such a place in southern Ohio. Outside of deer season, they don't go down there. Very remote.
Most of Ohio is still very rural. Wayne County's numerous cow pastures and hog farms are possibilities. They aren't plowed like the farm fields in Medina County. And even in Medina County, there are clusters of pretty dense trees that line ridges on the perimeter of some of those farm fields. I'm not sure anyone would have the occasion to go into a cluster of those thick trees to notice a shallow grave. I don't mean to be indelicate, but the smell of decomposition could easily be dismissed as another deer carcass or other animal. So, I guess I wouldn't dismiss all of Medina County entirely. Though, specifically in Wadsworth nothing comes to mind. There's continuous sprawl and construction. I'd think it would be pretty risky to try to hide the remains there.
Ponds, lakes, canals, streams, and rivers are always possibilities.
Bogs and rock quarries
No longer operational barns and silos
State Parks (I'm thinking of Silver Creek around Norton.) I don't think it, or one like it, would have as many patrols by park rangers or the foot/bike traffic of the national park system.
Well, those are the major land features or structures that come to mind. Please add to the list. Maybe we can have a second list that matches up some features or structures to the general area for potential searches?
This poor family needs to be able to lay him to rest properly. They've been through so much.