Correct me if I'm wrong: we don't know about any planning activities TC did before he was suspended, correct? The internet searches, the title loan, etc were all in the time between his suspension and the disappearance?
JMO but I don't think it's so far-fetched to imagine that he took off with only a short- to medium-term plan (ie hide out). He was already in trouble and facing consequences. He had nothing to lose and he could very well have been acting from a place of panic. He may think he can hide until the furor dies down and have an opportunity to escape for good. If he stays in his old life he definitely gets punished; if he escapes, he may get punished anyway, but he'll have had these few weeks to do what he wanted--or he may get away with it entirely.
I just find it harder to believe that he either planned a flawless international escape in the space of a few weeks, or he's been planning longer than that and left no trace. (And I don't think that fantasizing about running away is the same as hammering out the practical details. Just because he may have been dreaming about it, doesn't mean he was planning how to make it happen.) Of course as always LE may know more than they let on.
Ultimately I guess it comes down to: given what we know about TC, do you find it more likely that he took off with no endgame, or that he could successfully deliver them to a new life? Personally I find the first option more likely, but both of them requires a leap, IMO, and I don't think that one is so obviously more likely that it rules the other one out.