I'm kind of discounting the interview completely, to be honest. Now if the employer steps up and says "yes, he punches a time clock in and out for lunch and he was in fact late returning from lunch" well then I'll believe that part because as near as I can tell, an employer certainly wouldn't have any reason to lie for an employee (and the time clock doesn't care either way, it just shows the time stamps).
That being said...
In that interview he says he left work at 11:53 & met AJ at the gas station at 12:10-12:15. I'm going to guess that somewhere in a 17-22 minute radius of his place of employment, he's on security cam with a time stamp of between 12:10 and 12:15. Is AJ on their too? We don't know that.
So it takes him 17-19 minutes to get to the gas station but he says AJ left at 12:40-12:45 (sorry, departed his presence) but he didn't make it back to work until 1:15-1:20. It takes him 17-22 minutes to get to the gas station from work, but it takes him 30-35 minutes to get back to work? Security cam footage 30-35 minute radius from work (which direction, is anyone's guess unless it's the Wawa station mentioned earlier in the discussion somewhere). Without knowing the actual starting point (actual business address or a jobsite elsewhere in town?) it's impossible to say.
Either way, he admits in his interview he was away from work for just under 90 minutes (11:53-1:15-1:20) on Monday March 2nd. It could mean absolutely nothing, or it could mean everything. I'm pretty sure LE already knows exactly what it means. They're just not telling us.
Apologies if this has already been asked, but, where is the 7-11 that he mentions? Coincidentally AJ has a sibling who works at a 7-11..