It is very possible for people not to be connected to local news at all. There was a really horrific, gruesome case recently in my area. It was a missing person case then murder case where they only found part of the body. There was intense coverage, search parties, increased police forces, etc. I have loads of friend and family who literally had no idea anyone was missing or murdered throughout this and only stared at me blankly when I mentioned it. One of them lived two streets away from where it happened. All of them were on facebook, are reasonably educated, and live in the area.
You just cannot assume that people are like us-we are tuned into this stuff and even then sometimes I have learned of missing person's cases in my area from you guys and not the news.
Of course, I think every part of his behavior can be explained, but as a whole it is making a lot of excuses for him. So, while I say this, it isn't that I mean I think he is innocent. Just that, by itself, not knowing a missing person's case is going on in your area is not suspicious to me.