The sheriff doesn't know which 12-hour period is missing from the cell phone data, or whether it was before or after she went missing, yet he said Verizon was able to provide data for MC's phone before and after the purged 12-hour period? It seems if you had time frames for the two bookends, you'd have a time frame for the middle where the books are, so to speak. Process of deduction.
Certaiin cell phone records of people who were associated with MC are also missing, according to the article, but the sheriff did not know what periods were missing. Not saying would be one thing, but not knowing seems a tad surprising unless it would be a strategy.