And perhaps placed a phone call to his parents ??? I love that LE will have the records if they don’t alreadyI agree. IMO he left her body and the van there and tried to give himself an alibi with the story he told MB (the Tiktoker) and her husband about being away from her hiking and her being left alone. Part of what made MB suspicious, aside from his lack of supplies, was the way he kept emphasizing those points over and over as he talked to them.
I think BL was hoping that if he was really lucky, her body would be found and her death ascribed to an animal attack, but if not then he could claim someone else must have killed her while he was away. Then when he got back to Spread Creek and no one had found her, his Clever Plan™ fell completely apart and he panicked.
JMO