Bold 1:
I believe the Judge will appoint a third party special master to look at all the records. If that person sees a document that is related to the case, they will turn that over to the Judge and the Judge will turn it over to both sides. If they do find a new witness that did search the area and did not see the body, then the defense will use that to make their claim that the body was not there. The defense may find away to thank all the other searchers for a noble effort.
Bold 2:
I do not believe Tes is the authority on searchers. All witnesses are equally important. They may find other searchers like Kw who searched that area. Also, police should have searched the area. They will be deposed.
As far as the experts go, their opinions are of 4 to 6 months or 3 to 6 months give or take. So in my opinion, it is an estimation. I have not seen cross examination of these experts. That is off topic so I appologize. Everything else is just my opinion.