I know others may think I'm overestimating the importance of this no phone on the trails point, but if I were on the jury, I'd convict him on the spot with that piece of information in conjunction with the totality of the evidence.
In theory, what you'd have is a murderer that went to a conservation officer & arranged to have his meeting in the grocery store parking lot when the situation generally was in chaos. The murderer implies he had his phone on the trails (note he doesn't even use the actual word "phone"), subtly implying his trustworthiness and everyday reliability and trackability-- "nothing to see here". The conservation officer takes the report, and without even thinking about it consciously, that officer probably knows that if this individual's telling the truth about the phone, well, he'd appear on the geofence or through some tracking data later. But the murderer lied. If so, likely on purpose, moo. Perhaps he also misstated his name in a confusing manner-- on purpose. Perhaps the grocery store as designated meeting place was on purpose. Maybe going to a conservation officer instead of a sheriff was on purpose. And now he does not appear on the geofence, and his unrecorded interview with the conservation officer drifts away. And he figures he is safe, he made it past LE. It's "over." The murderer can reassure anyone concerned that hey, whatever about the sketches, he already talked with LE.
But then LE shows up later at RA's door. And then, it's really "all over." There's Odinites, there's desperate reversals of timeines, back-and-forth confessions, but let me tell you, RA knows it's over nonetheless.
NOT saying this is the way it went down yet. But I'm watching to see if that phone pinged off a tower. If no phone ping, I'd convict him without hesitation. And if he's that slick, this probably wasn't his first venture. Maybe he was fortunate and more careful before. Maybe he unraveled and reached the end of his murderous "death cycle," All MOO, but if there's no ping off that tower, I'd convict RA without any hesitation whatsoever, jmo.