Not directed at you.

I'm just trying to figure out why we are excluding the VI information, suggesting the VI is lying, etc. I'm at a loss here.
I don’t know why either. I guess there’s nothing else to do but to deconstruct the entire case.
For me, it’s way more productive to have those essential pieces provided by the VI in the timeline. I say this because until some other news comes forward, I still think Barbara is somewhere within the confines of the Mojave National Preserve.
Since LE told VI no further searches planned at this time, my best guess is that there’s not a lot of evidence of RT driving to another place within the preserve. I think they would have known this early and I do not believe LE relied entirely on RT’s statements to decide where to search.
It was a 10 day operation, with 9 days of searching, several of which were obviously more body recovery technique than they were living person technique. There are pictures of the command area and we can see that the paramedics are not on standby. They start searching crevices and are fully involved with that on Day 8.
No one can live for 8 days in that area without water. My own mind goes to the immediate hours when Barbara went missing (whenever that was, exactly). I do not buy the abduction story, but at the same time I suppose stranger things have happened. Since I can’t quite fathom an abduction, then I have to doubt RT’s statements about being merely 5 minutes behind her.
My own intuition says that Barbara did not develop confusion due to heat exhaustion on that short hike. But she could have developed it as the afternoon wore on.
I remain steadfastly behind my statement that RT has been extremely non-forthcoming with details. Each time he’s been given an opportunity to speak (and after rewatching the early interview and the IE interview again and again I am not convinced there were two interviews at all).