Excellent points. I did not know he said they were viewing footage there for 7 hours beforehand. I also have not been following this closely since it happened - I was just under the impression that the public was told he likely ran away on foot at the time SM gave. Have search parties been making the same assumption? If it were my child, I would want the public telling me if they saw this woman out with this boy or in this car during that 4 hour period. I guess I am impatient and prefer more info out to the public than less but I am likely not seeing the bigger picture and certainly I do not have the experience to know the best path forward in a case like this. I think I had this reaction of frustration with LE because the first thing that popped in my mind was that maybe she drove him to a remote area and just left him - so that his demise, in her warped mind, would not be directly by her hands. Unlikely scenario but one I had for some odd reason.
It is an interesting discussion though - just how helpful can the public be so how much should they know and when? If LE knew early on he did not walk away from the house, should they have corrected that to the public at that time? What about searches being conducted with volunteers?