People got fixated on the
because they wanted to validate their belief that he was responsible for HD being gone, and so for them it made sense even though there was no evidence of that.
But it was clear from the start that any connection between SA and CP was tenous at best. If he was heavily into it they would have found tons, but they found nothing where he lived, a single maybe at the grandmothers house (where he apparently did most of his computing) based on similarities to other images (in other words it probably was not
at all), and some deleted images in conjunction with a much larger collection of different types of
on the computer at the mothers house. They never did say how many CP images they found. They allways mentioned the total number, as if to imply that most or all was CP even though they knew better.
SA didn't live at the mothers house, and probably didn't use the computer there all that much, so it is far more likely that the collection belonged to one of the males who lived in the house, most likely the teenager. Based on the description it would seem that whoever downloaded that stuff was looking at a wide range of general
probably obtained from public sources such as usenet or
sites. The stuff that didnt interest them but got downloaded anyway (they wouldnt be able to tell what was in the images until they looked at them) would then have been deleted. Whoever it was obviously wasn't trying to hide the fact that they had looked at those pictures, if they were they would have shredded the files, not deleted them.
That would have been the simplest more obvious explanation for what was found, but for whatever reason (incompetence ranks high IMO) LE refused to consider that and instead opted for the more tenous unlikely scenario. So, in the end, they found nothing because there was nothing. Other than spectacular incompetence the only other explanation was that it was an attempt to put pressure on SA and those around him by making the CP accusations even though they knew it was groundless. That sort of thing is poor police work IMO, and the type of mindset that leads to false convictions, where LE let their theories determine what evidence they collect or not collect, and how they interpret that evidence. The proper way for solid police work is to follow the evidence with an open mind and let that speak for itself. But they seem to be doing it the wrong way around in CC.
