They did say that and, like you, I based my long held now defunct no-catfishing theory off that, but I think it’s pretty clear they were keeping that info from us.
Looking back I remember LE saying “keep an eye on what your children are doing” and hinting the community was at no risk despite the murders. Later LE mocked online discussions and YouTube recreations saying they were so far off it was comical. None of that made sense then but it does now.
Just my thoughts but I think saying they had found no connection to online stuff and KAK being allowed to be free for so long after being caught with child




was a LE ploy. They kept an eye on him to see where it might lead them.
I don’t think it led them anywhere really so they ramped things up a bit. In my opinion the two things that changed recently are JBC was arrested and newer software allowed LE deeper access into KAK’s iPhone and others and connections were found.
I am hopeful.