Prior to the picket, there was 1) no awareness of EA's activities, he hadn't yet been mentioned by name, 2) EA and the rest of the partygoers were mute, 3)the media attention had stopped to a trickle, 4) LE had not said much of anything publicly, 5) no arrests had been made.
1) has been solved, 2) EA went on TV and expanded on the lies, the rest of the partygoers are still mute (as far as we know), 3) media attention increased, 4) LE has been forced to say 'some' things, and 5) EA has been in jail for 'a while'.
We all have our opinions but this case would have been mostly forgotten by now without the activities of the family, including the picket. EA wouldn't have been arrested. There are a lot of missing person cases that have almost no movement, this would have been on THAT heap, IMO.