FWIF, somewhere I heard a reference to the fact that the computer repair shop received a laptop and external hard drive(s) when it was first brought in for repair.
The more I think about that the less sense it makes. Nobody “drops off” an Apple product at a “computer repair shop” and asks them to recover the hard drive. For one thing you have to go to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store to get anything done to an apple. And why in the world would anyone take a hard drive with incriminating information on it to a stranger? It doesn’t make sense in any world.
Here are soon details about the repair shop