“The distortions of the frames showed that they broke during a forward motion with a slight twisting component towards the left.”
consistent with an aircraft in a counter-clockwise (to port) spin/ flat spin. (your article also mentions a port stall/spin/turn)
I still GUESS the aircraft had departed controlled flight and THEN the VS broke off.
this airframe went WAY past Vne.
AND ... Boeing VS’ do not historically break off.
So -- the airplane continued on for miles while in a flat spin?
How about --- the wind blew the tail off, it flew for a while and then entered a flat spin.
The problem with that is that because of the swept wing design, it would roll over as soon as a yaw motion started because the wind blew the vertical fin off.
The spinning would cause parts such as engines, to depart the airplane in various directions resulting in the dispersed pattern shown in the diagram.
The pattern is very similar to the A320 that crashed after departing New York, where the intact vertical fin was located away from the other parts.