I agree. Releasing the type of information can only aid the suspect(s). And the store owner releasing the information on the type of weapon used. Just crazy. Any information that is known only to the suspect(s) should never be released. I think that in our day of “instant” news, the media and the public just believe they have a right to know everything. And with the proliferation of “true crime” podcasts, it is only getting worse. I am involved in a case here in Oklahoma that has been ongoing for over 9 years. There was an episode on it in 2018 on “Up and Vanished” and now there is a podcast that is in about its 30th week. Sad thing is...everything that the TV show and the podcast have been spewing is wrong. Wrong suspects, wrong evidentiary information, wrong on every count except that two people are missing and presumed dead. Other than that, their narratives are wrong. Suspects are wrong. And if it can be solved, (close actually) all the false information and evidence and suspects they have thrown out will be used in the defense of the case. It’s a travesty. In truth, it’s obstruction of justice what those folks are doing.
In 1971 my childhood friend and distant relative was murdered. She was a sweet, quiet, frail person, from a prosperous dairy farming family. In her early twenties she married a popular local boy who was also from another prominent farming family. She was seven months pregnant when they found her body, in her home. She had been savagely raped, knifed, beaten and choked to death and her body staged with a candle inserted in her. The entire small community just felt horrible for the family and mostly her young husband. Her family stood behind him all the way even taking him with them to their winter vacation home in Florida to get away from the horror. Months later, he was charged with and confessed to the murder. It seems he was always the police suspect because the way the house was ransacked, how the drawers were pulled out etc. The police followed him and found he had a girlfriend which was his motive. During the secret investigation local clergy, teachers, relatives were questioned and everyone of them fully vouched for him, never saw an ounce of violence, sweet kind, church every Sunday and excited for the birth of his child, who incidentally was stabbed in her womb.