"It's almost as if the authorities are afraid of what they might find if they look too deeply."
If "vigilantism" is what authorities fear, they're certainly not making this sort of "misinformed social reaction" less likely by denying and stonewalling. That worked in the past, with terrorist events that were more abstract, with no surviving firsthand witnesses. This was not a plane crash or explosion, that could have many alternate explanations. The lone, depressed suicide story does not hold up. There are people posting to this board who were there. They're hacks? Only if you want to deny, divert and discredit.
And before the Internet.
Actually I question the extent to which the "we gotta keep this knowledge out of the hands of the public" really exists.
Its the premise for the vast majority of conspiracy shows and "space invasion" shows on TV, so much so that it becomes sort of a cliche.
But the government is just too porous to keep such a secret, and there is a Mayer Bloomberg somewhere who is going to see it as his duty to protect citizens first and protect sources second.
If the FBI is sitting on this story, they are probably doing it to run down leads.
But that still leaves me wondering why the press is sitting on it.