Yeah - leaving the state is odd.
After watching “The Confession Tapes” series on Netflix - I’m not sure how helpful I would want to be to the cops. First thing is - hire a lawyer before you talk to them. That show is really scary.
After reading the article - a LOT is odd about this. The article was a bit hard to follow, but claiming to neighbors that the son had died a year ago, but telling the cops he was with a friend out-of-state (and wasn’t), etc.
Getting married two weeks after the man’s wife had died!!???
“No - we can’t get married this Saturday, that’s my wife’s funeral. How about the following week?”
I went to see Richard Jewel, the movie, today. I wouldn’t talk to the cops either.
Plus I’ve watched this:
And read this:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1998119
I recommend printing this and using it to “take the 5th” should you ever need to:
On the advice of my lawyer, I respectfully decline to answer on the basis of the Fifth Amendment, which—according to the United States Supreme Court—protects everyone, even innocent people, from the need to answer questions if the truth might be used to help create the misleading impres- sion that they were somehow involved in a crime that they did not commit.
Notice the word “incriminate” does not appear, as it does in many such statements. This is intentional.
You could argue the 17 year old ran away. Not so with a 7 year old.