This is not rocket science.
1) He killed her
2) He ran home to family
3) He may/may not have "confessed" to his family, but they knew and tried to shield/protect by deferring
4) He ran into the swamp to hide and figure out a way to escape
5) He realized he couldn't and committed suicide, or he wasn't as good at wilderness survival as he assumed
6) Swamp critters did what swamp critters do and gnawed on his corpse
Media Coverage: As a couple they completely embraced the social media "show & tell" lifestyle, so they were a known commodity. That made this a "high profile" case and major networks jumped on the bandwagon. This will eventually be a Dateline NBC special...