I agree that murderers don't leave incriminating evidence ( read corpses) unless they are making some statement with the remains. This statement will either be in the form of public or private symbolism. I find absolutely nothing in this tragedy that suggests public symbolism, neither have the original investigators. There is absolutely nothing to show that the killing of the hikers was intended as a grim warning, an offering or any thing else. Additionally, the location and nature of the deceased do not indicate some sort of private symbolism, whose message makes sense to the murderers. Some imaginative members of this forum have tried to invent a private symbolism interpretation but it is the symbolism of the poster, not the assailants, for there were none. No, the DP9 had an odd mix of resources and deprivations at the time of their crisis. It would surely be an amateurish and sloppy assassination to have the victims fitted out as they were and then having the perpetrating agents rolling the dice to see if this sort of thing would work, in the meantime freezing themselves during the wait.
The obvious conclusion is that they the DP9 were not driven to death by other humans. That scenario presupposes a whole lot of speculative "what if`s" that are not established fact, but rather additional layers of creative spins and embellishments. Occam's Razor has been mentioned numerous times on the forum and it has merit. To wit, the explanation of their demise with the fewest assumptions is that they were affected by a weather related event which caused them to seek temporary shelter elsewhere. Everything else that has been observed and documented is a consequence of their failed attempts at survival. To circle back to this reply, we know the corpses were not hidden, but should have been, given the wilderness location.. There is nothing in the official record indicative of symbolic action public or private. Nothing points to human intervention of the malicious kind that is unequivocal. Rather, everything could and could more easily be explained by natural causes. Conspiracies make for good theater and titillating reading. A tragedy from natural causes, not so much. If a DPI investigator insists on a conspiracy, I say, " Follow the money!" Either the perpetrators or the writers about the perpetration are or were paid. That in my opinion about where the proverbial smoking gun is. Follow the money!