First, Mr. Royal, I commend you on your remarks regarding forgiveness. I know that I have the hardest time forgiving myself for my own shortcomings, but once I could forgive myself it was easy to forgive others. My heart goes out to you and your loved ones.
To the Johnson family, you have my condolences as well, as this latest news is a difficult thing to accept.
Now, for more speculation:
Regarding Bo's time of death, I imagine that the composition notebook contained a date reflecting Bo's last writings.
As for why this tragedy occurred? I don't know about you, but the idea of camping on the lava flow seems far from idyllic.
Start a farm on bare Pahoehoe? You'd need to rip & roll with a bulldozer, bring in cinder and mulch, as well as setup some form of water catchment/storage system, all of which are not impossible, yet are quite costly.
I'm not sure how long the couple had been living in the tent, but I can see tempers flaring under such circumstances, especially
if alcohol were involved.
The fact that the evidence shows that Bo actually did, in fact, sit around and agonize over what he had done, for at least a day or two, shows that Bo must have tried to process the events until reaching his final conclusion. While this is far from
carrying on with his life it does illustrate that Bo did "hide out," as the amount of time it took to find his remains added to his "hiding out," there are many questions which will, more than likely, go unanswered.
Finally, as for any alleged "dark" forces at play in the Kalapana area, perhaps this perception is subjective, as I've always felt a raw sense of primal energy at Kalapana. Nothing evil exists outside the hearts of men.
From the old days at Drainpipes & Harry K. Brown, with all the bikers and the Hawaiians playing music in the pavilion, to my latest forays onto the flow to see the ocean entries, I've never had any problems there.
My apologies to any who are offended by my conjecture, and my sincere condolences to all who have been negatively affected by this unfortunate turn of events.
Aloha
"Life is labor, and all that is good in life comes from that labor..."