The shortest distance between two points on a globe isn’t a straight line, but rather a curve.
If a plane travelled in a straight line (as projected on the map) it would actually be going a longer distance.
You can actually see this for yourself if you hold a piece of string around a ball. If you move the string to be slightly curved it will be able to stretch further on the ball.
I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what happened here.
The odds of finding the real culprit after they’ve already eluded capture for 5+ days are extremely low.
Additionally, the evidence they supposedly found on him is extremely suspicious:
That doesn’t just sound like the sort of thing that would be planted on him… that sounds like the sort of thing that would be planted on him by an idiot.
Unless they have actual body cam footage of them catching him and finding the evidence, I have to assume he was framed.