I'm betting he strangled her.
These things are always either strangulation or blunt force trauma. If it's neither, that could potentially be an avenue of defense.
She'd hardly be the first pretty girl to go missing in the woods (cf. Zodiac Killer, Abagail Williams/Liberty German), but behavior that looks an awful lot like running makes you look awfully guilty. He probably knows how he's supposed to act in this situation, but the emotional part of his mind has taken over and he's just in pure fight or flight mode now.
A smart prosecutor won't go for murder 1 unless it fits. The death penalty requires a number of aggravating factors (financial gain, conspiracy, position of trust, etc.), few of which are present here.
I'm saying a poor white trash girl would not get covered. Middle class and up does.
People that go missing in the woods are interesting. People that go missing in Hooker Heights, Baltimore; well, not so much.
Finding a pile of steaming shit in your family toilet is nothing to write home about. If you find one on the kitchen table, though...
Her subreddit was filled with basket cases unable to sleep or think of anything else but the missing person they didn't know.
Redditors just say this shit, thinking it makes them look like normal people with empathy instead of a bunch of dark triad trannies. Trust me, no one is actually losing sleep over this.
It's easy to get mad at people who lawyer up and don't say anything to the police, but honestly it's the smartest thing you can possibly do.
The police shouldn't be able to talk to you without you first seeing a lawyer on a mandatory basis. "Voluntary statements" should be abolished and there should be a clear, bright line between witness testimony and an interrogation. They should add something like "nothing you say to us can be used to help you and, in fact, will be used against you in a court of law" to the Miranda Warning.
The justice system is adversarial by design, but without a lawyer it's like you're playing a team sport alone and with two broken legs. Many, many innocent people have talked themselves into prison.