The new clues that suggest missing Richey staged his own dissapearance

[Routine Builder]

I do remember something to the effect that Richey had a girlfriend at the time and one of the boxes he left behind was for her. I also remember a band member stating there was nothing of relevance in the box.

With regards to JFPL, I'm pretty sure they got some form informal consent from Richey's family.

If I was to speculate about where a rift came from, it might have been the focus on the band rather than the family in the first years following Richey's disappearance. Quite a few raw things were said by both James and Nick that they would probably have not made public today. The family were ignored back then and it's only since around the mid 2000s did Rachel step up to claim his cause.