There is a huge difference between “here is GPS data, let’s see if somebody remembers seeing that guy” and “somebody reported seeing that guy, let’s see if his

There is a huge difference between “here is GPS data, let’s see if somebody remembers seeing that guy” and “somebody reported seeing that guy, let’s see if his GPS data confirms that.” In this case, it was the latter. An unusual sighting was corroborated after the fact by hard data. Less circumstantial and less suggestive than “here’s some hard data, let’s ask people if they can remember something.” Somebody better at stastitcs can probably prove this with some Bayesian formula.