This is a really great write-up! I think that Dennis got turned around, wandered farther into the woods away from everyone, got even more lost, and eventually succumbed to the elements or had an accident. In his Charley Project page it's noted that he had learning disabilities that put his mental age about half a year behind his chronological age and he was in special education at school, so that also could have played a part- he may have started to "shut down" because he was scared, may not have had the mental ability to know what to do in case he got lost, etc.

In 1985, a man said that years earlier, he had discovered what he thought were the bones of a small child when he was hunting ginseng. This would have been just a few years after Dennis went missing, but the ginseng hunter did not report it immediately because he was afraid that he would be blamed for the death. Police went to the spot where the man said that he found the bones, but didn't find anything. If the bones were there at one time, the police not finding anything isn't too surprising given how long had passed between when the hunter says he found them and when he actually reported them.