I didn't get that part. Bobby the pig lies and says they had an extra, but then Ed interjects and says "Drew wasn't wearing his." Weren't they trying to cover up the fact that Drew was ever even with them?? I thought that's why they panicked about the second canoe being found. But Ed just casually mentions Drew to the cop and then the cop just walks away. What did I miss?
shareNo, Bobby told the police while Lewis was being taken in an ambulance with Ed. Bobby spelled out Drew's name for the police officer and the officer asked to be taken to the spot where Drew drowned (where Ed said he drowned in rapids when they were trying to invent the cover story for why Drew didn't make it out with them). Ed knew that would fit with Drew being weighed down by rocks and his intention that he should never be found. The panic about the second canoe being found: Remember when one of the Sheriff's deputies says "You tell me how a canoe can drift UP river". They panicked because it didn't fit with where they said Drew drowned which was way DOWN river.
share"They panicked because it didn't fit with where they said Drew drowned which was way DOWN river."
Just to clarify, they had actually weighed down Drew's body far upriver from where they told the police. It wasn't clear that's what you meant. As far as the sheriff questioning them about the fourth lifejacket, I think the basic suspicion is that anyone in a canoe would be wearing one, and thus the story of him drowning after hitting rocks or something didn't make any sense. The sheriff still suspected them of foul play, perhaps even having killed Drew themselves. In any case, Ed did tell the truth for the most part. Drew wasn't wearing his life jacket. Earlier in the film, before the chaos, Ed had to remind Drew to put one on as well. Ed's little lie with the sheriff at the end was that he probably did have a very good idea why Drew wasn't wearing one. Namely, because Drew was so distraught at covering up their (justifiable) homicide.
On a related note, even in the 1960s weren't doctors able to ascertain whether somebody had been raped and who did the raping? That would've been all the evidence right there they needed to acquit themselves in a trial, even with the mountain man's mama and daddy sittin' up in the jury box.