Maybe he wanted privacy but didn't expect to die. He likely had someone in his life who is wondering what happened to him and I think it's good that people are trying to give them closure.
Answer: They don't.
Privacy should be respected, even in death. Especially in a case like this.
He wrote whole notebooks, that doesn’t scream I’m walking into woods to die and don’t want anyone to know. It was the AT and then the FL that’s hardly the wilderness.
He could of just been a private person and never thought he see the hikers again so didn’t give to much away. He could have experienced some sort of mental illness and wasn’t in his right mind to know what he wanted.