So at one point in this story do you know the media is treating the subject as if he may be guilty? From the Associated Press, via Seattle Times [1]:
A drifter charged with kidnapping a 24-year-old hiker led authorities to her body Monday in the mountains of northern Georgia, investigators said, hours after a judge denied him bond in her New Year’s Day disappearance.
From the second word, drifter. Whenever a person without a home, a.k.a homeless, is a suspect or charged with a crime, the media describes him as drifter or transient. The term homeless is not used to describe suspects. So if you use the media has a guide, the homeless never commit any crime. However the same can not be said about drifters, bums and transients.