Responses
From his friends perspective it makes sense even if they liked him before. Imagine you're friends with a chill dude. At the party it turns out he's a huge homophobe and has a fight with the gay guy. Next day the gay guy goes missing. Maybe he even send his friends a text "I'm meeting tomorrow to apologize" So they'd know he's the last person to see him
Honestly, the fact that he had such poor rapport within the friend group that they just IMMEDIATELY assumed the worst had happened without considering any other options first is pretty striking in itself. They ended up being right, but still- damn. Says a lot about his overall character as a person. Usually, a person’s friends/ loved ones would think long and hard about it, or try to give SOME benefit of a doubt before immediately assuming they killed a dude, yeah?