Why can the authorities not be absolutely certain that the corpse is that of Kenneth Rattner and what do they tell Rattner's widow?

John Wesley leaves the town months before local authorities discover Kenneth Rattner's burnt corpse in Ownby's peach pit. They believe that it is his corpse, though they cannot find the platinum plate in his head that he supposedly had put in from an injury. The police tell his widow but choose not to reveal that he was wanted in three states. They let her live with her false belief that her husband was a good, honest, hard-working man.