It sounds like he actually had a break in the weather vs. Flying into bad weather people. He sounds like a sharp chap, so I'm sure he could figure out if he was in moisture aloft. So let's give the man some credit!
If it wasn't raining at the time and your FPV image was clear, then I agree that it sounds like you lost a motor/prop. Hell of a thing the weather and so sorry to hear of your loss!
I can also say it rarely helps to get free advice after the fact (you know who you are) so I applaude you on taking any commentary politely. That said there have been some great ideas to prevent total loss in the future.
Despite our best efforts though, this kind of thing will always be a real possibility. More than anything, its very instructional to hear about it. It takes guts to even mention it here, no one wants to be "that guy", so I applaude once again your willingness to share as it helps us all out as a community.
Short of losing a prop, likely the only issue would have been winds aloft and it blowing you downwind in an unexpected direction. Not a major issue in GPS mode.
I do have an idea to help you look in the right direction for the crash site. Wind backs or veers as you go up in altitude. You likely had a low in the area at the time of the crash, so I would suggest looking 90deg left of downwind. Windspeed increases and backs counter clockwise in or around a low, or in cool unstable air behind a cold front for example. So, likely you should widen your search left of downwind as I suggested before. You would be stunned how much the wind will back or veer as it frees itself from ground based turbulance. Especially at 2k feet. About 200' agl will be high enough to make a difference depending on local terrain, trees and vegetation.
1 hope that helps you in your search.