Did I miss something somewhere that this case warrants more attention than most any other case?
I wouldn't say "warrants" as such but the is a range of factors that influence how much media attention something like this gets which don't directly relate to the severity or significance of the case itself. The key thing to remember is that the media is an industry and their focus is making money. They don't make money by reporting the most important stories, they make money by reporting the most eye-catching and attention-grabbing stories.
Here there was a combination of young and relatively attractive victim and suspect and a lot of quality pictures and video of both of them freely available for the media to use. Pictures (and increasingly video in the internet era) is much cheaper and easier than text to fill copy and grab attention.
There is the factor that this started as a search for a missing person (but already with suspicious circumstances) which meant that the authorities had an interest in giving the media information early on and gave it an on-going element with multiple articles. There were also several different aspects involved, with the search, the suspicion around the boyfriend, his actions and whereabouts and then, sadly, the discovery of the body.
I believe there was also an element of her family (understandably) pushing the profile of the case, something not all families have the resources, ability or desire (for good reasons or bad) to achieve.
There is also an element of timing and what else is happening and being reported at the time. I suspect the media are more interested in running something, anything, that isn't about COVID at the moment. At other times and in the context of other events, this case could have easily not caught anything like as much attention as it did. It's often as much blind luck as anything else.
