My interpretation was that the authors received a National Security Letter and chose to shut down development rather than let their software get backdoored. IIRC the shutdown announcement cited the discontinuation of Windows XP as why the software got discontinued (when it was cross platform and supported newer versions of Windows) and included a step-by-step guide for how to migrate to Bitlocker (a red flag for anyone remotely cynical).
An independent audit of the last version of TrueCrypt was published about a year after the discontinuation. It did not find any significant security issues or backdoors.
One of the greatest cyber security mysteries of our time. Regardless of what actually happened, I hope the author is okay. (The story implied to me that the author was forced to post that, or was disappeared and the website was changed by someone else)
Is there a brand you do have trust in? I’ve kind of thrown my hands up, considered my attack surface is dude stealing my laptop and not the state department wants my 4chan history, and just use the encryption tools provided by Apple and Microsoft