Slightly misleading headline - the SWAT team used the "find my" network to locate the airpods, which had been in a car that had been stolen in (they imply) an armed carjacking. The carjackers then drove through the street the Shamilys live on and threw the airpods out the window (again it is implied but not stated that the airpods were found in the street outside the Shamily home where they landed).
So... yeah. Even calling this "circumstantial evidence" is stretching this to the absolute limit. Presumably someone in the family has an apple device on the findmy network, which would show the Shamily home as the location of the airpods (since the device was in the home, but the airpods it was detecting in the vicinity were decidedly not).
Somehow, st. louis' finest didnt stop to think about... well, anything apparently. This is fucking absurd. I hope their lawyers eviscerate the cops over this one.