Machaca... Do you have any photos of the static dissipator tufts on the rudder after the vertical stab was recovered? It appeared in at least one photo during its recovery that several of the tufts were missing. After doing lightning analysis at a major avionics company, I think a possible root cause that should not be ruled out is high altitude lightning. A likely attach point forward could have been near the upper TCAS antenna. If the stroke traveled to the inside of the fuselage, a host of failures could have occurred. I know this is a stretch, but in the NASA F-106 studies that were done decades ago, the energies involved are very large. Recovery of electronic system components will certainly be valuable in the analysis.