Not being familiar with the Avidyne i'm wondering what the displays would have shown during the night approach to the Boxwood airfield.
Nothing.... just an AH in front of you and a map on the right screen. They dim down a fair way, but not down to nothing if I recall correctly. If it was fitted with terrain warnings it would have gone off much earlier and he would have likely pushed the button to silence it.
There is no synthetic vision on the GPS / Avidyne screen either so that wouldn't have helped.
FTDK - I recall doing something similar only to find a flock of sheep on my one way strip. I had another option only 7 nm away but it seemed to difficult at the time. Bunny hopped the sheep, landed solidly and got down successfully, but... never again.