Son put in a new battery saturday. so far its starting strong. I also now have a battery jumper box in case I do get stranded.
A friend of mine seems to think its the autotheft alarm system in the car. the security light stays on while driving it... but when i shut car off at night, it does eventually go out.

Everytime you post, you add another problem...

sorry. I will keep with the task at hand.... the electrical issue.

I think he is trying to say with a battery drain issue, and no start issue, it would have been good to know about the security light staying on while driving when you told us about the other issues.
If you have a security issue that can cause a non-start condition, but it won't shut the car off while you are driving it.
Try to find the parasitic drain first, then we can move on.

its going to take a bit

That is fine, if you have any other questions while testing for parasitic draw let us know.
I hope it is easy to find out what it is.

me too... thank you so much