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This was a heated issue in the early 1990s. That committee was formed to do their best to find the truth.
The effort to determine if POWs was held was led by John Kerry and almost every Vietnam vet in the Senate was on the committee. They all signed off on the final report - including Bob Smith, the extremely conservative Senator who came in as the clear proponent of the believe that people were left behind. This was considered a thankless task, a demanding task, and for many of these vets an emotionally draining task. I doubt Kerry was alone in having his entire staff advise him not to accept placement on the committtee.
Kerry had Nixon administration people testify before the committee and even had questions submitted to Nixon. With his history, both in supporting veterans and having been personally targeted by Nixon, he had no reason to let them off the hook. In addition, Kerry gave Smith, who was the ranking member (not McCain, who thought it politically risky) half the staff of the committee - in stead of having more staff himself.
Kerry negotiated the ability of the Senate team and the investigators to go anywhere with no notice. CSPAN had a long (several hours) video replayed sometime last year that showed one trip over there by Kerry, Bob Smith and another Senator. The impression I got was how immense the job was. They had taken the reports of any sightings and mapped them and concentrated on those areas. (Later the investigators looked into each individual account and did there best to determine the circumstances.) All the committee members made trips to Vietnam. Kerry made 14, some to areas he was in. Bob Smith, at one point in the CSPAN footage, speaking of how hard this was for him spoke of how tough this had to be for Kerry. For all of them, this was a difficult, grueling effort that was always seen as a no win situation. (Kerry's entire staff was said to have wanted him not to accept the committee assignment, much less the chairmanship. It was Kerry's managerial skill that designed a process that the others agreed with and his diplomatic skills that kept the committee fights from destroying the effort.
Kerry also pushed the Vietnamese and neighboring countries to undertake a more concerted effort to repatriate remains. This effort was later included in the treaty. At this point, a MUCH lower percent of Americans unaccounted for exists from the Vietnam War than from the Korean War and WWII.
So, why do these stories exist. The reason that committee started was a Newsweek cover that purported to show three POWs still in captivity. The committee debunked this ultimately showing the picture was a fraud, they were not American and it was not Vietnam. What there was were various conscienceless people who raised money from the families and friends of the missing soldiers - saying they would do the investigation the country didn't do. Shapley was one of the most prominent of these and he verbally attacked McCain at many of these hearings - to the point where he was ordered thrown out by Kerry. The committee proved many of these people were con men and that they had actually done nothing other than raise money.
In addition to the conmen were the conned. Some were people who had lost people and who, not only never had the cloture that a body would provide, but had people holding out hope that they were still alive. Then throw in people on both the far left and the far right who are intensely suspicious of the government.
Now, take it a step forward, what is the gain to Vietnam to keep these men for what is now more than 3 decades after the war. During that time, they would need to pay guards and costs of shelter. In addition, as it is secret, they can't be put to work in the country and they can't be used as a bargaining chip. The committee checked every large building in the areas where there were rumours and they interacted with people in the area to learn what they knew - knowing they might not get the full truth.
In the CSPAN video tape, you have the Senators, especially Kerry speaking (through a US interpretor) with citizens everywhere - often with not Vietnamese officials. In a very cute segment, Kerry had a large group of little kids following him. At the beginning, he pointed to an animal and said a name and the kids corrected his pronunciation. Both the kids and Kerry were laughing. Later, he asked if they had seen Americans like him and they hadn't. (Seeing this reminded me of how my kids (then 6,8 and 11) were asked if they knew Hebrew by El AL when we flew out of NYC on a trip that was to Eqypt, where my sister was living and Israel. The 8 year old said yes, so they switched to Hebrew, and she stammered she only knew things like (Jewish prayers). That guy then came over spoke to our questioner and the tone changed immensely - they knew from the innocent 8 year old that we were a Jewish family with kids. In this case, if there were Americans - a kid might have blurted it out - especially to the Senator, who they were fascinated by.
In addition, you need to find a reason why not just McCain, but all the members of that committee could either be conned by the Vietnamese or lying on purpose. I seriously doubt either Kerrey, who spoke of hating Nixon, or Kerry would have any interest in covering up for Nixon. (Kerry was still pushing the real time investigation of BCCI, which was showing a huge amount of corruption from both Democrats and Republicans. That investigation was hard to understand, where the POW one wasn't. Kerry had also exposed the (then) ongoing gun and drug running to illegally support the Contras. So, you can't claim he didn't have the guts to expose something as awful as Americans spending over 2 decades in captivity.)
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