Yes, help should have been sought. To give into a child's rage is just setting that kid up for a nightmare in adulthood.I know someone who has a kid like JA (except for the murder part. As of today anyway.)
The mother knows her kid has problems, yet she does nothing. She enables the kid. She tells me it's "easier" to give in than suffer the rage and abuse that the kid heaps on her if she were to put her foot down.
The kid has ran the mother since she was a young child. No structure at all. The mother gave up parenting years ago. To the kid's detriment.
I can't help but feel that as difficult as it must be for JA's mother and father, they're the ones who raised her and nowhere has it been said they actually sought help for her when she was young.
Also, factors which may have caused the rage should have been explored.