No legal expert here, either, but ...:
If Maddie is hiding out with William on her own, her parents (or yet another party) are helping them or even holding them against their will (e.g., I understand that William's father and Maddie are the only parties who currently share William's custody, but say, a third party did not want Maddie complying with the joint custody order and thus have kidnapped -or even worse ...
- both Maddie and the baby; I am not saying that's what happened, but I get the impression that the father's attorney is at least considering such scenario as a possibility), I do wonder why no criminal charges have been filed against anyone.
Perhaps LE/DA do not have quite enough evidence to have an arrest warrant issued.
For example, according to the father's attorney:
"The judge in the case of missing mother Madeline Jones and her 9-month-old baby William told the parents of the woman that they would have to share their phone, email and bank records with the court in an investigation to find out whether they have information of her and the childs whereabouts."
I don't know if the parents would be allowed to appeal the judge's order, but even if they complied immediately, it probably would take the judge a couple weeks to obtain and review those types of records (or maybe LE are already in possession of such records, and if allowed by a criminal court judge, they can share the information with the family court judge handling the custody case??).
So perhaps LE/DA/family court are working together to file a criminal(s) charge against Maddie, someone helping her, or holding her and William against their will ... or something else
.
As to Kiitah's question, according to the father's attorney:
"Thursday, the judge issued a stern warning to the Jones family, stating to the attorneys for Madeline and the Joneses that their 'next move was the most important one,' adding that if Madeline were to return now, he would grant leniency. He also stated that if Madeline did not return by July 11, she would face harsh and severe sanctions."
Since I haven't seen the actual court documents, I really don't want to speculate what may happen next. And Ireally don't know what to think at this point. I just don't like that Maddie and William are still missing.