Something about this is whole story is really bothering me. It's an obvious assumption to blame the parents. However, even though there were allegations of child abuse, there was no real proof of the parents withholding food and the like. People are questioning "marks on the legs" of one of the children, when active kids have scrapes and bumps all of the time. The kids don't look malnourished to me, not even a little bit. Thin, yes, but kids that are active and eat healthy foods tend to be, as several mothers here have attested (not to mention the fact that they were very likely small to begin with, having not been nourished properly as babies). And I may be old, but how many times has a parent said "Green beans are what's for dinner. Don't like them, don't eat." My wife tells a story that they laugh about now, about how her daughter (around 8 years old, in the mid 80's) went to the neighbors house saying she was starving because her mother wouldn't feed her. In reality, her mother just had enough of the kid's bs and told her to eat the da*m meatloaf or starve. Obviously, she was not starving her children, but back then the neighbor marched the daughter right home and asked my wife what the heck was going on. That minute. And of course found a full course meal on the table, just something the kid didn't like. I am not blaming the children for the tragedy, but I am concerned to see all of the finger pointing at the moms right out of the gate. These kids were by all accounts troubled young people when they came into the Hart home. Is it not a stretch to wonder if, as a group or one or two of them together, perhaps were just not liking Mom's rules and set out to get them in trouble (i.e., telling neighbors they were not being fed, etc.). I have also heard a million times of kids threatening to "Call CPS" on perfectly normal everyday parents when a rule is set that they don't like. Stranger things have happened, certainly. I would like to give the parents at least some semblance of benefit of doubt before rushing to assume anything. Yes, one parent did state that she went overboard in spanking once, but that, to me, doesn't lead to 1.) horrible mistreatment and 2.) deliberate murder.