In my opinion law enforcement may be keeping a low profile so any potential suspects don't feel any heat on them and are free to talk as much as their hearts desire.
There are a few inconsistencies that do not make any sense to me
1. Step Mom's Damaged Car
Things we know: The step Mom's car was damaged and during the initial search she went and got her front end damage repaired.
This is very peculiar to me. I find it incredibly suspicious that the SM would get a minor cosmetic repair done to her car while a loved one is missing.
The theory I keep hearing thrown around in relationship to this piece of evidence is that the SM accidentally hits KG, either on her way to pick her up from the party, or after she left the house in the night as the SM claims. Following the accident KG has a TBI which explains the seeming nonsensical things she was saying. After this she passes away sometime and the SM has to cover up her possible negligence.
I glazed over a lot of the fine details, but big picture I don't understand why the SM would record her if she was showing symptoms of a severe head injury. Also, if she had been injured one would think there may be some kind of blood in the car. There is literally no reasonable explanation for the SM recording her if she was injured, other than she knew she was going to die and had enough foresight to record her delirium as evidence to back up her claims that she ran off in drug induced delirium. I find that incredibly unlikely.
2. Parents on Dr. Phil
Things we know: The SM changed her story between her Dateline interview and her appearance on Dr. Phil. The Dad seemed to be re leaved when the DF suggested that he believed that she might have been kidnapped. The Dad glossed over questions.
When DF asked the dad something about why the parents story kept changing the Dad replied something to the tune of "Who knows how they are going to react to that kind of a thing, MAN"
To me this is incredibly dismissive, as ending the sentence with "man" is incredibly informal language. As a professional salesperson I will often times use terms like "man" to attempt to get the customers to relate to me on a personal level. I most often use apply this strategy when I am trying to get the customer to sympathize with me, as the informal language may make the customer see me as more of a person than as a representative of the company I work for. IMO this is a complete manipulation tactic.
I have picked up a few other body language things from the DF episodes that I have watched. I find it incredibly strange that the dad looked skyward and IMO appeared to experience relief when DF suggested that she had been kidnapped. Between those things and the PI something doesn't smell right. How hard would it be to pay a sketchy PI to verify your claims that you were at home when a recording was made. One could easily have looked to see what shows were on at a certain time and used this to attempt to establish an alibi.
I also think its entirely possible that the story the dad told about waking up and seeing her on drugs, then going back to bed is a complete fabrication. In my opinion this was contrived to back of the claims of the SM.
Obviously none of this is iron clad, but I find that both parents seemed to genuinely experience grief. I am of the opinion that whatever happened to KG, the two conflicting stories the SM told are likely both false, and they are both genuinely sad that she is gone.
I think the most likely scenario is that KG was genuinely on drugs and acting strange after being picked up from the party. The step mom either did something to exasperate it, or ignored it and it lead to her death. The dad is likely protecting the SM for fear of legal repercussions, but as it was an accident, they are both genuinely distraught. I believe both the SM and the Dad know what happened to her, but I don't believe she was kidnapped and I don't think she was intentionally killed by either of the parents. The car damage could either be the key to the case or a complete red herring. I am sure this is something being considered by law enforcement.
Some weird things I noticed that aren't necessarily relevant:
-Bio Mom appeared to be genuinely distraught, but had no tears. As this can be explained as easily as clogged tears ducts or dehydration, I do not believe that this is relevant in any way, just something that crossed my mind as I watched Dr. Phil
-SM seemed incredibly immature. Her speech patterns seemed much more of that of a teenager than that of a parental figure. In my experience that is a trait often seen in the "cool parents" that let you have beers and whatnot.
-I found it really suspicious that the SM went out of her way to keep dropping hints of stimulant abuse. (Her eyes were really dilated, she wasn't making any sense, rapid eye movement ect)" This seems like an attempt to back up her claims that KG left in the early morning and disappeared. If one were going to claim someone was crazy high for 8 hours, some kind of amphetamine would be the drug to blame. I find this aspect to be super sketchy.
-I found that the stepmom seemed to be pretty tweaked in one or two of the FB videos. Odd speech patterns, talking fast, atypical inflections. (Unconfirmed by me, but I believe I saw that the SM has had past substance abuse problems)
-The audio recording could have been from another night. I could easily drag and drop a recorded audio file onto my computer, replay it through my speakers, and rerecord it at another date and time of my choosing.
Anyway, these are all the things that I found odd in researching this case. Of course there are countless other strange things going on, but I haven't heard one really solid theory that makes a ton of sense when you consider all of the evidence.