New speculation/theory: Possibility of 2 youngest getting left in hot car too long? Cal City gets HOT, but the record heat waves that occurred over the summer were a bit before their closing date. Death Valley, only a couple hours drive from Cal City had a couple days that reached 130 degrees in August. This obviously assumes children have been missing prior to the December report date.
If a hot car event did happen, I speculate that the parents may want to hide/cover it up as it does not look good and then could have staged the "missing event" for December as it would remove all speculation toward heat related injuries.
The week of August 23rd had highs that averaged 105 for the entire week in Cal City:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/us/california-city/93505/august-weather/2167931?year=2020 - again this was before their September close date but worth thinking about nevertheless.
"Heat stroke is the leading cause of non-crash, vehicle-related deaths in children under 15. Heat stroke happens when the body is not able to cool itself quickly enough." - HealthyChildren.org. Very fascinating read if you have time:
Prevent Child Deaths in Hot Cars
Help Prevent Hot Car Deaths
This would explain why the new van has HEAVILY tinted windows.... and perhaps some of the "marching into the van under heavy supervision" behavior we witnessed in the surveillance videos.
The above is pure speculation.