When I was about 12 I begged my parents to let me have my own room in the basement of our older house, as I shared a BR with my sister at the time. We had a good-sized basement and only the front part of it was semi-finished, with built-in bookcases and everything. Instead they wanted it as a sort of rec room, but I really would have loved to have it for my own and I don't remember any objections that it wasn't appropriate for a kid--just that they wanted the pool table and other things down there instead. I still spent a lot of time down there. And it was so nice and cool in the summer.
And several other people in our neighborhood had bedrooms in their finished or semi-finished basements back then. Sometimes they were the kids' rooms, sometimes it was a 'summer' bedroom where the adults would sleep when it was too hot upstairs. Most of the homes in our older neighborhood didn't have a/c then.
So no, I can't make any judgments about the girls sleeping in the basement.
Lots of kids would love a basement room, especially in their teens or adolescence. I would not like it for my kids. I'd want them closer, and not make it so easy for them or others to come in and out without me hearing.
But to me, the real issue is having two, young daughters two floors below, sandwiched by a SF with a criminal history and mental illness and a young boarder (no matter how well known) who was released from prison right before moving in. It just seems like a recipe for disaster. But then, I'm the cautious type.
I'm not sure Dad knows where dad is. He seems to be all over the place, is making an awful lot of statements to news reporters. He needs to pick a story and stick with it. Says Mom was a wonderful mother, kids always said everything was fine at home, step dad always treated him with respect.
I highly doubt that when he went there they sat down and had tea and crumpets together.
When we saw WN through the window, at the house in VT where he was staying, the reporter said he was seen through the window eating a sandwich and waved to us. Probably not a cell phone or cordless phone, just a sandwich.
The biological father was not kept from seeing the kids. I saw an interview with him and he said he has recently been there talking with the kids about their report cards, etc. He said he was always treated respectfully by the stepdad and mother. Mother took the kids to see him when he was in the hospital. The reports that she kept him from seeing the kids appear to be false.
Not for nothing, but weren't Lacey Peterson's parents supportive of Scott as a wonderful husband in the early days?
I think that when first faced with the fact of a disappearance or other tragic event, people's minds go one way, usually trying to think the best, trying to hope all is okay.
I have no problem with the differences in the father's statements. When he first heard about this, he likely thought, "Well, mom's been a good mother. The few times I've seen the girls, they seemed okay, reported all was well. SF seemed okay, was respectful towards me."
Then, time goes by and the child turns up dead. Now, as is the case with most people, he starts to think back, look for signs he might have missed. Things he either didn't know about make everything take on a different feel. Things he did know about that may have not seemed so bad in the context of the time, now take on a sinister light. That makes perfect sense to me.
I think the dad may be a lot like millions of dads in a divorce situation who relinquish heavy involvement, thinking things are okay, thinking girls need their moms more than their dads, etc. And if a new SF was in the picture, some men, not that educated about certain dangers or with a more traditional, almost 50's mindset might think the kids are better off with an intact, nuclear family and the he should not and doesn't need to interfere so much, as long as the guy seems "okay". It happens all the time. More often in the past, but even today, it happens a lot.
But now that he has had a few days to digest, he's starting to think. Why were the girls sleeping in the basement while the convict, ex-stepson gets their room? Why were the girls usually "busy" or not there when he wanted contact? Sure, he saw them a couple of times when he physically went over there and the SF seemed involved, asked them to show off their report cards etc., but still, mom usually had an excuse when he wanted to spend more significant amounts of time with them, like away from their house [I'm giving a "for instance" here - no facts to back this speculation up, just painting a picture based on dad's comments].
And yeah, what he first thought of as a nice gesture, mom bringing the girls to his hospital bed to visit, well, he wasn't conscious then and the only other time he has seen them recently, was in
their home, in the presence of mom and step-dad. [Again, speculation based on what I have read].
Considering the circumstances, a missing little girl found dead in the river, mom never speaking out to beg for her baby back, SF reported to not be totally cooperating and initial shock giving way to unimaginable grief and anger, the contradictions in the father's comments do not seem problematic to me at all. Not one bit. It's all contextual.
Like I said, I have no problem with people who spend all day on facebook. I am speculating that he spends a lot of time on there, since he couldn't tear himself away, at 9:11 am on the day he claims that he found her missing a full 41 minutes after the latest time of his discovery, when he was posting to girls that he lived in VT, while his wife was supposedly too distraught to call 911 and he wasn't doing it either. Jsut sayin'
Wow. I was not aware of this. So, you're saying that the SF was on FB posting to random chicas after he went to awaken Celina and found she was not there? That is very bizarre.