The story about the punishment and doing laundry in the early morning seems like such a terrible story, that I find it really hard to believe that it is completely untrue. The actions described by dad sound so unreasonable, that I cant wrap my head around someone making that up. I think that any one of us would have come up with a much more plausible lie, even without five hours to think about it.
Have we completely discounted the possibility that the original story was (somewhat) true, and that maybe dad actually put her outside, Sherin disappeared, and a panicked dad drove around looking for her around the neighbourhood for an hour? Perhaps coming back to search the house and yard again before waking his wife and telling her what had transpired, knowing that she would be furious with him, and scared of her reaction?
I hate to just assume the worst of the parents, especially after reading about Sherins adoption as a means to give her older sister a sibling- which I assume means that the family was unable to have more biological children, but wanted a larger family.
I hope that wherever Sharon is now, that she is not scared or suffering. And that her big sister is being comforted and loved.