Question for those familiar with recovery operations — How long is standard to search an area for a missing child, in a known area, who is believed to have succumbed to the elements? I know there are finite resources, but MOO saying they scaled back the search when they did suggests to me they have reason to believe the children didn’t wander off, not simply that they believe the children could not still be alive. My thinking —
1) From the sounds of it, this is still an active investigation, so resources are still being put into finding these children, it’s not like they’ve decided no further resources are justified. This means they’re putting their resources into what they think is a more likely way to close this case. The only way to close this case if they wandered off would be to locate their bodies. So if they’ve turned their attention to anything other than searching, they have a reason.
2) Would they give up searching after 10 days for 2 children, where there is a finite area they could have wandered off to? This is the question I don’t know the answer to. It’s a resources question, and a question of safety for the searchers. My assumption would be that public policy would favor both finding their bodies so the parents can properly bury them, and finding their bodies so innocent people aren’t traumatized when they inevitably find them. If they are known to be out there in the radius that a 4 year old could walk to. Is 10 days a normal time to cut off recovery efforts? If it’s not, then that would be further support that they don’t believe the children succumbed to the elements.
I generally don’t read much into the statements or actions of grieving family members. I don’t even read into small inconsistencies, I find small inconsistencies are usually the result of oversimplification, rather than a changing story. I find people view these cases too often through a lens of how they personally would handle the situation. For example, before this happened, I remember reading a parenting tip on Instagram from someone who said that if you can’t find your child, first search the most dangerous places they can be, rather than starting with the most likely places they could be. That way, while it will take you longer to find them, you increase the chances of them being alive when you do, which is ultimately what matters. Then I see many people here finding it suspicious that the stepfather said he searched the dangerous places first.
All that said, the one thing for me that in MOO can be read into is the mother blocking the stepfather. Cutting off communication with the person who is where your children went missing from is significant. Cutting off communication with anyone when you’re waiting for answers is pretty extreme. So that suggests to me she has some answers already. Keeping in mind you don’t have to block someone to not speak to them. I don’t think law enforcement would interfere in a relationship to that extent (outside perhaps the context of an existing restraining order, which does not appear to be the case here). A lawyer could give that advice, though.
Stay safe 
Bring um home
and I agree because none of it makes any sense at all.
