Texana
Overreaching
While some of us here (okay, me) may have rushed to judgment because they left the kids alone and we (I) hate that, the POLICE didn't rush to judgment. That's a very big deal, in my opinion. Why they did not ask the parents to take a lie detector test and clear them from the beginning, as is standard in the United States, will continue to boggle my mind to the end. Its fairly inexpensive and fairly reliable in ruling out suspects.
Do we know for sure they did ask, and the parents refused? It is not something the PJ can reveal legally, and not something the parents would reveal willingly.
I don't think honestly it's a rush of judgment to connect their behavior with leaving the children alone and possibly covering an accidental death. Leaving them alone, in a room bordering a public walkway, with supposedly unlocked doors, and a pool nearby--that is a callous indifference to the possibilities of harm that could happen to very young children. I don't fault them for not realizing there might be a predator/abductor, but the possibility of drowning in the pool, wandering on the roadway, jumping on the bed and then falling to hit their head on something (my pediatrician had a particularly gruesome story about that, which makes me freak every time my child even stands on the bed)--
The only way the children would be safe for certain is if they were sedated and sleeping soundly, and the McCanns deny that.