I think the bigger issue here is the courts. While it feels like maybe an AA could have saved them, if his intent was to kill them when he picked them up, I don't see how an AA hours later could prevent it. I also think if an AA is issued every time a parent is late bringing kids back, then people might not respond as quickly to AA's when they are issued. I think the court failed here because he was ordered to have an evaluation and that was in August and here it is end of May, so 9 months later and he didn't have the evaluation. To me that should have terminated his visits until a professional examined him and determined if it was safe for him to have unsupervised visits. I am not sure how a court can require something and then nothing is done to the person if they don't follow the order of the court. I don't think mom could predict this and neither could the court, but there was enough concern for the court to agree he needed a mental evaluation and then there was no repercussions when he didn't do it. If mom was legally required to send the girls with him, then what could she do if the court didn't change his visitation due to not getting the mental eval?
I still don't think mom felt he would intentionally harm them. It seems he was just careless and maybe the concern was more of the situations they could be in while in his care.