I would not be surprised if the behavour the van Dams have tried to hide is yet a cover for even more bizarre activities.
Is anything known about the religious beliefs of the van Dams and their friends? Are they merely hedonists, or does their world view extend to belief in the supernatural, perhaps even witchcraft?
It has always seemed like these people are like wild animals, and require constant supervision to avoid embarasing themselves and their benefactors. They seem to have a natural propensity to low-tact interaction with Westerfield's associates. Witness the crude intimidation of DW's real estate agent and attorney Feldman's mother.
If the van Dams are part of a "coven", and if the secrecy of the members must be maintained at all cost, would it not make sense for "handlers" to appear out of nowhere (like they did) to draw a cordon for damage control and to influence the widest possible range of forces to ensure that the crime was pinned on the most likely innocent?
Recall also the "mad-dogging" of DW by Damon, and Judge Mudd's resigned reaction to the incident of intimidation of Feldman's mother. (He put in face in his hands and shook his head). Compare that to the courtroom composure of DW, whose easy going cooperation with police was widely interpreted as "too helpful and incriminating".
Fwiw, there have been a number of suggestions in these FR threads concerning apparent evidence of what I would call satanic / witchcraft type practices that may have been involved in this repulsive crime. The knocking-out of the little girl's front teeth is one particularly nasty one. There have been others.
I'm not too sure what to make of these, but there could be something there.
The hell of it from my POV, is that if you are DW (or me) and you are innocent, all it takes to ruin your life is one accusation, regardless of how outlandish, that gets picked up and treated seriously by some overzealous, $2000 a month CPS worker who just graduated with a C average from the local state college with a degree in sociology.
That's happens, you can pretty much hang it up. You're toast.
I know I've changed what I would otherwise do out of fear of that. I am less friendly with the local kids than I would be. I like children (especially other people's children). I'd like to make ice cream for them on the back deck. But I don't want to be seen as being overly friendly with them, so I don't do things like that.
I think that's too bad. Still, there isn't much other choice these days.
Nonetheless, no matter how careful you are, that accusation can still go down.