[wonders]

Admittedly, I haven't been following this case at all (my interest on FR is more Foreign Affairs. Just skimmed, but my question is: how do a highway patrolman and his dispatcher wife afford a house in such an "upscale neighbourhood"? Or is it really not so upscale? Or?

[MizSterious]

There are a lot of "follow the money" questions in this case. The van Dam's house, for instance, is said to have cost about $400,000. (The neighbors' might be similarly priced.) Yet Mr. VD supposedly works as a contract worker at around $50,000 to $75,000 a year--plus they drive a pricey SUV and live a pretty plush lifestyle, including a trip to Europe that had been planned before their daughter was killed.