Just out of curiouslity, since you are a trial lawyer. For a moment, put yourself on the side of representing the parents in this particular proceeding. Would you have argued, on behalf of the Shindlers, that the three witnesses giving this tesitimony regarding having such close ties to one another, (i.e. husband, husband's brother and sister-in-law) should be given less weight than if the three witnesses were independent of one another? Clearly (at least to me) the brother and sister-in-law have an interest in helping their brother achieve his goal in this so that he can "get on with his life", so to speak.
Of course...that is called bias, and goes to the credibility of the witnesses. However, the law put the decision in the hands of the trial judge, and he found them to be credible.