I was referring to the fact that Susan Smith did in fact go on the talk show route. I made no reference to any other similarities in the two cases. You are correct that she was told that she passed the lie detector test, Are you absolutely sure that the VD's have? could they be being told the same thing?
I am not going to join in the "slam the Van Dam's" fest that goes on here - and I admit that the Ramsey/Smith/Yates/Barnes cases have maybe left me a little jaded, but something is just not right about this case.
Anything is possible, but it is not procedure to make false press statements. If they were doing a sting, they would have simply said nothing to the press about polygraphs and having ruled the parents out as suspects.
Cops are generally considerate, caring, and honorable people. They greive with victims and their families. Their attitude toward and statements about the Van Dams are indicative of what they know about the evidence.
Many just want to overlook this point so as to continue full tilt in the Van Dam Slam as you so poetically put it. As poorly as they've played to the t.v. cameras, it's impossible for me to believe they've "played" the cops.
Of course, some now want to conclude that there is a cover up because the swing thing goes high up into local politics. And while paranoics sometimes really do have enemies, Free Republic has its share of iredeemable tin-foil mad hatters. They simply cannot accept that another pedophile killer could have just happened to an unlucky and unperfect family.