This behavior suggests to me that the parents either knew or suspected that the "unknown, armed abductor" story was not entirely true.
Let me see if I understand. Yoour premise is they delayed in calling the police because they had something to do with the abduction and so to cover their tracks they invited the neighborhood over instead of the police.
Interesting theory.
94 posted on 06/11/2002 6:10:51 PM PDT by VRWC_minion