WHAT!!! The state wanted to keep them together?! The state I worked for stripped the offender's parental rights and refused even visitation - not even supervised visitation was allowed EVER. Once a child has been abused it is considered further abuse for the child to even SEE the offender, let alone to ever have contact with the child again. Furthermore if the offender was a sibling then the parent had to surrender either the offending child(ren) or the other non-offending sibling(s) from the household with no further contact EVER.
Are you sure that your friend didn't mean to say that once the offender was removed from the family, then the state worked to reunite the other members? Because as long as the family has been counseled on keeping family members safe and prove that they intend to protect their children, they can be reunited, provided they don't have other issues that put the kids at risk.
Personally, I don't share any stories of abuse with my friends or family for two reasons, #1 confidentiality and #2 it is so sick that I wouldn't want them to walk around with the memories and images that I do. It's something that I am able, by the grace of God, to deal with rather well - but that is just not the case with a lot of people, especially non-pro's in the business.