Things like this is why government agencies like law enforcement is no longer believed.
Not sure if they are just confused or thought they would make their case better by distorting facts.
I think the CPS believed the hoax call. If Sarah had existed, and if they had gotten evidence to support the abuse against her, then the CPS would be looking like heroes right now.
But when it turned out that Sarah didn't exist, it turned into one big desperate CYA operation with the CPS escalating the situation at every step in a futile attempt to make a case.
The CPS needed a cool head to tell them to back off when they didn't find Sarah, but there is no convincing a True Believer and they were all suffering from True Believer Syndrome.
I really think they intended to use the children as leverage- thinking once they took the children everyone would crumble and start tell tales against each other and producing evidence. I talked today to a friend of mine that used to work for CPS here in NM and she told me flat out she quit and started working in the section that worked with elderly assistance because CPS was doing things far beyond what was intended when they were given power to help children. She also thinks the children were all taken for leverage to find out what was going on.
I could be very wrong and I hope I am wrong- because CPS does have a lot of power- which they are supposed to use if a child is in immediate danger. I don’t want them using their awesome power for other purposes. I don’t see anyway that anyone thought ALL of the children were in immediate danger- so I wonder.