I never focused too much on the "in the home" or "in the basement" issues as simply the utter absurdity of the parents being involved. It is extremely rare for a parent to kill a healthy child of an intact family. Sure you have Susan Smith in Arkansas but she was the "town tramp" and was well known to all the shrinks in town, was in a situation of inescapable poverty, etc.

I knew right away there would be a media frenzy about parental involvement, particularly once the pageantry stuff emerged.

If the parents really wanted to kill their daughter there are so many subtle ways of doing it: boating accident would be perfect, they even have those photos of her with a lifejacket on.