I guess it is just a matter of preference, as a rule I would never counsel anyone to speak to LEO without an attorney present, a lot of innocent people have been imprisoned because they thought they were smart enough to go head to head with trained professional interrogators.
I would not counsel any client or potential client of mine to speak without an attorney either. But what innocent parent would give a da#n what an attorney says at an extreme time of crisis like this?
Let me say this. As a lawyer, I know how anything I do or say can incriminate me. I know that well. But, if I was an innocent parent of a missing child, I would submit to LDTs, DNA samples, sign waivers for searches, be questioned for hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks, without counsel - all things I would strongly urge my clients NOT to do. Why? Because as an attorney, my job is mostly to protect my clients from possible legal repercussions. As a PARENT, my job is to find my baby.
Any parent whose thoughts are not about doing whatever it takes to eliminate themselves as a possible suspect so the investigation can focus on finding their kid, raises my hink in a serious way. If it was my kid, I wouldn't give a darn about the possibility of being charged. All I would think about, the only think that would be looping through my head is rescuing my baby.
Now, I can certainly understand a parent hiring counsel if it is clear the investigation has veered to solely and unfairly concentrating on them to the exclusion of other options, because in that case, it's too late to do everything LE wants so as to eliminate themselves as suspects. But until then, especially in the beginning, I would trust that LE is trying to save my kid. I'd do whatever they wanted without a thought of legal counsel.
But I suppose this discussion is premature in this case. There is no indication that the family lawyered up right away or have failed to cooperate in any way.