First let me just say that I pray to God these kids are OK and unharmed, I have some questions that I can't seem to answer so I'm coming here since no one else has brought it up.
Does it not seem awfully fishy that this "chad" character (who if he exists and harmed this family has to be a legitimate physopath) wouldn't just kill the mother when they were out on their date???? I mean, if there's some crazy guy named chad going around looking for women to kill, why wouldn't he have just done it then, why involve the kids, when you don't have to???
It just doesn't seem to make any sense and then she was seen by a neighbor a day or so before loading a huge bag of stuff into her car?! Also, whats the deal with the younger child's father? Maybe there was some kind of custody battle brewing between them and she split town.
Her splitting town is the best case scenario at this point, I just pray that all 3 of them are ok.