"As to obstruction, if (as I suspect) this was an inside job rescue of a child from her mother's lover, the mother's repeated assertions (assuming that she made such) of lack of knowledge of the child's whereabouts would seem consistent, no?"

A very good point, Richard. As you say, everyone's speculating, but the only people who ACTUALLY know the truth are those involved. (And I'd bet the police have a pretty good idea too).

Maybe we should all sit back and wait for truth to out, as it pretty much always does eventually. None of this is helping the innocent child.