Idle BtVS ponderings

I'm not sure why it popped to mind, but earlier today I found myself wondering what exactly the authorities (and neighbors) would have made of the disappearance of Anne and William Pratt. I know absolutely nothing about how law enforcement in that time and place would have handled that sort of a disappearance and the surrounding deaths (IIRC, it was implied that Dru and William ate the servants... It's been awhile since I've seen that episode, so I'm not positive).

So you'd end up with a house with dead servants (and dead from violence), a missing mother and son... and then a week or so later, bloody deaths of several of the son's contemporaries. Would he have been a suspect? Or would the authorities simply assume William Pratt and his mother had also been victims of whoever was responsible? Anyone out there have any ideas? I'm not sure I've ever even seen this dealt with in fic.

Crossposted from my Livejournal