Police still don't know who bound, gagged and murdered 6-year-old Alanna Gallagher, whose naked body was found wrapped in heavy plastic along a Saginaw street last week. Their road blocks and search warrants have so far turned up nothing conclusive.
In the meantime, the media now have a new, probably irrelevant matter to chew on: Alanna had three parents. Her obituary suggested as much, but it wasn't until yesterday afternoon that it became entirely clear what that meant.
Miles McDaniel, identified as Alanna's biological father, spoke with reporters as he left the Saginaw police station after several hours of questioning.
"Anybody who knows the family knows there are three parents in the family," McDaniel said, according to Fox 4. "Talk to school; talk to the church, talk to the dojo. Everybody knows." Or: "If anyone is interested, Google polyamory."
Do that and you'll find the term defined by Wikipedia as "the practice, desire, or acceptance of having more than one intimate relationship at a time with the knowledge and consent of everyone involved." In this case, McDaniel was in a relationship with Karl and Laura Gallagher, with whom he co-parented Alanna.
Unusual, to be sure, but McDaniel wanted to make clear that being polyamorous is not the same as being a murderer.
"I know there's always that suspicion -- I know the odds are high that it's a family member in this sort of situation," McDaniel told NBC 5. "I can say that anyone who knows our family knows better."
