As a father I can't imagine that anyone in their right mind would put a child of just three years old outside, on her own, unsupervised. Nobody would do that.

Why did the father point out to the police that he lives in an area popular with coyotes? If there were such animals around, there is even more reason not to put her outside late at night!

Perhaps the police were not thinking that the poor little girl had might have been dragged off and eaten, so the father thought it best to give them a clue.

Policeman: "Coyotes? Don't they eat babies? Oh my God, that must be what happened to the poor girl. We never thought of that possibility. Silly us, for suspecting the father all along. Oh well, that's another mystery solved. Case closed".