Angela not in the Family?

Smith & Smith said, "At the time of her death, Angela was not in the Family. She had written Mama and me about a month ago, explaining that she was taking a furlough from the Family for a time."

First of all, when someones goes on furlough in the military, they aren't resigning, the dictionary says it's "a temporary leave of absence." So they contradict themselves, because they open the statement by saying she was not in the Family.

I'm no legal eagle, but if they can claim she was no longer a member of the Family, isn't this an effort to try to make things tidy, safe and convenient for their own skins? A cowardly distancing of themselves from any kind of responsibility at all. They're sickening.

("She had written Mama and me." Sounds like, well it was only a month ago, that's why no one else in the Family knew about it, but we did. Sounds like they made that up.)