If the family of each one only had 10 close friends, relatives and neighbors that would have been 5000 people with first hand knowledge so when all the hoax theory began, there should have been thousands of people saying they know it really happened because their bother's kids were at that school or because their dad was one of the fireman or the cops or their cousin or their neigbour had kids at the school etc.

This logic actually shows how ridiculous the hoax theory is; do you honestly expect anyone to believe that at least 5000 people could be involved in some way in such a thing and not a single one has blown the whistle by now? Or do you think none of these people ever existed?