That is the first thing I thought when Andy Redwood said that Jane's man had come forward.
Amaral knew Jane had seen a man carrying a child, he would have had the list of parents whose children would have been at the crèche that night, so why didn't he check the list with the parents? he could then have found the man carrying the child at the start.
Without knowing the identity of the man we are somewhat into speculation.
The main arrival and departure dates were Thursday and Saturday.
A Thursday arrival with the child in the crèche the same night is possible, but unlikely.
That suggests, but does not prove, that Crècheman arrived the same day the McCanns did, and flew out on Saturday 5 May 2007.
A look at the records shows no systematic check on holiday-makers - the focus was on staff.
So, if the PJ ever got the crèche records, what they had was 8 families, 11 children, and Tannerman walking in a direction that fitted none of these. (Since it did not fit with the crèche.) Most likely, all 8 families were out of the country by this time.
They were up to their necks in checks on locals, the gardener, the busker, the OC staff. I cannot see why they should have prioritised Tannerman, in these circumstances. By the time the initial storm blew over, Smithman had arrived, in a place that had nothing to do with the crèche.
The question is how did SY gets its hands on crèche records that were 6 years old?
