Jane Tanner claims she never identified Murat but...

[jassi]

Maybe not, but her recollections were enough to send the McCanns off in the wrong direction for the best part of 7 years.

[Eleanor]

Maybe not, but her recollections were enough to send the McCanns off in the wrong direction for the best part of 7 years.

Why do you think that?  It was all in the same time frame and in the same area, and there were similarities between what Jane Tanner said and what The Smiths said.  So no one went off in the wrong direction.

[Carana]

That's the point misty,  Exton's team thought the market trader  might  have  been the same man Gary Williams had help compile an e fit of 

When they showed it to him,  though,  he said it was not  the man he had seen that night   ( the George Harrison loolalike )

Gary Williams was right ...  the market trader was eventually cleared of any involvement

Yet when Jane Tanner was shown the same photo of the  ( innocent )  market trader she said :

"That's the man I saw carrying a child"

If she had been that sure, why would Clarence only say that she thought there was a "strong resemblance"?

The long-haired man seen by Gail Cooper, 50, three times in late April last year, was said by Jane Tanner, a friend of the McCanns, to bear a "strong resemblance" to the man she saw carrying a child in pink pyjamas and bare feet from the complex on May 3, the night Madeleine vanished.

Clarence Mitchell, Kate and Gerry McCann's official spokesman, said that when shown the sketches, Tanner was struck by the likeness to the man she had seen carrying the child she now believes was Madeleine
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/20/new-details-in-madeleine-_n_82403.html

[jassi]

Why do you think that?  It was all in the same time frame and in the same area, and there were similarities between what Jane Tanner said and what The Smiths said.  So no one went off in the wrong direction.

As I recall, they never linked to two as the same man and pursued Tannerman at the expense of Smithman.
I believe to this day that their site still features Tannerman and not Smithman.

[Wonderfulspam]

As I recall, they never linked to two as the same man and pursued Tannerman at the expense of Smithman.
I believe to this day that their site still features Tannerman and not Smithman.

Indeed, there is a cover page with Smithdad, but the main site belongs to Bundleman, Spottyman & Posh Spice.

They don't need help identifying Smithdad, they already know who he is, and exactly what he did with her.

[Carana]

Icabod pointed out on another thread that Cooperman was before Georgephotoman. My mistake on that one.

[pegasus]

Re the claims by FP and RO and ROB that RM was at the location that night after the alarm. They actually saw not him but a different man helping the search that night who looks similar IMO. All those four witnesses are honest, one was genuinely not there, the other three genuinely but mistakenly thought he was there, they saw a different man actually. All just IMO.

[John]

Re the claims by FP and RO and ROB that RM was at the location that night after the alarm. They actually saw not him but a different man helping the search that night who looks similar IMO. All those four witnesses are honest, one was genuinely not there, the other three genuinely but mistakenly thought he was there, they saw a different man actually. All just IMO.

I go with that, they were simply confused.

[John]

Why do you think that?  It was all in the same time frame and in the same area, and there were similarities between what Jane Tanner said and what The Smiths said.  So no one went off in the wrong direction.

Tanner's report of bundleman sent the dog teams off to the north east thus allowing the real perp to get clean away in the south.  This is confirmed by the maps showing the dogs search zones now compared to those searched in 2007.

[Brietta]

Tanner's report of bundleman sent the dog teams off to the north east thus allowing the real perp to get clean away in the south.  This is confirmed by the maps showing the dogs search zones now compared to those searched in 2007.

The police decided which areas would be searched. 
It is entirely their responsibility and nothing at all to do with Jane Tanner, who was a civilian. 

IMO it would have been logical to check out locations close to each sighting for the purposes of elimination.  Perhaps that had been the original intent ... but time was spent in trying to prove the Dr McCanns' guilt ... and perhaps Mr Murat's ... rather than investigating other suspects 

[slartibartfast]

The police decided which areas would be searched. 
It is entirely their responsibility and nothing at all to do with Jane Tanner, who was a civilian. 

Are you seriously suggesting that the police should ignore witnesses and do heir own thing?

[Brietta]

Are you seriously suggesting that the police should ignore witnesses and do heir own thing?

I have suggested no such thing.