So I've read this thread with steadily mounting disbelief, but I'm not sure why (my disbelief steadily mounted).
It's just the same old, same old from most posters.
Of course the McCanns didn't release that e-fit.
They had no remit or authority to do so.
This efit (of a man seen carrying a child in the vicinity of apartment 5a on the night of the crime) was delivered to the McCanns something like 3 months after the original investigation that exonerated the McCanns had been shelved!
What if that man turns out to be an innocent holidaymaker carrying his child back to an apartment, same as the man Jane Tanner saw turned out to be?
Where would the McCanns stand releasing an efit of an innocent holiday-maker or Portuguese resident on evening May 3rd, after the original investigation had been shelved? No doubt, the self-righteous bile now being churned out by the usual suspects would, instead, accuse the McCanns of fingering an innocent man.
And another question. Mr Smith was billed by Amaral as the crucial witness who would cement the case and prove the culpability of the McCanns.
Why did not his team trouble to take an e-fit from Mr Smith? They did of the man Jane Tanner saw ...