Cleveland; independent evidence of the opened windows
Luz; no independent evidence of an open window
Cleveland; evidence showing child being taken away.
Luz; no evidence showing child being taken away.
Cleveland; offender seen 'casing the joint'
Luz; 'casing of the joint' suggested, but not proved.
Still, they're very similar, right? Wrong.
Without the benefit of CCTV footage in Cleveland the police would have had nothing to go on ... not even a timeline of any sort because the parents and siblings were asleep throughout.
The first they would have know about the 'evidence of absence' would have been in the morning when the family woke up.
If a window had been left open ... no-one in residence could have 'proved' they didn't open it.
No-one could have 'proved' where they were while everyone else slept, or what they did during the night.
There would have been nothing to witness the Cleveland child being carried way from the scene.
Therefore the Cleveland abduction runs exactly parallel with Praia da Luz with the exception that in Cleveland there was CCTV recording the event.