I’m not at all impressed by Amaral. I think he made some rudimentary mistakes in the case...such as making the parents suspects at the beginning when he could see that there was holes in their story, letting the group collaborate on their statements and letting Gerry sit behind Kate when she gave her first statement.
As damning as some might think ~ I believe the collaboration on the group statement was encouraged by the Portuguese police who were present; and I don't think Kate had eyes in the back of her head to catch any prompts from her husband when she was at the point of collapse and worry about her eldest child.
You obviously do since you have bothered to make mention.
Being in total ignorance of what happens in a family setting when a child goes missing from home and not in a foreign country I don't actually know if it is normal practice to separate grieving parents when taking statements.
In this instance I think the Judicial Police acted with some humanity in allowing a mother on the point of collapse to have the invisible support of having her husband with her in the same room.
Amaral didn't require to "make the parents suspects" as far as I am concerned ~ all he had to do was to eliminate them from the enquiry as per usual practice to allow the search and investigation to be widened.
It appears that in cases involving missing little girls both he and Christovao used a their own MO,