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Chapter 21 - An Irish family in shock, pages 197-199
- Sept 2007, McCanns return to UK
- Gerry exits the plane, carrying his son against his left shoulder, the child's arms down along his sides, down the stairs and across the tarmack Gerry walks
- The Smith family see this recording on the news at 22h00 and are hit hard: they know this person, this way of carrying a child and of walking. It is Gerry McCann, they believe with a high degree of certainty, that they saw on 3 May at about 22h00, carrying a 4 yr old girl who appeared to be deeply asleep
- The father contacts the police to communicate this new information. He says he has not slept since 9 Sept and is very upset. It's as if he re-lived the night he saw the man carrying the child. Seeing Gerry walk and carry the child, awoke something in his head...
- Still not completely convinced, he watches the news again on ITV and also on Sky.
- No, there are no doubts. Gerry McCann looks just like the same person he saw carrying the child on May 3.
- Smith, upset and worried about what he saw and has concluded, needs the investigators to contact him.
- In late September, the Portuguese police receive this information from Smith. This appears to be a piece of the puzzle.
- Now Jane Tanner's insistence at seeing the abductor go the other direction makes sense, removing attentions from the way Gerry walked, in the direction of the beach. The man carrying a child didn't walk east towards Murat's house, but west in the direction of the Smiths.
- This puzzle piece allows the investigators to reconstruct what happened on that cold night of 3 May. The puzzle is almost complete.
- We make the decision to bring the Smiths back to Portugal. They will be heard, and in legal and procedural terms, will give their identification using televised images, since a personal identification [of Gerry] is out of the question.
- A reconstitution of that night, with the Smiths, is seriously considered.
- But the Smiths don't return to Portugal.
- The Portuguese police changed their minds after GA leaves the team; they decide to use the international request mechanism [letters rogatory]
- This leads to absurd delays
- In the meantime, rumours abound that strangers to the investigation have found about about this witness and his family and, supposedly, have tried to talk to Smith, though their intentions in doing so are unknown.
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