To protect the neighbour, I don’t think LE is about to tell us. But I can think of a couple possible scenarios -
- the neighbour didn’t see Mollie on the video so didn’t think vehicles passing by were important. And it’s likely the Chevy Malibu was spotted on more than one CCTV footage, which was what eventually indicated to LE this particular was circling, as opposed to just driving through. So it might not just be only this one CCTV that gave LE their lead, rather it was when it combined with others (probably businesses) it collectively provided the clues.
- Early on there was substantial confusion over what time and where Mollie went missing from. For example the red shirt, being her her work shirt, would suggest something happened to or on her way from work, unconnectioned to anything captured via the neighbours CCTV.
- In cases like this LE often canvasses homes. Maybe the neighbour worked out of town or was on vacation and the purpose of the CCTV was to guard against theft? LE made several trips to the residence and finally connected? Only in hindsight is it now known it was the missing link, thankfully not copied over or erased. That’s a very good thing.
JMO