*If* SH killed the child prior to CS's arrival at the house (2.30p.m.) and *if* CS played no role, and *if* it's true they did not search the fun-fair, why would SH introduce a fictitious fun-fair search into the mix? If we assume CS played no role and came home and believed that Tia had gone on her own to the shops, there could be no criticism of two people (CS and SH) remaining at home unconcerned throughout the afternoon, surely? I would have been satisfied with an explanation along the lines of: ' CS was exhausted after her 23 hour shift so she went to bed as soon as she got home, and I fell asleep in front of the tv. We both awoke with a shock to realise it was 6.30/7.30 p.m. and Tia still wasn't home
If memory serves, SH claimed in the tv interview that he'd gone to the shops on Thursday afternoon to buy some things 'for Chris' and amongst these was the pizza which he claimed he and Tia ate for dinner that evening. Maybe he bought sufficient pizza as dinner for Friday night also, seeing as CS has reportedly claimed she'd prepared a pizza for when Tia returned home (on Friday). Or maybe CS stopped at the shops on her way home from work. Or maybe the 'her pizza's still in the oven' claim is BS
CS's work schedule will undoubtedly be known to police by now. In fact it's to be suspected that realisation investigators would check (or had checked) was what prompted CS to reveal, late in the day, that she had not been at home during the time Tia was there
If we accept CS's claims that she arrived home after Tia had supposedly gone shopping, also that she fully expected the child to return around six p.m. to the extent she heated the pizza, is it unreasonable to suspect that it wouldn't have been until an hour or so after six that CS and SH became concerned about the child's failure to arrive? Which would make it approx. 7 p.m. before they grew concerned to the extent they travelled to NS's place. But then, as people have already remarked, why didn't they simply phone to ask if Tia had returned home to NS's place for some reason?
It's unclear to me what happened after that. In the tv interview, SH claimed that NS contacted the police. The story basically ends at that point, or I've missed discussion of it. Did CS and SH drive around searching for Tia after that or did they return home?
Nothing -- unless he was telling the truth -- explains for me the reason for inventing the fun-fair element or the reason CS would go along with it (if she did). If he was lying about searching the fair, it suggests SH believed for some reason that he needed to pad out the story - create a red-herring. If he felt the story needed padding, he must have had a reason
If a child was late returning home, would you leave the house locked and hop into a car to search a fun-fair and travel to inform the child's parents? Or would one of you remain at the house in case she turned up? Or, was there someone else at the house to wait for her?
Lot's of 'ifs' and question marks