It approaches with the full desperate weight of three years of longing and the relief of finally having something to attach that longing to.

Carey Gibson flew to Spain, saw this young man, and believed.

The belief was not irrational.

It was human.

It was the response of a grieving person who needed her missing brother to be alive and in front of her.

Whether her belief persisted after months of cohabitation — whether she continued to genuinely believe or began to doubt but found doubt too painful to act on — is one of the questions about this case that remains genuinely unclear.

The Three Accounts That Cannot All Be True