KEY POINTS:
They had hangovers from hell in Dewsbury Moor, England, yesterday, after a wild street party to celebrate the rescue of Shannon Matthews.
And with those throbbing heads came whispers, accusations and questions. Even as her mother, Karen Matthews, was speaking of the "overwhelming" joy of seeing the 9-year-old again, neighbours were asking when Shannon would be allowed home.
And why had it taken 24 days to find the girl, if she was in a flat less than 2km from her house? Had detectives ignored a tip-off? Why hadn't they previously thought to question the man who is now accused of taking her, the uncle of her stepfather? And could anybody else in the family have been involved?
"When I first saw Shannon again, I was overwhelmed," said Matthews, 32. "I just couldn't stop crying, knowing she's back where she belongs and she's safe. I never gave up hope and now she'll be able to come home and sleep in her room again. We've got her new pink bedding, which she'll love."
Matthews thanked the police, and said the support of the community had been fantastic.
Shannon's father, Leon Rose, said: "I am buzzing over it - especially since Shannon has been found alive. I'm over the moon and I can't wait to see her. I'll grab hold of her and give her a cuddle and tell her I love her."
Police have yet to charge Mick Donovan, formerly known as Paul Drake, in whose home Shannon was found under a bed on Saturday. Unconfirmed reports yesterday suggested he was being questioned about the possibility of other family involvement.
"I was devastated when I found out it was a family member," said Shannon's next-door neighbour and uncle, Neil Hyett, as he helped make plans for a huge party for all the children on the estate. They want Shannon to be the guest of honour at the event, in the field behind her house, "with bouncy castles and all that".
But it could be a long time before she goes home.
Yesterday Shannon was with specially trained police officers in an interview suite designed to be as child-friendly as possible.
"Shannon has had a comfortable and settled night and is starting on the road to recovery following her ordeal," said West Yorkshire Police. "She has had breakfast this morning and has been playing with a kitten."
Shannon has been put under an emergency police protection order, which means she cannot see her mother or stepfather, Craig Meehan, without officers being present.
That means not going back to live at her family home on Moorside Rd for the moment. The couple also talked to detectives yesterday, before returning home.
Matthews has barely slept for three weeks, and was unable to hold off tears, say friends. She has also fallen out with her own parents, over accusations they made against Meehan.
The protection order expires today but will almost certainly be extended by a magistrate. "It will remain in place until we have had time to establish the full facts of what happened since her disappearance," said a police statement.
Shannon went missing on her way home from school on February 19.
The hunt that followed was the largest in the area since the Yorkshire Ripper, around 30 years ago, with 60 detectives and more than 300 uniformed officers involved.
They used sniffer dogs, helicopters and divers, searched alleyways and bins, and carried out door-to-door inquiries, but did not knock at the flat where she was found until Saturday.
"The police have been fantastic, but you still want to know, what took them so long?" said one of Shannon's neighbours yesterday, as thick white smoke rose over the streets near her home.
It came from a big pile of leaflets, the last of thousands printed off and given out by volunteers, as the days passed and desperation grew. Little girls don't come back alive after 24 days. But this one did.
Detectives are cross their pride at finding her has been tarnished by accusations that they took their time.
A source close to the inquiry defended the police, saying they had started by interviewing close relatives, then widened out to the extended family. There were "literally hundreds of people" in a "huge family network" requiring a lot of resources, the source insisted.
Shannon's family life is complicated, and she does have many relatives in the area. Her mother has given birth to seven children by five fathers. She says Shannon treats Meehan, 22, like her dad. But a message was found scrawled in felt-tip on the wall of Shannon's bedroom, saying that she wanted to live with her real dad, Leon Rose, in Huddersfield.
Comparisons with Madeleine McCann were inevitable. Shannon was not the daughter of a couple of good-looking, wealthy, middle-class doctors with friends who knew how to work the media, as Madeleine was when she went missing last year.
Accusations have also come from within Karen Matthews' own family.
Her mother, June Matthews, told a newspaper last week that the children had an awful life and Meehan was violent. But he insisted: "I have never hit [Shannon] or any of the children. I love those kids. June is lying because she doesn't like me."
So how did the police find Shannon at last? Claims of tip-offs leading to the arrest have been "overstated", said an officer. With rewards for information totalling £50,500 ($125,600), and newspapers offering cash for exclusive stories, it is not surprising there have been several different reports about why they smashed down that door. The charity Missing People has said it contacted West Yorkshire Police to pass on information that she might be there. A man living nearby said he had phoned the police hotline some time ago, "But no one ever got back to me".
Another neighbour said she had been alerted by a discarded swimming costume and towel (Shannon had had a swimming lesson just before her disappearance). There were other stories, too, including from the neighbour living downstairs who heard "little footsteps" but knew the occupant did not have children living with him.
Ryan Baynes, a tiler from Dewsbury, told the Sun he had called Crimestoppers "within days" of Shannon's disappearance and told them about Donovan, who had allegedly behaved strangely at a family funeral six weeks previously. He bounced a girl on his knee and paid her "far too much attention", said Baynes.
Despite this, police insist they initially visited the flat on Saturday only as part of routine inquiries, working their way through the list of members of Shannon's extended family.
Shannon was found in a compartment underneath a divan bed. She was dressed, and not tied up. According to reports, a policewoman hugged her then whispered: "Where is the man?"
Shannon pointed, and they found him hiding in another compartment under the bed. As she was carried out, her arms around a policeman's neck, a neighbour shouted out: "Is that Shannon?" The officer smiled and said: "It certainly is." She was said to be "very quiet" but apparently physically uninjured.
Donovan was reportedly dragged from the building, calling out: "I'm a poorly man. I should be taken to hospital. I'm not well." He is the father of two girls, but is believed not to have seen them for several years.
His neighbour, Mandy Dixon, described him as a "scrawny, scruffy, horrible man" who was most often seen polishing his silver Peugeot 406.
Rumour of the rescue spread fast through Dewsbury Moor, but Matthews, who was at home, said she had to wait for the family liaison officers. When they arrived, friends and neighbours were asked to go upstairs. "We heard them say the words 'safe' and 'well'," said Shannon's aunt, Amanda Hyett. "Then we all shouted out."
The spontaneous party that followed lasted until the early hours, said Neil Hyett. "I gave up at 4.30am, but it was still going."
In Dewsbury Moor the morning after, there were empty bottles and cans strewn in the gardens, and leaflets that were not being burned were stuck to pavements like old confetti. There are already signs that the togetherness brought on by the search for Shannon could fall apart. But so much was achieved by the people of this much-maligned area.
They lacked the glamour, the organisation or the wealth of the campaign to find Madeleine (currently offering a reward of £2.6 million), and they faced the prejudice of people who looked down on a scruffy council estate on a hill in West Yorkshire, but they kept going anyway.
More than 90 per cent of abducted children are killed within 24 hours of going missing, according to an American study. Despite that, two weeks ago, Neil Hyett was already planning celebrations in his head. "Once it is over and she's back, we'll have a bloody big party."
It sounded like desperate self-delusion back then, when he looked around at the empty street. "It's gone out of the media, hasn't it?" he continued. "Before, you couldn't park for television vans and reporters' cars. "
Yesterday they were back. And plans for that party could be made in earnest. "We always said we couldn't do it until she was home. You can understand why it would take time; she's been through such an ordeal. We'll wait, though. We just want to get our Shannon home and give her the biggest cuddle."
LOST AND FOUND
February 19: Last sighting of Shannon Matthews at 3.10pm local time outside Westmoor Junior School in Dewsbury. Her mother, Karen Matthews, reports her missing after she fails to return home.
February 21: About 200 officers from West Yorkshire Police search for Shannon while Matthews makes a plea for her return.
February 22: About 200 volunteers join the search. Police say a sighting of Shannon on the day after she disappeared is "significant".
February 23: Police release CCTV footage of Shannon leaving Dewsbury Sports Centre on February 19 .
February 27: Police search involving mountain rescue teams, trained dogs and scientists fails to find any trace.
March 5: Police use Shannon's DNA to aid the search.
Wednesday: Police say half the UK's specialist search dogs are involved in the hunt.
Thursday: Matthews expresses concern that Shannon has been taken by someone she knows.
Saturday: Shannon is found alive hidden in a bed at a house in Batley Carr, less than 2km from her home.
- INDEPENDENT
