Madeleine McCann- new suspect thread 2

[Smallsteps88]

New thread

I always thought the McCanns were innocent, it just wouldn’t be possible to move a body and it never be found. All within a time frame. And get seven other adults to cover it up. No way.
Unfortunately the Portuguese police wasted so much time on the McCanns, they stopped looking for the kidnappers.
That Inspector Ameral looked bent to me, IMO.

Blackbear I realized rather recently that this is a thing, even now with the CB development some will still see that as a distraction from ‚the real I think it was down to the media. I guess German media were rather ,distanced‘ in their reporting. They may have said in a matter of fact way ,police now suspect...but parents vigorously deny...‘ and shown the desperate McCanns (that‘s how I remember it), and the idea then just seemed absurd. (Can‘t speak for ‚all German speakers‘. But I remember no one, who thought they did it).

@Pogz92

I too feel immensely guilty for doubting the Mccanns.

What I read against them seemed so plausible

@Pogz92 that is because you have been made to think that way by the media reporting and other people's opinions. Over the years I must have seen at least 5 documentaries about Jack the Ripper that have put forward the film makers preferred candidate for the ripper and after each one I have been pretty convinced that yep he was the one that did it. There are some inconsistencies and things that can feel "off" about the case and there are lots of people that refuse to look beyond the parents and will gloss over all the things that don't point to them while almost mythologising the things that could point to them. The "fact" that they drugged the children seems to come from Portuguese police not being familiar with a Calpol syringe. Someone earlier on this thread "couldn't get past the sniffer dog evidence" but that largely relates to the hire car that was only hired several days after she disappeared. I don't find it easy to believe that they popped her body in a cupboard raised the alarm that she was missing, created as much media attention as they could and presumably said to anyone involved in the search "oh you don't need to look in the cupboards we've checked them", then a few days later shifted the body into the newly hired car, drove off to some place unknown without anyone noticing and managed to hide her body so well in a foreign country that it has never been found. But if you hear a sniffer dogs alerted to a body in their car without the rest of the information you might think they are responsible.

Smallsteps - most tourists are unaware of criminals in holiday resorts. I was shocked by these paedophiles there. But I suppose it’s no different to anywhere else.
People think they’re safe when they go abroad on holiday, the reality is people are more at risk on holiday of being victims of crime than they are at home.
I’d also hazard a guess that Praia da Luz is probably now one of the safest places to go. It’s under the worlds spotlight.

I seem to remember in the 90‘s - it was the time when age of consent was discussed and reformed in much of Europe - there was talk that Portugal was where people went, who wanted to take advantage of lenient laws in this area.
Maybe that attracted lots of paedophiles who built their ,communities’ there, and this remained, even when age of consent was adapted?

The sniffer dogs can’t be right all the time.
The dogs reacted in the McCanns apartment to blood, but blood is hard to clean totally.
It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that the blood belonged to a previous guest.
And the car wasn’t hired until 25 days after Madeleine disappeared. She never went in it. And how would the McCanns hide her that long and then put her body in a car with the worlds media following them?
Impossible!

Also the McCanns have been criticised for appearing to be cold and unemotional.
They look broken to me.
And I’m sure behind closed doors they grieved differently. I’d presume Gerry has quite a hard personality and wanted to be calm in front of the cameras? He had to communicate to the media and wider world.

Hearwego I agree they looked broken. Even shell-shocked. Trying to keep it together.
Making their behaviour at the time a story is absurd.

@Hearwego

The sniffer dogs can’t be right all the time. The dogs reacted in the McCanns apartment to blood, but blood is hard to clean totally. It’s perfectly reasonable to assume that the blood belonged to a previous guest. And the car wasn’t hired until 25 days after Madeleine disappeared. She never went in it. And how would the McCanns hide her that long and then put her body in a car with the worlds media following them? Impossible!

Exactly but people still use the sniffer dogs as proof. There is a running joke in our house that if my husband ever disappears I'm straight off to prison because they will find his blood all over the house (he has frequent out of the blue nose bleeds which get cleared up but I'm sure police doing a forensic search would find traces in most rooms!)

I honestly think this current situation whereby the McCanns know it's now likely (I think) that a sex offender abducted and killed her is the worst of all possible worlds. They don't have the same hope they had in the beginning that she would return safe and well and yet they still don't have definite answers (unless the German police are telling them more than they are telling the public) and, I'm sad to say, a body to have a funeral etc. It would be awful if they were still just kept hanging for answers indefinitely. I really hope the German police are handling this in such as way as to get the best result which is possible in the circumstances.

I bought Kate's book a few years ago on kindle and I was looking at it again. The photos of them as a happy family break my heart. As a county, we've only ever seen images of Kate & Gerry looking quietly devastated, it was really strange to see them happy and smiley. They've been on my mind so much recently, them and their twins and wider family. I hope they are as ok as they can be.

As a parent I can totally emphasis with the McCanns and I don’t care how much the search costs, this was a three year old taken from her bed.
I also found the photos heartbreaking, particularly the one with her by the pool wearing a hat. Also the footage of the McCanns boarding the plane on the way to Portugal is very sad.

I never knew that Gerry's tennis bag went missing.
I also want to say that I've always believed in the McCanns innocence.
As a pp said 'they always looked a bit shell shocked'. Personally I thought there was some major dissociation/splitting going on as in the sense that was the only way they could cope & keep in control.
I'm very like that too & known for being great in an emergency/crisis (often noted by my previous employers & family & friends)

I think this thread is good for keeping the momentum of Madeleine in the public eye & also uncovering all the shady behaviour that has been going on in the Algarve.
Finally we went on holiday to Madeira when DD was 5. Blonde hair in a bob, green eyes & if I say so myself very cute & pretty.
I was terrified (with Madeira being an island that belongs to Portugal) of something happening to her so I constantly held her hand & wouldn't let her wander ahead.
Probably stupid but I doubted everyones motivation.
This had never happened in any country before or since.

I hope the police have spoken to them privately. It's just too much to think that they are living all this speculation along with us.

@TracyBeaker I'm the same in a crisis. Methodical, organised, straight faced. I remember my infant son needed a hospital visit years ago and I was so calm and focused, they reported me to social services for Munchausens. Obviously nothing came of it as it was ridiculous and we were signed off over the phone, but it made me hyper aware in the future of how we are perceived in a crisis

I'm another calm in a crisis person, I go into autopilots mode. I can't remember when I last cried in public, because I usually hold everything in until I'm alone and then turn into a soggy sniveling mess. I don't doubt that I have a reputation as a cold, heartless cow, but I not, honest.

Agreed, that video of Madeleine falling over as she climbs up the steps to the plane to Portugal...you just want to reach in and stop her and tell the parents "no, don't go!" A bit like the video of Princess Diana in the lift in the Ritz hotel, you want to tell her not to get in the car.

It must be extra hard for Kate & Gerry at the moment because corona means they can't go to church and can't visit Praia da Luz as they still do on occasion "to feel close" to Madeleine.

Did GM have a tennis bag stolen? I seem to recall he denied having one? Would the kidknapper take it?

It was reported at the time a blue holdall/ tennis bag was taken but no idea if this was verified.
I do think recwatching the Netflix documentary that the ladies who saw 2 blonde guys watching the apartment was significant and the statement of the lady in the apartment above who saw someone at 6.30pm furtively closing the gate.

Yes, the man closing the gate that same day. Surely a significant lead you’d think.

The tennis bag appears to have been totally made up by the press and/or police at the time. The only evidence anyone points to is a photo of it supposedly in a cupboard, but it looks more like a carry on suitcase.

Also the McCanns have been criticised for appearing to be cold and unemotional.
They look broken to me.

They always looked cold, aloof and unlikeable to me. Appreciate they might be very different behind closed doors but I think the way they came across lead to them being suspected.

I saw Gerry at the Leeds triathlon a couple of years ago. He looked nervous and self- conscious yet focused on the sport and his friends. The twins are national swimming champs so I guess he was watching them. They are trying to get on with their lives in impossible circumstances.

Quite apart from the effect on Kate and Gerry, the twins are going to have this shadow hanging over them all their lives.

Appreciate they might be very different behind closed doors but I think the way they came across lead to them being suspected.

Very possibly. There are a great many people who have no knowledge at all of trauma responses, but haven't let that stop them from condemning the McCanns because their behaviour wasn't what they, in their total ignorance, expected. Although I'm not sure there's any way they could've come across that would've stopped them being blamed for the death. Their obvious initial poor decision making combined with it happening during the age of 24 hour news and conspiracy theories on the internet saw to that.

@FruitPastillesaregood

Quite apart from the effect on Kate and Gerry, the twins are going to have this shadow hanging over them all their lives.

There is case of a boy called Steven Stayner who was kidnapped walking home from school when he was 7 by a man who kept him as his son to abuse him. When Stephen was 14 too old for his tastes he kidnapped another boy Timmy White. Stephen didnt want the same to happen to him so he took the boy to a police station and ended up the police recognised who he was and Stephen was reunited with his family. Stephen went off the rails for a bit but ended up married with 2 girls and tragically died in a motorbike accident when he was 24

Stephen had a brother called Cary and this did affect him badly and he is now in prison for murdering 4 women in Yosemite . Whether he would have committed those crimes if his life had been different who knows

Sadly Timmy White also died young at the age of 35 of a pulmonary embolism