Madeleine McCann investigation

[lyndie]

I saw today that possible excavations are to start in the resort where MM went missing.

Does anyone think the progress The Met have made is astonishing given the length of time that has elapsed? I can't help but wonder what progress could have been made if they had been involved at the start.

I really hope that somehow they can find out what happened and give her family some sort of closure. I know the ins and outs of what happened and her parents leaving her have been discussed at length on MN but from a crime point of view I would be very interested to see if the Portugese police had done enough or not.

No one is forcing you to read anything Mint, that's entirely your prerogative - I am naturally very curious and when arguably the biggest missing person case in recent history happens virtually on your doorstep, in a location you know very well, when people you know are involved, when your home town is mentioned in connection with the case - you cannot help but be interested

When those same people and places are unfairly attacked in the media and casually verbally abused, repeatedly, for 7 years, you want to stand up for them and show up the xenophobic bullies - that's all.

MNHQ

They were told by their lawyer to plead guilty to get a lesser sentence - they refused because they knew that would call off the search for Madeleine.

Sabrina - you don't know that. That is what our Press have told you. Do you know Portuguese Law? I don't, but I am pretty sure it's not as shown on US crime series where they have plea bargaining. I don't think we have it in this country either, but I am not a lawyer.

That is what bedevils this case: a child apparently vanishes in thin air, and it seems impossible to establish any concrete facts about what happened.

It's what she was told by her lawyer. If someone admits to hiding their child's body (which was what they were asking her to do) - then they're not going to follow lines of enquiry into abduction are they?

There is no plea bargaining in Portugal - the PJ cannot offer any kind of deal, it just doesn't happen. They might explain the options and penalties but they have no authority to offer deals

costa which of the McCann friends statement should I read? Can't pm you

Also, you're not going to admit to something you didn't do.

But why would an abduction look worse? Why wouldn't they follow all leads they had at the time?

There's nothing wrong with wanting to know the details of a case per se.
I just find it all a bit odd the lengths people go to. Reading pages and pages of evidence and statements etc of a case you have no real connection with/ proper knowledge of.

We're not going to agree obviously, but to me it's a bit like slowing down for a look at the site of a car crash and speculating as to what might have caused it.

I think you have the wrong poster Joules - I didn't suggest that

sabrina - the point of telling people about the police files is that it proves just how much time, money and effort was put into the investigation. The sheer amount of work undertaken by the PJ is quite staggering and I think its ridiculous to suggest that they never considered the possibility of abduction - in fact, the reality is that the PJ have never ruled out abduction.

The uk police turned up and suggested they look closer to the family rather than going down the abduction route. So UK brought dogs in. There was no evidence of abduction even uk police have said that and the mccanns said there was only a tiny opportunity but they thought the room and the window etc suggested she was abducted. .

Tbh, the theory that Madeleine didn't leave the apartment alive could explain the dogs reactions. Blood/cadaver scent both being detected....but is the cadaver scent present immediately at the point of death or a while later?

But when you do have a real connection with it, and know that it is being misrepresented in the UK media and 'spun' to something unrecognisable?

I think I'm going to be stepping away from this for now. I disagree with the suggestion that discussing the publicly known facts of the PJ investigation is speculation, when all I am doing is correcting people who only have the xenophobic red top version.

Out of pure curiousity, at what point would it be okay to post on mn about discrepencies in this one case? Arrest? Trial? Guilty verdict? Never? Because people have discussed other cases before the trial, without being hounded upon like this.

Anyway.

I find it odder to formulate a really quite passionate opinion about something you have not researched. Why do people slow down to look at car crashes? Maybe because that make biological sense? Don't make the same mistake?

I think you can either see things as normal aspects of human nature or as something negative.

Yy Costa, the way its implied that the police can only follow one line of enquiry at a time is pretty insulting

There is far more evidence of the PT theory and Leicester police than for abduction so it's not surprising there is speculation at times like this. No finger prints or any DNA at all in the apartment not even the child's hence Gerry retuning to the uk to get madeleines hairbrush and pillow. No one knows but people talk.

There's a lot that's pretty insulting really but I'm used to it now

Come on - if were guilty of having disposed of your daughter's body - and I don't deny that happens - but you're hardly likely to badger the PM to have the case re-opened are you?

You'd let sleeping dogs lie, as it were. They want to know what happened to her - because they don't know at present.

there are other theories as to why the systematic opening of the case happens Sabrina.

The crime watch programme co-inciding completely with the release of Kates book for example.

Despite actually having no new evidence at all.

Sabrina is your surname McCann?

But Sabrina, the same could be said why badger the pm but sit on a efit that could help the search which Scotland yard had to ask for?

CatsCanttwerk - is yours Amaral?

nomorequotes
I'd suggest that many people slow down at car crashes out of morbid curiosity. (Particularly if on the other side of the road)