McCann Case Still Unsolved?

Indeed, this man has no resemblance to the Tanner description. At one time, Tanner was even convinced that the man she saw carrying a child looked like R. Murat.

 

Read here for a down to earth commentary on the reporting of the McCann case (often very funny):-

http://katiesmith.wordpress.com/

The Channel4 Cutting Edge documentary is here:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLCIQJj6hgU

 

There are 5 independent witnesses who saw this man and who gave similar descriptions. Their statements were in the police files.

When the McCanns were cleared of their arguido status, the PJs shelved the case and made the files available to the McCanns (and anyone else who requested them).

However, the files were all in Portuguese and had to be professionally translated at a cost of about £100,000. This obviously took time. Kate McCann then meticulously worked through the files "looking for anything" that might have been overlooked and which could be investigated further.

What I think is quite frustrating is that some details get fuzzy with translation. For example, I read the witness statement of one of the nannies and it sounded peculiar (i.e. the wording sounded peculiar). Given that she would have given her statement in English and then it was translated into Portuguese and then back into English, one wonders how much of the meaning or detail has been lost.

 

My fiirst thought on seeing the recent drawing of the alleged "abudctor" was "Looks like a variaton of the "bushy-haired stranger", the world's most sought-after and never caught criminal - only here it is the "scar-faced stranger" ...

It is in the files? You said one can read the case files when registering on a certain forum which has copies of them. Which forum is that? Could you please give a link -TIA.

 

www.pfa2.com

Sorry, I saw your post earlier and then something shiny caught my eye...

FIXED

 

www.pfa2.com

That is definitely the correct URL.

 

Jayelles Link....

If you just change the comma for a period before com it brings you right to the site...I registered there and am waiting for a confirmation e-mail to be able to read and post.

Thanks Jayelles, I have been wanting to learn more about this case. Such a beautiful child (aren't they all!) and so very sad so far....One can only hope that she is alive and will be discovered some day. Meanwhile.....Study the case and keep hoping eh?

Voyager

 

Bless you Voyager. Your registration shouldn't take long, mine didn't. Be sure and pm me when you get there.

 

I've been working without my glasses since I collected my daughter from school (left them in the car). I am really quite blind without them these days. Old age.

 

Little.

I'm tired of reading about stupid witnesses who see this and that and don't report it, and thus prevent a child from being abducted. Did the woman walk into The Ocean Club office and report this creep; especially when she saw him looking at the McCann apartment? Maybe just maybe The OCean Club could have warned the residents to make sure their children were safe, and checked on the Car park regularly(?).

Did any of the other witnesses report what they saw to The Ocean Club office to put them on their guard?

Another stupid female Jane Tanner sees a man walking out carrying a child in pyjamas. Does she report this No! Stupid woman!

INFURIATING!

 

Forum gone?

What happened to the Websleuths McCann forum?

 

Elle, you may have missed the other post I made to you in response to this. These people DID report what they saw as soon as they realised it could be relevant. Sadly, their reports lay unconnected until the McCanns themselves came across them in the files.

To be honest,l I'm not sure I would report seeing an ugly looking bloke standing in a public place. I mean, what would you report him for? You can't report someone for standing in a public place or for being ugly

If it later transpired that he'd been standing outside a building from which a child had been abducted.... That's when I'd come forward. Not sure about what others think.

Jane Tanner has stated that she merely thought the man was carrying his own child. At the time she saw him, no-one knew madeleine had been taken.

 

It's my understanding Ella that these reports are in the police files and that it was investigated to the extent it could be. I don't think it was news to them.

I agree that Jane Tanner's story has a few holes in it. There are so many things in this case that just don't quite fit. Whether those things are diabolical or not, I doubt it. To me it just seems like what should have been minor details in the big picture of things got away from them. Too many went into a CYA mode and poor little Madeleine's fate may have been sealed by those actions.

In my mind I keep hoping that she was taken by someone who gave her to a family that would love and protect her. A family with lots of children so she has lots of playmates. It's likely a very unrealistic thought, but the alternative is too hard to imagine. We see too much reality on the news every day.

 

Yes, I did miss it! Sorry! Otherwise I wouldn't have made today's post referring to this.

 

I missed reading about this in Jayelle's post, Little or I wouldn't have got so uptight about it! It was up to The Ocean Club to have informed the residents that some unsavoury characters were wandering around the premises and to safeguard their children. It would have taken a few minutes to have posted it on their bulletin board.

Like you I hope she isn't dead and is with another family, and like you, I hate the alternative too.

 

Yes the witness testimonies were in the witness testimonies are in the police files. However, they were not followed up or connected to each other.

What holes does Jane Tanner's story have in it? The police files show that she's been pretty consistent since the beginning. I can't begin to imagine how awful she must feel to think that she could have done something to save Madeleine - if only she'd recognised the significance of what she'd seen. Alas, she is human and she did not realise the significance of what she'd seen until she found out Madeleine had been taken.

I really doubt this. Why would a person who already has lots of children steal someone else's? I don't think that's the profile of people who steal children.

I know for a fact that if I saw someone carrying a child, my first thought wouldn't be "I wonder if that's a kidnapper?" Like Jane Tanner, I'd assume it was the child's parent.

Also, hotels and complexes do not tend to advertise shady characters hanging around. Sadly, they tend to play down the nasties which are bad for business. It is usually up to the Holiday Company Reps to give advice of this sort to the holidaymakers. Even then, they don't usually want to alarm people and put them off coming back again in the future. On the one and only time we went to mainland Spain on holiday, there were several muggings outside the hotel and one person in our party had her purse stolen from the poolside as she lay sunbathing. Lots of people were afraid to leave the hotel. Theft is a problem in holiday resorts. I dislike Teneriffe for this reason. There are lots of gypsies there and bag snatchings and apartment burglaries are common. I like Majorca and Cyprus which tend to be safer.

I suspect that if anyone had been seen hanging around the Ocean Club, people would tend to think of pickpockets rather than child abductors.

 

I think there is no way a hotel which specialises in family holidays would put up warnings about unsavoury characters. They wouldn't want to jeopardise their business and alarm the guests by making them feel unsafe. I think the most they would do would be to get staff to be vigilant. Also, as I've said above, if they saw unsavoury looking characters hanging around, they'd more likely think they were thieves rather than child abductors. There may well have been warnings about thieves, there generally are notices warning guests to guard their belongings and saying that the hotel does not accept responsibility for stolen items.

People tend to accept that as a tourist, they may be targeted by pickpockets. It's so common.
Also remember that this was a complex and not a hotel. Guests had to use public road and pavements to get from the restaurant and pool part of the complex in order to get to the apartments. I'm not sure how much jurisdiction the hotel management would have had over anyone who was hanging around outside the complex in public road with private houses.

 

More to the point with the hotel warnings. I think it's time these hotels also added to the above warning that they are also not responsible for stolen children. I am not smiling as I type this. I am serious!

This is a different world we live in today, and because of the Madeleine McCann case, hotels will have to do much more than they are doing to
protect residents with small children. For starters, they can put up a warning sign that children have not to be left alone in their rooms. End of story!