Madeleine McCann’s Disappearance

This case is another that provokes very emotional outcry and appears to be divided into three distinct mindsets.

1) Those that think the parents are guilty.
2) Those that think this was a stranger abduction.
3) And, those that just want to know the facts.

Self-proclaimed “experts” sit in their easy chairs, watch assorted news clips and make psychiatric determinations about the fitness of Kate and Gerry McCann. Those determinations appear to be based strictly upon the “expert’s” life experiences and have little to do with any facts that have been discovered, concerning the McCann’s. Given that fact, it is extremely difficult to give much credence to these quacks. Yet, people do so, because the blatantly prejudiced claims serve a particular mindset that has convicted the McCann’s without basis.

If the McCann’s did play a roll in this heinous crime, then the timeline must be explained. When did the supposed crime take place? When did the parents dispose of the body? How did the parents so successfully hide the remains? And the biggest question of all, why? All of these questions have to be answered and those answers must fit within the established time constraints.

Timeline:

MAY 3

9.15AM MADELEINE and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, are quickly up and dressed and the family breakfast together in their holiday apartment. The children go to the kids' club - on site at the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz - where they have been staying with friends. Kate and Gerry enjoyed jogs on the beach, tennis and morning strolls.

12.30PM KATE and Gerry scoop up their children from the creche and head back to their apartment for lunch. Madeleine has learnt a dance which she and her young friends are to perform for their parents the following day.

2.30PM THE family head for the Ocean Club's pool. Kate takes a last photo of Madeleine dangling her feet in the water, next to sister Amelie and Gerry. They spend the rest of the afternoon pottering.

5PM (This entry has been questioned) THE McCanns join friends for drinks at a restaurant in Praia da Luz where the children have their tea. A waiter, who has not spoken before, said: "They arrived in beach clothes and there was a big group. Nine adults and six or seven children and they took up two large tables. The adults ordered alcoholic drinks and had quite a lot. They were happy." Gerry played in front of the restaurant with his children, pushing Madeleine on a swing. The waiter said Madeleine's parents called her in from the beach to eat her meal on the balcony of the restaurant. He said: "When he brought her back to get an ice-cream, she was jumping up and down with excitement. It was a lovely sight."

6PM MADELEINE eats her ice cream as the group leave for their holiday apartment. It is the last time she is seen in public.

7.30PM KATE gives Madeleine a bath, then dries her hair, carefully taking out a bead she had put in earlier in the week. Then she helps her into her pink pyjamas and puts her to bed next to the twins' cots at around 8pm. As Madeleine snuggles up to her beloved Cuddle Cat toy, she says: "Mummy, I've had the best day ever. I'm having lots and lots of fun."

8PM KATE and Gerry spend half an hour together before meeting friends at the tapas bar, as usual, at 8.30pm. It has a view of the apartments 50 metres away where they are all staying. The McCanns choose not to use the baby-sitting service.

8.30PM THE couple meet seven others at the restaurant including Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner as well as Dr Matthew Oldfield and his wife Rachael.

9PM GERRY is the first to return to the block, checking on his children at 9.05pm. He sees all three children sound asleep. On his way back to the restaurant, Gerry bumps into Brit Jeremy Wilkins, with whom he had played tennis. Jane Tanner goes to check on her daughter who is ill.

9.15PM AS Jane enters their block - number five - she sees a man carrying what looks like a child wrapped in a blanket. She barely gives him a second glance. The restaurant is buzzing as diners take part in a quiz, organised by aerobics instructor Najova Chekaya.

9.30PM DR Oldfield gets up to look in on his children and offers to check on the McCanns'. Instead of going into apartment 5A he listens at the door. Satisfied the children are sound asleep, he rejoins the party and reports all was well. At around the same time, as the quiz ends, Gerry invites Ms Chekaya, 21, to join their table. She is with them for half an hour. Dr O'Brien also leaves the table for 25 minutes to look after his ill daughter, returning shortly before 10pm.

10PM KATE leaves the group to check on the children. Letting herself into the flat, she opens the door to the kids' bedroom and freezes for a split second. Madeleine's bed is empty. A bolt of terror shoots through her followed by panic. Hysterical, she races back to the restaurant. One witness said she shouts: "They've taken her, they've taken her. The group run back with her to the apartment and help Kate and Gerry triple check every room, looking under the beds, in the wardrobes, behind the doors. Their panic grows. The couple are said to have known immediately that their daughter had been taken because Cuddle Cat was left on a ledge impossible for Madeleine to reach and a window shutter had been forced open.

10.10PM THE alarm is raised with the resort manager within 10 minutes. The Mirror has learned Gerry bursts into the Ocean Club's reception and asks for a priest and the police. Told it is too late to get hold of the priest, he then runs down the hill towards the church, stopping cars and pleading: "Have you seen a little girl? She's my daughter and she's missing." Friends and staff join in the search. Kate stays with the twins, waiting for news.

10.41PM THE police claim they receive a call telling them that a child is missing.

11.03PM TWO local officers arrive at the club and after a laboured questioning session involving a translator then call the Policia Judiciaria who investigate serious crimes. Friends of the McCanns allege that shortly after 11pm, they see British expat Robert Murat, who lives nearby with his mother, join the search party at the Ocean Club. He denies this, saying he was at home with his mother.

Even if we disregard the 5:00pm entry the timeline is still very tight, giving little time for the parents to have killed their child, disposed of the body and make it to dinner for a few laughs with friends.

It is true that the parents acted negligently by leaving the children alone, while they dined with their friends. But, does that fact negate all else that has been learned about this child’s disappearance? Or could it actually support the notion of a stranger abduction? Waiters at the Tapas Restaurant report that for at least the last four nights of the planned vacation, the McCann’s along with the rest of their party had a specific table reserved outside overlooking the pool. This group had a very well timed ritual and that became well-known to those working in the establishment. Such a regimented routine could have created the perfect conditions for the abduction of Madeleine.

If any of you have any theories about how the McCann’s may have pulled off this almost perfect crime, I would love to read them. How the McCann’s look or react in the media means little to me unless some sense can be made of just how they managed to do this. Also, I am a parent as well and we never left our boys unattended when they were toddlers, but that is not the issue here either except that it definitely opened a window of opportunity for a possible child abductor.

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This article published November 4th is an interesting addition to the story. Daily Mail

What I found most interesting is the following quote:

“Dr Payne, 41, a cardiovascular researcher from Leicestershire, was the last person outside the McCann family to see Madeleine alive. He went to the family's apartment at 6.30pm on May 3 and said he saw Mrs McCann there with all three of her children, while Mr McCann played tennis.”

If we are to take that information as fact, then it tightens the timeline considerably.