Monday 4 October 2010

McCann Case - Those Irritating Niggles!

Do you have them?  I sure do... and they keep irritating me!


From day one, the public were bombarded with claims of abduction, jemmied shutters and swarthy intruders.  Visions of a beautiful, big eyed child were emblazoned on our television screens 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.   British toddler, Madeleine McCann, aged just 3 had been 'taken'.


Bring Madeleine home, she's not yours!  


Then came the not-so-televised news from John Hill, Manager of the Ocean Club that the shutters were perfect, there was no sign of a break in to the apartment.  Brief photos of the 'jemmied' shutters were shown on the news to be undamaged.


But hold that result... forget about the shutters, they're not newsworthy!  Rewind back to the sweet little three year old with the big eyes.  Forget about the fact that Madeleine, her 2 year old twin siblings and all of her younger friends were apparently left alone, night after night in empty apartments.  Forget about the fact that this group of 9 adults all dined, drank and had their jollies in a restaurant down the road while all of their children were left alone to care for themselves.  All of these children were 3 years and under!!  That's not so much an irritating niggle, but a gobsmacking one.  And one that bemuses me to this day, because it's only ever referenced to the McCanns.  Nine adult individuals behaved in the same manner, apparently...


Anyway, back to those niggles... thanks to our great British press and media, I would be well on the way to actually believing the theory of abduction if it weren't for certain photo opportunities that Mr and Mrs McCann seemed to grasp with open arms...




Now forgive me, but the photos pictured above were all taken in the weeks following Madeleine's disappearance.  The first photo (unbelievably) was taken on the 12th May 2007,  just 9 days after Madeleine McCann's disappearance was announced to the world.  Nine days without your child, without knowing where she is or who she's with?  Nine days of not seeing your child with your own eyes and nine days of worry.  Could you bring yourself to function properly within 9 days, let alone smile, laugh, prance around holding balloons and flowers?... In public.  


It's in the utmost bad taste, even more so when you consider that (as her parents maintain) Madeleine McCann could be sitting with her 'abductor' in front of the television screen, recognising her parents' obvious smiles emanating from those photos.  Well, let's give Mr and Mrs McCann the benefit of the doubt - maybe they have no control over their emotions and simply smile, laugh and be jolly at the most inappropriate moments.   I'm sure Madeleine would understand.


Anyway, let's talk about another niggle... that of the Hell Hounds from South Yorkshire.


Eddie and Keela were actually the brainchild and suggestion of the British police.  They are both spaniels (not collies) with incredible noses, and when working Eddie detects cadaver odour, Keela detects blood.  These dogs have travelled the world, are in great demand and Eddie actually earns more money than McDonalds on a good day!


The dogs arrived in August 2007 with their owner Martin Grimes, and if this had been a run of the mill abduction case, you would expect them not to mark at all, pat on the head, dog biscuit and go home?  These are the places that the Portuguese police requested that the dogs put their snouts...


Five apartments at the complex in Praia de Luz.
Mr Murat's property at Praia de Luz.
Mr and Mrs McCanns' villa at Praia de Luz 

Articles of clothing from the McCanns' residence.
Western beach Praia de Luz.
Eastern Beach Praia de Luz.
10 Vehicles screened at Portimao



The dogs alerted in the McCanns' apartment, in their car and on various items of clothing belonging to Mrs McCann and a child's t-shirt.  We are talking about a cadaver dog, alerting to the scent of a cadaver.  Which in layman's terms is alerting to the scent of a dead body and I'm sorry to say that dogs don't lie.  The cadaver dog also alerted to Madeleine's iconic soft toy, known as Cuddlecat.


They alerted nowhere else.  Not in any other apartment or car or clothes.  Only places and items belonging to the McCanns.  Talk of false positives and false markings are rubbish because the dogs would have marked here, there and everywhere.


This is the biggest niggle of all... unfortunately I can't ask the dogs, so if you could explain that one for me I would be most grateful.


Eddie and Keela in action.

14 comments:

  1. Me, Myself, Moi

    Oh, welcome to "niggleland" - we are all the same in 'blogland'!

    It's the smiles, yes, all those smiles. If I had lost a child it would be hell from here to eternity. I just can't imagine how people deal with it. But obviously the McCanns know the secret for sure.

    Yes, their excuse is - life goes on and yes, they have to think about the "twins". I just wish they didn't look so happy trying to be happy for the twins!

    Angelique

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  2. Angelique, their smiles are something that I just can't explain. Even to be told to smile would be difficult. I don't understand it, especially when they are telling the world that their daughter has been 'taken' and could in effect be watching them...

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  3. These smiles are superstars' ones. Do superstars smile in front of photographers because they're happy ?

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  4. Anne@09.05

    They said they were trying to be as normal as they could because they have to think about the twins now. But you're right.....this is how celebrities behave, they have completely misunderstood how it looks to the rest of the world. But it doesn't seem to matter, it is obvious they know they are untouchable.

    Angelique

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  5. Angelique,

    They know they're untouchable, yes, I'm very sure that the secret of their strength is there. Madeleine has gone into ashes and those ashes have been mixed up for good on the 4th in the morning with lots of other organic residues. This wouldn't pass the mind of Portuguese people, but it did pass the mind (too late) of British cops. In the UK collecting bins would have been stopped immediately. In PDL it wasn't.
    What if by chance it had been discovered ? This would obviously have been the abductor...

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  6. They certainly are a unique couple, and I don't mean that as a compliment!

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  7. Anne

    You say that Madeleine has been cremated - is this the incinerator of animals that you mean and then placed in the refuse bins and taken to a landfill site?

    I don't think they did search all the bins simply because they believed the abduction theory that the McCanns were pushing. Which can either mean Gerry was advised to stick to this theory by others who were helping him - or it was organised before they left England or the third theory could be that Madeleine died well before the 3rd May 2007 to give time for Gerry to arrange a cremation of sorts to dispose of the body.

    Angelique

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  8. Angelique,
    It's just imo that the body was collected unknown by the residues removing truck. On that very night. When you bring your wrapped animal to the dedicated incinerator, they check if it is an animal of course.
    The police didn't pay attention to that fantastic abduction theory, because 1) neither the shutters nor the window had been jimmied and 2) the more plausible what that Madeleine woke up and went looking for her parents, finding her being just a question of time and means.
    The idea her body could have been hidden in a garbage bin didn't pass the PJ's head. They didn't make a systematic search before letting the garbage truck to do its job.

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  9. Anne

    I see what you mean, the Mark Warner staff said they did check the rubbish bins, though it was not done systematically, which would mean they probably missed the vital one, as you say. But they do know where it would have been taken and bones do not decay for a very long time. There is a possibility that if this was what happened there would still be evidence, but not evidence to say who carried out the crime.

    Angelique

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  10. The residues are incinerated I'm not sure how long after being collected (nor how long it takes) but surely rather quickly for hygienic reasons.
    A man (GMC ?) carrying most probably Madeleine was seen 400m from the resort. I don't think the MW staff searched the bins in this part.

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  11. MMM
    Just a correction :
    "British toddler, Madeleine McCann, aged just 3 had been 'taken'."
    She wasn't "just 3", though the published photos showed a much younger girl than she was, she was 10 days far from her 4th birthday.

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  12. My apologies Anne, I've actually made an ambiguous comment which you've interpreted wrongly - she was ONLY 3...

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  13. My apologies, MMM, for misinterpretation. As in fact, around a week after she disappeared, Madeleine would have been 4, I understood your "just" as possibly anticipating a "aged just 4", which is the way I would use to give a more precise age indication. Children change so much in these first years that you don't say a baby is O yr and even 1 yr, but 3 or 15 months...

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  14. It is as clear as the nose on your face ,they Vile McCanns were as happy as sandboys on Maddies birthday ,It is like a great weight has been lifted from their shoulders ,look back to the miserable faces on the bus taking them from the airport ,a MASSIVE difference

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