If the McCanns were responsible for Maddies death/disappearance though how sick is it that they keep bringing it up and actually are making money out of it. I think you'd have to be some kind of sociopath to do that

I'm not sure 'the McCanns' are. The father however..

I think the mother was negligent, no question. But I think the father has so much more to do with this than the official line tells us.

Which is why I find it so interesting about the other sighting being thrown out, and the newer sighting being the one that matters. Especially given that the Irish blokes original statement was that he was 60-80% sure that the guy he saw with the child was Gerry (after seeing the photo of Gerry carrying one of the twins off the plane in the exact same hold)

Have they still not admitted they killed her and covered it up?

That new efit photo looks very like Gerry also

Do you know, I don't like saying it, but that thought crossed my mind during Crimewatch. In the pre-recorded and the live interview he was always the calm and collected one, whilst she seemed the most raw and emotional.

Not saying that he needs to be shedding tears or react in a certain way. But she always talks about how "as Gerry said" and how he's the one who refused to feel guilty, he pulled her out of her sorrow because Maddie wouldn't want them to shoulder the blame etc.

The only thing that doubts this though is the fact that one of their friends checked on Maddie at 9.30pm and then it was only when Kate went to check at 10pm that she raised the alarm. No mention of Gerry having gone anywhere from the restaurant between those times.

But then how long after Kate entered the apartment until the police arrived?

I have been flowing this since may 2007 I don't blame the parent's everybody makes mistakes and I was on C5 news yesterday and the people who live in the town in Portugal where Madeline went missing they just wanted it to stop because it has a bad effect on the era I was so angry they should to all they can to find clues if a child went missing in my era I would want them to carry on search the era for clues. I still believe that Madeline is alive when they find the person who did it He will be hated worldwide.

:bored: :nono:

Took them nearly an hour to contact police after discovering she was gone.

Their friend who checked on them didnt actually see the kids..just checked for noise (same as Kate was going to do before door clammed)

I don't get why the Mcanns are seriously being thought of as murderers. Negligently poor parents, but I really don't think there is anything overly sinister about them.

So in the confusion of wondering where she might be, they quickly searched the local places around the apartment and didn't phone the police. It's really unfair to suggest in times of severe stress that they didn't act normally.

Well there you go then. Granted, they could have just been looking around the complex, but a full hour?

And the presenter said the man spotted with a child was headed towards the beach, which kind of brings to mind some terrible ideas.

The investigation was bungled so much though from the start that anything could have happened really. The family being monitored over their 4 nightly trips to the restaurant and then abductors seizing their opportunity on night 5 sounds a strong possibility too.

And I keep having that point come back which is if they were responsible one way or another why would they continue to waste police time and get themselves in the media 6 years on? It's a baffling incident to say the least.

I wouldn't say anyone thinks they're murderers. But more that Maddie had an accident whilst left alone in the apartment and they covered it up.

How is that the simplest explanation for anything? So their daughter had an accident?

Was this whilst they were having dinner?

So at some point, they realise she's dead, and instead of collapsing into grief, they think about how they can cover their arses? I don't buy that they are that kind of people, because it would take a very particular kind of person to do that.

Sometimes bad things happen that can't be explained.

I never said it was odd that they didnt phone to police immediately or anything. It makes sense to check around first IMO. I just answered a question about how long it took for the police to arrive...

I never said it was the simplest explanation, nor one I think with any certainty is what happened.

BIB - That's just the same as people who questioned their body language during their original TV appeals. You're presuming certain people behave in certain ways. Truth is, there's no way of knowing.

I'm not sure on that part to be honest. Thats what our police said. The Portuguese investigation seems quite sound. They had the info on what the Smiths saw years ago(they took statements not long after she disappeared)..yet for some reason our police have only decided its worthy now? Seems to me the investigation was botched once it was turned to our police :/

I do think certain people behave in certain ways. A grieving parent would have to be a very specific kind of person to think about proving a cover story first, and grieving second.

It's not that I don't think anyone is capable of it, I just think the number that are capable of dealing with the death of their child like that is minuscule, and would put them at the socio/psycho path end of the spectrum.

Innocent until proven guilty, and no one has anything remotely resembling proof or evidence.

It's hard to know really, there's so many conflicting bits of info. The fact the man seen by the Tanner woman was only identified this year is a joke IMO.

Is this aimed at me? I'm not claiming they're guilty. We're just discussing what we saw/heard from the reconstruction of the night's events.

No, I know you weren't claiming them to be guilty at all. I was merely stating what the position of everyone should be, but I wasn't having a go at you.

In that case, yes I agree.

I do think it's odd the way they reacted immediately after she 'went missing' tbh.

Her parents never once went out to search anywhere for her they chose instead to sit and write out timelines? as far as we have been told anyway.

I also think it's weird that Kate left the twins sleeping in the apartment alone and ran back to the tapas bar to shout "They have taken her", why not shout from the window? and who are they? it shocked me that those other 2 kids were left alone in the apartment their sister had been taken from, any abductors could still have been in there for all she knew.

Theres so many questions but it's one of these things where we are never going to know the truth of what happened imo.

Something that bugged me during the reconstruction though, we saw both Kate and Gerry putting the kids into bed and closing the door but leaving it open slightly before they left the apartment, when Gerry went back to check the first time the door was wide open a lot more than they had left it but Maddie was still in her bed at this point, could there have been someone actually in the apartment at this time???

I agree with you, but I think people believe them to be capable of such a thing because they were so negligent in the first place, like having three children was a burden on their relaxing getaway - hence putting the kids to bed so the grown ups could go have fun. Seeing as all of the other couples were doing it too, I suppose they thought it was okay and safe to do so. Safety in numbers.

I think there's a lot of credibility in the idea that they were being watched by a small team of people who struck on the 5th night once they'd established the pattern. If the couples were getting up every half an hour to check on the kids and they've been watching them for 4 nights and have established this pattern, they'd know they have maybe a 20 minute window between each check because the adults would walk there, check there was no noise and walk back again.

It's like something out of a James Bond film, simple reconnaissance. They force open the window, take the 3 year old because she fits the description of what they're looking for and make off into the night with her. It was probably quite amateur in its execution - these are probably guys who are quite poor and this is how they earn money by scouting young girls, stealing them and selling them on, hence not having a getaway car or it being a massive team of people, probably just two guys who are making ends meet because aside from "paradise resorts" like the one the McCanns were staying in, Portugal is riddled with poverty and I'd imagine these guys were in that position too. It's more common than people would like to think, but when it's the daughter of affluent British doctors who have the money to keep her name out there in the media, plus her being a cute, white little girl, of course it's a major media news story...

I don't know if she's still alive or not. I would hope that if she is still alive, she is still young enough that these memories can be repressed and she can lead a normal life if she is found in the near future, and these recent cases of people being found years after they go missing does give some hope... but I just don't know, I think with her high profile she becomes too risky to keep alive, sadly... unlike if she was a little girl from rural Lithuania whose parents don't have the money to even get a newspaper to run a story about her.

Also, for her first thought to be that someone had "taken her" is a bit odd Like I think my first thought if I'd left a toddler alone in an apartment with the door unlocked was that they'd woken up and wandered off to try and find me

I think my first thought would be that she'd been kidnapped, if the window was open, though...