Tapas Bar Employees

Having read through all the employees working at the Tapas bar that night, there was an interesting statement from 2 of them

SVETLANA
------- STARIKOVA VITORINO (Russian citizen, with the telephone No "96635 ####) - kitchen assistant:
- Said that, yesterday, one individual, purportedly the father of the missing, left the dinner table where a group of friends (in number 8 or 9), for about 30 minutes. After having returned, a woman whom she believed to be his wife, also left the table, there having passed a few moments, all the guests left the table in question, except one elderly lady, who told her [Svetlana's] colleagues that that child had disappeared.

-------- JOAQUIM JOSE MOREIRA BATISTA (residing at Rua Ilha Terceira, no. 15, Lagos, Telephone No 91 277 ####) - table employee [waiter].
- Of the group of 8/9 British citizens who dined at the restaurant last night, as usual, of which the parents of missing were part (he didn't know them) he noticed that two individuals left the table, of the male gender.
- The first to leave was about 40/45 years old (tall, skinny, white complexion, with large [a full head of] hair of color gray) and the period of his absence was about 15 minutes, being that they had to [re-]heat his food, which had cooled;
- The second to leave (about 40/45 years of age, having the physical characteristics of the first, but having less bulky hair) did so for about 30 minutes, and that shortly after he returned, all left the table, except for an elderly person, who told him that a child had disappeared, the daughter of a member of the group, due to which he thought that the second person to leave could have been the father of the child;
- Of the times in which this group had dined in that bar it is [was] often [for] someone from the group to go to check at the apartments the state of the children (their offspring) who were sleeping there.

I haven't seen from the T9 anywhere saying that they were gone for half an hour (its always 15mins), and it appears that when this man (GM?) came back after 30 mins Kate then went almost immediately around 10pm. Maybe she knew the coast was clear? Remember the apartment was only 49.4 metres away so what could anyone be doing for 30 mins?

I tend to believe more of the employees statements because they are there working and nothing to do with the family so they have no reason to lie, and would only want to be helpful and tell the truth as they saw it

30Mins away do not fit in with the McCanns version of events

49.2 m.

Kate says so.

lj wrote:49.2 m.

Kate says so.

Sorry did I get it wrong! I thought kate said 49.4

jd wrote:

lj wrote:49.2 m.

Kate says so.

Sorry did I get it wrong! I thought kate said 49.4

Haha, Katie always seems to add & remove a few inches here or there :)

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Witness Statement

Alexandra Nicole de Sousa

Date: 2007-05-08

Occupation: Waitress

Place of Work: Millenium Restaurant, OC

She works as a waitress in the Millenium restaurant, OC. She says that this place is about 500 metres away from the apartment block where the events occurred.

She works from 16.00 to 24.00 daily with the exception of Mondays and Thursdays which are her days off. Her functions are to attend to clients at their tables and on the balcony.

The clients who frequent the restaurant are mainly foreigners, especially British people, staying at the resort.

When asked, she says she recalls the parents of the girl who disappeared as they dined in the restaurant on the day they arrived in Portugal, on a Saturday, she does not remember the date. She say that she remembers the twins, Madeleine's siblings, but not Madeleine. although she recognises that she must have seen her in the company of her parents.


I am determined to find a statement (apart from the T9 and amended Nanny) that verifies they saw Madeleine during those 6 days. In a week someone must be able to

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Arlindo Epifanio Goncalves Fernandes Peleja

Date/Time: 2007/05/08 21H10
Executive Chef
Portuguese

Concerning the issue of the process said;
. Is a functionary of the Ocean Club establishment since the 13th of January of the current year (2007), and is employed as executive chef of the kitchen. He clarifies that along with being responsible for the five (5) kitchens (one of whom is the Tapas) of the Ocean Club, his post essentially centres on the principal kitchen next to a reception, close to the restaurant MIRAGE. His work takes him occasionally to the other kitchens;
. He records that the past Thursday, 3rd of May, he left the central kitchen with the objective of going to the Tapas restaurant in order to determine that everything was functioning smoothly;
. When he arrived there, by vehicle, at around 21:10, he remembers that next to the Tapas reception, he saw a vehicle, dark blue in colour, with Portuguese license plates. Although he cannot be definite, he believes it was a Fiesta or Focus. The deponent furthers that is was not a small car, and for this reason it could very well have been a Focus and not a Fiesta. He tells that he does not remember any sticker indicating that it was a rental car. Inside the vehicle he saw no one.
. After parking his vehicle, he entered through the reception of that restaurant, in the left hand direction, toward the side opposite the pool, and passed by the esplanade. He remembers having seen in that esplanade, one table, occupied by three couples, without children, and all of them adults. On the esplanade, he encountered no one else.
. A few minutes later, when it was around 21H20, he heard some clamour, which made him leave toward the restaurant, a few meters away, and was then informed that a child had disappeared. Given the importance of this, believed that he should be in the surroundings. At that moment, he did not leave the area of the restaurant, and did not have the opportunity to check if the vehicle mentioned before was situated in the same location;
. Later, at around 21:40, he left the restaurant passing through the same esplanade where moments before, he had seen the same table occupied by the three couples, empty, who had left in the meanwhile various items, principally clothing. He was told by his colleagues that the child who had disappeared was a child of one of those couples;
. When he left, he noticed that the dark blue vehicle was no longer in its location (previously noted) and does not know of the existence or any connection between the presence of that vehicle and the disappearance of the child;

If his times are accurate then this totally blows away the McCanns version of times...and the sighting from JT at 9.15pm as well as the check at 9.30pm and KM raising the alarm at 10pm. Being an executive chef employee I would tend to believe he knew what time of night it was, and they are pretty positive between the 3 time of night he states

We have also the couple who left at 9.15 -9.30 and n crossing the road the wife heard some shouting Madeleine, plus all these other people listed here who seemed to hear or see things earlier.................................

Timeline Theory
THANKS TO KAZLUX
(snipped)
"Between approximately a quarter past nine and half past nine, Ocean Club guest S.C. and his wife left the Tapas bar to go home: "We walked across the MW reception area, crossed the road and a semi circular path to return to the apartment, were we put the children to bed and a short while later did the same ourselves. I do not remember seeing or hearing anyone during our return to the apartment. When I crossed the road outside the MW reception I remember there were cars parked, I remember taking some time to see if I could cross the road because there were cars parked to my left and I was carrying I****. They were about six metres away from me and i calculate that some (inaudible) metres from the back of Gerry's apartment, I do not remember anything about these cars, it was normal for cars to be parked there and in the morning they were no longer there. My wife mentioned on the following day that she vaguely remembered someone calling "Madeleine, Madeleine", this was after we had crossed the road from the MW reception and before entering our apartment. She does not remember where the sound came from or whether it was in an urgent tone, not paying any more attention to it and only remembered the following day when we heard about Madeleine's disappearance".

At 21H20, Executive Chef A. E. G. F. P. heard some clamour, which made him leave toward the restaurant, a few meters away, and was then informed that a child had disappeared.

At around 21:40, he left the restaurant passing through the same esplanade where moments before, he had seen the same table occupied by the three couples, empty, who had left in the meanwhile various items, principally clothing. He was told by his colleagues that the child who had disappeared was a child of one of those couples;

Property manager B. J. J. W. heard about the news being investigated on the evening of 3rd May at about 21.30 - 21.40 from P.B., a Dutchman and owner of the Atlantico restaurant, who passed by the witness near the Baptista supermarket, in P da L and who asked for his help in searching for Madeleine. He then went to the place where the events occurred which was at about 21.45 - 21.50. At this time various local people and MW staff were present. When questioned he said that the police had not yet arrived and that about 5 minutes had passed.

Dinner finished at around 21H45 and some minutes passed where waiter R. A.E D. L. O. looked towards the table but saw no one - his colleague told him that all the guests of that table left rapidly and abruptly. He remembers having heard shouts in the direction of the McCann apartment;

Between 21.30 and 22: Fitness instructor/Waiter J. R. S. went over to the table and joked with (Diane Webster): "They've left you alone?" She responded more of less with these words: "No, they went to see if the little girl was there." I responded that I hoped they would find her somewhere in the apartment. At saying this, I saw the man. Who I knew later to be Madeleine's father, running to the pool and to the children's play area in the Tapas zone as if looking for someone. It immediately hit me that after talking to the older woman, that the little girl had not been found. I offered to alert the workers at the Millennium Restaurant and the man agreed. He then left again running to continue searching. I believe that this was between 21H30 and 22H00 but do not remember with certainty.

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I tend to believe these people because they are not directly involved whatsoever and are only trying to be as helpful as they can. Interesting that their timelines are pretty similar but out of time to the McCanns. From all the Tapas 9 versions one of them was checking at the apartment at 9.30pm. Who to believe!

There are just too many independent statements from people who have nothing to do with eachother that place the search for Madeleine (at least the noise around it) half an hour before the tapas sya Madeleine was found missing.

It is too much to ignore, and personally I believe the show started at 9.30 pm