Sunglasses - Bizarre

by **PeterMac** 25.09.14 14:32

Many thanks to the person who steered me towards this bizarre sequence

This is taken from the book. [edited]
" On Tuesday 1 May, . . . In the afternoon Gerry and I decided to take the children down to the beach. To be honest, I think they’d have been just as happy to go back to their clubs, but we wanted to do something slightly different with them, just the five of us. We borrowed a double buggy from Mark Warner to make the walk easier for Sean and Amelie. The weather wasn’t great: in fact, on the beach it started to rain. A bit of rain is not something that bothers a Scotsman like Gerry, but Sean and Amelie didn’t like the feel of the wet sand and insisted, in the way two-year-olds do, on being carried.
. . . Before heading up the road, we stopped at a shop on the corner of Rua da Praia and Avenida dos Pescadores, one of several open-air, market-style stalls, as Gerry needed a pair of sunglasses. . . .
You may be wondering not only what relevance all these minute details might have to anything, but also how I can recall them so distinctly and how accurate my recollections can possibly be. The answer is that, within a couple of days, every single apparently inconsequential thing that happened on that holiday would become vitally important, and Gerry and I would soon be painstakingly trying to extract from our brains every tiny incident, no matter how small, that might have been significant. Armed with notebook, pen and dated photographs, I would be challenging myself to piece together as comprehensive an outline of the sequence of events as I could. The regular routines of the week helped to make any deviations from them stand out and undoubtedly made this easier. "

They arrived on Saturday - bright and sunny with very few clouds
Sunday was bright and sunny and completely clear - blue sky horizon to mountains until the late evening
Monday was cloudy
Tuesday Kate admits it rained (though other more reliable witnesses suggest it rained on Wednesday )
But Gerry NEEDED Sunglasses on the Tuesday ?

This was the weather for the week. Grey bars are cloud cover, pink bars are sunshine.
Sunglasses - Bizarre <a href=

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These are photos taken on Tuesday 1st
Sunglasses - Bizarre <a href=

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So why would Gerry NEED sunglasses on any day after Sunday. They both played tennis that day, and would both have needed eye protection.
Is anyone thinking what I am thinking ?
Anyone want to purport a theory to see if it matches my purportation-ism ?

by canada12 25.09.14 14:50

Gerry had a black eye that needed to be disguised...?

I think Kate's just over-egging the Last Picture, which shows Gerry wearing a pair of sunglasses. We know it was taken before the day they claim, so she's just trying to point out that Gerry didn't have sunglasses til that day. Couldn't have been taken on Saturday or Sunday. Didn't have sunglasses then. Hahahaha.

by Guest 25.09.14 15:05

canada12 wrote:I think Kate's just over-egging the Last Picture, which shows Gerry wearing a pair of sunglasses. We know it was taken before the day they claim, so she's just trying to point out that Gerry didn't have sunglasses til that day. Couldn't have been taken on Saturday or Sunday. Didn't have sunglasses then. Hahahaha.

That is my opinion as well.

Doth protest too much...

by sallypelt 25.09.14 15:11

PeterMac wrote:Many thanks to the person who steered me towards this bizarre sequence

This is taken from the book. [edited]
" On Tuesday 1 May, . . . In the afternoon Gerry and I decided to take the children down to the beach. To be honest, I think they’d have been just as happy to go back to their clubs, but we wanted to do something slightly different with them, just the five of us. We borrowed a double buggy from Mark Warner to make the walk easier for Sean and Amelie. The weather wasn’t great: in fact, on the beach it started to rain. A bit of rain is not something that bothers a Scotsman like Gerry, but Sean and Amelie didn’t like the feel of the wet sand and insisted, in the way two-year-olds do, on being carried.
. . . Before heading up the road, we stopped at a shop on the corner of Rua da Praia and Avenida dos Pescadores, one of several open-air, market-style stalls, as Gerry needed a pair of sunglasses. . . .
You may be wondering not only what relevance all these minute details might have to anything, but also how I can recall them so distinctly and how accurate my recollections can possibly be. The answer is that, within a couple of days, every single apparently inconsequential thing that happened on that holiday would become vitally important, and Gerry and I would soon be painstakingly trying to extract from our brains every tiny incident, no matter how small, that might have been significant. Armed with notebook, pen and dated photographs, I would be challenging myself to piece together as comprehensive an outline of the sequence of events as I could. The regular routines of the week helped to make any deviations from them stand out and undoubtedly made this easier. "

They arrived on Saturday - bright and sunny with very few clouds
Sunday was bright and sunny and completely clear - blue sky horizon to mountains until the late evening
Monday was cloudy
Tuesday Kate admits it rained (though other more reliable witnesses suggest it rained on Wednesday )
But Gerry NEEDED Sunglasses on the Tuesday ?

This was the weather for the week. Grey bars are cloud cover, pink bars are sunshine.
" />

These are photos taken on Tuesday 1st
" />" />

So why would Gerry NEED sunglasses on any day after Sunday. They both played tennis that day, and would both have needed eye protection.
Is anyone thinking what I am thinking ?
Anyone want to purport a theory to see if it matches my purportation-ism ?

Where was Madeleine? No mention of her at all in the above extract, other than "there were five of us".

by HelenMeg 25.09.14 15:13

Trying to think logically but will no doubt fail miserably...

Firstly, Kate did not need to mention the purchase of the sunglasses, but she does and therefore it will be for a reason.
My first thoughts are also that it is to provide some evidence that the Last Photo, in which Gerry clearly wears sunglasses, was taken after the Tuesday...so yes, another instance of 'over-egging'.

She did not need to say where they purchased the sunglasses but she does. There should be a receipt for them which can be tied down to that day..

by HelenMeg 25.09.14 15:21

Also, can this be tied in with the bead in the hair, which shows in M's hair in the Last photo. Wondering if the sunglass purchase and beaded hair are purported to have happened on same day - e.g. Tuesday.

by HelenMeg 25.09.14 15:31

The last picture of Madeleine: Just eight hours later she was gone [color:e9f3=000000]Daily Mail

By PAUL HARRIS and SAM GREENHILL

Last updated at 16:40pm on 25th May 2007

She must have been having so much fun.

Chuckling with delight, Madeleine McCann dangles her feet in a pool and poses for a holiday snapshot.

Less than eight hours after it was taken, Madeleine disappeared. So yesterday this became the last, poignant picture of the missing four-year-old - released by her grief-stricken parents in their desperate campaign to bring her home.

It shows Madeleine with her father Gerry and two-year-old sister Amelie, sitting beside the pool in their Algarve holiday apartment complex. Her mother Kate is behind the camera with Amelie's twin brother Sean.

It could hardly have captured her character more perfectly - a cheeky little Miss in a pink summer dress and floppy hat, stealing the limelight as usual with that trademark smile.

That was at 2.29pm on May 3, a few days after the family checked in to an apartment in Praia da Luz and just nine days before her fourth birthday.

And last night, another picture of Madeleine was projected onto London's iconic Marble Arch to bring her plight to the attention of the city.

During the day of her disappearance they had all gone for a walk, played tennis, and taken some more snapshots for the family album before relaxing by the pool.

Some time between 9.10pm and 10pm, an abductor is assumed to have snatched her from her bed while her parents dined nearby.

Three weeks on, there has been not a single trace of her whereabouts, no breakthrough in the investigation, and no clear indication that she is even still alive.

In the evening her parents gave her a bath, took out her trendy hair bead and washed her hair. Then they tucked her up alongside Sean and Amelie before kissing them all goodnight.

[color:e9f3=000000]Sunglasses and hair bead - both present in Last Photo - said to be Thursday
[color:e9f3=000000]Sunglasses said to have been purchased on Tuesday [color:e9f3=000000]- bead not present in any other photos[color:e9f3=000000][color:e9f3=000000].
[color:e9f3=000000]I think it a likely scenario that the bead was[color:e9f3=000000] put in before they left Leicester[color:e9f3=000000], so that Madelein[color:e9f3=000000]e could start the holidays looking lovely.
[color:e9f3=000000]Is it something you'd do 3 - 4 days in to a holiday unless it was done at creche[color:e9f3=000000] in the morning....

by HelenMeg 25.09.14 15:34

The sunglasses and the bead - both feature in the Last photo. Looking forward to a theory from PM.

by **PeterMac** 25.09.14 15:39

My thoughts as well.
Interesting that she feels the need in that short extract to fast forward to going through the photos with the dates, which didn't happen until 10th, whilst Gerry was giving his statement to say that he had no photos in his possession, but she was in the waiting room with photos in her possession - so not exactly a lie . . . but fairly close.
we are having a sneak preview, and being bashed over the head with a rolled up newspaper so that we remember the importance of what she was saying
and, like the changing of the time of the Last Photo, are in fact being urged to check the DATE.

As you have said, far too elaborate, far too much apparently irrelevant information.

I have just read on a little and found that Kate does report that it rained on the Wednesday.
Wonderful holiday then. Cold, raining, no golf, restaurant too far away, one of the group ill every evening . . .

Oh yes there was another thing I forgot to mention.

by canada12 25.09.14 15:41

This is where I depart from those who say there was no photoshopping in The Last Photo. I believe the "bead" (which isn't a bead - it's an elastic band) was shopped into the photograph, in order to prove something. I suspect the kids in Madeleine's creche all had their hair beaded by the nannies on a certain day (when Madeleine wasn't there).

ETA: All the photos of Madeleine prior to this, and the bus video, show no bead in her hair.
So in order for The Last Photo to work, a bead had to be added to the picture - so that Kare and Gerry could say - Look! No bead in Madeleine's hair before "The Last Photo" - this HAD to have been taken on the day we said it was, because if it was taken earlier, the bead would have shown up.

by Rogue-a-Tory 25.09.14 15:58

HelenMeg wrote:The sunglasses and the bead - both feature in the Last photo. Looking forward to a theory from PM.

Sun also features in that last photo which I've often thought was inaccurate and that theory is confirmed by the weather graphics above.

If you check closely at the reflection in Gerry's shades on a high res version, the pool reflection appears square. One of the reasons why I am convinced he was photoshopped into this photo.

The weather was rubbish that week as can be the case in the Algarve early May. Hence I've never believed any tales about the children going in the pool and certainly not the sea. Also the 'they had the best time ever' sound bites. Children that age need the sun & warmth to be outdoors on holiday, otherwise and in my experience, it can be a miserable time for them.

by missbeetle 25.09.14 18:06

When anyone says (as Kate does, in PeterMac's opening post) "To be honest..."

I think "As opposed to what - your normal dishonesty?"

What happened to Gerry's sunglasses that he would've needed a new pair?

Broken, lost or stolen?

I can't see Flash Gerry buying and wearing a pair of el cheapo shades from a market stall...

Sunglasses - Bizarre %3Ca%20href=

...especially this pair - they look more suited to a rapper with a hangover.

Most peculiar...

by Monty Heck 25.09.14 18:47

This is taken from the book. [edited]
" On Tuesday 1 May, . . . In the afternoon Gerry and I decided to take the children down to the beach. To be honest, I think they’d have been just as happy to go back to their clubs, but we wanted to do something slightly different with them, just the five of us. We borrowed a double buggy from Mark Warner to make the walk easier for Sean and Amelie. The weather wasn’t great: in fact, on the beach it started to rain. A bit of rain is not something that bothers a Scotsman like Gerry, but Sean and Amelie didn’t like the feel of the wet sand and insisted, in the way two-year-olds do, on being carried.

So, it's overcast, the children seem content to go back to their clubs, yet this of all days the one to borrow a double buggy and take a trip to the beach. A buggy which would have been tricky to manoeuvre on PDL beach whilst carrying a toddler apiece, with a third child in tow. Strange M didn't also give her parents her tuppence worth regarding the wet sand or the rain, considering that family members said she had plenty to say for a child of her age, and if K was racking her brains to remember every detail, why does she only recall the reaction of her children who were lacking in the speech department? Agree it seems an odd thing to be buying sunglasses on the way back from a beach you've just had to leave because of rain. Or to recall such a detail when one appears to have remembered nothing at all about what was said or done during this episode by the child who went missing. Odd for a small child to have nothing memorable to say on a trip to the beach, whether it rained or not. A curious silence or simply not worth noting?

by canada12 25.09.14 20:56

Monty Heck wrote:This is taken from the book. [edited]
" On Tuesday 1 May, . . . In the afternoon Gerry and I decided to take the children down to the beach. To be honest, I think they’d have been just as happy to go back to their clubs, but we wanted to do something slightly different with them, just the five of us. We borrowed a double buggy from Mark Warner to make the walk easier for Sean and Amelie. The weather wasn’t great: in fact, on the beach it started to rain. A bit of rain is not something that bothers a Scotsman like Gerry, but Sean and Amelie didn’t like the feel of the wet sand and insisted, in the way two-year-olds do, on being carried.

So, it's overcast, the children seem content to go back to their clubs, yet this of all days the one to borrow a double buggy and take a trip to the beach. A buggy which would have been tricky to manoeuvre on PDL beach whilst carrying a toddler apiece, with a third child in tow. Strange M didn't also give her parents her tuppence worth regarding the wet sand or the rain, considering that family members said she had plenty to say for a child of her age, and if K was racking her brains to remember every detail, why does she only recall the reaction of her children who were lacking in the speech department? Agree it seems an odd thing to be buying sunglasses on the way back from a beach you've just had to leave because of rain. Or to recall such a detail when one appears to have remembered nothing at all about what was said or done during this episode by the child who went missing. Odd for a small child to have nothing memorable to say on a trip to the beach, whether it rained or not. A curious silence or simply not worth noting?

Kate is amazingly lacking in imagination, so to have to invent something for Madeleine to say would, IMO, have overly taxed her brain, and would have sounded completely false. If Madeleine had really been abducted, Kate's last memories of her that week would have been indelibly printed on her mind and she'd have written reams about every little thing Madeleine said or did... did she pick up seashells and pretty pebbles? Did she run towards the water, delighted at seeing it? What was she wearing? What about her wardrobe of sunhats? Which one was she wearing? Did she complain that she was being made to walk when the twins could ride? Did she like Daddy's new sunglasses? So much is missing from this scenario.

by sammyc 25.09.14 21:16

Did Gerry have to buy 'new sunglasses' on this day to hide his tearful, bloodstained, stressed, fatigued eyes from everybody else apart from the Tapas group?

by Monty Heck 25.09.14 22:05

canada12 wrote:
Monty Heck wrote:This is taken from the book. [edited]
" On Tuesday 1 May, . . . In the afternoon Gerry and I decided to take the children down to the beach. To be honest, I think they’d have been just as happy to go back to their clubs, but we wanted to do something slightly different with them, just the five of us. We borrowed a double buggy from Mark Warner to make the walk easier for Sean and Amelie. The weather wasn’t great: in fact, on the beach it started to rain. A bit of rain is not something that bothers a Scotsman like Gerry, but Sean and Amelie didn’t like the feel of the wet sand and insisted, in the way two-year-olds do, on being carried.

So, it's overcast, the children seem content to go back to their clubs, yet this of all days the one to borrow a double buggy and take a trip to the beach. A buggy which would have been tricky to manoeuvre on PDL beach whilst carrying a toddler apiece, with a third child in tow. Strange M didn't also give her parents her tuppence worth regarding the wet sand or the rain, considering that family members said she had plenty to say for a child of her age, and if K was racking her brains to remember every detail, why does she only recall the reaction of her children who were lacking in the speech department? Agree it seems an odd thing to be buying sunglasses on the way back from a beach you've just had to leave because of rain. Or to recall such a detail when one appears to have remembered nothing at all about what was said or done during this episode by the child who went missing. Odd for a small child to have nothing memorable to say on a trip to the beach, whether it rained or not. A curious silence or simply not worth noting?

Kate is amazingly lacking in imagination, so to have to invent something for Madeleine to say would, IMO, have overly taxed her brain, and would have sounded completely false. If Madeleine had really been abducted, Kate's last memories of her that week would have been indelibly printed on her mind and she'd have written reams about every little thing Madeleine said or did... did she pick up seashells and pretty pebbles? Did she run towards the water, delighted at seeing it? What was she wearing? What about her wardrobe of sunhats? Which one was she wearing? Did she complain that she was being made to walk when the twins could ride? Did she like Daddy's new sunglasses? So much is missing from this scenario.

That is the problem with focussing on small and insignificant details. The book was written about her missing child; this was (correct me if I am wrong) a mother's last trip to a beach with her soon to be missing daughter, and yet as you say there is no mention of the child's reaction to being taken there withher baby brother and sister, with mum and dad, not the resort nannies. This was KMcC's mini me, little buddy and how often did the McCs visit beaches anywhere as a family of 5? These are the kind of moments that even ordinary parents in ordinary circumstances remember and treasure forever and omitting to mention what the book's central character did or said leaves something of a hole in an otherwise unnecessarily detailed narrative.

by nglfi 26.09.14 9:53

I don't understand why they would be carrying the children when they had a double buggy? I also struggle to understand why they never brought buggies with them on holiday in the first place. To my mind it just demonstrates how little care and interest they have in their children. A buggy wouldn't be seen as necessary, because they already knew the kids would either be drugged up in bed or in the creche. How selfish. IMO.

by Guest 26.09.14 10:37

Buggies and sand are not a sensible combination.

by HelenMeg 26.09.14 11:13

Rogue-a-Tory wrote:
HelenMeg wrote:The sunglasses and the bead - both feature in the Last photo. Looking forward to a theory from PM.
Sun also features in that last photo which I've often thought was inaccurate and that theory is confirmed by the weather graphics above.

If you check closely at the reflection in Gerry's shades on a high res version, the pool reflection appears square. One of the reasons why I am convinced he was photoshopped into this photo.

The weather was rubbish that week as can be the case in the Algarve early May. Hence I've never believed any tales about the children going in the pool and certainly not the sea. Also the 'they had the best time ever' sound bites. Children that age need the sun & warmth to be outdoors on holiday, otherwise and in my experience, it can be a miserable time for them.

But what would the photo consist of and why would it have been taken without Gerry in it - what was the subject of it in that case? Having said that I have always thought Gerry looks as if he is floating and his hand has been made to curl around the pool-edge.

I really tend to think that it is a genuine photo taken when they first arrived, on a sunny day. The 'Gerry needed some sunglasses' was to reinforce the fact that the photo could not have been taken until Thursday and it was to create an alibi for the presence at the pool of either Madeleine or Gerry.

The reference to the bead and presence of the bead... not sure. If the photo was taken on Sunday then if it was not photo shopped in - then the bead had been put in her hair at some point after they arrived/ Kate refers to them removing it carefully and hair wash on the Thursday evening so that the photo is reinforced as being taken on 3rd May. If the bead was 'shopped in then it was to reinforce that the photo was taken on 3rd May - I think to provide an alibi for GM..

by Dont Make Me Laff 26.09.14 11:36

......Kate refers to them removing it carefully and hair wash on the Thursday evening

If that is the case where is the bead? in my experience, no matter how caelfully one removes those beads, som hair always gets left in it. It would have some of MBM's hair in it, which could have been produced as DNA??
imo

by HelenMeg 26.09.14 11:44

Dont Make Me Laff wrote:......Kate refers to them removing it carefully and hair wash on the Thursday evening

If that is the case where is the bead? in my experience, no matter how caelfully one removes those beads, som hair always gets left in it. It would have some of MBM's hair in it, which could have been produced as DNA??
imo

yes - where is the bead?

Did it exist?

I guess we will never know.

by Hicks 26.09.14 11:45

HelenMeg wrote:
Rogue-a-Tory wrote:
HelenMeg wrote:The sunglasses and the bead - both feature in the Last photo. Looking forward to a theory from PM.
Sun also features in that last photo which I've often thought was inaccurate and that theory is confirmed by the weather graphics above.

If you check closely at the reflection in Gerry's shades on a high res version, the pool reflection appears square. One of the reasons why I am convinced he was photoshopped into this photo.

The weather was rubbish that week as can be the case in the Algarve early May. Hence I've never believed any tales about the children going in the pool and certainly not the sea. Also the 'they had the best time ever' sound bites. Children that age need the sun & warmth to be outdoors on holiday, otherwise and in my experience, it can be a miserable time for them.
But what would the photo consist of and why would it have been taken without Gerry in it - what was the subject of it in that case? Having said that I have always thought Gerry looks as if he is floating and his hand has been made to curl around the pool-edge.

I really tend to think that it is a genuine photo taken when they first arrived, on a sunny day. The 'Gerry needed some sunglasses' was to reinforce the fact that the photo could not have been taken until Thursday and it was to create an alibi for the presence at the pool of either Madeleine or Gerry.

The reference to the bead and presence of the bead... not sure. If the photo was taken on Sunday then if it was not photo shopped in - then the bead had been put in her hair at some point after they arrived/ Kate refers to them removing it carefully and hair wash on the Thursday evening so that the photo is reinforced as being taken on 3rd May. If the bead was 'shopped in then it was to reinforce that the photo was taken on 3rd May - I think to provide an alibi for GM..

Good post. I think you have hit the nail. It would fit that the photo was taken within the first couple of days of the holiday. I can't see GM going on holiday to Portugal without sunglasses.
It does seem more and more obvious that the morning and afternoon of May 3rd was the time of the removal of the body, cleaning the flat, and getting the scene ready for the evening. I suspect the twins were moved to another apartment, then hastily taken back just after the alarm.

Tuesday evening and night seem to be the time of interest. I was reading on the 3As about the McCann's suspected trip to Chaplins, and the OC staff coming to find them due to crying from 5a.This seems plausible to me.

by HelenMeg 26.09.14 12:35

Hicks wrote:
HelenMeg wrote:
Rogue-a-Tory wrote:
HelenMeg wrote:The sunglasses and the bead - both feature in the Last photo. Looking forward to a theory from PM.
Sun also features in that last photo which I've often thought was inaccurate and that theory is confirmed by the weather graphics above.

If you check closely at the reflection in Gerry's shades on a high res version, the pool reflection appears square. One of the reasons why I am convinced he was photoshopped into this photo.

The weather was rubbish that week as can be the case in the Algarve early May. Hence I've never believed any tales about the children going in the pool and certainly not the sea. Also the 'they had the best time ever' sound bites. Children that age need the sun & warmth to be outdoors on holiday, otherwise and in my experience, it can be a miserable time for them.
But what would the photo consist of and why would it have been taken without Gerry in it - what was the subject of it in that case? Having said that I have always thought Gerry looks as if he is floating and his hand has been made to curl around the pool-edge.

I really tend to think that it is a genuine photo taken when they first arrived, on a sunny day. The 'Gerry needed some sunglasses' was to reinforce the fact that the photo could not have been taken until Thursday and it was to create an alibi for the presence at the pool of either Madeleine or Gerry.

The reference to the bead and presence of the bead... not sure. If the photo was taken on Sunday then if it was not photo shopped in - then the bead had been put in her hair at some point after they arrived/ Kate refers to them removing it carefully and hair wash on the Thursday evening so that the photo is reinforced as being taken on 3rd May. If the bead was 'shopped in then it was to reinforce that the photo was taken on 3rd May - I think to provide an alibi for GM..
Good post. I think you have hit the nail. It would fit that the photo was taken within the first couple of days of the holiday. I can't see GM going on holiday to Portugal without sunglasses.
It does seem more and more obvious that the morning and afternoon of May 3rd was the time of the removal of the body, cleaning the flat, and getting the scene ready for the evening. I suspect the twins were moved to another apartment, then hastily taken back just after the alarm.

Tuesday evening and night seem to be the time of interest. I was reading on the 3As about the McCann's suspected trip to Chaplins, and the OC staff coming to find them due to crying from 5a.This seems plausible to me.

Yes, but there is still a large part of me that believes in death on Wed early evening. How I wish I could remove my uncertainties on this! I hope we get to find out all the answers in the not too distant future..

by palm tree 26.09.14 12:45

Why can detectives not sit these nine down separately, under oath and make them answer every single question and more to get this wrapped up??? This is not fair at all on Madeleine. Two of these are her parents ffs! If we knew the answer to that first question, I'm sure it would be clear to everyone then! But, until then, we and others need to not let this go, we have to keep fighting for Madeleine, she deserves nothing less.
IMO

by JohnyT 26.09.14 13:58

Dont Make Me Laff wrote:......Kate refers to them removing it carefully and hair wash on the Thursday evening

If that is the case where is the bead? in my experience, no matter how caelfully one removes those beads, som hair always gets left in it. It would have some of MBM's hair in it, which could have been produced as DNA??
imo

.....or as a lasting memento.............
JohnyT