Question for all members and guests- when did you first start to doubt the abduction claims?

The McCanns have persistently claimed that the Portuguese police, Gonçalo Amaral and the publication of his book is responsible for the public doubting their claims that Madeleine was abducted.

It would be interesting to know exactly when we became sceptical of the McCanns claims and why?

In my case, the initial story in the media on May 4th suggesting that two UK doctors had left their children alone in their apartment just didn't ring true.  Then came their attitude, then the contradictions.  After that came the news reports and the crazy comments by their spokesman Clarence Mitchell.  I didn't need the PJ or Gonçalo Amaral to tell me that something was amiss here.

Please share with us your own experiences of when you first became sceptical and why.  Were you influenced at all by the publication of Amarals book or the release of PJ files?

From the first time I heard of the case, around May 4 or May 5, 2007.
The only thing I knew at the time was what the news reported.
A British girl's missing in the Algarve when her parents had dinner at the restaurant or something like that and I remember I told my wife there was something fishy with this.
The only things which I know for sure in this case is there was no abduction by a stranger and the abduction was staged to cover up what ever happened to her.
If I'am still alive when the truth comes forward I'am prepared to apologise if they get an abductor to the court and get him convicted without reasonable doubt.

For me, when I first heard the report that Maddie had gone missing, I thought "Oh God, how awful!"

Then I heard about how they'd left the children alone while they went to dinner. The report said "just around the corner" insinuating it was a short distance but I still couldn't believe it. Something was not right.

At that point I was still 'on the fence' about what really went on.

But I gave them the benefit of the doubt - UNTIL EDDIE AND KEELA alerted to blood and death. From that moment I was most definitely a McCann-sceptic, and all that mattered from then on was learning the truth about what really happened to little Maddie and questioning why the Government was interfering in the Portuguese investigation and covering up Maddie's death.

Hence this forum, and my three blogs, and my twitter account and my facebook group.

Way back around the 5 May 2007 my friends and I were discussing how two seemingly intelligent people could take three small children on holiday and think it could be right to leave them alone in an apartment.  Why they were never arrested for neglect was always puzzling as the days went on? if it had been anyone else they would have been prosecuted. There was always something very peculiar about their total lack of emotion - anyone else would have been extremely tearful and distraught but these two just didn't show anything.  It stunk from the very beginning.

Yes, all those staged photographs...how on earth did they ever think people could believe their story?

I think this is the first photo that made me just after they created the 'fighting fund'. Fighting who, exactly?



And this bluddy nonsense - their daughter had just been 'abducted by paedophiles' !!!!!



https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t16253-from-this-to-this-because

The very first TV news interview they both gave. I knew then somthing wasn't right.

4th May 2007.  Stories all over the English news about broken, forced, smashed and jemmied shutters, but video on the Spanish news of the shutters being fingerprinted, and clearly NOT broken, forced, smashed and jemmied.

And as a retired cop it is not a question of doubting the claims, it is a question of not accepting them until they are proven, which is slightly different.  It looks as though it amounts to the same thing, but old crusties don't accept anything at face value.

At first I and others in our group (we were on holiday) all thought "Oh it HAS to be an inside job" ie  staff members or other dodgy Ocean Club guests who were literally watching while the Tapas 9 ate. None of us considered the idea of  a "passing paedophile" taking a chance to abduct credible! Then as it began to emerge that there was no evidence of a break in or abductor I wondered if they were covering up the fact that Madeleine had managed to get out and had been unlucky enough to be picked up by someone with bad intentions - either to abuse her or to "find" her so they could claim a reward but panicked at the widespread media coverage and killed her in case they were blamed for abduction.
However, when news of the Smith sighting broke here in Ireland at the beginning of June 07 I scoured the papers expecting to read about the McCanns and their supporters jumping on this lead, interviewing the Smiths, pressing them for more information etc. When this never happened and the Smiths were ignored I began to smell a rat! Even if they had lied about the fact that Madeleine could have got out of the apartment and run into trouble, surely any normal parent would still be frantic to follow up this sighting! Instead they focused on nonsense sightings abroad and traveled to everywhere else they could think of. Then, Eddie and Keela told me why they behaved in this odd manner!

When I first read the news, on Friday 4th May 2007.  My immediate thoughts were, what rubbish, children don't just disappear in the middle of the night unless someone close to the child is involved - a parent, family member or friend.

As time progressed and reportage so wildly contradictory, the circumstances surrounding the disappearance became more and more suspicious.  So much so, the case became compulsive viewing.

I never discussed the case face-a-face with anyone, I relied entirely on my own intuition.

Later down the line I got involved with online discussion and so, here we are today still looking for that missing piece of the jigsaw - to coin a phrase.

Have not got a clue, my memory is terrible 

My 'road to Damascus' moment so to speak actually came on this forum. For many years I only followed the case in the media, taking the story at face value as I wasn't really looking beneath the veneer. I made a video with what I now view to be a rather naive theory, but which in strange ways has aspects that still apply today, not being 'fixed' to an abduction narrative.

Anyway, the video was well 'dressed down' on here, and I went away and started to look at the files closely (still do to this day), read thread after thread here (I have never wavered on what a fantastic resource this forum can be), and the rest is history.

ferrotty wrote:Have not got a clue, my memory is terrible 

I can't remember either ferrotty.

I have only vague memories of the initial " 3 year old girl abducted in Portugal " , working  longhours and not reading papers most of it passed me by ! Sometime late 2013 early 2014 with some friends a discussion started , one whose opinion I value highly said " look at the parents " . Being out of work and not far off retirement I had time on my hands so began searching the internet . Can't remember what I first saw but I quickly found this forum lurked for a long time before joining . I'd never heard of the PJ Files , started reading , and had my eyes opened completely so went on to watch and read everything I could lay my hands on . Not managed Kate's book yet though , I do value my blood pressure .

For me, alarm bells rang the very first time I saw GM address the media. After that it just got more and more bizarre . Gordon Brown, Cherie Blair, Clarence Mitchell,  MI5 . . . . . and Clement Freud! What a cast list ! Makes you wonder who is boss of who. Or more likely, who is blackmailing who.
One day the Gatekeepers will retire or die. That day of reckoning must make the guilty tremble in their boots.

It was quite early on - when they started marketing her as a commodity. That just didn't seem like the actions of grieving parents to me.

I didn't believe the abduction theory from the moment I heard of Madeleine missing. It was was jumped on too quickly. Then I saw and heard the McCanns....

I doubted the abduction theory when Eddie and Keela found blood and cadaver scent in the apartment, car, cuddlecat and various items of clothing. Prior to this I was suspicious of the media hype and felt something wasn't quite right but when it was 'news' regarding the dogs discovery this was when I felt something was definitely suspicious about the whole charade.

For me, it was in 2007 when it was first announced that 2 holidaying doctors had 'lost' their 4 year old daughter to an 'unknown abductor', but yet leaving their 18 month twins. It was just fanciful! There was immediate disbelief at this scenario, especially as they broadcast an appeal to the public, like other guilty types had done. Coupled with that, I knew about the medical profession, their god complex and the tranquilizer babysitter. Within my wife's family, her doctor uncle had routinely sedated her cousin by injection; a free babysitter, much to her parents disgust. 
I assumed that the sedation had gone wrong, the police were allowing their guilt to shine in the glare of the mass media and naively, that they would confess/be found out.
I then got on with life; children & work. 
It was only a couple of years ago that I discovered that there had been no resolution. For some reason, I found out that they had banned Dr Amaral's book, which made no sense and had a nazi like undercurrent. I had to read it. 
I then watched the Youtube videos from Richard M Hall, which  pointed to a monumental cover-up and a conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. 
The more I read and understand, the more sickened I become with the McCanns, but I do believe that justice will be served and poor Maddie can be laid to rest.

I remember my first thoughts on 4/5/2007 vividly I was stood in the kitchen when it came on the news, reporting a 3-year-old had been taken by a pedophile in Portugal.  My first thoughts were oh god the quicker they find her little body the better to end her suffering.

Then I saw the mcns on the news, the hairs on my neck stuck on end.  There was just something about them that wasn't right the appeal they were making seemed staged and unconvincing.  I was even shocked they were both together thinking that kate would have been too distressed at thinking her child was with a pedophile to face a camera it didn't need them both at the beginning.

The next time I saw them she was wearing lipstick and just looked too composed I kept my thoughts to my self that I thought they had done something to her as I thought they could find her body at any time proving me wrong if she had been abducted and hard-hearted.  Never once did I think they were not involved even though I tried to have an open mind it never lasted long. Other thoughts were.

Leaving the twins instead of screaming for help and letting everyone in the apartment when their thoughts were an abduction

Why didn't they get the twins safely back to England with family how could  they carry on a normal routine

How can they put twins in creche the very next day when it could have been an inside job.

The almost instant fund and later what it was spent on lawyers etc they knew she was not going to be found in the near future

How can they leave the twins behind in Portugal when going to Rome etc why did they never suspect any of tapas 7 surely you would trust no one.

Why did she not answer the questions or do a lie detector test why did it seem they cared more for their good name than Maddie.  To me at the time thought a lie detector test if innocent of any involvement I would have believed it and would think so would thousands of others.

How can they be so together with everything [could be wrong] but the seemed both to deal with their grief in exactly the same way more rehearsed than natural the constant holding of hands. Like united we will stand divided we will fall came to mind.

All in all the many many things that followed never have I thought that pair not involved in what happened to Maddie. I am a strong person nor have I been influenced by PJ GA or anything but my own thoughts and intelligence that I feel are constantly insulted. My thought on GA TOTL was thank god someone has the guts to speak out there was no abduction.

   Post of the day - agree 100%

Having worked many years as a youth developement worker , just as this story broke i was running a project for teenage parents , these young people had mostly had at hard start to there lives , and we all had many discussions about being a responsible parent, then they watched the news of Madeline and those very young disadvantaged young people could not believe that highly educated , supposed to be caring doctors as well as very rich , in there words adults could think it was ok to leave babies alone every night and go out on the drink ??? Need i say more , i also believe Eddy and Keela very much so !!I dont think in my opinion only they had any choice but to lie

Like so many others I could not understand the lack of tears, the laughing on the balcony, the running etc.  The photo of  Mr & Mrs holding hands with Mrs. holding  cuddlecat and smiling walking along makes me sick as does the photo with the twins in the "punch and judy" booth.

None of it added up then to me and still doesn't.  Nothing to do with the book that Rocky A wrote.

I still remember where I was when the story first broke - I was a student at the time, and was at my part time job on my lunch break. I saw the coverage on Sky News, and immediately the way it was presented just didn't seem right. I immediately had doubts about the McCanns - the lack of emotion, the words they used to describe their little girl, and their account of what happened all seemed extremely odd. Add to that the statistic that when a child goes missing, it is almost always someone they know that is responsible, and it seemed pretty clear.
I remarked to my colleague that they were clearly guilty, and he accused me of being cruel, and said something along the lines of how would I feel if it was me. I just thought that I would never leave my kids alone in the first place. As the weeks went on and more information came out, it just solidified and confirmed my opinion.