What made YOU doubt the McCann's 'abduction hypothesis'?

Châtelaine wrote:This is what Maman for herself marks as the moment, she thought something was wrong: evening May 4, 2007. As her eyesight is very poor, she thought is was family member or friend, who made the statement. When she was told it was the father, she said: " No ...... There something wrong there."



For me it is definitely not just the reading from a paper, but ... the artificial putting his arm around Kate's shoulder and taking it back again. That must have been in the script too ...

 Not to mention their colour coordinated outfits

For me it was how they reacted to the dogs
If my son was missing and dogs indicated cadaver odour I think my world would have ended right there but no these two decided the dogs were unreliable and carried on with their own search

The fact that they put the twins back in the creche shortly after Madeleine had been "abducted" not knowing who the abductor was, could have been one of the creche workers for all they knew.

Although (obviously) they knew there was no "abductor" so the twins were safe going back into the creche so that Mum and Dad could carry on with their media circus and begging for money for their "Fund".

noddy100 wrote:For me it was how they reacted to the dogs
If my son was missing and dogs indicated cadaver odour I think my world would have ended right there but no these two decided the dogs were unreliable and carried on with their own search

Or rather - carried on NOT SEARCHING.

PeterMac

Thank you for putting up the video of the lady in California. I think it was heartening for me because of what she said about the " thousands and thousands who went Facebook etc." Somehow I had lost any hope of resolution for Madeleine or Tony or Goncalo Amaral and Truth but now if it's that big perhaps it's too big to wash!

Thanks for resurrecting this thread PM - I've just read the whole thing again.

It was an instant suspicion for me - hearing it on the News that doctors had left their children alone while they went out dining set off alarm bells for me. DOCTORS DONT DO THAT.  I had a feeling they were lying.

Newintown wrote:The fact that they put the twins back in the creche shortly after Madeleine had been "abducted" not knowing who the abductor was, could have been one of the creche workers for all they knew.

Although (obviously) they knew there was no "abductor" so the twins were safe going back into the creche so that Mum and Dad could carry on with their media circus and begging for money for their "Fund".

I forgot to add that the McCanns stated to the media that they wanted the twins to lead their normal every day routine at the OC whilst taking the twins into the restaurant for breakfast being followed by hundreds of TV camera crews.  The poor kids must have been frightened out of their wits, not that their media-hungry parents would have noticed at the time.

These actions started alarm bells ringing for me from very early on, these two parents did not give the impression of parents who had just had a chld "abducted".

I come from a slightly different angle as I was abroad when this happened and not in touch with UK news.
When I heard a young child was missing from a holiday resort in Portugal I did wonder why not more blame had been put on the parents by the press considering the information that was available.    Later I heard they were doctors - and did wonder if this had anything to do with the gentle handling they received.

I began to watch news items and take notice of their behaviour some time later which to me seemed very contained, very forced, very unnatural and raised serious doubts in my mind.    

But they had lost a child after all, what must that be like - I just couldn't (and still cannot) imagine how soul destroying that must be, I mustn't be too critical I thought.

Then I read PeterMac's well written informative book/article on the internet, and suddenly it all came together.   I have been going over, and over and reading as much as I can ever since.     

I have no doubts but still few answers, to what has happened to MBM.

Newintown wrote: [...]
I forgot to add that the McCanns stated to the media that they wanted the twins to lead their normal every day routine at the OC whilst taking the twins into the restaurant for breakfast being followed by hundreds of TV camera crews.  The poor kids must have been frightened out of their wits, not that their media-hungry parents would have noticed at the time.

***
They really did that? I've missed that. They went to breakfast in the Millenium? The restaurant that was too far away and hence, they had breakfast at the apartment 5A from April 30 on ... ?????

Châtelaine wrote:

Newintown wrote: [...]
I forgot to add that the McCanns stated to the media that they wanted the twins to lead their normal every day routine at the OC whilst taking the twins into the restaurant for breakfast being followed by hundreds of TV camera crews.  The poor kids must have been frightened out of their wits, not that their media-hungry parents would have noticed at the time.

***
They really did that? I've missed that. They went to breakfast in the Millenium? The restaurant that was too far away and hence, they had breakfast at the apartment 5A from April 30 on ... ?????

I can't remember now where it was but I remember the building had huge glass windows (sliding door type windows) with a white film/white lace curtains at the windows.  I remember at the time when I was watching it on the news thinking how can the McCanns subject those two little tiny children to all the media hype with flashing cameras etc and to take them into breakfast/lunch or whatever it was.  I thought the parents had gone insane at the time.

I ticked the "other" box, because it was just a mix of everything, over time, that made me suspicious. But it was probably less than a year before I was totally convinced, if I ever was in the first place. I always gave the benefit of the doubt, but then things just started getting TOO ridiculous. Government officials, papal visits, celebrity endorsement. When the McCanns were made "arguidos", I thought that was it, and the next time we would hear of them was when they went on trial. But it started getting a bit strange after that, didn't it? What bugs me is all the reporters, celebrities, police etc who go along with it. Do they REALLY believe it? And the total lack of investigative journalism, not just in this case, but in Britain today as a whole. Are journalists THAT afraid of being sued that they won't ask some hard hitting questions and demand straight answers? The only ones doing any questioning are online, and that is still considered "amateur" and "untrustworthy" by a lot of people. I really hope the truth is discovered soon, and justice is done. This isn't about the Kate and Gerry McCann, this is about justice for Madeleine. If they get upset and angry by awkward questions tough s**t. What kind of monsters could obstruct the search for the truth for the sake of selling newspapers, airtime or adding to the "fund".

I voted other. There was absolutely no physical evidence of anyone else except the McCanns and friends being in the apartment. That's the biggest red flag, right at the start of the investigation.

  Also when I first heard a group of doctors were on holiday and a child vanished without a trace I thought, these people would have access to drugs.

I'm slower than most of you, but it wasn't till the dogs that I started to have doubts.  Then what sealed my opinion was the "whoosh cluck" moment.  I could never imagine in a million years a parent have that self-satisfied smirk when recounting a possible moment where she lost her daughter.  It's a micro-facial expression, but it gave the whole game away IMHO.

I guess like most people I felt nothing but sympathy for the McCann's at first. I remember imagining my own daughter, who was seven at that time, going missing in the same circumstances. How the horror and despair of it all would have driven me to near insanity.

Then the first appeal. Instead of seeing two tired looking parents with bags under eyes through lack of sleep I saw two very together people. Kate had her make up on, in fact not a hair out of place, but most of all, not a tear in sight.
I don't care if they were told not to show emotion ( only their word for that) how could you not?
That is when I thought...umm... something is not right here.

Varriott wrote:I'm slower than most of you, but it wasn't till the dogs that I started to have doubts.  Then what sealed my opinion was the "whoosh cluck" moment.  I could never imagine in a million years a parent have that self-satisfied smirk when recounting a possible moment where she lost her daughter.  It's a micro-facial expression, but it gave the whole game away IMHO.

***
Yes, that was pretty shocking, wasn't it?
Considering also, that it was a family friend, who made that film and that nobody within the McCann clan objected to it. At the time, I had the feeling they were going to "nail" Kate ...

Me too hicks.We had already booked our holiday to Portugal taking with us our 3 year old Grandson.When the news broke on the 4th of may i said to my hubby oh my god a child has been Abducted in Portugal, then i saw Kate's appeal on the news and said to my OH  that couple is not telling the truth.

This has allowed us to concentrate more on our own physical and mental well-being. We do need to spend more time at this point considering oursleves, our family - who's Sean and Amelie - and contemplating about the situation that we were in.

GM's statement from the 14 May, 11 days after his daughter had allegedly been abducted. It's wrong on so many levels.

If dining at the tapas was no different from dining in your back garden, why did they feel the need to check every 20/30 minutes? I dine in my garden but don't feel the need to keep running in to check on sleeping toddlers. I dine close enough to the house to hear if they are crying. 
If leaving the kids was normal practice (not sure it was) then they must have discussed it early on and for that reason they should have bought some baby monitors.
But all that said.... Why not just get a baby sitter? I mean you wouldn't pop to the local pub (even if it were 3 or 4 doors away without getting in a baby sitter!
The whole thing stinks to high heaven, and I hope they soon get their down fall. Whether it be from Legal Justice or from some other form - it will happen. What goes around comes around. What goes up must come down.
I feel certain there is a terrible fate just waiting to strike this smug bunch.
(IMO)

For me it was reading about the Tony Bennett court case. I wasn't interested in the story before. The only aspect of it that had interested me was that the arrangements they made didn't seem THAT different to the Mark Warner baby-listening service.

Which we had used several times. And, thinking back, it was a green card for a potential child abductor. The children were left asleep in the hotel while a nanny - or several nannies I suppose - patrolled the corridors listening for crying. The doors were all unlocked.

Theoretically, it would have been very easy for someone to take one of the children. The nannies could not possibly be outside every door at every moment. The hotel security was pretty much non-existent, as it often is in hotels, people come and go all the time unchallenged. 

A person or several people could have gone into one of the bedrooms, handed a child to someone outside on the balcony, say. There were back entrances to the hotel through bars etc so you wouldn't even have to go past reception.

But then again, if you had a pram or buggy, you could have walked out with pretty much anyone's child. No-one would  challenged you.

And just think - the McCanns and their friends had been on Mark Warner holidays before. So they knew EXACTLY how the 'baby listening' worked. They, like me, were obviously trusting enough of other people to feel that this system was reasonably safe, if not ideal.

But obviously, if you were a person who in general was distrusting of others, you would not trust that type of baby-sitting arrangement.

And of course, if you were a person who wanted to steal a child, you might find this type of baby-listening arrangement a green card. Or even someone who wanted to stage or fake an abduction. 

Isn't it funny that the group. most of whom had been on Mark Warner holidays before, didn't elect to go to a Mark Warner resort where there was a baby-listening service? 

As Kate writes in her book: "At the time, most Mark Warner resorts provided a baby-listening service - basically members of staff listening at regular intervals at the doors of the apartments and villas to check that none of the children inside had woken up. This service was not offered at Ocean Club, presumably because if was less of a ' campus' resort than others, with apartments scattered over a greater area."

Isn't it funny that they didn't chose a resort with baby-listening, given how familiar they were with Mark Warner holidays?

Couldn't risk the nanny bumping into the Abductor, I suppose.

  

And of course, as Kate writes: "As it was, we were in an apparently safe, child-friendly holiday complex full of families just like ours."

  EEEEKKKKKK!!

"Even if there had been a baby-listening service, it would not have given our kids as much attention as our own visits did. We were going into the apartments and looking as well as listening. We later heard it was an option that had been chosen by many other parents at similar resorts before us. But I'm willing to be not many since."

How much later did you learn that, Kate?

And just think - the McCanns and their friends had been on Mark Warner holidays before. So they knew EXACTLY how the 'baby listening' worked. They, like me, were obviously trusting enough of other people to feel that this system was reasonably safe, if not ideal.



I don't know that. I just assumed that. What I am sure of, though, is they had done a very rigorous study of the baby-sitting arrangements at Mark Warner resorts in general and of the Ocean Club in particular.

I did not vote, because I could not read the forum while the poll was in operation, I did not see it.  If I had done so, my vote would have been, "the McCann themselves".
I started to read of this case after a similar one in Israel, a missing four year old girl, suspected abduction.  The papers had, "Israel's Madeleine" and I wanted to know - who is this Madeleine?
The little Israeli girl was murdered by her mother and step-father (who is also her grandfather), placed in a suitcase, thrown in the river.  Mother and stepfather got life sentences in Israeli jails, there is no death-penalty in Israel although many people called for one, after this brutal murder.
The McCann used reports from this case on their web-site until there was proof of what really happened.  Then it was all gone.  They did not want to be compared to a child-murder case where the mother and step-father are complicit.
This makes me suspicious of everything the McCann couple say and do, and many other things too.

After the initial reporting on the MSM, my son called me.  He had heard it probably the same time as myself.   The first thing he said was, that does not sound right, there is something that does not sit right there.   We have been to Portugal a few times...and I have stayed in a Villa just behind the OC complex and swam in the pool there.   My son and myself agreed, Portugal always seemed so child friendly.  It was seeing Kate at first, being interviewed...she immediately left an impression upon me, crocodile tears...I did allow for the fact that different people would react in different ways...but her body language just did not fit at all with a mother having lost a 3 year old!!!  She was my focus for a while for some reason......and then I began to watch GM.   It became so obvious after a short while that they were not being truthful at all.  And then like many on here I started to watch closely.   It was only a matter of time before G and K started to dig themselves right into a deep hole.   There are so many knowledgeable people on this forum.  I just wish the police would have the same enquiring analytical minds.......I just hope they have and are treating it all slowly slowly catchy monkey.

Welcome back Maggs