Active Search for Evidence taking Place Around Portugese Resort

[zwiebel]

The dogs are good. I wonder if they hit on anything? Relatives of little April Jones and missing Ben Needham are quoted in the article.

'The dogs, who always work as a pair, have been known to find bodies 20 years after they vanished and can even detect people underwater.'

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-search-april-jones-3642420

 

[zwiebel]

I suspect that ground is very dry and well-drained. If Madelaine's body is discovered there and it is clothed, I think the fabric may still be present, and might possibly yield evidence. I can only hope.

I'm sorry to speak so frankly about a body, but I do believe this little one is long deceased, and this case desperately needs resolution for so many reasons.

 

[zwiebel]

Thinking that they are using pitchforks for the dig because they would probably cause less damage to anything they may ' hit ", than shovels. imo.

I thought that too. But searching around, I can't find anything with archeologists using a pitchfork. It seems they usually use one of those spiky things (forgot the flipping name) to break up the ground initially, then move to delicate hand tools when they get near the find.

Maybe pitchforks are just a local tool generally used there to break up the ground, as they find it more suitable for the conditions?

http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/blog/blog5.html

 

[ZaZara]

The dogs are good. I wonder if they hit on anything? Relatives of little April Jones and missing Ben Needham are quoted in the article.

'The dogs, who always work as a pair, have been known to find bodies 20 years after they vanished and can even detect people underwater.'

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-search-april-jones-3642420

Neither April nor Ben have been found. No doubt the dogs are super dogs, but if it isn't there, it isn't there.

 

[jay-jay]

Neither April nor Ben have been found. No doubt the dogs are super dogs, but if it isn't there, it isn't there.

But it's only by having dogs such as those which will ascertain whether there is or there isn't (along with various other technical equipment).

 

[fedfan4life]

The McCanns were out running together - without the other kids - within days of Maddie's disappearance. There are videos on YouTube in which Gerry mentions that running made them feel more normal and that's why they did it. They made time to run in races too, as I recall - without their other children. Frankly, it's always seemed like a big red flag to me.

I think the first story I ever read about MM had a picture of her mother running down the street.

Folks who have just lost a child to a 'kidnapping' would not want their other children out of their sites. That's the natural reaction of love and fear. These 2 people did not behave in a way that tracks w/those emotions. And, no, the everyone being different is not a satisfactory rebuttal. There are certain intrinsic reactions present in humanity, albeit manifesting in different ways dependent upon the person(s) in question. It's fairly clear what happened here - parents were negligent (perhaps even nefarious) and young child died. How do perpetrators go unscathed from a legal perspective? Hide the body and DENY, DENY, DENY. It's a pattern seen many, many times.

 

[ZaZara]

But it's only by having dogs such as those which will ascertain whether there is or there isn't (along with various other technical equipment).

Agree 100% !
What I find odd is that the media mention the two cases where the missing child wasn't found. They seem to present THAT as a claim to fame & fortune. Well ... euhm. Not quite. I would like to hear about persons the dogs did manage to find.

They will only find her if she is there. If she is not in the first spot, then the second then the third ... there are so many similar patches of rough land in the region of Praia da Luz and beyond, how can they ever search them all?

I hope these searches are only a small part of the bigger investigation, that they are intended to exclude certain options instead, and that SY have not given up hope that Madeleine will be found alive.

 

[jay-jay]

Two tents have just been erected (presumably over sites of specific interest? ) http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/madeleine-...nts-praia-da-luz-scrubland-during-dig-1451263

 

[Elainera]

Now we are all watching this search closely, constantly checking for progress etc, but if they do find something - anything - will they even tell publicly I wonder?

 

[ZaZara]

Now we are all watching this search closely, constantly checking for progress etc, but if they do find something - anything - will they even tell publicly I wonder?

They have already found a piece of corrugated iron and the public was amply informed of that.

The area used to be a cabbage patch ... they may find anything from old shoes to ploughs or whatever it takes to grow cabbage. And from the time before the cabbages, other finds are possible. Praia da Luz has an old and interesting history, dating from the Stone Age.

 

[Elainera]

The iron sheet was in plain view. I was thinking more of small, tiny things they might find while sifting through the earth. I doubt they will say anything about such findings, at least not any time soon.

 

[Morag]

We've mused for years about the dogs having scented cadaver odor in a car rented several weeks after Madeleine 'disappeared'. It seemed so unlikely that she could have been moved. Now, suddenly, within a day of beginning to dig, they have homed in on a spot- a spot with a conveniently located sheet of corrugated metal- where there may be some evidence. Someone who knows something has talked. Or, possibly, the file held by the High Court has evidence which points to the place they are digging. I am optimistic!

 

[ThoughtFox]

Here's more about the corrugated iron and hole they found yesterday:

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-06-04/madeleine-police-taken-by-surprise-by-discovery-of-hole/

Madeleine police 'taken by surprise' by discovery

. . . At the very edge of the wasteland where officers are searching are a couple of white tents.
Under them is a hole. They found it yesterday, it was covered by a couple of sheets of corrugated iron and then that was covered by some soil.

They dug away and they pulled these sheets apart yesterday and they found this very precise hole in the shape of a square - now, that's of interest to them, they didn't know it was there.

We've seen a couple of police officers in forensic suits inside those tents, we don't know what they've found, we don't know if it is of specific interest but we do know it's something they didn't anticipate when they got here

Here's what they are wearing as they examine the hole. Clearly they are trying not to contaminate any DNA they might find (hair covering, coats, etc). And it is indeed covered by a tent, which we wondered about yesterday. So they must think it's significant in some way.

 

[ThoughtFox]

Michelle Clifford @skynewsmichelle · 2h
Police probing earth on the mound in Praia Da Luz #mccann



Michelle Clifford ‏@skynewsmichelle 59m
Forensic officers use wheelbarrow to remove soil from tented area in Praia Da Luz. Evidence bags also carried away from tent #mccann

Tom Burridge ‏@TomBurridgebbc 19m
Detectives in forensics suits enter white tent with yellow triangle evidence signs and remove buckets of earth in #mccann search

Michelle Clifford ‏@skynewsmichelle 26m
Lead investigator in search for Madeleine McCann DCI Andy Redwood seen walking through search site at end of busy day #mccann

 

[neesaki]

I'm just baffled as to why this area wasn't searched long ago.

 

[carbuff]

I thought that too. But searching around, I can't find anything with archeologists using a pitchfork. It seems they usually use one of those spiky things (forgot the flipping name) to break up the ground initially, then move to delicate hand tools when they get near the find.

Maybe pitchforks are just a local tool generally used there to break up the ground, as they find it more suitable for the conditions?

http://www.le.ac.uk/richardiii/blog/blog5.html

I would guess you're basically right. Pitchforks and spading forks are useful for digging through ground that has lots of roots in it. The tines poke through between the roots and let you turn over the soil plants and all. It's useful if you want to look under a plant without killing it as well as for pulling it out and getting rid of it.

 

[SapphireSteel]

They are now swabbing the drains and sewers inside the OC.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-McCann-resort-disappeared-search-sewers.html

 

[SapphireSteel]

I'm just baffled as to why this area wasn't searched long ago.

It was, but

1. it was dark
2. the land was fenced off
3. they were looking for a LIVE child who literally could not have got up there on her own

 

[dotr]

It's pretty common for a murderer to stash stuff in an area that's already been searched, figuring they won't come back for it or they can say LE planted it. In the Alexis Murphy murder, the bloody shirt that was key to RAT's conviction was found in a trailer that had been searched twice.

The ground will already have been broken and made easier for lazy, weak perps to bury body. imo

 

[carbuff]

The ground will already have been broken and made easier for lazy, weak perps to bury body. imo

True, although I was thinking more of disposing of evidence than of the body itself.