Anything New?????

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

We know Gerry had at least three "bags"... (that he carried ). One was his red "man purse" as seen here in colomom's pics:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y234/colomom/r-2.jpg

and here:
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/760...4AD9FDB9CF1935F875963FC567DB1745F374AFB29829D

Then there was the black duffel bag he was carrying...(navy blue?) Seen here:

http://www.exposay.com/sean-mccann-...-girl-madeleine-mccann-in-portugal/p/10561/72

Then there was a tan one with a black strap seen here, (this looks like it could be a diaper bag):

http://www.exposay.com/gerry-mccann...girl-madeleine-mccann-in-portugal/p/10561/83/

and here:
http://www.exposay.com/gerry-mccann...girl-madeleine-mccann-in-portugal/p/10561/85/

As far as the Blue Tennis bag, I find these 2 quotes from Pickles link weird...first if the bag has not been seen since the night Maddie disappeared, then how does the source who came AFTER the disappearance claim he had it? Seriously, this "source" might need to be checked out. Sounds like they are fueling the fire.

It belonged to the girl's father but has not been seen since the night of May 3, according to a Sky News documentary due to be broadcast on Christmas Eve.

But Sky News stood by its story, which it said came from sources who had travelled to the resort after Madeleine's disappearance

 

[txsvicki]

Good point.

I don't know that Gerry's bag was stolen. He said he did not take it with him.

So he at least admits to having a bag of this description, but can't find it now?

 

[Trino]

Who knows what's really truth or fact anymore. G says he did not take it with him. The police allege it was taken the night Madeline went missing.

I DO think, however, that if G plays a lot of tennis that it's not out of the question for him to take his racket on holiday.

 

[angelmom]

Interesting that it begins with, "Madeline, it seems unlikely that you'll hear this..."

It could have been better worded as, "Madeline, I hope you can hear this..."

That was my first thought as well. WTF?

Either she can't hear it, so who cares? OR she can hear it, so all you are doing is telling her that you are giving up hope.

I found that phrase to be so incredibly bizarre. Almost like an excuse to the world for why they haven't addressed her in the first person in previous pleas.

 

[Pinkhammer]

Not much of a Christmas message to a beloved (?) child.

I've read more heartfelt messages to pets on the memorial page of my local newspaper.

 

[Texana]

That was my first thought as well. WTF?

Either she can't hear it, so who cares? OR she can hear it, so all you are doing is telling her that you are giving up hope.

I found that phrase to be so incredibly bizarre. Almost like an excuse to the world for why they haven't addressed her in the first person in previous pleas.

Exactly.

If she is hearing it, then the comment is moot. And if she's not it, it's still moot as well, because obviously why point out the odds of her not hearing it and emphasize that negative point? As well, she might hear it years later if (theoretically) she's returned home.

It does seem more aimed at deflecting criticism for the lack of direct addresses earlier.

 

[philamena]

Texana,
I have to agree with you on this one.

 

[colomom]

Exactly.

If she is hearing it, then the comment is moot. And if she's not it, it's still moot as well, because obviously why point out the odds of her not hearing it and emphasize that negative point? As well, she might hear it years later if (theoretically) she's returned home.

It does seem more aimed at deflecting criticism for the lack of direct addresses earlier.

Texana,
I have to agree with you on this one.

Me too.

 

[Texana]

I think it's great that they are making a video for Madeleine, even though I honestly believe the odds are against Maddie's being alive or her hearing it.

And I hate to be negative or sound nitpicky about it, but the first words are about how unlikely it is that their words will be heard at all.

Who wrote that for them? If they wrote it themselves, why didn't someone tell them how it sounded?

I do not understand sometimes why the McCanns do not get better advice, or better direction, or whatever you want to call it, from the people that are supposed to be really good or expert at this.

It's possible that they are very headstrong and determined in what they want to do or say, but I think that perhaps also, the experts--like Clarence or the attorneys--are fairly well removed from the lives of "average" people themselves, so they tend to be reactive, rather than proactive.

Instead of saying, "Just talk to Maddie as if she were in the next room" it becomes perhaps "Start off explaining why you haven't done this so people will understand."

My other thought is that perhaps in their hearts the McCanns have given up getting Maddie back, if she was abducted, or if they did have an accidental death, they are growing tired of carrying on with the act.

They are just tired, either way. So I think that what they say and do over the next few months is going to reflect that giving up/moving on spirit.

They have given up or they are ready to quit. Either way, that's what the first few words of the video message are really saying.

 

[Trino]

I think it's great that they are making a video for Madeleine, even though I honestly believe the odds are against Maddie's being alive or her hearing it.

And I hate to be negative or sound nitpicky about it, but the first words are about how unlikely it is that their words will be heard at all.

Who wrote that for them? If they wrote it themselves, why didn't someone tell them how it sounded?

I do not understand sometimes why the McCanns do not get better advice, or better direction, or whatever you want to call it, from the people that are supposed to be really good or expert at this.

The McCanns do have advanced degrees.

 

[Texana]

The McCanns do have advanced degrees.

Yes, which is why I wonder sometimes whether it is a matter of simply being stubborn and insisting they know better, or whether they are educated and intelligent enough to know that a wise person relies upon the advice of others, and they just get really crummy advice.

Whichever one it is, the opening words were just really awful and negative.

Because again--like the blog, if that is Gerry and Kate that is their authentic "voice" then why doesn't someone tell them how awful it sounds?

And why don't they listen, if they do?

 

[Trino]

Yes, which is why I wonder sometimes whether it is a matter of simply being stubborn and insisting they know better, or whether they are educated and intelligent enough to know that a wise person relies upon the advice of others, and they just get really crummy advice. Whichever one it is, the opening words were just really awful and negative. Because again--like the blog, if that is Gerry and Kate that is their authentic "voice" then why doesn't someone tell them how awful it sounds?
And why don't they listen, if they do?

I just can't recall a case with so many IMO strange comments by parents of a missing child. IMO the McCanns possess an arrogant attitude, meaning your last inference that they don't listen to others may be correct.

 

[Barnaby]

I was just reading a thread on another forum where someone asked the question "Could you go to bed if your child had just gone missing?" Kate & Gerry McCann went to bed that night & got up at first light to search again. How weird is that? Could anyone here go to bed under the same circumstances? Not me for sure! I have sat up all night for much lesser traumas & could not even think of bed!

 

[Texana]

I just can't recall a case with so many IMO strange comments by parents of a missing child. IMO the McCanns possess an arrogant attitude, meaning your last inference that they don't listen to others may be correct.

I know that is my first response as well. I just keep trying to figure out how anybody could keep saying what they do, so often as they do, and with such seeming blindness as to how it sounds. Remember Kate's mother saying that she felt that if she looked more "motherly" (paraphrased, her exact words were something along the lines of "weighed two stones more") no one would criticize her at all.

Well, of course people would still criticize her decision to leave the children that night, and if anything, they'd throw in the words "fat cow" or some other such comment.

But Kate not only didn't get that, she didn't get that saying that publicly was not in the best interest of the search for Madeleine or her own defense.

I keep coming back to the thought that if the McCanns say things, and think through things, in a way that many of us find odd or puzzling, then perhaps they could also do things that some of us would find odd or incomprehensible.

 

[txsvicki]

I was just reading a thread on another forum where someone asked the question "Could you go to bed if your child had just gone missing?" Kate & Gerry McCann went to bed that night & got up at first light to search again. How weird is that? Could anyone here go to bed under the same circumstances? Not me for sure! I have sat up all night for much lesser traumas & could not even think of bed!

It's really weird if they both went on to bed that night. I could see one of them staying with a friend and not leaving the twins at all, but we know that leaving the twins was not an issue. Most people wouldn't sleep for probably several days until they practically passed out from exhaustion or being sedated.

 

[iNTERESTEDWOMAN]

I was just reading a thread on another forum where someone asked the question "Could you go to bed if your child had just gone missing?" Kate & Gerry McCann went to bed that night & got up at first light to search again. How weird is that? Could anyone here go to bed under the same circumstances? Not me for sure! I have sat up all night for much lesser traumas & could not even think of bed!

I had forgotten this tid-bit of info. Do you know where they slept that night? was it at the apt. or somewhere else?

 

[teacherbees]

Sometimes, in the event of major traumas, doctors will sedate grieving, hysterical etc...survivors.

Maybe Kate and Gerry self-medicated themselves to be able to sleep?

(Not that I'm saying this would be normal behavior. I think most parents, faced with their toddler child being missing, would absolutely NOT be able to sleep...or want to.)

 

[Rino]

Sometimes, in the event of major traumas, doctors will sedate grieving, hysterical etc...survivors.

Maybe Kate and Gerry self-medicated themselves to be able to sleep?

(Not that I'm saying this would be normal behavior. I think most parents, faced with their toddler child being missing, would absolutely NOT be able to sleep...or want to.)

In a way we now come full circle. If they had sedatives with them on vacation is it really so far fetched they would have sedated their children before leaving them alone???

 

[colomom]

I had forgotten this tid-bit of info. Do you know where they slept that night? was it at the apt. or somewhere else?

IW,

They moved out of 5A immediately and spent the night of May 3rd in another (close-by) apartment at the Ocean Club.

 

[teacherbees]

Nope...not far-fetched at all. I have a great suspicion that they might've been drugging the children, which led to the complacency about abandoning them every night.