Madeleine McCann: German prisoner identified as suspect - #9

[photographer4]

Watching their routine to see if it was the same each night?

OR:
- the weather was somehow not ideal (what was the weather in the prior evenings?)
- the moon wasn't ideal (could provide just barely enough light or too much light that people might see them?
- was securing the best price for her (IF this was a trafficking thing he may have put out photos / videos of her online somewhere or sent to people directly and had an auction - we have no idea, so I'm putting this as a possibility). He'd want the highest bid to make the risk worthwhile.
- perhaps he was considering another target? we don't know. Another kid of the tapas 7 or some other kid entirely?
- maybe he didn't notice her til the daytime on the 3d (or maybe someone else spent time looking for someone to hire to bring the girl to them)?
- maybe there were too many other people lingering about on other evenings that made it less than ideal?
- perhaps the suspect had to be elsewhere another night (didn't we read he told his girlfriend at the time he had a horrible job to do?)
- perhaps he didn't have enough gas in the car to get there and away safely?
- maybe he was unsure of the location he was going to bring her to in order to carry out whatever his plans were? or on an earlier scout to the location, perhaps found too many people there?

 

[photographer4]

DBM double post.

 

[MENDEL]

She said he finished work at 9 pm. Her town in Germany is called Wegberg. She also said she did not see any vehicles on the road at the time when they travelled.
Note: At the time she worked in PDL for 3 years. First as a tourist guide, then a bar woman.
P.J. POLICE FILES: HAYLEY MAY CRAWFORD

That's correct.

 

[MENDEL]

OR:
- the weather was somehow not ideal (what was the weather in the prior evenings?)
- the moon wasn't ideal (could provide just barely enough light or too much light that people might see them?
- was securing the best price for her (IF this was a trafficking thing he may have put out photos / videos of her online somewhere or sent to people directly and had an auction - we have no idea, so I'm putting this as a possibility). He'd want the highest bid to make the risk worthwhile.
- perhaps he was considering another target? we don't know. Another kid of the tapas 7 or some other kid entirely?
- maybe he didn't notice her til the daytime on the 3d (or maybe someone else spent time looking for someone to hire to bring the girl to them)?
- maybe there were too many other people lingering about on other evenings that made it less than ideal?
- perhaps the suspect had to be elsewhere another night (didn't we read he told his girlfriend at the time he had a horrible job to do?)
- perhaps he didn't have enough gas in the car to get there and away safely?
- maybe he was unsure of the location he was going to bring her to in order to carry out whatever his plans were? or on an earlier scout to the location, perhaps found too many people there?

Photographer, I think nothing escaped

 

[tedtink]

Is there any evidence apart from KM's book that that Tapa's reservation exposed there ever existed?

Yes, written in w/s in Mc'n files somewhere.

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

Maybe he needed a supply of drugs for sedation or for enhancing his sick fantasy.

 

[LiamMatthew]

I agree with both your and Ted's reasoning that it was planned and MM was the target. I think the only way she'd have been taken in a burglary gone wrong is if he'd tried to silence her and killed her in the process otherwise wouldn't he have just legged it and left her?

I think he was capable of planning. He'd planned at least two vicious rapes we think and this wouldn't have taken much planning really. Appt was by the road and parents had a regular routine. I'm not even sure they checked as often as they claimed - there seemed to be discrepancies in their stories initially and the flat above reports hearing MM crying the night before for longer than half an hour.

If he could have got the keys so much the better. There are reports of someone watching the flat aren't there? And the later lost key report is suspicious. Difficult to lose a bunch of keys in a holiday resort without someone handing them in.

He was a drug dealer and petty crook as well as a paedophile. Would that not have given him access to contacts that might have helped him break in? Like providing keys? Could that also be why such vital info wasn't given till years later?

I don't think she was trafficked IMOO. I don't know what to think about whether he worked alone or not. IMHO the evidence that exists is possibly on USB or hard drives as they've admitted they have no forensic evidence she has died yet seem sure she is dead. I'd love it if she'd been bought by a lovely childless couple but I've never been able to believe that.

Although I don't think it was a burglary gone wrong and he killed her accidentally I hope it was. That would be quick. Whatever else it was I hope she was dead before anything happened. I feel so sorry for her family.

I agree with this. I think he planned it and he's one of the suspicious characters seen hanging around the apartment in the days before MM's disappearance. Whether he had help in that someone tipped him off about the apartment is difficult to say. Maybe.

The evidence found on his USB drives and dark web conversations shows he has these kind of sick fantasies that would lead him to do such a thing.

It's unlikely she was trafficked, there are surely easier targets for human traffickers than a north European girl on holiday with her parents, the sort of disappearance that would cause so much publicity.

I could, of course, be completely wrong on all this, it just seems the most logical explanation for what really happened to MM, unfortunately.

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

Yes, written in w/s in Mc'n files somewhere.

I just looked in McCann files and it is listed in missing pages ie it is referred to as being absent (without indication that it existed) as far as I understood it.

 

[photographer4]

For those who wanted to know more about what information a digital camera captures with each click of the shutter... here is some info taken off a photo in the public domain right off of Flickr (dot com). I didn't include the photo or the photographer's name for their privacy. See? A camera stolen from the table at MM's unit was USELESS to the abductor b/c everyone and their brother would be looking all over the internet for photos taken by that device!

 

[MENDEL]

Yes, written in w/s in Mc'n files somewhere.

THX, Ted. I'll try to find.

 

[tedtink]

I just looked in McCann files and it is listed in missing pages ie it is referred to as being absent (without indication that it existed) as far as I understood it.

Here's the person who took the block booking - no mention of note in the staff book though
P.J. POLICE FILES: LUISA ANA DE NORONHA DE AZEVEDO COUTINHO

 

[Scorpiette]

Yes, she said it in a statement. But KM said in her book there was an inscription on Tapas telling the group had their places reserved all days at 20.30 and that their children would stay sleeping in apartments. Is there any evidence of this?

Scorpiette:
That seems quite a long and detailed 'note' to pop into a staff message book. Was it written in English or Portuguese I wonder ..?

• "It wasn’t until a year later, when I was combing through the Portuguese files, that I discovered that the note requesting our block booking was written in a staff message book, which sat on a desk at the pool reception for most of the day."

• "To my horror I saw that, no doubt in all innocence and to explain why she was bending the rules a bit, the receptionist had written the reason for our request.“We wanted to eat close to our apartments as we were leaving our young children alone there and checking on them intermittently.”"

BBM

 

[Newthoughts]

OR:
- the weather was somehow not ideal (what was the weather in the prior evenings?)
- the moon wasn't ideal (could provide just barely enough light or too much light that people might see them?
- was securing the best price for her (IF this was a trafficking thing he may have put out photos / videos of her online somewhere or sent to people directly and had an auction - we have no idea, so I'm putting this as a possibility). He'd want the highest bid to make the risk worthwhile.
- perhaps he was considering another target? we don't know. Another kid of the tapas 7 or some other kid entirely?
- maybe he didn't notice her til the daytime on the 3d (or maybe someone else spent time looking for someone to hire to bring the girl to them)?
- maybe there were too many other people lingering about on other evenings that made it less than ideal?
- perhaps the suspect had to be elsewhere another night (didn't we read he told his girlfriend at the time he had a horrible job to do?)
- perhaps he didn't have enough gas in the car to get there and away safely?
- maybe he was unsure of the location he was going to bring her to in order to carry out whatever his plans were? or on an earlier scout to the location, perhaps found too many people there?

I really don't think she was trafficked at all. Sadly there are plenty of poor and disadvantaged children around the world that can be 'safely' trafficked. A loved child of caring parents from the developed world just strikes me as far too great a risk.

IMO he was a creep looking out for an opportunity. She was ideal. The location of the flat and the parents eating out. IMO he watched for a few days then acted.

 

[Jenesaisquoi]

Was there a separate staff message book to the diary/reservations book?

 

[haden]

"The waiter, who has asked not to be identified, said the nightly routine was "set in stone", making it easy for a potential abductor to "choose the right moment to take the child".
He said the group made a "special arrangement" to book the same table at 8pm every night so they could sit outside, 50 metres from where their children lay sleeping.
He told how the arrangement was widely known about by workers at the restaurant, who thought it was strange that other holiday-makers had to queue for reservations at the popular tapas bar.
But he said he only realised after Madeleine's disappearance that the routine could have made all eight of the group's children vulnerable to a potential abductor.
He then added "The apartments are all quite close to the pool, but there are trees in between so you can't see them from the restaurant.
"Even though they were checking their children every 20 minutes or so there was still a lot of time they were left alone when someone could have gone in and taken them."
"When you think back now, because the routine was so set in stone every night, if somebody had been watching the group they would definitely have been able to work out what was going on and choose the right moment to take the child."
His eyewitness account of the group's behaviour is the first time anyone from inside the tapas bar has spoken publicly about the events of May 3.

Kate and Gerry 'left Madeleine alone for three hours for four nights in a row' | Daily Mail Online

Tapas Book with names of group and their flat numbers
P.J. POLICE FILES: TAPAS BOOKINGS

The article said at 8pm but it is 8.30 pm in the files / Tapas service book

 

[tedtink]

Was there a separate staff message book to the diary/reservations book?

Yes the staff message book that KM mentions in her book, which is now not in the files.

Madeleine

 

[haden]

Yes the staff message book that KM mentions in her book, which is now not in the files.

Madeleine

It is in the files. I just posted a link to it, above.

 

[tedtink]

It is in the files. I just posted a link to it, above.

You've posted a link to the Tapas bookings sheets - There was also separate staff messages book in which the receptionist wrote her note to justify why she had block booked the tables all week. This was not usually permitted, due to a limited number of tables at the Tapas restaurant.

 

[Deleted member 268067]

Yes, he does. Most hand annotations are criminal records. Some were justifying absence on May 3, 2007 (sick leave for instance).

He can be the retired OC's employee who was CB's connection in OC and had his number in an old diary. And who said block 5 set of keys was lost the week before.

Apologies if already covered/ annoying to find, but do we have any other source than tabloids that CB had an OC connection? I’ve read about the book left open/ receptionist linked/ Silva etc but at the time that felt very much like tabloid hysteria and making links that weren’t there, particularly re: Silva. I’ve had a few weeks off though - is there a source?

 

[Deleted member 268067]

Photographer, I think nothing escaped

It’s also worth bearing in mind that as the holiday wore on, parents were more likely to get comfortable/ complacent in their checking on the children. I would imagine it really was closer to twenty minute intervals at the start of the week. I’m not so sure by the end.