Madeleine McCann: German Prisoner Identified as Suspect, #40

[onemoremiletogo]

Judging by the quantity of stolen goods and passports allegedly seen/found at his former homes in Luz and Monte Judeu it's highly unlikely that Ocean Club resort was the only one he was familiar with.

Not the only one but probably the ONE.

 

[Denis R Tandib]

IMO there’s a reason the investigators are certain MM died in Portugal. If there wasn’t then they wouldn’t be saying there was.

IMO presenting an assumption of the weakness of the case based on an interpretation of open source information & a perceived issue with those who who have all of the information & all of the evidence, probably isn’t going to be even remotely reflective of the reality of this case. I’d say the reality of the case is so clear cut that it isn’t actually a matter of opinion. If it was a matter of opinion the investigation wouldn’t be stating that they have facts.

I think it’s important to remember that the prosecution have actual evidence. There is zero evidence against anybody else.

Let’s see what happens at trial… if it gets there.

 

[Denis R Tandib]

Using Tapas 9 own timeline...
Who was inside 5A or in Block 5 car park between 9.20pm & 9.30pm?
Ditto between 9.35pm & 9.45pm?
Ditto between 9.50pm & 10pm?
That doesn't even include the possibility that CB was already inside 5A by around 9pm. It doesn't explain why FF only made reference to one tiny window of opportunity which coincides temporally with GM check & JT sighting

It’s possible FF can place CB at another location during the abduction window.

Say for example another phone call that doesn’t show on any PDL mast at 9:45 p.m. would further narrow the window for CB being the perp. Other things that may confirm this are emails sent from a particular IP address, financial transactions, CCTV footage or credible witness statements just as examples.

 

[Mex]

Two children were seen being carried around Luz, three if you count the one Redwood referred to, only one according to Redwood matched a description close to that of MM, which of the three males matched a description close to that of CB ? and what redeeming features convince anyone that CB was one of the males?

If one of the children to whom you refer was being carried home from the creche that could have been resolved at the time had the creche records been checked.

Another reference could have been evaluated properly had the police known about it at the time of MM's disappearance. A fortnight later was too late.

Snip
He walked a few steps and looked up at a CCTV camera and sighed loudly. The camera belongs to the Estrela da Luz resort hotel. “I believe that the person carrying a child in his arms was captured on film from that very camera,” he said.

“I asked my officers to gather all the CCTV footage in Luz but, by the time they got to this hotel, the film from this camera had been wiped over. It was a mistake and I will always regret it. I do feel MM was let down.”

Madeleine McCann: Did the camera hold vital clue?

THE detective who led the initial investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance believes her abductor was caught on camera – but revealed that the film was wiped before detectives saw it.

www.express.co.uk

In effect the only sighting of a man carrying a child away from the immediate direction of MM's bedroom was the one witnessed by JT. Which was reported to the first officers on the scene. But subsequently she was disbelieved.
Snip
JT said she had told police in Portugal all she knew and denied reports she has refused to cooperate with them.

Asked why she has not spoken out before, she said: "I have not spoken because the Portuguese police told us not to talk about these things at all. From day one we have done everything we could to help them with the investigation. Maybe I am talking now because I have been called a liar and a fantasist."

McCanns' friend says she saw Madeleine being abducted

One of the closest friends of Kate and Gerry McCann broke her silence yesterday to insist she saw Madeleine being carried away by an abductor

www.theguardian.com

The time is long gone past for any of these three sightings to be of relevance to the present investigation which has to rely on step by step following of the evidence.

The sightings could be a link in the chain but don't forget the BKA came into the process in any real sense when MM had been missing for ten years.
To date the knowledge they have has led to them naming CB as their suspect in the murder of MM; it probably wasn't a normal progression, more a regression starting where they would normally have finished with a name.
My opinion

 

[Mex]

I wonder why CB, if he's the perp, would have chosen Ocean Club to carry out a child abduction when the risk of being seen & recognised by a former fellow employee would have been elevated in comparison to a resort where he was unknown? He didn't have CCTV to worry about.

I lean towards the opinion that MM was targeted and the abduction planned.
But if the abduction took place during a burglary the intruder when presented with the opportunity to have absolute power over a child just couldn't resist.

Whatever, the abduction was successful and the perpetrator has got off with it for over sixteen years now.
One measure of the incompetence among many which allowed that was something brought home to me very recently.

The incidents of the ugly man seen outside the apartment are familiar to us all. But what I hadn't realised was that the sightings had not been coordinated by the police at the time. That was a diligence carried out by the child's parents when the case had been archived and they were given a copy of the police files.
For information these are the real files which they paid to have translated - not the files posted on the internet.

Did this man take MM? New 'ugly' prime suspect is prowler seen outside the McCs' apartment​

A prowler spotted outside Madeleine McCann's holiday apartment was yesterday revealed as a new prime suspect in the hunt for the missing girl.

The heavily scarred stranger was seen five times in the four days before the three-year-old disappeared, prompting fears he could have been watching the McCann family.

Although he was seen by four witnesses, each of whom gave statements to Portuguese police, astonishingly it has taken almost two years for their accounts to be linked.
_________________________________________
The couple have carried out their own six-month trawl of the 30,000-page Portuguese police files, which were released last year when the investigation was shelved.

This uncovered the four witness statements about the prowler buried in the dossier.

The sinister-looking man was first spotted by a British tourist who was walking with her young daughter near the Ocean Club on April 29, 2007 - the day after the McCs arrived in Portugal.

She said she felt 'unnerved' by the man, who was staring at the McCs' rented holiday apartment. She then saw him again at about 3pm on May 2 - the day before MM disappeared. 'He appeared to be watching it,' the woman said.

'He was about 5ft 10in, slim build and wearing casual clothes. I would describe him as very ugly, (with) pitted skin with a large nose.'

The man was also seen on April 30 at about 8.15am by a British schoolgirl, who noticed him staring at the balcony of the apartment.

MM's abductor is thought to have entered the flat through unlocked patio doors on the balcony, while her parents ate dinner with friends nearby.

A couple from Cheshire then saw the man on either May 2 or 3 staring at apartment 5A, and standing near a parked white van. An artist's impression of the man, commissioned by the Find Madeleine fund, shows a dark-haired, heavily scarred man.

CMl, the McCs' spokesman, said: 'This man needs to be traced urgently and eliminated. These witnesses did talk to Portuguese police but it appears that nothing was done to find him. He is a vital part of the jigsaw.'

Did this man take Madeleine? New 'ugly' prime suspect is prowler seen outside the McCanns' apartment

A prowler spotted outside Madeleine McCann's holiday apartment has been revealed as a new prime suspect in the hunt for the missing girl.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Quite inconceivable that two of the victims of this horrific crime were left to do the basic detective work the police should have done two years before but had ignored.
My opinion

 

[frank-cole]

I don't see any document saying he was in PDL when MM disappeared in the link provided.

I do!

Cell site triangulation
Being seen the scene that afternoon
Telling people his was in the area

Let’s see what happens at trial… if it gets there.

it’ll be interesting to see what type of information goes public after trial. I can imagine it’ll be a very private hearing with many victims under anonymity.

 

[mrjitty]

I don’t get it.

Sure

If the defence can say hey - here is SODDI 1. Tannerman. The prime suspect from the start. And the repudiation for that relies on proving that Tannerman was actually Dr Trotman, I think you get into such a tortuous mess where it will be hard to rule these possibilities out to BARD standard

Instead, if you have a forensic connection between CB and MM for example, you can simply say this proves Tannerman and all the other theories are red herrings. You don't need to expend any effort on them.

So HCW needs this 'short circuit' to render all the past investigative history of the case irrelevant.

 

[mrjitty]

I don't see any document saying he was in PDL when MM disappeared in the link provided.

I'm guessing that article is quoting some case recitals. But keep in mind, those background recitals are not things that needed to be proved in the rape case.

 

[Deleted member 268165]

^ I'm a little confused by this. As I understood it, FF was basing his 'window of opportunity' on the Tapas' timeline, not on an actual sighting of CB lurking in the 5A shadows. The window of opportunity, based on the Tapas' timeline was tiny, ridiculously so, for the alleged abduction to have taken place in the way it allegedly was by CB or anyone else for that matter, with all the bustling Tapas' alleged comings and goings.

As for GM's comment, both McCs have said that nothing was missing/taken from the apartment. I wouldn't give GM's 'nothing of value' much thought, he was very prone to using 5 words where one would usually have been more than sufficient.

It was very dangerous to abduct the child with all the Tapas' nine comings and goings. Someone could see the abductor. And in fact, IMO, JT saw the abductor carrying MM at approximately 9:50 p.m.

MO entered the apartment at approximately 9:35 p.m. to do a (maybe careless) check, and KM raised the alarm at approximately 10:05 p.m. So the abductor had a "window" of some 25 minutes.

IMO, JT and the S's family saw the same man (the abductor). Maybe he was CB, maybe not.

 

[mrjitty]

It was very dangerous to abduct the child with all the Tapas' nine comings and goings. Someone could see the abductor. And in fact, IMO, JT saw the abductor carrying MM at approximately 9:50 p.m.

How do you reconcile that with her claim she saw GM talking in the street?

MO entered the apartment at approximately 9:35 p.m. to do a (maybe careless) check, and KM raised the alarm at approximately 10:05 p.m. So the abductor had a "window" of some 25 minutes.

Right but given he didn't verify he saw MM, the window could be much larger?

IMO, JT and the S's family saw the same man (the abductor). Maybe he was CB, maybe not.

I tend to agree the Smith's saw the abductor as that man has never been located. The Met appear to agree.

 

[RichardKimble]

“Was I or my vehicle clearly seen near the crime scene on the night of the crime?"
Really matched by description?! At night?!
Maybe unlikely but...
A neighbour who went into Brueckner's isolated house overlooking Praia da Luz said she found it was filthy and full of bags of wigs...

Obviously confident about the vehicle and himself, but interestingly you've brought another angle, let's suppose for this argument CB was in disguise, who would identify which wig he'd chosen? another conundrum added to knowing of CBs movements, if one was needed.

 

[RichardKimble]

How do you reconcile that with her claim she saw GM talking in the street?



Right but given he didn't verify he saw MM, the window could be much larger?



I tend to agree the Smith's saw the abductor as that man has never been located. The Met appear to agree.

Imo Smith man is the key and always as been.

 

[Mex]

How do you reconcile that with her claim she saw GM talking in the street?



Right but given he didn't verify he saw MM, the window could be much larger?



I tend to agree the Smith's saw the abductor as that man has never been located. The Met appear to agree.

The situation would have been immediately resolved had the innocent man been the man who featured in the Smith sighting. Think of the local street geography.

• he must have told the police why he was walking away from his apartment and not towards it to be JT's sighting
• he must have told the police why he then changed direction to pass block 5 again to pass by his apartment in block 4 still carrying his sleeping daughter forty odd minutes later
• the smith party was split into three groups consisting of the younger couple with their children; the grandparents, one of whom spoke to him on passing and the granddaughter bringing up the rear
• he must have seen them since they and he were the only people in the street and it would have been remiss of the police not to ask when taking his statement
• had he been the man he would have corroborated the smith sighting categorically removing it from the equation and he would have been positively identified which just did not happen. We know who the innocent dad is but we know nothing about anyone else. My opinion

Snip
With Portuguese laws prohibiting the release of photofits of suspects, the McCs put out an artist’s sketch of “Tannerman” in October 2007.

The Portuguese probe was concluded in July 2008 and it was not until 2011, when then-Home Secretary Theresa May ordered the Metropolitan Police carry out a review, the Totmans’ account was finally taken seriously.

Man sought for years 'almost certainly' not Maddie abductor

A man was seen with a child walking past the McCanns apartment the night Madeleine went missing

www.leicestermercury.co.uk

 

[Consider Dudley]

Sure

If the defence can say hey - here is SODDI 1. Tannerman. The prime suspect from the start. And the repudiation for that relies on proving that Tannerman was actually Dr Trotman, I think you get into such a tortuous mess where it will be hard to rule these possibilities out to BARD standard

Instead, if you have a forensic connection between CB and MM for example, you can simply say this proves Tannerman and all the other theories are red herrings. You don't need to expend any effort on them.

So HCW needs this 'short circuit' to render all the past investigative history of the case irrelevant.

BIB - the Met seem absolutely certain Tannerman can be ruled out, there must be compelling reasons for that, that we are hitherto unaware of. IMO.

 

[Anxala]

IMO, JT and the S's family saw the same man (the abductor). Maybe he was CB, maybe not.

And yet the descriptions of Tannerman and Smithman were very different. And not one of the facial composites resembled CB. And Smithman, unlike Tannerman, was not dependent upon one witness account.

 

[CousinVinny]

And yet the descriptions of Tannerman and Smithman were very different. And not one of the facial composites resembled CB. And Smithman was not dependent upon one witness account.

The 2 efits of smithman are completely different to one another yet its apparently the same man seen by two different members of the same family. All of whom claim they wouldn't be able to recognise him again from a photo. How they can put together an accurate efit then is anyone's guess.

 

[Zuleika]

It was very dangerous to abduct the child with all the Tapas' nine comings and goings. Someone could see the abductor. And in fact, IMO, JT saw the abductor carrying MM at approximately 9:50 p.m.

MO entered the apartment at approximately 9:35 p.m. to do a (maybe careless) check, and KM raised the alarm at approximately 10:05 p.m. So the abductor had a "window" of some 25 minutes.

IMO, JT and the S's family saw the same man (the abductor). Maybe he was CB, maybe not.

What AndyRedwood ( was lead detective of Operation Grange) did on the update on Crimewatch was , he totally wiped Tanner's man off the board as being of any significance , instead wholly concentrating on Smithsman (who was going in a different direction to Tannersman ) .
Why would CB ,having transport , be seen out on foot where anyone could identify him ?
On second thoughts if it was him and a robbery gone wrong why not at least rob something while he was in there?

 

[Consider Dudley]

And yet the descriptions of Tannerman and Smithman were very different. And not one of the facial composites resembled CB. And Smithman, unlike Tannerman, was not dependent upon one witness account.

Were the really that different? What details from Smith’s description rule out the possibility that it was Tannerman he saw?

 

[CousinVinny]

On second thoughts if it was him and a robbery gone wrong why not at least rob something while he was in there?

For the same reason a burglar doesn't steal every item on offer. Focus is on the main prize and time is of the essence.

 

[Zuleika]

Were the really that different? What details from Smith’s description rule out the possibility that it was Tannerman he saw?

Have you not seen the artists impressions?
Tanner's man was wearing a jacket for starters and had dark collar length hair.
Smithsman was wearing light coloured trousers possibly with buttons ( I call them holiday makers must haves ) and top ,no jacket ,didn't have longish hair