Madeleine McCann Case Solved: What Happened To Her

MADELEINE McCann Watch: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Madeleine McCann in the news: Donal MacIntyre knows what happened to Our Maddie. It’s front-page news in the Sunday Express:

MADELEINE: WORLD EXCLUSIVE – I KNOW HOW SHE WAS TAKEN. By… Donal MacIntyre.

Yeah, the guy from the telly who investigated football hooligans and ended up being beaten up by friends of the acting hooligan his work helped send down. He knows. Want to know what he knows? The Sunday Express has front-page news:

MADELEINE McCann was abducted by at least two kidnappers who must have carried out several dry runs in the days leading up to her disappearance.

Facts.

After spending a week on the ground investigating the case and the methods used by the kidnappers, I can only conclude that they must have entered the apartment to carry out a rehearsal, because they were working to an incredibly tight schedule.

In one week, Donal MacIntyre – TV man for hire – has been able to crack the case that has bungled on for three long summers. Of course, what we want to know is where is Our Maddie and if she was taken, who dunnit?

The three-minute time frame they allowed themselves left no margin for error. But even though they did their homework with meticulous care, they still came within seconds of capture.

This sounds like a plot for a TV show pilot.

I believe the focus of the investigation for the private investigators hired by Madeleine’s parents should be on a breakdown of who was in and around the Mark Warner Ocean Club in Praia da Luz throughout their holiday.

You mean Our Maddie wasn’t taken by someone who wasn’t in Praia da Luz at the time. So much for that theory. Donal has more:

It is more than probable key witnesses would have seen the kidnappers in the days and nights leading up to the abduction on May 3, 2007.

Probably probably.

Such was the narrow window of opportunity, only agile, sharp-witted people well-practised in breaking and entering properties could have pulled this off.

Time to name names. Ready:

Over the past week I have conducted a cold case review of most of the available evidence relating to the abduction and had lengthy discussions with numerous Portuguese sources who cannot be identified.

Having not seen all the evidence, Donal is now able to tell the truth, cutting unnamed sources. Want more facts?

Crucial to unravelling the whole case is establishing what precisely took place from 8pm to 10.15pm on the night Madeleine vanished.

Finally! Now we’re getting somewhere. If we can find out what happened at the time Our Maddie vanishes we can know the truth as to what happened to her. Why did no-one think to call the TV investigator at the time?

In my view too little attention has been paid to what I believe was a key sighting. A dark-haired woman was observed standing near a street light at a road junction that overlooks apartment 5A. What was she doing in the eerily quiet area, which is not near a bus stop, taxi rank, cafes or shops?

Looking for bizniss? Smoking a Strand cigarette? It turns out that this question is rhetorical.

She was seen looking at the apartment as the late evening gloom descended.

In the eerie gloom of Portugal in the height of summer. It was, was it not, a dark and stormy night.

Was she also watching to see the movements of Kate and Gerry McCann and their holiday friends, the so-called Tapas Seven?

Well. Hold on, armchair detectives, this may another rhetorical question…

I think so.

It’s not. Feel free to think not.

The same witness who saw the mystery woman also saw a gold or brown Nissan car driving erratically past the woman. Despite appeals neither the woman nor the driver of the car has come forward. Was this Nissan the getaway car and was its driver conducting a dry run at this very time?

No. The driver was a bad drive of a rubbish car careering past a prostitute.

Again, I think so.

Once more, Donal MacIntyre tricks us with his literary devices. We remain quietened by his knowledge. Question asked. Question answered.

Although we do not, sadly, have a minute-by-minute breakdown of the events that took place, this is the scenario that I believe unfolded.

Hold on a mo. At the start of the piece, Donal MacIntyre knew things down to the three-minute clock. He had facts. Now he has not many facts and only belief. Still, he has been on the telly, so we must give him the attention his words demand:

Having settled Madeleine, then three, and their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, Gerry and Kate, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have a glass of wine before heading off to the tapas bar, a minute’s walk away, to join their friends Jane Tanner and her partner Russell O’Brien, Rachel and Mathew Oldfield, David and Fiona Payne and Diane Webster.

Facts.

At about 9pm Gerry leaves the table and walks over to the apartment to check on the twins and Madeleine.

Facts.

He enters the apartment and then goes to the toilet. He checks on his children and savours a proud father’s moment as he stands by the doorway looking into the back bedroom where they are all soundly asleep.

Facts with a dash or sentiment. Careful, Donal, keep to the facts your cold case review has uncovered:

The twins are in cots and Madeleine in bed, holding her favourite toy, Cuddle Cat. Gerry spends up to 10 minutes in the five-room apartment and will only later reflect that he felt there was someone else there at the same time.

Facts.

For the kidnap to have taken place I believe Gerry’s gut instinct was sound.

Belief. Donal. Come on, you’re wavering…

So we must assume….

And there is it. From repeating the facts established in much print and police reportage, the TV man in the know is now speculating.

…that a few minutes before Gerry arrived, the abductor walked along the public road beside the apartment, opened the gate, walked up 10 steps to the patio and entered through the open patio doors.

Ten steps. Donal MacIntyre has counted them. It is a fact. Although, the kidnapper may have taken two steps at a time, possibly three.

At this stage he or she is a heartbeat away from being caught. But where could the abductor have hidden? Gerry walked through the front room, used the bathroom and looked in on the children – but did he check anywhere else?

Paedos under the beds?

My view is that the abductor was probably in the children’s bedroom, possibly behind the door or crouching behind furniture.

Probably. Possibly. Donal’s view might be obstructed:

As Gerry strolls out of the patio doors, closing but not locking them, he leaves through the same small gate facing the road where the abductor has entered minutes before.

Facts.

Just outside, he meets television producer Jes Wilkins on the way back to the tapas bar. There is not another soul on the street.

Well, not one that they can see in the eerie gloom of a summer’s night in Portugal…

Back inside the apartment the abductor must be breathing a sigh of relief as Gerry leaves, then realises his exit route is blocked and plan B has to be put into operation.

Must be. This is empathy. Donal MacIntyre has gone form Colombo to Cracker.

For this, help is essential. The abductor inside the apartment passes Madeleine – probably put to sleep with chloroform – through the open window into the accomplice’s arms.

Probably.

In the distance, the voices of Gerry McCann and Jes Wilkins waft through the air.

The gloomy eerie air. The facts keep on coming:

What trauma would Madeleine suffer if, terrified and forcibly kept silent, she hears Dad’s voice as she is being bundled into the hands of dangerous strangers?

Let’s imagine. Imagine. Imagine.

At the same time – about 9.10pm – and unnoticed by Wilkins and Gerry, Jane Tanner observes them chatting. The kidnapper holding Madeleine retreats to the adjacent car park before heading on to the same footpath where, a short distance downhill, Gerry and Wilkins are talking.

It’s taking on the feel of an Agatha Christie denouement.

The accomplice makes his way out of the window and into the darkness. The kidnappers think they have got away with it, but they are on the brink of being caught.

They were caught?! If you’re on the brink of being caught, you must have been caught…

Despite hearing the voices of Madeleine’s father a short distance away, the kidnapper holding the girl plans to cross the road junction just above them. As he hits the footpath, he sees both men chatting and Jane Tanner heading his way – three potential witnesses to the abduction, including the father of the child. Why choose such a potentially disastrous course? My belief is that he had to make a rendezvous with the getaway driver.

In the inconspicuous gold car being driven badly..?

The seven seconds he took to cross the road were either well-planned, foolhardy or a sign of breathtaking confidence. In any case, the kidnapper never faltered and was never seen again.

So not on the brink of being caught.

Jane Tanner says he was carrying a child. She believes it was Madeleine and her theory is supported by the McCann investigators.

The theory is supported by… Facts:

The timing of the statements from the key witnesses suggests that there was a maximum of three to five minutes for the abduction to be executed.

That’s a pretty long time to commit a crime, isn’t it. You can do a lot of damage in five minutes.

In such circumstances only good planning and co-ordination could make this possible. It would be an extraordinary effort, needing an astonishing degree of luck, if this had been done on an opportunistic basis.

Would it. Five minutes. Count it. It’s long enough to commit many crimes. Because – get his, Donal – an opportunistic crime is an opportunistic crime.

The clean execution of the kidnap, without a hint of a DNA trace or any useable evidence, means it was highly professional and planned with precision.

Or that the crime scene was polluted before the police got to it, and then not looked after properly when they did arrive. But Donal knows:

Such precision is the hallmark of fixated, obsessive sexual predators. There were 20 known paedophiles living on the Algarve at the time including one with a flat near the McCanns’ apartment but all have been eliminated as possible perpetrators.

A child getting stolen is the mark of a pervert? Well, possibly. Or a child smuggler? Or a woman who wanted a kid? Or none of the above…

However, the area must be a magnet for sex offenders. It has a creche, school and nursery. Add a transient population of young holidaymakers and you have a lot of attractions for sexual predators.

Portugal is teaming with perverts. To catch them all you need to is set up a school and a crèche and wait. They will come. Be patient.

With its road access the McCann apartment was the most vulnerable in the complex and it is easy to see why a paedophile would make it a target.

It is for you, Donal, as agile and sharp-witted as the pervs. It is if you’re Donal MacIntyre, TV man for hire:

Last week I walked unchallenged on to the property in the company of another journalist. We were both unsuitably dressed and surrounded by children and parents. We had a drink and left. Two hours later I returned and again was not challenged.

Has any right-minded person been there, Donal MacIntyre would have been beaten to a bloody pulp and have “PAEDO” stretched into his forehead.

Today there is more lighting around the complex but little else has changed. Until the kidnappers are caught, the unspoken fear will remain that Praia da Luz is a sunny place for shady people.

That’s harsh. Journalists are not all bad…

All that remains visible of the Madeleine McCann campaign there is a touching shrine in the beautiful church on the sea front. Pray For Me, the heart-shaped poster pleads. Below it, 10 electric candles flicker in her memory. Many more will be lit before this mystery is solved.

How many? Facts, Donal. We need facts…

Facts: Madeleine McCann is missing. There are no suspects.