Madeleine's disappearance, May 8th 2007 - the PJ have doubts. Several days of interviews.

It is May 8th 2007, being the fifth day after Madeleine McCann's disappearance. At this stage, the PJ have taken statements from dozens of people. Hundreds of pages in the reports. Everybody has been interviewed. Employees of the Ocean Club, nannies, or child-care workers from the Kids Club, cooks and assistant cooks at the "Tapas" and the "Millenium", cleaners, gardeners, maintenance workers, managers for the club's various services, directors and managers of the complex, tourists, owners of apartments, neighbours, people who were at the "tapas" on May 3rd 2007, tennis coaches...in short, no one was left out. Everybody was interviewed. We are sparing you all these interviews, which for the most part bring nothing to the investigation or at least no new leads. They are mainly interviews which, in general, bring out the following common points.

1) No one noticed anything unusual about Madeleine.
2) No one noticed any strange individual at the complex.
3) No one noticed anything suspicious which could be linked to Madeleine's disappearance.
4) No one noticed any suspicious vehicles or any suspicious unidentified people.

It is to be noted that even the GRN police officers, first on the spot, were interviewed by their PJ colleagues, in spite of reports of the operation being sent.

With regards to the PJ's interviews over the past few days, a change is noted in how the case is being perceived. Thus the questions which the PJ are putting to various witnesses are implying that the PJ have doubts about the statements from the parents or friends in the group. We note, however, that the slightest info, concerning the slightest suspicion was professionally checked, immediately. Numerous pages of the case file attest to this. Up to now, May 8th 2007, every lead, or opening of a lead, has been checked and it was, each time, a false lead. Like, for example, a suspicious car noticed near the Ocean Club reception by various witnesses. In the end, it was the service vehicle of a Club employee who had come to make an urgent repair to a door lock.

Why these doubts for the PJ?

On reading various witness statements, given the number of leads checked, it seems difficult for someone to have been able to get into the complex, gain access to the McCanns' apartment, take Madeleine, get out of the apartment, leave the Ocean club, take flight via whatever means of transport and that no one, absolutely no one, saw anything. No strangers, no suspicious or unusual vehicles, not even a shadow of a person carrying a child at the times and places where there were other people...From the police point of view, if these witness statements do not totally exclude the possibility of an abduction, they make the theory less credible. As a result, the answer must lie elsewhere. Notably with the group of friends (parents included). The only person to have seen a suspect with a child is Jane Tanner, a member of the group of friends.

[Note, for the record, that all the child-care workers, having contact with Madeleine, state that Madeleine introduced herself to them by her shortened name "Maddie". This adds nothing important to the case file except that it contradicts Kate's statements. On the other hand, it is noted that the Kids Club operates three free services, one of which is in the evening until 11.30pm so that parents can eat at the restaurant in peace. Finally, we know that the the Club has a, "missing alert" procedure, that it is a structured and thoughtful procedure, and that this procedure was set in motion as soon as Maddie's disappearance was announced, employees having been called from their homes to participate in the search.]

Interview of an employee from the swimming pool bar.

In her interview, this employee states that access is restricted to clients and that this is controlled via the client's card at the entrance. She adds that she has not come across any unauthorised person on the site. She explains that on the day of Madeleine's disappearance, at around 8.30pm, her friend was called following a problem with a lock in an apartment situated close to the "Millenium" restaurant. She went there with her friend. At around 9pm, they went back towards the Club's reception. They passed near the "Tapas" and by the McCann family's apartment. They state that they saw nothing suspicious. They saw no one and no vehicles. Her friend left the premises at around 9.10pm with his service vehicle and she left at 9.15pm in her own car.

[The case file contains numerous witness statements like that, so that together, these witness statements contradict the statements from the "tapas9" group. A reconstruction would have made this clear immediately and would have highlighted the contradictions of the informants.]