Could an intruder have opened the shutter and climbed in the window?

[Alice Purjorick]

It wasn't a word it was a sound......So how do you put it into words?


at 14.30

Well from KM's description in the video you have linked it is quite clear.
She saw the door to the children's room was quite far open pulled the door to, seemingly without looking inside the room, and the door slammed shut.
She opened the door again saw M was not there so she went to her[Kate's room] and M was not there either.
She returned to M's room where she observed the curtains that had been closed whooshed [billowed?] open. The window was open and the shutter raised; her gesture indicates the curtains billowed into the room.
Straightforward enough.
The door would slam shut and the curtains billow[my word] by movement of air. The only thing to remember about movement of air is that it always moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas. So when the door closed and the curtains billowed the HP side was outside the building. Does it do us any good having that knowledge? Maybe not.
How does the statement in the video stack up against statements given to the police? Are there any glaring discrepancies?
But if the curtains were closed as is suggested in the video it makes the abduction through the window theory very interesting.

[Anna]

Well from KM's description in the video you have linked it is quite clear.
She saw the door to the children's room was quite far open pulled the door to, seemingly without looking inside the room, and the door slammed shut.
She opened the door again saw M was not there so she went to her[Kate's room] and M was not there either.
She returned to M's room where she observed the curtains that had been closed whooshed [billowed?] open. The window was open and the shutter raised; her gesture indicates the curtains billowed into the room.
Straightforward enough.
The door would slam shut and the curtains billow[my word] by movement of air. The only thing to remember about movement of air is that it always moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas. So when the door closed and the curtains billowed the HP side was outside the building. Does it do us any good having that knowledge? Maybe not.
How does the statement in the video stack up against statements given to the police? Are there any glaring discrepancies?
But if the curtains were closed as is suggested in the video it makes the abduction through the window theory very interesting.

Good questions Alice. However they have all been gone through so many times already.

I have trouble in my home, with doors slamming and curtains billowing when an outside door is opened. I now have heavy weighted curtains and door stops to alleviate the problem.

The closed curtains and open window is a mystery, that is yet unsolved. Only the person responsible for her disappearance can answer that one.

ETA
This is a curtain topic that might be of interest
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=3487.msg131723#msg131723

[Carana]

Can anyone explain why an abductor or burglar would open the window and shutters but not the curtains? Those who think Madeleine was lifted from outside are wrong, as are those who think she was passed out through the window. Not with closed curtains she wasn't.

Can anyone explain how the curtains whooshed? One was trapped behind the bed. Did Kate or Gerald McCann tuck it down there at some point?

The photos reflect what the PJ saw when they arrived. Prior to that, furniture had been moved to check if she could have been under or behind anywhere. The position of furniture does not therefore reflect what the first people on the scene actually saw.

[Anna]

If you check the left side corner wall. The headboard shows that the bed was not pushed up to the window wall. The curtain(of a light material by the looks of it) is creased for some reason. IMO

[pegasus]

He knew the front door was recessed around the corner so I think he'd be pretty dumb to check the wrong window.

IMO the witness had never been to that front door and had never been in that flat and did not know its layout.

If we call the three windows in the photo from right to left X Y and Z....
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1868.0;attach=5714;image
Is it possible that maybe he listens at X thinking (correctly) it is bedroom of own flat, then listens at Y thinking (incorrectly) it is bedroom of next-door flat, and does not listen at Z ?

[Brietta]

IMO the witness had never been to that front door and had never been in that flat and did not know its layout.

If we call the three windows in the photo from right to left X Y and Z....
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1868.0;attach=5714;image
Is it possible that maybe he listens at X thinking (correctly) it is bedroom of own flat, then listens at Y thinking (incorrectly) it is bedroom of next-door flat, and does not listen at Z ?

It could have happened as you say ... but I think the layout of the building would have allowed him to notice the shutter of the next window along was raised.

[misty]

It could have happened as you say ... but I think the layout of the building would have allowed him to notice the shutter of the next window along was raised.

Given the circumstances, I also think he would have admitted to listening at the wrong window, They were clearly different-sized windows.

[G-Unit]

Good questions Alice. However they have all been gone through so many times already.

I have trouble in my home, with doors slamming and curtains billowing when an outside door is opened. I now have heavy weighted curtains and door stops to alleviate the problem.

The closed curtains and open window is a mystery, that is yet unsolved. Only the person responsible for her disappearance can answer that one.

ETA
This is a curtain topic that might be of interest
http://miscarriageofjustice.co/index.php?topic=3487.msg131723#msg131723

Matthew saw closed curtains.

He recalls having the perception that the window curtains - green in colour - were drawn closed
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MATTHEW-OLDFIELD-10MAY.htm

Kate and Gerry McCann said they were open.

In which case Tannerman wasn't the abductor because the curtains changed from closed to open between 9.30pm and 10pm.

[pegasus]

It could have happened as you say ... but I think the layout of the building would have allowed him to notice the shutter of the next window along was raised.

Possibly, and it might not have been raised that early anyway.
Here is why I am curious about which windows were listened at 9.

The optimum time for a burglar to try to open the 5A shutter and window would be just after the parents went out.
(Obviously when they leave a burglar would assume there is no-one in).
The only reason I can think for a burglar not do it about 8.35pm but wait until later, is if it was too light outside.
Was it light outside at 8.35?

[pegasus]

Given the circumstances, I also think he would have admitted to listening at the wrong window, They were clearly different-sized windows.

Yes that is reasonable assumption. But listening at shuttered windows which don't have labels on does require working out indirectly which window is of which room of which flat.

[mercury]

Matthew saw closed curtains.

He recalls having the perception that the window curtains - green in colour - were drawn closed
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/MATTHEW-OLDFIELD-10MAY.htm

Kate and Gerry McCann said they were open.

In which case Tannerman wasn't the abductor because the curtains changed from closed to open between 9.30pm and 10pm.

Yes, but, two years later, Kate McCann explained this in the Madeleine was Here c4 documentary, IE, that the window and shutters were open but curtains closed on her 10pm check, but the gust of wind blew them open (I thnk she described the same again when they went on the USA Oprah show)

ETA video links

Oprah Show, description of Kate Mccanns check at 10 pm, from approx 15.30 mins

[misty]

Yes that is reasonable assumption. But listening at shuttered windows which don't have labels on does require working out indirectly which window is of which room of which flat.

I agree. But he listened at 2 of 3 shutters, 2 wide & 1 narrow. Surely the following day he would have quickly realised & admitted he'd listened at the wrong window.

Sunset was 8.23pm, iirc.

[Brietta]

Given the circumstances, I also think he would have admitted to listening at the wrong window, They were clearly different-sized windows.

If he had listened at the wrong window ... and realised it on reflection he would definitely have said so.  These people would have pulled out all the stops on Madeleine's behalf therefore even if it made him look silly he would have admitted the error.

These are the sort of issues that a day set aside for an early reconstitution could have pinned down members of staff, guests and residents to be in the approximate location at the approximate time they thought they were ... what a pity it was not done.

Press intrusion could have been limited by a reminder of the penalties available under the secrecy laws.

[misty]

If he had listened at the wrong window ... and realised it on reflection he would definitely have said so.  These people would have pulled out all the stops on Madeleine's behalf therefore even if it made him look silly he would have admitted the error.

These are the sort of issues that a day set aside for an early reconstitution could have pinned down members of staff, guests and residents to be in the approximate location at the approximate time they thought they were ... what a pity it was not done.

Press intrusion could have been limited by a reminder of the penalties available under the secrecy laws.

In fairness to the PJ at the time, I think a reconstitution of the sort required was just too big a task & unfeasible in the early days.
They had 24 hours before many holidaymakers would be leaving Luz at the end of their holidays and it must have been a mammoth job to identify & speak to everyone who'd resided in the immediate vicinity that night. And we all know they never identified Crecheman as being in the vicinity or took a statement from Maria Horta who lived right across the road from 5a on the g/f in Block 6,

[Brietta]

In fairness to the PJ at the time, I think a reconstitution of the sort required was just too big a task & unfeasible in the early days.
They had 24 hours before many holidaymakers would be leaving Luz at the end of their holidays and it must have been a mammoth job to identify & speak to everyone who'd resided in the immediate vicinity that night. And we all know they never identified Crecheman as being in the vicinity or took a statement from Maria Horta who lived right across the road from 5a on the g/f in Block 6,

Impossible to organise a full scale event in that time scale ... but the main players could have been walked through it step by step just as happened later with the three Smiths.