Mark Williams-Thomas suggests Madeleine woke, wandered and was abducted.

[pegasus]

I will search tomorrow, but I seem to remember something about a special card of some description was required. Is that a slot on the left of the handle?
Night all.

The control is a round thing. Beside it is a symbol of a person. It could be a button, or a round circular knob which you have to rotate to open the electric door?

[ShiningInLuz]

The waiter statements are to the effect that members of the public were entitled to dine in the Tapas restaurant in the evening (though they couldn't remember anyone doing it).  The receptionist clocked off at the end of a normal working day.

How would a general member get into a key-card area during Tapas restaurant hours?

[pegasus]

The waiter statements are to the effect that members of the public were entitled to dine in the Tapas restaurant in the evening (though they couldn't remember anyone doing it).  The receptionist clocked off at the end of a normal working day.

How would a general member get into a key-card area during Tapas restaurant hours?

In the theory by O'C the child walks to the supermarket car park. This route goes straight past the street door of the tapas reception building and needs to explain why the child does not go in that door. One possibility is that this street door was closed, and that the method of opening it, simple for adults, was not obvious to a small child. If this door appeared locked to a child, then walking further downhill might be the next instinctive action.

[pegasus]

In this case where wandering was definitely possible, questioning by police should have made it a priority to establish exactly what knowledge the child had of where the adults were. The questions which should have been put to the parents are:
"At bedtime was the child told you would be out? Was the child told you would be at a restaurant? If so, was the child told generically a restaurant without saying which, or was the child told specifically which restaurant? And was the child also told that the other group adults would also be out?"

Also to examine whether or not a wandering child would be able to get through the tapas reception I would have asked all T9:
 "That evening when you passed through the tapas reception building were the outer and inner doors fixed in open position or did you need to open them? Were the doors electrically powered? What was the opening method? Was it a button? If not what was it? Did each door close automatically behind you?"

All those essential questions to determine which route a wandering child would take.

[ShiningInLuz]

In this case where wandering was definitely possible, questioning by police should have made it a priority to establish exactly what knowledge the child had of where the adults were. The questions which should have been put to the parents are:
"At bedtime was the child told you would be out? Was the child told you would be at a restaurant? If so, was the child told generically a restaurant without saying which, or was the child told specifically which restaurant? And was the child also told that the other group adults would also be out?"

Also to examine whether or not a wandering child would be able to get through the tapas reception I would have asked all T9:
 "That evening when you passed through the tapas reception building were the outer and inner doors fixed in open position or did you need to open them? Were the doors electrically powered? What was the opening method? Was it a button? If not what was it? Did each door close automatically behind you?"

All those essential questions to determine which route a wandering child would take.

At the time the police responded - none of them knew the layout of the Ocean Club - none of then knew how Luz worked - none of them knew that Madeleine was always in the mini club - none of them knew the T9 always dined in the Tapas zone.  They had, and still have, a basic ignorance of the Ocean Club and how it worked.

Crimewatch 2013
20:01 Apartment 5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EyqHtsLeGQ

Presenter - "Tell me now about the crime scene itself."

DCI Andy Redword - "Yes, I mean the family with their three children were in apartment G five A.  This was on the edge of a sort of  contained area which was known as the Ocean Club, within which there was a Tapas bar and swimming pools and tennis court.  But the actual apartments where they were staying was was outside that perimeter area and it was, effectively, from front and back, accessible to the public. The front door was accessed by a car park and then the rear entrance was a side set of steps that lead up and into a rear balcony area that go into and through patio doors."

OG in 2013 was working at a level of knowledge that does not extend to the mechanism of the Tapas reception door.

[pegasus]

At the time the police responded - none of them knew the layout of the Ocean Club - none of then knew how Luz worked - none of them knew that Madeleine was always in the mini club - none of them knew the T9 always dined in the Tapas zone.  They had, and still have, a basic ignorance of the Ocean Club and how it worked.

Crimewatch 2013
20:01 Apartment 5A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EyqHtsLeGQ

Presenter - "Tell me now about the crime scene itself."

DCI Andy Redword - "Yes, I mean the family with their three children were in apartment G five A.  This was on the edge of a sort of  contained area which was known as the Ocean Club, within which there was a Tapas bar and swimming pools and tennis court.  But the actual apartments where they were staying was was outside that perimeter area and it was, effectively, from front and back, accessible to the public. The front door was accessed by a car park and then the rear entrance was a side set of steps that lead up and into a rear balcony area that go into and through patio doors."

OG in 2013 was working at a level of knowledge that does not extend to the mechanism of the Tapas reception door.

Let's hope OG at least understand the method of opening the window and shutter from outside. That really is absolutely essential before investigating any scenario whatsoever (wandering or abduction or burglary or accident or other). Also it would be fairly easy for them to obtain an actual stairgate of that make and model and use it to understand how it works and formulate questions for interviews accordingly (because closed does not equal locked). And fairly easy to find out how the tapas reception doors worked at that time and whether that evening they were fixed open or required opening and what the opening method was. All very basic mechanics but essential stuff which SH would have done the day he was handed the case.

[Brietta]

Let's hope OG at least understand the method of opening the window and shutter from outside. That really is absolutely essential before investigating any scenario whatsoever (wandering or abduction or burglary or accident or other). Also it would be fairly easy for them to obtain an actual stairgate of that make and model and use it to understand how it works and formulate questions for interviews accordingly (because closed does not equal locked). And fairly easy to find out how the tapas reception doors worked at that time and whether that evening they were fixed open or required opening and what the opening method was. All very basic mechanics but essential stuff which SH would have done the day he was handed the case.

I doubt very much if OG are pursuing the woke and wandered theory ... it was not mentioned in the Crimewatch appeal.

Home invasions were.  As was the man seen carrying a child.

[Alice Purjorick]

I doubt very much if OG are pursuing the woke and wandered theory ... it was not mentioned in the Crimewatch appeal.

Home invasions were.  As was the man seen carrying a child.

You may well be right. The Crimewatch appeal however is now two years old. It is just possible that in a live investigation worked on by a squad of 30+ other lines of inquiry have emerged in that amount of lapsed time. That coupled with the deathly 'ush from DCI N. Wall means we know what the MPS wanted us to know in October 2013. Which wasn't a fat lot other than Tannerman had been fragged and Smithman was a person of interest and the time line in which an abduction could have taken place was then a bit different from that which had obtained for the first six years. Not forgetting Andy's weird syntax which kept threads on here alive and kicking for 24 months about "what he really meant was....."

[pegasus]

You may well be right. The Crimewatch appeal however is now two years old. It is just possible that in a live investigation worked on by a squad of 30+ other lines of inquiry have emerged in that amount of lapsed time. That coupled with the deathly 'ush from DCI N. Wall means we know what the MPS wanted us to know in October 2013. Which wasn't a fat lot other than Tannerman had been fragged and Smithman was a person of interest and the time line in which an abduction could have taken place was then a bit different from that which had obtained for the first six years. Not forgetting Andy's weird syntax which kept threads on here alive and kicking for 24 months about "what he really meant was....."

IMO it was woken and wandered - woken by someone opening that shutter, and wandered out of that bedroom, but maybe not as far as outdoors

[mercury]

I doubt very much if OG are pursuing the woke and wandered theory ... it was not mentioned in the Crimewatch appeal.

Home invasions were.  As was the man seen carrying a child.

I very much doubt OG would only be pursuing ONE line of inquiry...that makes no sense whatsoever

[ferryman]

I very much doubt OG would only be pursuing ONE line of inquiry...that makes no sense whatsoever

They will be pursuing as many lines of enquiry as the evidence leads them to pursue.

Whatever that evidence is ....

[mercury]

They will be pursuing as many lines of enquiry as the evidence leads them to pursue.

Whatever that evidence is ....

Well I'm glad we managed to agree for once, night night now

[Brietta]

I very much doubt OG would only be pursuing ONE line of inquiry...that makes no sense whatsoever

We know that they are pursuing more than one line of inquiry having discarded the more improbable and those without evidence to support them.

The Policia Judicairia and Scotland yard reviewed the case independently of each other.  Both came up with new evidence which enabled the case to be reopened.
Neither mentioned the woke and wandered theory ... which if you remember was also discarded very early on by the initial investigation in favour of one line of inquiry which instead of following the evidence followed the theory.

JOSE MANUEL OLIVEIRA
Crime reporter, 'Diario de Noticias'
Information started circulating from sources connected to the Portuguese police that the story was full of holes from the side of the McCanns and their friends. Indeed within two days of Madeleine disappearing, this crime correspondent was filing this piece in the Portuguese Daily: Diario of the Noticias: "Headline: a badly told story." We started to receive information according to which the police suspected the theory they had apprehensions, didn't believe the theory that she had been kidnapped. To conclude, the police started to suspect the parents from the word go.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/7106086.stm

[pegasus]

I doubt very much if OG are pursuing the woke and wandered theory ... it was not mentioned in the Crimewatch appeal. ...(snip)

True, SY on crimewatch didn't mention woke and wandered.
But SY have mentioned attempted burglary. And SY have mentioned entry from outside via window.
What SY appear to have not done is to think through what the response of a child would be to someone opening the bedroom shutter, and how easily this could be the reason for waking and also a compelling reason for wandering (aka running away from danger, certainly as far as another room, and possibly even further).

[Brietta]

True, SY on crimewatch didn't mention woke and wandered.
But SY have mentioned attempted burglary. And SY have mentioned entry from outside via window.
What SY appear to have not done is to think through what the response of a child would be to someone opening the bedroom shutter, and how easily this could be the reason for waking and also a compelling reason for wandering (aka running away from danger, certainly as far as another room, and possibly even further).

In a step forward from the original investigation which had discarded the evidence of the open window and raised shutter in preference for the theory of 'fabrication' to authenticate Madeleine's abduction, we have seen photographs of the Rebelo investigators looking very carefully at the possibilities and probabilities concerned with both the sliding door and the bedroom window.

We have no evidence that either investigation considered this in correlation with the then known fact of home invasions nearby as well as within the confines of the apartment block where the McCann family were in residence.

In fact we have little of substance emanating from the Rebelo investigation other than diligences in an attempt to retrieve CCTV footage from the highways ~ correspondence concerning a reconstitution ~ a British visit curtailed by the necessity to return to Portugal to plug more pejorative leaks ~ newspaper reports that the investigation was revisiting the abduction theory.
That Rebelo took care to ensure that a fax from British police was placed in the files would seem to confirm his interest in that direction.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/2512536/Madeleine-McCann-was-snatched-by-paedophile-ring-to-order.html

The time wasted in chasing shadows in Madeleine McCann's case is heartbreaking.  Had the evidence been followed from the 3rd May instead of careering down a dead end path, we might have been having a different conversation today.  Or maybe none at all as a little girl might have been returned to the bosom of her family.

Public Ministry archived the process because no indicium of guilt of the McCanns was proved, 04 August 2008
http://www.mccannfiles.com/id151.html

Portugal's top detective, Alipio Ribeiro, says in a radio interview that police were "hasty" in making Madeleine's parents suspects in her disappearance.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/law_order/timeline+madeleine+mccann+case/774547.html


Given the volume of evidence they had to wade through and with the benefit of hindsight being able to differentiate the good the bad from the official records, I seriously doubt that either the Policia Judicairia or Scotland Yard did not give full consideration to all theories including the 'woke and wandered' one.

I do not think there is the slightest doubt it has been discarded by three professionally conducted inquiries.