So what actual searching was there?

[pegasus]

As a great sage once said "There is a wholly innocent explanation for any material ..." and  a torch and a bottle are similar shapes so maybe the witness actually saw a torch which was turned off to conserve batteries but in the dark and poor foreign street lighting mistook it for a bottle?

[misty]

As a great sage once said "There is a wholly innocent explanation for any material ..." and  a torch and a bottle are similar shapes so maybe the witness actually saw a torch which was turned off to conserve batteries but in the dark and poor foreign street lighting mistook it for a bottle?

He recognised a drunken Gerry McCann but couldn't distinguish a torch from a wine bottle?  That's more O'Reilly than Basil.

[pegasus]

Ok how about this Misty. Having identified the possibility of international abduction, and realising that some remote islands have no internet or TV or mobile phones, it was urgent to alert inhabitants of those remote islands by going to the shore and sending a ...
Sounds unlikely but I did hear the idea from my second "police" source. What's your explanation Misty - possibly it was completely wrong identification?

[misty]

Ok how about this Misty. Having identified the possibility of international abduction, and realising that some remote islands have no internet or TV or mobile phones, it was urgent to alert inhabitants of those remote islands by going to the shore and sending a ...
Sounds unlikely but I did hear the idea from my second "police" source. What's your explanation Misty - possibly it was completely wrong identification?

I think it was a desperately random attempt to justify an allegation of an "important" missing statement from the police files which, like much else,  had never previously been important until a thesis was being decimated. Mr. Farmer/Fisherman/Handyman had never given a statement to the PJ, afaik, despite living in the thick of the drama. I'm presuming he knew Euclides?
I'm not into a flashlight or flare theory to signal a boat.

[pegasus]

I think it was a desperately random attempt to justify an allegation of an "important" missing statement from the police files which, like much else,  had never previously been important until a thesis was being decimated. Mr. Farmer/Fisherman/Handyman had never given a statement to the PJ, afaik, despite living in the thick of the drama. I'm presuming he knew Euclides?
I'm not into a flashlight or flare theory to signal a boat.

A reasonable reason for carrying a a bottle to the shore would be to use it to send a message in a bottle. As I said I heard this from a police source. And if someone dropped the piece of paper with the message on they would walk zigzag looking for it in the dark. So really there is nothing out of the ordinary about this at all.

As for the theory you mention, that witness CF was invented and his account too, why would anyone invent a male local fisherman to back up Mr Amaral's claim about a female brit tourist? That would be a cunning plan.

[misty]

A reasonable reason for carrying a a bottle to the shore would be to use it to send a message in a bottle. As I said I heard this from a police source. And if someone dropped the piece of paper with the message on they would walk zigzag looking for it in the dark. So really there is nothing out of the ordinary about this at all.

As for the theory you mention, that witness CF was invented and his account too, why would anyone invent a male local fisherman to back up Mr Amaral's claim about a female brit tourist? That would be a cunning plan.

Truly lol'd at the message in a bottle idea. GM should have switched the "bottle" on to see where the paper went.

I think you have to have a suspension of disbelief in relation to anything that comes from a Portuguese source several weeks/months/years down the line. GM probably was on the beach that night at some stage - but was he seen on the beach with a body or a big black bin bag & a plastic spade?

[pegasus]

Truly lol'd at the message in a bottle idea. GM should have switched the "bottle" on to see where the paper went.

I think you have to have a suspension of disbelief in relation to anything that comes from a Portuguese source several weeks/months/years down the line. GM probably was on the beach that night at some stage - but was he seen on the beach with a body or a big black bin bag & a plastic spade?

Witness CF saw a man apparently searching with a bottle near the shore at about 1AM.
BTW CF has definitely at least spoken with GNR.

[Brietta]

A reasonable reason for carrying a a bottle to the shore would be to use it to send a message in a bottle. As I said I heard this from a police source. And if someone dropped the piece of paper with the message on they would walk zigzag looking for it in the dark. So really there is nothing out of the ordinary about this at all.

As for the theory you mention, that witness CF was invented and his account too, why would anyone invent a male local fisherman to back up Mr Amaral's claim about a female brit tourist? That would be a cunning plan.

A cunning plan indeed.

Has anyone seen anything of the statement from the woman who allegedly had concerns about the open boot of the Renault in the villa driveway?

[pegasus]

A cunning plan indeed.

Has anyone seen anything of the statement from the woman who allegedly had concerns about the open boot of the Renault in the villa driveway?

I assume that will now be in the current PJ and SY files Brietta.
If I can find the address, NW certainly can. 

[misty]

Witness CF saw a man apparently searching with a bottle near the shore at about 1AM.
BTW CF has definitely at least spoken with GNR.

There were lots of locals searching near the shore that night. Did this lone man stand out because he was drunk, shouting something in Portuguese or English, take your pick?
Do you have a link to CF speaking with the GNR?

[mercury]

I think you have to have a suspension of disbelief in relation to anything that comes from a Portuguese source several weeks/months/years down the line

But youre happy to accept witnesses coming forward weeks/months/ years down the line vis a vis having "on Maddie " or perpetrators,
Pretty irresponsible of them

[Brietta]

But youre happy to accept witnesses coming forward weeks/months/ years down the line vis a vis having "on Maddie " or perpetrators,
Pretty irresponsible of them

Is your predictive text acting up again?

[pegasus]

(snip)... Do you have a link to CF speaking with the GNR?

No, it's deduction.

[misty]

No, it's deduction.

Please talk me through it then. There's nothing in the press reports I've seen to confirm anything either way.

[pegasus]

Please talk me through it then. There's nothing in the press reports I've seen to confirm anything either way.

Ok. One report says he went to a site he caretakes on the Lagos road but was not allowed in because SY were searching it. We know from photos that it is GNR soldiers who guarded the perimeters of all the visible SY search sites. Therefore he spoke with GNR.
IMO he will have since then been interviewed by the current PJ investigation (some of them do read CdM), about his 1AM sighting of someone apparently with a bottle.