So what actual searching was there?

[mercury]

There was a police search of the residence at about 2315 which was IMO rushed and incomplete, so how can anyone possibly claim to know there was nothing there then, when they didn't look everywhere? The assumption "oh someone's searched the residence already so there is definitely nothing there so no point in searching it again" has been the embarrassing failure of search in many other real cases.

And?
Child was hiding? then what?
Intruder killed child and removed later
Parents hid child and removed later

??

You really need to help here peggy

[pegasus]

And?
Child was hiding? then what?
Intruder killed child and removed later
Parents hid child and removed later

??

You really need to help here peggy

If the police search inside at about 23.15 was incomplete then the missing person could have been in the apartment at that time. That is just common sense deduction. I don't have a big theory to explain how that would fit with everything else.
In real cases where a missing person was inside the obvious residence but was completely missed by the early searches by family and police searches, many of them involve nothing more than curling up in a very strange place often in or behind or under things and falling asleep, then there's one or maybe two cases of a fall in which objects fell on top accidentally concealing, then there's several of deliberate concealment. Once the assumption that the person has left the residence has taken hold, it is mistakenly treated as fact.

[pathfinder73]

Not when she was seen heading towards the sea.

[pegasus]

Not when she was seen heading towards the sea.

I am not ruling out the Smith sighting Pathfinder but you seem to have decided on a single path, and IMO it is safer to investigate many branching paths without assuming which is correct. Already by about 23.30 the assumption that the missing person was definitely not in the residence was being treated as an indisputable fact - it had taken such a strong psychological hold that the 3rd police officer to arrive (the post commander) did not even consider it necessary to search the residence more completely and actually he didn't even go inside

[pathfinder73]

It's the path that's right. All others come to nothing as SY have discovered.

[pegasus]

It's the path that's right. All others come to nothing as SY have discovered.

But as Mr R said, SY certainly did investigate the Smith sighting, and they didn't solve the case.
Back to "so what actual searching was there?", when the first PJ team arrived, they made absolutely no search inside the apartment. Why?

[pegasus]

List of people who searched behind sofa "E" ... ?
List of people who searched under the pile of laundry ... ?

[mercury]

But as Mr R said, SY certainly did investigate the Smith sighting, and they didn't solve the case.
Back to "so what actual searching was there?", when the first PJ team arrived, they made absolutely no search inside the apartment. Why?

Perhaps because they were told by the parents that they had opened every door and looked under each bed and they must have exhausted that search to go tampering at shutters.....still to this day have not had a logical reason why......and at least one police officer did exactly the same ie look in cupboards etc

You may have a pointt that not every cm was checked at the time meticulously...but if it doesnt link to any theory or fact thereafter what happened to the child I dont see the point??

[pegasus]

If there were spaces inside which no-one in their statements says they searched, then it is possible that what they were searching for was in one of those spaces.

[pegasus]

On the 4th there was a helicopter over PDL, searching (with IR vision IMO although I dont have a source for the IR).
Why didn't the helicopter find anything?

[mercury]

If there were spaces inside which no-one in their statements says they searched, then it is possible that what they were searching for was in one of those spaces.

If correct, then the chld was in the flat past 11pm which will exclude as relevant the  tannerman and smithman sightings....youve said you dont have a theory what happened next...why keep on about this if its not to suggest a very late remova possible by ....?

[pegasus]

If correct, then the chld was in the flat past 11pm which will exclude as relevant the  tannerman and smithman sightings....youve said you dont have a theory what happened next...why keep on about this if its not to suggest a very late remova possible by ....?

IMO both those sightings of open uncontained carrying are irrelevant Merc. It would be a ridiculously risky method.

[pathfinder73]

IMO both those sightings of open uncontained carrying are irrelevant Merc. It would be a ridiculously risky method.

If you commit a crime then risk is involved. It's how you lower that risk. When you work that out then you will unmask him because he won't do it himself 

[Lace]

List of people who searched behind sofa "E" ... ?
List of people who searched under the pile of laundry ... ?

Are you saying that Madeleine could have been under the pile of laundry?   Or in a suitcase?

5a was locked when the the McCann's went to their friends apartment the night Madeleine disappeared so when would they taken the suitcase from 5a?

Also photo's were taken of the wardrobe with the suitcase inside it.

No one saw the McCann's walking around the area with a suitcase either,   it would have been very risky for them to have gone outside with a suitcase wouldn't it?

Or am I jumping to conclusions?   it is what I think you are hinting at.

[mercury]

IMO both those sightings of open uncontained carrying are irrelevant Merc. It would be a ridiculously risky method.

The sight was common so not a  risk in that regard but

Tannerman = by time and location maxed out risk strategy
Smithman - not so high risk for both reasons

There is plenty of circumstantial evidence that Tannerman was not the alledged abductor...disputed obviously by some