Could I just say that the window was very ill lit, but the doorway being so deeply recessed back was in almost pitch blackness. The thick canopy of the trees would have masked out almost all the light from the street lamps. There had been a full moon the previous night and so had it risen, there would have been some light from that, but I am now not sure that it had risen by that time. Does anyone know?
ETA: Thanks to Heri, we now have the moon rise times
Quote from: Heriberto Janosch on April 09, 2013, 11:03:24 AM
Yes Sadie,
The data for Praia da Luz (37º 06' North, 8º 06' West) for that day was Sunset at 20:25 (all local times), end of civil twilight at 20:54, and full (99%) Moon rise at 21:54. Source: US Naval Observatory.
So at 22:00 the Moon were very close to the horizon.
Waht we seem to be forgetting when shifting the time of JT's sighting is that Gerry left 5A at about 9.15. Matt did the next check and that was via the patio door, I understand ... so presumably he came out of his back gate into the alleyway going west > east, walked a short distance around the corner and up the steps. He didn't go past that window.
ETA: We now know that Matt did NOT go past the front window of apartment 5A; he returned to the tapas, visiting 5A en route, via Russells back patio window. He defintely took the short route back via the alleyway, as i thought beforeI dont have the time of that check in my head but it was in the 3/4 hour period between Gerrys check and the discovery that Madeleine was missing. There were no more checks. No more checks were scheduled.
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As she wasn't scheduled to check, why on earth are we wondering why JT, or whoever, should look in the direction of that window? People look in the direction they are walking and towards light. The light to 5A was broken, so no light there and the window and front door were always at an angle of 90*, or more, to the angle they were walking. As I said before, peeps look in the direction they are walking.
JT's statement of the time, and of passing Gerry and Jez was almost certainly bonafide. She almost certainly witnessed the abduction at about 9.20
An additional pointer to this being correct is that she thought that the pyjamas were pink. As Hare pointed out in pfa2 neither sodium light nor moonlight shows colour. They are monchromatic lighting. However, some headlights, for instance the headlights to certain 4 wheel drive vehicles do show colour.
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I have always thought that the getaway vehicle was parked in the little car park opposite the reception and it was frustrated in its attempt to pick up Madeleine and Bundleman by Gerry and Jez being there and JT witnessing. Had it started to pull out of that carpark and suddenly seen the situation, its headlights would have swept across Bundleman and Madeleine before it reversed back in and then dashed off, in fright, in the opposite direction.
StoptheMyths forum, ..... and Heri have all thought that someone was watching from the balcony across the road from the steps up to 5A. I think that position for watching is better than ones I have mentioned before, because there would be an exit from that building via the little back garden and a gate into that little car park, where I am pretty convinced the getaway vehicle was parked. Maybe Heri can confirm this route via a gate on to the little car park opposite reception ... and the getaway vehicle? Please. Did you notice a gate there, Heri?
[ETA There is a gate there visible on one of Johns GE images]That balcony is perfect for a viewing place. It has extensive views along the street at the top and
all when in the glow of the street light, down the street where everyone walked up and the reception was situated. Also of the Tapas Restaurant
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It also has the criteria that I think are essential:
1) Views of the reception,
2) Views of the steps up to 5A and the patio balcony
3) But DOES NOT have views of Gerry and Jez chatting. Any watcher/ co-ordinator / driver, who could have seen Gerry and Jez there, would NOT have signalled Bundleman that the coast was clear ... and NO man would normally have been stupid enough to have risked carrying a stolen child through the streets of pdL. The abduction went wrong because of JT and Gerry and Jez being out of sight of the co-ordinator.
Because of these criteria for what had to have been seen and also NOT seen, Heri, your shared idea of that balcony opposite the steps up, seems vastly better than the longer viewpoint you highlighted. With that Gerry and Jez would have been in full view to the watcher, so he would not have given the go ahead
Only my thoughts but they seem based on logic. Waht do you think?
