At what time were the police called after Madeleine's disappearance?

[icabodcrane]

Processos Vol XVII Pages 4599 to 4622
With thanks to Ines
 
(Part B of the Archiving Dispatch)

B – Concrete Analysis
 
According to the GNR, the disappearance would have occurred at about 22.40 (it was later checked that the detection and subsequent alarm effectively happened between 22.00 and 22.10) on 3rd May 2007, in one of the apartments of the Ocean Club resort, situated in Praia da Luz – Lagos, where the British family, composed of a couple and three young children were staying.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/LEGAL_SUMMARY.htm

Yes,  the child's disappearance was noticed some time between 10pm and 10.10pm, and the alarm was immediately raised
   
The first phone call to the police was at 22.41pm

[south of the river]

what I find a bit odd is that it is a direct line no to the GNR - not the national emergency number of 112 - if someone suddenly asked mt call the police quick even if I was in front of a desk I wouldn't look up the direct line no I would hit 999

I would want to know if any other extensions in the place called 112 - M<aybe 112 had been called a couple of times and then the Ocean Club reception found the direct no to chase - Did the Tapas bar have an outside line  ? did the creche have an outside  line ? Are these records fully available Do we have the mobile phone records of all staff from that night to examine ?

Without any of this information all we have is an incomplete picture of how many calls were made to the PJ or GNR - did any one call 112 at any time ??

we do know that there was calls made at 10.41 - but that evidence does not tell us if they were the 1st 2nd or last -

[icabodcrane]

what I find a bit odd is that it is a direct line no to the GNR - not the national emergency number of 112 - if someone suddenly asked mt call the police quick even if I was in front of a desk I wouldn't look up the direct line no I would hit 999

I would want to know if any other extensions in the place called 112 - M<aybe 112 had been called a couple of times and then the Ocean Club reception found the direct no to chase - Did the Tapas bar have an outside line  ? did the creche have an outside  line ? Are these records fully available Do we have the mobile phone records of all staff from that night to examine ?

Without any of this information all we have is an incomplete picture of how many calls were made to the PJ or GNR - did any one call 112 at any time ??

we do know that there was calls made at 10.41 - but that evidence does not tell us if they were the 1st 2nd or last -

We can only make a conclusion on the evidence we have  ...  that there were only two calls to the police that night and they were made from the Ocean  Club reception at 22.41pm and 22.52pm

No witness has claimed to have made a call to the police  from anywhere else, either by landline or mobile

[south of the river]

dont you think that it is a bit strange that there were no calls that night to 112 ? not one - Maybe the system is different in Portugal but I would have thought that you always call the national emergency -

That has been the the thing about this case from the beginning - files and evidence that is available on line suddenly becomes the absolute

I would want to see a ton more records of calls from the whole resort that night - mobiles the lot before as an investigator I can say yup that was the first call.

Hopefully that is what Grange is doing -

[icabodcrane]

dont you think that it is a bit strange that there were no calls that night to 112 ? not one - Maybe the system is different in Portugal but I would have thought that you always call the national emergency -

That has been the the thing about this case from the beginning - files and evidence that is available on line suddenly becomes the absolute

I would want to see a ton more records of calls from the whole resort that night - mobiles the lot before as an investigator I can say yup that was the first call.

Hopefully that is what Grange is doing -

Hundreds of people were interviewed ...  and not one of them said they had phoned the police that night,  either by landline or mobile

The only mention of making a phone call to the police was that made by Mrs Fenn.  She says she offered to call the police but that she was told not to by one of the tapas group   (  Gerry ? )  because it had already been done

[AnneGuedes]

No witness has claimed to have made a call to the police  from anywhere else, either by landline or mobile

Mrs Fenn offered her phone around 22:30 but it was refused because the police had already been called.
Had the national 112 been called, they would have transferred immediately either to the local GNR (lost little girl) or to the regional PJ (abducted little girl). Neither the GNR nor the PJ were contacted before 22:41.

[south of the river]

dont you think that it is a bit strange that there were no calls that night to 112 ? not one - Maybe the system is different in Portugal but I would have thought that you always call the national emergency -

That has been the the thing about this case from the beginning - files and evidence that is available on line suddenly becomes the absolute

I would want to see a ton more records of calls from the whole resort that night - mobiles the lot before as an investigator I can say yup that was the first call.

Hopefully that is what Grange is doing -

Why would Grange do that? Anyway, you wouldnt need the records of everyone there that night, just 112 and local police number records. No 112 calls were made from main reception that day, from any extension just the two calls mentioned earlier.

The Tapas group and Management will have dealt with everything, not people around at the time ringing police off their own backs, IMO

PS Are you implying Grange think police lied about the time of the first call?

I would have thought that was exactly the type of thing that any cold case enquiry does - you go back to the beginning and look at every statement , every detail with a new light - and to me when the alarm was made and who called the police is one of the areas that must have been of interest - you might find nothing but if you go in with the mindset that the phone calls said 10.41 so that must be then IMO you are starting out on the wrong track

The 10.41 first call is fair enough - it doesn't in its self seem that odd - I just raised the question that I did find it strange from the evidence we have presented that no one that night called 112 - no one .

I would have thought that the first call would have been routed through that no - not the direct line of GNR in Lagos - it would be something as an investigator I would want to ask to satisfy my own curiosity

[icabodcrane]

bumped for Mrs B

All of the issues you raise regarding phone calls to the police on the thread entitled   'Independent witnesses place Gerry at the table  ... '  have been discussed here

[icabodcrane]

bumped for Mrs B

All of the issues you raise regarding phone calls to the police on the thread entitled   'Independent witnesses place Gerry at the tapas bar at 10pm',  have been discussed here

[Mrs. B]

Yes, and now we're raising them again.

[icabodcrane]

Yes, and now we're raising them again.

Let's do it here then shall we,  on the appropriate thread  ...  rather than derail the other one ?

[Matthew Wyse]

It is normal practice for hotels to have the telephone number of the local police station to hand thus avoiding the need to go through the national emergency network in many cases.  Calling the local police station directly ensures that the correct information is passed to those who need to know.  You also have to remember that the vast majority of any calls made by a hotel to the police are routine and not emergency calls.  I am not surprised in the least that the receptionist called the local station to report a missing youngster.

Remember also that this receptionist knew about the furore and the missing girl as early as about 22.10 but did nothing.  He was asked to phone the police but didn't do so.  He  was very content to wait and see the outcome of the hotels missing child plan before contacting anyone and that included the resort manager.  For all intents and purposes this was a child who had wandered off as far as the staff were concerned thus the searches all around the premises using torches.  By about 22.30 the penny had dropped....this was not a child who had wandered off but something more sinister.  Thus the first call to police a few minutes later at 22.41. By then the resort manager Mr Hill had arrived on site and was then beginning to get agitated about the absence of the police.  That is when the receptionist put in the second call to the GNR at 22.52.  The GNR for their part were not in any hurry to attend the scene as the missing child was NOT notified to them as an abduction.  Bad Press you see, no need to make a big deal about it?  It was only when they got the second call that the police realised that they might have a bigger problem than they were initially alerted to.  Fortunately for them though they were only a few minutes away from Praia da Luz by that point and arrived 10 minutes later at 23.00.

I would say it is unlikely that anyone else phoned the police by 22.52 since had they done so the GNR would have been alerted to a more serious problem than they were first alerted to.  As far as they were concerned when they received the first call from reception at 22.41 this was a youngster who had wandered off, nothing more.  However by 22.52 they began to realise that they might have a more serious issue to deal with and alerted the mobile patrol accordingly.

[Chinagirl]

Over the years we have heard from time to time about the resort's "missing child plan."  Is this plan detailed anywhere in any of the files, and how much of it was implemented at the beginning of this case?

[ferryman]

Over the years we have heard from time to time about the resort's "missing child plan."  Is this plan detailed anywhere in any of the files, and how much of it was implemented at the beginning of this case?

There is something about it in the statement of Lindsey Johnsone, creche supervisor:

To our question, the informant states that Madeleine McCann was accompanied by her parents, Kate and Gerald McCann who are renting apartment G5A at the Ocean Club.

She indicates that on May 3rd 2007, at around 10.20pm, she was informed by her colleague Amy T. that Madeleine McCann had disappeared. At that, she immediately launched the "missing child" procedure. This procedure consists of dividing the site into several areas, which are allocated to various of the company's employees to start searching for the missing child. To that effect, the informant explains that, around 10.25pm, the date indicated, the said procedure was begun, dividing the whole site into three distinct areas, namely the north zone, the central zone (including the area of the company) and all the roads surrounding the company and which go as far as the beach. Five of the company's employees were mobilised to coordinate the searches, helped by various people ( other employees, tourists and residents)

[AnneGuedes]

It is normal practice for hotels to have the telephone number of the local police station to hand thus avoiding the need to go through the national emergency network in many cases.  Calling the local police station directly ensures that the correct information is passed to those who need to know.  You also have to remember that the vast majority of any calls made by a hotel to the police are routine and not emergency calls.  I am not surprised in the least that the receptionist called the local station to report a missing youngster.

Remember also that this receptionist knew about the furore and the missing girl as early as about 22.10 but did nothing.  He was asked to phone the police but didn't do so.  He  was very content to wait and see the outcome of the hotels missing child plan before contacting anyone and that included the resort manager.  For all intents and purposes this was a child who had wandered off as far as the staff were concerned thus the searches all around the premises using torches.  By about 22.30 the penny had dropped....this was not a child who had wandered off but something more sinister.  Thus the first call to police a few minutes later at 22.41. By then the resort manager Mr Hill had arrived on site and was then beginning to get agitated about the absence of the police.  That is when the receptionist put in the second call to the GNR at 22.52.  The GNR for their part were not in any hurry to attend the scene as the missing child was NOT notified to them as an abduction.  Bad Press you see, no need to make a big deal about it?  It was only when they got the second call that the police realised that they might have a bigger problem than they were initially alerted to.  Fortunately for them though they were only a few minutes away from Praia da Luz by that point and arrived 10 minutes later at 23.00.

I would say it is unlikely that anyone else phoned the police by 22.52 since had they done so the GNR would have been alerted to a more serious problem than they were first alerted to.  As far as they were concerned when they received the first call from reception at 22.41 this was a youngster who had wandered off, nothing more.  However by 22.52 they began to realise that they might have a more serious issue to deal with and alerted the mobile patrol accordingly.

Of course the direct lines of police and gnr are at hand in hotels and receptionists know whether it's convenient to call the police or the gnr.
Normally rented flats have also a board with the reception nb, if not emergency nbs.
The patrol was doing routine and did react immediately. They weren't on highways but on small roads and were already half way when they got the second call. In a case of a small child missing, the second call in itself means it is serious.