Did the PJ conduct a proper search for evidence at OC?

[Sherlock Holmes]

Different situation here. A child from another country, and that country just happens to be a country with a notoriously wild tabloid press. If a child goes missing in the UK the police can rely on the papers working with them: I doubt the Portuguese had any such expectation.

If there are procedures in place, like the Amber alert, that's one thing: but if sightings from Timbuktu to Taiwan are going to be splashed across the front pages, that's something else altogether. No police force in the world wants that happening.

I hadn't thought of this, Lyall.

Come to think of it there seems to have been a dearth of bizarre sightings lately.

[pegasus]

No, I don't think he should have searched every boat.  It was too late for that because some of them have left.  But I do think he should have checked on where they went. There are International Laws of Customs and Excise which Amaral will have known about, him being the great Drug Hunter.
Boats can't just swan around where ever they please.

But Mr Amaral's team did check where boats went to.
An example: a boat called "*****" arrived at Lagos marina on 3rd May having come from Portimao. On 4th May it departed from Lagos, called in at Vilamoura, and on 5th May arrived at Albufeira. Many more examples are in the files.

[Sherlock Holmes]

Eh, it is 200kms by virtue of effect a multiple of hundreds times 2 !!!

Different ways of measuring a coastline:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastline_paradox

[Lyall]

I hadn't thought of this, Lyall.

Come to think of it there seems to have been a dearth of bizarre sightings lately.

Permission to be cynical?

(The papers have the new investigation to create the headlines now).

[Eleanor]

200 kilometres IS hundreds... In simplistic arithmetic it is 100 times 2, irregardless of coastline linear measurements etc etc

It was Thousands not very long ago.  How does Thousands equate to 200?

[Sherlock Holmes]

It was Thousands not very long ago.  How does Thousands equate to 200?

Two methods of measuring (see box further down which says 'method 1' and 'method 2', and note the amazing disparity in numbers):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_coastline

[Silkywhiskers]

All this is academic if the McCanns are to be believed

They say Madeleine was abducted at 9.10pm  ( just after Gerry's  check  )

They didn't check on her again till  10.00pm

Police weren't contacted until 10.40pm

That's an hour and a half  lost

Any boat would have been miles out to sea,   or any vehicle already across the Spanish border,  before the police had even been made  aware  that the child was missing

Precisely.

It's irrelevant anyway.

Just another way of distracting from the REAL news - which no one has commented on yet -

The suppressed efit
The case with the CPS
The word "murder" from BHH

[pegasus]

... there is no evidence whatsoever that she ever left Praia da Luz.
Distance.

Precisely Holmes. Investigation logically starts at the location last definitely known to be seen (which is IMO the north bedroom of the apartment), and advances carefully outwards from there.

[VIXTE]

Precisely Holmes. Investigation logically starts at the location last definitely known to be seen (which is IMO the north bedroom of the apartment), and advances carefullly outwards from there.

4 different GNR dogs indicated Madeleine left that apartment and she left it though the front- main door..

[Sherlock Holmes]

4 different GNR dogs indicated Madeleine left that apartment and she left it though the front- main door..

But the trail didn't go all the way to India..

[VIXTE]

But the trail didn't go all the way to India..

it went to a car park.. and by there it could have gone anywhere..

PJ never investigated who exactly used to park their car there.. and they could have done that..

[Sherlock Holmes]

it went to a car park.. and by there it could have gone anywhere..

PJ never investigated who exactly used to park their car there.. and they could have done that..

These things are all true.

But Gerry McCann takes us all far away from Praia da Luz, not in an investigative sense, but in a psychological.

[pegasus]

4 different GNR dogs indicated Madeleine left that apartment and she left it though the front- main door..

Yes interesting. If we had no other indications or evidence, only those GNR dog trails, would it imply being put into a vehicle next to that lamppost in that car park?

[Sherlock Holmes]

Yes interesting. If we had no other indications or evidence, only those GNR dog trails, would it imply being put into a vehicle next to that lamppost in that car park?

Getting back to topic, this is surely the most likely scenario in any case.

[VIXTE]

Yes interesting. If we had no other indications or evidence, only those GNR dog trails, would it imply being put into a vehicle next to that lamppost in that car park?

If I was a policeman and if I had the search dog the next day after the disappearance and the 4 dogs stopping at the same spot I would at least knock on the doors of the people living in the building next to that car park and ask what car they usually see there and if they had seen it that particular day.

To me that sounds natural.

And since that is across the road of the OC reception I would ask the reception workers which car they usually see parked there and if they saw any car parked there that day..