Was Mr Smiths claim just pie in the sky after all?

[jassi]

I don't think anyone apart from a handful of people on a few forums take a lot of interest in this case...redwoods impossible situation is that he cannot investigate as he would wish at the moment

I fancy you may underestimate public interest, though few avidly follow the various forums.

[John]

I don't think anyone apart from a handful of people on a few forums take a lot of interest in this case...redwoods impossible situation is that he cannot investigate as he would wish at the moment

It seems clear that he is not receiving the cooperation from Portugal that he would have liked but I said as much months ago.  The Portuguese don't want any foreign coppers on their patch showing them up. 

[John]

Everything considered I am beginning to think the Smith sighting was yet another innocent man walking home with his child.

Just assume for a moment that Madeleine was abducted.  The abductor was not to know when the next check would be so he was hardly going to be wandering about the streets with a child in his arms for any length of time.  If Madeleine was taken it had to be someone with a motor vehicle which was parked nearby imo.

[Wonderfulspam]

Everything considered I am beginning to think the Smith sighting was yet another innocent man walking home with his child.

Just assume for a moment that Madeleine was abducted.   The abductor was not to know when the next check would be so he was hardly going to be wandering about the streets with a child in his arms for any length of time.  If Madeleine was taken it had to be someone with a motor vehicle which was parked nearby imo.

And if we assume Maddie wasn't abducted, what then?

IMO the Smiths sighting is genuine, all of it.
Always was & that's why Gerry sent Kate to check on the kids at roughly 10:03, in his version.

[peter claridge]

Everything considered I am beginning to think the Smith sighting was yet another innocent man walking home with his child.

Just assume for a moment that Madeleine was abducted.  The abductor was not to know when the next check would be so he was hardly going to be wandering about the streets with a child in his arms for any length of time.  If Madeleine was taken it had to be someone with a motor vehicle which was parked nearby imo.

The Smith sighting is pivotal to the whole case.

[Angelo222]

If Madeleine was taken shortly after Gerry's last check at about 9.10pm any abductor would realise that he only had a short time to get away.  Wandering around the centre of the town with what appeared to be a sleeping child after 10pm was a no no.

In any event, aren't we told that Madeleine was a poor sleeper and tended to wake easily? Then we are expected to swallow the nonsense that she would sleep through an abduction and a trip down town with all sorts of street noise?  I don't believe for a minute that Smithman was an abductor.

[ferryman]

...we have a situation where a child has gone missing between 21:15 ish and 22:00 ish cause unknown.
"Smithman" could be the perpetrator because he is the only reported person seen at the right sort time carrying a female child of the correct GISS. Two (?) police forces have asked " Smithman" to come forward with no takers that we have been informed of. So given that "Smithman" remains alive he is unaware of the appeal, is aware and for whatever reason does not want to come forward or the police are not telling us the full story.
Then of course to sustain an abduction theory it is essential to put the child in the proximity of the abductor.
Now I fear I am wandering off topic and this possibly should be on another thread.

If Smith man is Madeleine's abductor, he is scarcely likely to come forward ...

[Alfred R Jones]

In light of the fact that it took 7 years for the man seen by Jane Tanner to be id'ed and ruled out it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if there is a perfectly innocent explanation for the Smith sighting as well, why these people don't come forward earlier is a bit of a mystery but if it can happen once, it could happen twice. 

[pathfinder73]

The searches are tracking Smithman from the wasteland to the church.

[Fern]

The searches are tracking Smithman from the wasteland to the church.

I gather the wasteland along side the Ocean Club complex was being searched however please could you site your source in stating that the search then proceeded left along Rua 25 de Abril, rather than down towards the beach ?

[pathfinder73]

I gather the wasteland along side the Ocean Club complex was being searched however please could you site your source in stating that the search then proceeded left along Rua 25 de Abril, rather than down towards the beach ?

Read my previous posts if it concerns you so much and look where Aoife was situated when Smithman passed her heading in the direction of the church. It could be the KEY to the case   

[Carana]

Read my previous posts if it concerns you so much and look where Aoife was situated when Smithman passed her heading in the direction of the church. It could be the KEY to the case   

It was only a few days ago that there was a reminder to be more welcoming to newbies on here... Never mind.

What key are you referring to? If you mean the key to the church, what would substantiate that any of the T9/OC staff / any one else in contact with them had one to even give them that night?

[John]

One observation of the Smiths sighting continues to puzzle me.  Daughter Aoife who was the rear guard of the family as they made their way home records the following in her police statement of 26 May 2007.

The deponent remembers that upon reaching the top of the stairs, she looked to her left and saw a man (1) with a female child (2) in his arms, walking along the pavement of Rua 25 de Abril. He was walking in her direction at a distance of, give or take, two metres.

Now, what I find strange is why this man was on the pavement if he had just walked directly across the street unless he was purposely trying to avoid a close encounter with Aoife?

If this unidentified person had intended to cross from Rua da Escola Primaria to Travessa das Escadinhas or even intended to go along Rua 25 de Abril, then why not go across at an angle (shortest route)? No need to go straight across then walk along the footpath as appears to have happened.

If nothing else Aoife's observation clearly indicates that he was walking east but where he went appears to be unknown.

[Silkywhiskers]

One observation of the Smiths sighting continues to puzzle me.  Daughter Aoife who was the rear guard of the family as they made their way home records the following in her police statement of 26 May 2007.

The deponent remembers that upon reaching the top of the stairs, she looked to her left and saw a man (1) with a female child (2) in his arms, walking along the pavement of Rua 25 de Abril. He was walking in her direction at a distance of, give or take, two metres.

Now, what I find strange is why this man was on the pavement if he had just walked directly across the street unless he was purposely trying to avoid a close encounter with Aoife?

If this unidentified person had intended to cross from Rua da Escola Primaria to Travessa das Escadinhas or even intended to go along Rua 25 de Abril, then why not go across at an angle (shortest route)? No need to go straight across then walk along the footpath as appears to have happened.

If nothing else Aoife's observation clearly indicates that he was walking east but where he went appears to be unknown.

He could've taken any sort of circuitous route, if he was out walking with a body and dodging being seen.

It's a shame TANNER didn't perform her "checking" (for possible witnesses) more thoroughly, she might have sent him down a different path where he'd never be seen.

[John]

Now another anomaly in this sighting.  Peter Smith recorded the following in his police statement.

States further that when he passed the individual, the individual was coming down to his right, going around the deponent in the middle of the street. At that time the traffic was minimal or non-existent.

This is crystal clear, the unidentified man was coming down the left hand side of the road.  Martin Smith talks of walking up the middle of the road in his statement so the mystery man was forced to the left.

First point I want to make about this is that when Amaral did the reconstruction video they depicted the mystery man walking down the right hand side of the road - this was an error.

Secondly, referring to my other observation above, if the mystery man was walking down the left side of the road he had to move to his right for Aoife to have observed him on her left walking along the pavement.  For some reason the route taken by this man as he approached the intersection was determined by the unexpected appearance of the other members of the Smith family ending with Aoife appearing. I think mystery man took a circuitous route in order to avoid the last of the Smiths but didn't expect Aoife to pop up at the top of the steps.

It all sounds very suspicious from mystery mans point of view.