Madeleine's last movements tracked by the GNR sniffer dogs.

[Carana]

Witness Statement of Antonio Freitas Silva
Date: 2007.05.09
Location: DIC Portimao
Occupation: 1st Sergeant GNR
Location: GNR-Queluz

The deponent states that:
- He comes to the process in the role of Chief of the GNR Search and Rescue Team. He coordinated all the work carried out by the two sniffer dogs in the Luz zone and the immediate areas relating to the disappearance of the English minor Madeleine McCann from the Ocean Club.
- He remembers that on the 4th of May of the current year, around 23H00, they attempted to tentatively identify and thus reconstruct the path taken by the missing minor. They gave the dogs a Turkish bath towel which was supposedly used by the child in question. This operation was realised by two different dogs.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/ANTONIO_SILVA.htm


Are there any other references to a towel, or just Silva?
I just noticed that it's a witness statement, not a report.

Service Information 9 May 2007
To Dr G Amaral
From Vitor Matos, Chief Inspector

Search by GNR dog team
- The GNR team performing the search had in its possession, packed in a plastic bag, a towel supposedly used to clean the missing youngster - Madeleine McCann - furnished by her parents.
- After the conditions for the search are met, the two GNR officers - the leader and the dog handler - gave the scent towel to one of the dogs to smell and led it into Block 5.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/INFORMATION-SERVICE.htm

Matos, as Chief Inspector, would be from the PJ. There's no indication that he actually saw what was handed to the handlers and may have copied "towel" from Silva's statement.

Alternatively, the dogs were given the blanket and a towel.

[Carana]

Lação says it was a blanket and he gave it to his dog Numi.

[pegasus]

"...  the leader and the dog handler ..."

This clearly refers to A.F. Silva, who was the leader (Chief of the GNR Search and Rescue Team), and Fernandes, who was the handler of the two dogs. Careful reading of their statements confirms this.

[pegasus]

Lação says it was a blanket and he gave it to his dog Numi.

Yes, and this is further confirmed by KM, who states she gave police the comfort blanket for use as a scent source, and that this was while she was still in the apartment after PJ arrival. This matches the time that Morais and Lação arrived.

[a.baker]

How can the two items possibly be confused? One has been described as a pink blanket,the other as an 'aztec'(I assume patterned) turkish bath towel.

[pegasus]

IMO the blanket was a relible scent source
So Numi and Kit would be discerning between many trails of that one scent - dozens of overlapping trails of different ages (from less than a day to five days) and of both directions.
Map of the outdoor trails of this scent available to Numi and Kit to select from

[pegasus]

(A) Track from 5A to twins kidsclub near Tapas after breakfast on 3rd.
(B) Track from 5A to twins kidsclub near Tapas after lunch on 3rd.
(C) Track from kidsclub tea near Tapas to 5A after tea on 3rd (although this would insult Numi and Kit by accusing them of being unable to tell direction).

Maddie was attending the creche (or kidsclub) near the main reception and the Millenium restaurant.
The creches near the Tapas were for younger children. The twins were attending there. Now, the children from the Mini Club used to have the high tea in the Tapas, so only your option three is correct.

Her kidsclub was above main reception, but nowhere near Millennium restaurant.

On 3rd after breakfast, first she walked with her family to to the twins kidsclub near Tapas to drop off the twins.

On 3rd after lunch, first she walked with her family to to the twins kidsclub near Tapas to drop off the twins.

[Martina]

Her kidsclub was above main reception, but nowhere near Millennium restaurant.

On 3rd after breakfast, first she walked with her family to to the twins kidsclub near Tapas to drop off the twins.

On 3rd after lunch, first she walked with her family to to the twins kidsclub near Tapas to drop off the twins.

Okay, I stand corrected. Though after lunch Maddie first went into the play area near the Tapas, and then to drop of the twins. It doesn't make a big difference anyway. And I think the most probable explanation is that the dogs took the route because the scent there was the freshest, left by Maddie (or Amelie if it was her blanket) after the high tea.

The question is why there was no trail left by Maddie carried by the abductor. He didn't carry her to the Tapas, right?

[misty]

Okay, I stand corrected. Though after lunch Maddie first went into the play area near the Tapas, and then to drop of the twins. It doesn't make a big difference anyway. And I think the most probable explanation is that the dogs took the route because the scent there was the freshest, left by Maddie (or Amelie if it was her blanket) after the high tea.

The question is why there was no trail left by Maddie carried by the abductor. He didn't carry her to the Tapas, right?

In the same manner, you could also question the absence of a trail from the complex if Kate or Gerry had moved the corpse during the previous evening.

[Martina]

In the same manner, you could also question the absence of a trail from the complex if Kate or Gerry had moved the corpse during the previous evening.

The bodily smell changes after death when the decomposition begins. I don't think that the dogs tracing the living Maddie would also trace the route of her body.

[misty]

The bodily smell changes after death when the decomposition begins. I don't think that the dogs tracing the living Maddie would also trace the route of her body.

I totally agree with that. But that really makes all the tracker dogs findings irrelevant, because we don't know if she was dead or alive when she left 5a. We are told she had used all the routes indicated. I find it a little strange they didn't track her scent down to the beach, though, because she had been on the sailing trip on the 3rd. It does make you question whether or not it was actually Madeleine's scent the dogs were following.

[pegasus]

... The question is why there was no trail left by Maddie carried by the abductor. He didn't carry her to the Tapas, right?

If the important last exit was untrackable by GNR dogs, then that exit was not by own feet and not by open carrying.

[VIXTE]

If the important last exit was untrackable by GNR dogs, then that exit was not by own feet and not by open carrying.

And how do you know this for sure?
Do you know it for sure or is it some kind of a unproven theory? As any other theory anyone else has?
How do you know the parking area wasn't the last place Madeleine was in in PDL?

[pegasus]

And how do you know this for sure?
Do you know it for sure or is it some kind of a unproven theory? As any other theory anyone else has?
How do you know the parking area wasn't the last place Madeleine was in in PDL?

I looked into what it is that tracker dogs are smelling while they follow a trail, and as a complete amateur I think that walking or openly carried would be likely to leave a GNR-dog-trackable trail still good for the first (blanket) GNR tracking in early hours of 4th, regardless of other factors, but again that is... (see signature)

 

[pegasus]

An amateur view based on reading books:
A human sheds skin cells at a rate of hundreds per second.
Attached to these skin cells are body secretions, and active bacteria.
These 3 components present a unique profile for each individual.
So wherever a human goes these identifying particles are continuously shed and are deposited in the surrounding environment. We can't smell them, dogs can.