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

[pegasus]

Trail 1 (May 4th at about 02:30 AM) - No mention of crossing road. The dogs go past tapas reception.

Maybe trail 1 is the origin of some early newspaper reports claiming GNR dogs tracked to near supermarket?

[pegasus]

Ah, thank you. Now everything is clear :)

As I said, it's simplified, and some details are uncertain.

[VIXTE]

Trail 1 (May 4th at about 02:30 AM) - No mention of crossing road. The dogs go past tapas reception.

Maybe trail 1 is the origin of some early newspaper reports claiming GNR dogs tracked to near supermarket?

The supermarket is nowhere in the files.
It is the same as the story of a mystery couple who left PDL on the night of the disappearance.

[pegasus]

The supermarket is nowhere in the files.
It is the same as the story of a mystery couple who left PDL on the night of the disappearance.

The "dogs trail to supermarket carpark" story was in a UK paper on 5th May.
So if it's based on a real GNR dog trail, it must be before that story was written, and before the paper went to press IYSWIM

[VIXTE]

The "dogs trail to supermarket carpark" story was in a UK paper on 5th May.
So if it's based on a real GNR dog trail, it must be before that story was written, and before the paper went to press IYSWIM

It was reported that at the time the British journalists were sitting in a cafe and every morning they were getting their stories from the local 'leaks'.
The supermarket story is obviously not true, as we have detailed reports of the dogs movements written by the professionals who worked with these dogs.
IMO these reports are one of the best and the most professional in the whole files.

[pegasus]

It was reported that at the time the British journalists were sitting in a cafe and every morning they were getting their stories from the local 'leaks'.
The supermarket story is obviously not true, as we have detailed reports of the dogs movements written by the professionals who worked with these dogs.
IMO these reports are one of the best and the most professional in the whole files.

Map showing possible route of trail 1 at about 2AM on 4th using blanket.
This trail does not mention crossing Rua Martins.
Lacao says something like "The route initially taken was from the front entrance door to the path between Blocks 4 and 5, along the path and then along the pavement that leads past the entrance to the small reception" (solid yellow line) "After that the whole of the area surrounding the resort was searched" so presumably they continued past tapas reception further along same pavement (dotted yellow line).
http://www.mccannfiles.com/id258.html#gnr10
We don't know which way they continued however it is not impossible that they went to supermarket carpark
(orange) or past the front of the supermarket (white).

"A trail of her scent picked up by police dogs at the flat was followed to a supermarket"
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/maddy-3-goes-missing-472340
This Mirror story probably went to print before 11PM 4th and if so it cannot be based on trail 2 or 3 so may be based on trail 1 as told to the journalist by a searcher who witnessed it.

[misty]

I don't know what is the correct interpretation of the GNR dogs trails.

One deduction I have made is-
Looking at the trails using the towel (late 4th and late 8th).
Let's give the person whose scent was dominant on the towel, and who the dogs were therefore tracking, the name X (this might be the child or might be someone else).
The towel trails on late 4th and late 8th are the same.
Therefore person X created a scent trail from the front door to the lamppost sometime before late 4th.
But here is the deduction: person X created absolutely no further scent trail, from the front door to anywhere, between late 4th and late 8th.

There is one noticeable difference between the tracking of the s&r dogs on the 4th & 8th May. On the 4th May, they followed a trail which was solely at ground level, making no apparent attempt to access any stairwells.
On the 8th, however, they were "taken into Blocks 4 & 5", where they showed interest in 3 doors on upper floors.  IMO this could mean that the scent the s&r dogs followed came from someone who had not been to the upper floors and 4G until after the night of the 4th May, but had walked the ground route around the block & to the car park. So, unless a living Madeleine was hidden & then removed from either block between 4th & 8th May under the noses of the watching authorities, I believe that effectively shows the scent on the towel was unlikely to have been Madeleine's.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/ANTONIO_SILVA.htm

[Martina]

There is one noticeable difference between the tracking of the s&r dogs on the 4th & 8th May. On the 4th May, they followed a trail which was solely at ground level, making no apparent attempt to access any stairwells.
On the 8th, however, they were "taken into Blocks 4 & 5", where they showed interest in 3 doors on upper floors.  IMO this could mean that the scent the s&r dogs followed came from someone who had not been to the upper floors and 4G until after the night of the 4th May, but had walked the ground route around the block & to the car park. So, unless a living Madeleine was hidden & then removed from either block between 4th & 8th May under the noses of the watching authorities, I believe that effectively shows the scent on the towel was unlikely to have been Madeleine's.

So whose scent was on this towel, then? The McCann family moved on the first floor during the third to fourth May night, to the Paynes apartment. If your hypothesis is right we have here a mysterious person that was not a McCann, yet used their towel and after the 4th May visited not only the upper floor of the block 5, but also the block 4, as the apartment 4G, the second flat occupied by the McCanns is in the block 4.

[pegasus]

So whose scent was on this towel, then? The McCann family moved on the first floor during the third to fourth May night, to the Paynes apartment. If your hypothesis is right we have here a mysterious person that was not a McCann, yet used their towel and after the 4th May visited not only the upper floor of the block 5, but also the block 4, as the apartment 4G, the second flat occupied by the McCanns is in the block 4.

I don't know whose scent was on the bathtowel. I am just trying to make sense of it all, and it's not easy.
Re GNR dogs "showing interest" outside 5J and 5H and 4G: I think the handlers took the dogs methodically to the front doors of all apartments in blocks 5 and 4.  I don't think the dogs actually followed a trail to those apartments.

[misty]

So whose scent was on this towel, then? The McCann family moved on the first floor during the third to fourth May night, to the Paynes apartment. If your hypothesis is right we have here a mysterious person that was not a McCann, yet used their towel and after the 4th May visited not only the upper floor of the block 5, but also the block 4, as the apartment 4G, the second flat occupied by the McCanns is in the block 4.

What I am saying is that, in my opinion, the scent on the towel did not come from Madeleine. It most probably came from either another member of the McCann family, as the first s&r dog deployed late on 4th May almost immediately headed to block 4, so there was clearly a good scent trail.  We know that the McCanns relocated to 4G sometime on 4th May. They had also been in 5H on the night of the 3rd for a while.
 The towel could also have been used by Fiona Payne, as she remained with Kate in 5a after Madeleine was found missing for quite a while - and may well have used the bathroom during her time there. Fiona was also still in Luz on 8th May.
It would be interesting to know where the various witnesses were dropped off after returning from their interviews at the police station on the 4th - that may explain the dogs' tracking ceasing in the car park opposite. (just a theory)
*Snip
- 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.
- That after having given the sniffer dog the towel and next to the residence of the missing girl, more specifically, next to apartment block 5A and 5, the first sniffer dog headed toward the door of that apartment. Immediately afterward, he headed in the direction of block 4, returned around block 5, and came down a road that exists between this block and the leisure area (pools, restaurants, etc).

[pegasus]

The towel could also have been used by Fiona Payne, as she remained with Kate in 5a after Madeleine was found missing for quite a while - and may well have used the bathroom during her time there.

Good thinking

It would be interesting to know where the various witnesses were dropped off after returning from their interviews at the police station on the 4th

That would assume the GNR dogs cannot determine the direction of a trail (I think they can).

"after having given the sniffer dog the towel and next to the residence of the missing girl ... the first sniffer dog headed toward the door of that apartment ... "

Thankyou for bringing this up. This indicates that in the area outside the front door, the most recent (freshest) trail of the person whose scent was on the towel may possibly have led into (not out of) the apartment. Most interesting.

[misty]

I'd also like to add that I believe the online translation of the statement of Antonio Silva has been tampered with. It is not in the same format as it was originally, and, from memory, I believe there was reference to a discussion the dog handlers had with the GNR about using items of Madeleine's clothes for scenting, but the handlers were told something along the lines of it not being appropriate. The GNR final report, however, stated that the s&r dogs DID use Madeleine's clothes for scenting.


*snip* page 3517
At about 19.. the undersigned officer, accompanied by the Commander, Officer Silva, took part in a meetings with the PJ Directorate, being asked by the PJ about the viability of giving the girl's clothes to the dogs for the dogs to sniff again, and if by means of the odour inhaled, they would be able to mark an identical odour in one of the resort apartments even though its door was closed.

With regard to this task, Officer Silva referred to the fact that the time that had passed would be a crucial condition for the dogs' work in obtaining results and that the entirety of the human odours existing in the apartments and access paths could make the dogs' searches very difficult. However, in spite of not being a normal situation for tracking, it could be attempted, whilst the operation should be carried out as quickly as possible and not directed towards one but to all the apartments in the resort, it being appropriate for the handler not to know which apartment was chosen, so as not the be conditioned.

In this concrete situation, the objective would be for the dogs to carry out a discontinuous search, in other words, to sniff the girl's clothes and immediately search near to the apartments, checking to see if there was any change in the behaviour of the dogs.

At about 23.00 accompanied by a PJ inspector, the searches were begun. After Rex was given the girl's clothing to sniff, he began to search on the ground floor of block 5 and when he passed the door of apartment 5 A (the place the girl had disappeared from) according to his handler, officer Fernandes, the dog altered its behaviour, sniffing with greater intensity than he had done before. Apartment 5J of the same block was also checked as the dog had been more agitated than before as if there were a very strong strange odour there. It was stated that this apartment had been unoccupied for some time. Afterwards, the same kind of search was carried out using the dog Zarus which in general terms showed the same behaviour in the same places as Rex had done.

[pegasus]

Yes there are small differences between Fernandes statement, A.F.Silva statement, and the final report.
Looking for now at just those 2 actual statements, and at only the first thing that happens (at about 11PM 4th):

Fernandes statement:
"after the dogs were given this scent from the towel and near apartment 5A of block 5, the first sniffer dog headed to the door of that apartment"

A.F.Silva statement (he is the chief and is supervising handler Fernandes): 
"after having given the sniffer dog the towel and next to the residence of the missing girl, more specifically, next to apartment 5A of block 5, the first sniffer dog headed toward the door of that apartment"

[pegasus]

I think dogs can determine a trail's direction from as few as 5 footsteps.
And I think they can detemine relative age of trails and follow the freshest.
"headed to the door". Hmm. So, if we actually listen to the dog, what does that indicate?

[VIXTE]

The towel could also have been used by Fiona Payne, as she remained with Kate in 5a after Madeleine was found missing for quite a while

In this case the dogs would go to Payne's apartment and find Fiona.