Did the McCann"s sudden flight from Portugal engender suspicion?

[sadie]

Not really!
The Lords ruled he could be extradited. Margaret & George poked their oars in to ask he should be allowed to return to Chile rather than be extradited to Spain. Then eventually he [Pinochet] played the bad health card and Jack Straw let him go back to Chile where he was granted immunity for a while which immunity was later revoked. A bit crude but that's about it. It was in reality a complex and ground breaking business.

Thank you Alice

You are a good bloke 

Sometimes


PS I like your little whimsical tales.  Some of them; just a few


And I like the fact that you think outside the box

Sometimes

[Carana]

If the PJ were not actively looking for a possibly live Madeleine any more, there was not much point in staying any longer.

I don't see what's suspicious about deciding to go back home. There was more they could organise from there, family support was nearer at hand, expenses would be cut and they wouldn't have to deal with growing local hositility in a foreign country created by the PJ drip feeding their half-baked suspicions to the PT press ages before they chose to leave.

[colombosstogey]

They must have been considering fleeing the jurisdiction for a while as the pressure began to build around them.  The moment they found out that they were going to be named as suspects must have been the straw which broke the camels back imo.

But why flee?  Why attract criticism?

I agree, i found it odd. You have nothing to hide, so therefore wouldnt you want to stand your ground and prove you were innocent. Several of my friends never thought they were implicit in the missing of their daughter but after they left so quickly they started to doubt them.

I think if i was innocent i would have stood my ground. Perhaps if they had stayed we might have found the child, who knows.

Although to be fair i dont think they did flee, but by leaving at the time they did, it gave the impression they had.

[Jean-Pierre]

I agree, i found it odd. You have nothing to hide, so therefore wouldnt you want to stand your ground and prove you were innocent. Several of my friends never thought they were implicit in the missing of their daughter but after they left so quickly they started to doubt them.

I think if i was innocent i would have stood my ground. Perhaps if they had stayed we might have found the child, who knows.

Although to be fair i dont think they did flee, but by leaving at the time they did, it gave the impression they had.

Of course you would, from your nice comfortable armchair. 

But actually in the thick of it - daughter missing, press baying, lurid stories in the newspapers, the police making you arguidos,........

That might make you see things a bit differently. 

In those circumstances I would high tail it home and fight from there.   

[Carana]

I agree, i found it odd. You have nothing to hide, so therefore wouldnt you want to stand your ground and prove you were innocent. Several of my friends never thought they were implicit in the missing of their daughter but after they left so quickly they started to doubt them.

I think if i was innocent i would have stood my ground. Perhaps if they had stayed we might have found the child, who knows.

Although to be fair i dont think they did flee, but by leaving at the time they did, it gave the impression they had.

I don't see how... the PJ, based largely on flawed understanding of numerous aspects, had decided that the child was dead and the parents had covered it up (with the help of just about everyone under the sun).

They were simply not looking for a possibly living child. They weren't actually even looking for a potentially dead one, either. They were just banking on one or other of the parents cracking and confessing.

If they'd stayed, there was no guarantee that certain officers wouldn't find some new half-baked "evidence" and the whole thing would have gone from bad to worse. Amaral's next steps were to get "members" of the Smith family, in all likelihood just Martin Smith and wife, over to make a new statement - which would again be in Portuguese in reported speech. Oh, and to carry on looking for a fridge, possibly one with an undateable trace of unidentifiable blood in it. Job over.

I'm not surprised that some people thought that they were fleeing: the tabloids (and sometimes the broadcast media) had been leading the public to believe that they were guilty, after all the PJ "knew" so. At that time, no one knew what was fact and what was fiction.

[Mr Gray]

The PJ hadn't a clue. Their only chance of solving the case was if the parents were guilty so they went with it. As  far as they were concerned statistically...they had an excellent chance of being correct.

[DCI]

The PJ hadn't a clue. Their only chance of solving the case was if the parents were guilty so they went with it. As  far as they were concerned statistically...they had an excellent chance of being correct.

I wonder why Luis Neves and Guilhermino Encarnacao declared them free to leave the country whenever they wished, if there was any doubt of their guilt.

[jassi]

Possibly a little matter of proof.

[stephen25000]

The PJ hadn't a clue. Their only chance of solving the case was if the parents were guilty so they went with it. As  far as they were concerned statistically...they had an excellent chance of being correct.

No dave, the PJ had more than a clue, they just didn't have the evidence.

[Brietta]

I think it is instructive that the search for Madeleine McCann, dead or alive, was scaled down as early as eight days after her disappearance.

I think from that alone her parents could probably see the writing on the wall and that if they wished the search to continue for their daughter they would have to make contingency plans to do so themselves … leading her father to state on the day after this news was published that … ‘they would leave no stone unturned’ in the search for Madeleine.


>>snip<<

MADDY IS STILL MISSING BUT POLICE CALL OFF THE SEARCH

Friday May 11, 2007
By David Pilditch and Matt Drake in Praia da Luz

THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann faced fresh agony last night when police announced they were scaling down the search.

Police and volunteers have been hard at work scouring the 150-square-mile area around the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz where Maddy was snatched from the family’s holiday apartment eight days ago.

But the officer in charge of the investigation has decided to call off the local hunt because nothing has been found.
The shock decision prompted increased criticism of their bungled inquiry into the abduction of the three-year-old Briton and the way the hunt for the toddler has been conducted.

Police spokesman Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, said: searches of the local area “initiated as soon as the disappearance was reported” were “coming to an end”. He added: “All the places have been checked. The results are zero.”

But he added that police were “still looking” for Maddy. “We are pursuing lines of investigation. It was a decision of the officer in charge of the case. So I think they have changed something.”

Mr Sousa refused to confirm if police now believe Maddy is being held in another part of Portugal or has been smuggled abroad. “I will not speculate on this,” he said.

http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic247.html

[Alice Purjorick]

I think it is instructive that the search for Madeleine McCann, dead or alive, was scaled down as early as eight days after her disappearance.

I think from that alone her parents could probably see the writing on the wall and that if they wished the search to continue for their daughter they would have to make contingency plans to do so themselves … leading her father to state on the day after this news was published that … ‘they would leave no stone unturned’ in the search for Madeleine.


>>snip<<

MADDY IS STILL MISSING BUT POLICE CALL OFF THE SEARCH

Friday May 11, 2007
By David Pilditch and Matt Drake in Praia da Luz

THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann faced fresh agony last night when police announced they were scaling down the search.

Police and volunteers have been hard at work scouring the 150-square-mile area around the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz where Maddy was snatched from the family’s holiday apartment eight days ago.

But the officer in charge of the investigation has decided to call off the local hunt because nothing has been found.
The shock decision prompted increased criticism of their bungled inquiry into the abduction of the three-year-old Briton and the way the hunt for the toddler has been conducted.

Police spokesman Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, said: searches of the local area “initiated as soon as the disappearance was reported” were “coming to an end”. He added: “All the places have been checked. The results are zero.”

But he added that police were “still looking” for Maddy. “We are pursuing lines of investigation. It was a decision of the officer in charge of the case. So I think they have changed something.”

Mr Sousa refused to confirm if police now believe Maddy is being held in another part of Portugal or has been smuggled abroad. “I will not speculate on this,” he said.

http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic247.html

Why do think this to be instructive?
Are you suggesting that in other searches resources increase with elapsed time?

[stephen25000]

Another headline from the same source.............


'EVERY PARENT'S WORST NIGHTMARE' ???


No mention of course whose fault it was leaving the children in the first place ?


Now that's a tough one, isn't it. &%&£(+ &%&£(+ &%&£(+

[Eleanor]

Does anyone honestly believe that The McCanns should have stayed in Portugal?

[Brietta]

Why do think this to be instructive?
Are you suggesting that in other searches resources increase with elapsed time?

Rhetorical questions?

Possibly you already know that I am suggesting nothing of the kind and it is common practice that searches are scaled down once all avenues have been exhausted, particularly the use of huge teams of volunteers. Do you think that was the case in the eight day search for Madeleine in an area described as being 150 square miles?

Olegario Sousa said, “We are pursuing lines of investigation. It was a decision of the officer in charge of the case. So I think they have changed something.”

I can think of at least two reasons for the change in emphasis of the new direction for the change in emphasis … can’t you?

 ... and my question certainly is ... rhetorical.

[Alice Purjorick]

Rhetorical questions?

Possibly you already know that I am suggesting nothing of the kind and it is common practice that searches are scaled down once all avenues have been exhausted, particularly the use of huge teams of volunteers. Do you think that was the case in the eight day search for Madeleine in an area described as being 150 square miles?

Olegario Sousa said, “We are pursuing lines of investigation. It was a decision of the officer in charge of the case. So I think they have changed something.”

I can think of at least two reasons for the change in emphasis of the new direction for the change in emphasis … can’t you?

 ... and my question certainly is ... rhetorical.

At least we are agreed that normal practice is to scale down a search with elapsed time so one should not read anything sinister or untoward in the scaling down.