Search areas: who searched where, when and how

[Miss Taken Identity]

That just cannot be correct. There is an abundance of opinion that no one searched/the search was not coordinated/it was haphazard/it was incompetent.
I know I read it on here posted by the "experts"

...And well documented on all the national papers, why even the PM of the day heard about it...the fat, drunk, tuna munching lazy  cop.

It does say what contempt Team McCann have for decent well minded citizens in PDL, to accuse them of not looking for * A little girl*...and the police were doing 'nothing'

All the while they noticed this; 'nothing being done' as they blogged and jogged and went meeting and greeting their adoring public.

[Eleanor]

Indeed. However, why didn't Kate and Gerry not scream OUR DAUGHTERS BEEN ABDUCTED PLEASE PLEASE HELP US!..hmm well Kate was convinced immediately  so she claims. So if you KNOW your daughter has been abducted why run to the tapas bar and announce, why not talk loudly and ask for assistance demand someone call the police there and then! ( Sadie claims they could check on the children because they could see the apartment, it was only 50 mtrs away), AND so Kate leaves two other children alone,AGAIN, while she ran off for help. No one shouted abduction , the abduction theory came later!( to cover the unlocked apartment)... Kate calls the family and mentions; whooshing curtains and jemmied shutters implying an abductor BROKE IN and stole Maddie.

That is why people were looking for a wandered child! AND it occurred to the parents in all this, what would people think about them and what they did, So a story was born...deflection was the name of the game, that is what it became - a game! IMO.

Don't tempt me.  This is a Thread about Searches.  And I will delete anything looking like Off Topic.

[Eleanor]

...And well documented on all the national papers, why even the PM of the day heard about it...the fat, drunk, tuna munching lazy  cop.

It does say what contempt Team McCann have for decent well minded citizens in PDL, to accuse them of not looking for * A little girl*...and the police were doing 'nothing'

All the while they noticed this; 'nothing being done' as they blogged and jogged and went meeting and greeting their adoring public.

Another Off Topic Post.  This will be gone shortly.

[Miss Taken Identity]

It's a bank holiday... i am working it...

 and I do mention why people were searching for a wandered child...

[Eleanor]

It's a bank holiday... i am working it...

 and I do mention why people were searching for a wandered child...

Only just, Sweetie.  But not actually where.  So don't try me.

[John]

Mark Harrison reviewed the initial searches carried out in the first 7 days;

GNR Searches Conducted within 7 days of Madeleine McCann's Disappearance.
On Saturday 21.07.2007 I met with Major Luis Seqeuira, GNR Portimao who was the search coordinator for all search activity that was under taken in the physical search for Madeleine McCann..... The teams available and deployed by Major Seqeuira were drawn from unit of the GNR, Civil Protection, Fire Brigade, Red Cross and Urban Police. Each team numbered around 10 and between 80 to 100 personnel were involved in search activity.

The search was split into 3 zones radiating out from Praia Da Luz in a northward direction. The first zone extended 3km to the EN125 road at Espiche. W?hin this zone, sectors were drawn using the natural boundaries that exist and included the entire village. Officers were briefed and debriefed before and after deployments and records of activity collected. Each sector was repeatedly searched on 3 separate occasions over the 7 days using officers conducting line searches and supported by airm scenting dogs.

The next Zone 2 was extended out to a radius of 7km to the boundary of the N120 road at Bensafrim. As the sectors were larger and in order to support the line searches 2 GNR officers on motorcycles and 6 GNR officers on horse-back were deployed. These sectors were all searched on 2 separate occasions over the 7 day period.
The outer zone 3 was extended to 15km at Barragem de Odiaxere a dammed lake. This zone is in a mountainous region subject to flash forest fires.
Therefore Fire officers who routinely patrol and have local knowledge of the area were tasked to drive the tracks, visit empty properties to look for the missing girl. Additionally the fire brigade used a boat to visually inspect the surface water of the lake.

Thank you G-unit.  There will have been searches of all sorts going on both official and unofficial such was the concern of both residents and tourists.  To expect a police officer to accompany each and every search group is just unrealistic.

It was an impossible task though as anyone from the local area will tell you, the sheer enormity of it was something this area never previously experienced.

The search for Mikaeel Kular in Edinburgh on the other hand was carefully targeted to specific urban landscapes and parkland areas around the child's home and did not involve searching thousands of acres of scrub as was the case with Madeleine.

[John]

BBC News
8 May 2007

Olegario de Sousa, of the Portuguese police told assembled journalists than an area with a radius of 15km (10 miles) around the Algarve resort had been searched - along with hundreds of nearby apartments.

www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6636869.stm

Out of curiosity, are there any documented comments criticising the 'search for Madeleine'?

[Alice Purjorick]

BBC News
8 May 2007

Olegario de Sousa, of the Portuguese police told assembled journalists than an area with a radius of 15km (10 miles) around the Algarve resort had been searched - along with hundreds of nearby apartments.

www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6636869.stm

Out of curiosity, are there any documented comments criticising the 'search for Madeleine'?

It may be significant that in "the only comprehensive book written on the subject by award winning authors" there is no criticism; quite the reverse in fact.

[Brietta]

Thank you G-unit.  There will have been searches of all sorts going on both official and unofficial such was the concern of both residents and tourists.  To expect a police officer to accompany each and every search group is just unrealistic.

It was an impossible task though as anyone from the local area will tell you, the sheer enormity of it was something this area never previously experienced.

The search for Mikaeel Kular in Edinburgh on the other hand was carefully targeted to specific urban landscapes and parkland areas around the child's home and did not involve searching thousands of acres of scrub as was the case with Madeleine.

Whatever the terrain it is important to know who is searching and where.  There is no point in allowing people to go out in a disorganised manner, perhaps getting injured themselves in the process or searching the same area four times while entirely missing another.

I disagree that the search for Mikaeel did not involve searching a huge area and had it been confined to the area from which he disappeared he would possibly never have been found.

I don't know if there was a scarcity of professional resources to advise and organise the volunteers effectively in PDL or why you suggest that small independent groups are an efficient way to operate in the search for a missing child when clearly any search protocols are better than none.

Peter Neal Patterson's statement makes it clear that volunteers were searching, but speaking as a volunteer searcher himself he despaired that their was no coordination or police involvement with the volunteers.

Surely the waste of a valuable resource of volunteers as well as a totally irresponsible police response.


 

[Eleanor]

And never a good idea in the first place.  Beyond that first night.

[G-Unit]

Russell O'Brien's early searching;

I then conducted a quick search of the immediate area with Matt, Dave and possibly Gerry.  We searched a cul-de-sac area which I would describe as being a passage way at the front of the block on the car park side.  We went on to search the gardens and patios.  Then we went downhill towards the centre.  On the second search we went to the shopping centre and then towards the tennis courts.  We searched around the back of the tennis courts.
 
On my way back I bumped into Dave he said to me this is bad this is really bad they’ve not found her....I searched mainly on my own, although we were all close by to each other.  The searches weren’t really planned no plans were drawn up and there wasn’t really any particular structure.  There may have been places that we missed, it was hap-hazard and panicked.  It wasn’t well organised.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/RUSSELL-OBRIEN_ROGATORY.htm

[John]

Whatever the terrain it is important to know who is searching and where.  There is no point in allowing people to go out in a disorganised manner, perhaps getting injured themselves in the process or searching the same area four times while entirely missing another.

I disagree that the search for Mikaeel did not involve searching a huge area and had it been confined to the area from which he disappeared he would possibly never have been found.

I don't know if there was a scarcity of professional resources to advise and organise the volunteers effectively in PDL or why you suggest that small independent groups are an efficient way to operate in the search for a missing child when clearly any search protocols are better than none.

Peter Neal Patterson's statement makes it clear that volunteers were searching, but speaking as a volunteer searcher himself he despaired that their was no coordination or police involvement with the volunteers.

Surely the waste of a valuable resource of volunteers as well as a totally irresponsible police response.

The searchers never found Mikaeel because they were looking in the wrong place.  Mikaeel was found thanks to the trawling of CCTV footage from the Forth Road Br which showed his mothers car being driven through the tolls the day before.  Some nifty police work revealed she was on her way to her parents home in Kirkcaldy where the boys remains were later found.

By Madeleine search standards the Mikaeel search was literally a walk in the park.  In Portugal the search extended ten miles from Luz.

There were so many people out independently looking for Madeleine that coordination of them all was an impossible task.  There will always be critics in any search operation but in Maddie's case I don't believe the police and rescue services can be faulted.

[G-Unit]

Kate's friend Nicky Gill was part of these civilian searches too, seems they were organised by the guy 'Dave' whi was very involved from the start;

On Monday morning, Fiona Payne knocked on our door and told us that there would be a search organised by a resident, Dave, we agreed to join the search and went with about 10 other people in a mini bus. We spent the morning searching grounds and areas of difficult access surrounding the resort, but I dont know where the exact location was. There was no police involvement in these searches, but I think that Dave was in contact with the local police.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/NICKY_GILL.htm

Kate McCann doesn't seem to have noticed the large numbers of police, firemen etc. searching;

Saturday, the 5th of May of 2007. Kate was still frustrated and anguished and felt that nobody was doing anything to help find Madeleine. She told me that the police had left in the morning and returned around 09H30 and that now only a few agents with sniffer dogs were in the locale.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/M_THOMPSON.htm

[G-Unit]

Operation Grange  update 11th June 2014;

Operation Grange officers working alongside experts in their field from around the UK, the Policia Judicial and the Guarda Nacional Republicana today, Wednesday 11 June completed an eight day period of work searching specific areas of land in Praia da Luz....The decision to search the “horse shoe” shaped piece of waste ground to the west of Praia da Luz and other sites was as a specific result of the UK’s investigation work to date.

The total area of land searched and surveyed was of approximately 60,000 sq metres and included all utilities, drainage channels and derelict buildings. 41 ground anomalies were identified initially by both aerial survey and ground analysis which were then investigated fully. These included three outside of the original area.

There is still a substantial amount of work yet to be completed in the coming weeks and months, which again should be viewed as no more than normal operational activity in a case of this size and complexity. This recent work is part of ensuring that all lines of enquiry are progressed in a systematic manner and covers just the one hypothesis that she was killed and buried locally. This is the same as would be done in the UK for a murder or high risk missing person enquiry. The scientific support staff involved were there to provide the highest level of assurance that this area was searched to the highest possible standards.
http://www.findmadeleine.com/updates/

[Mr Gray]

Operation Grange  update 11th June 2014;

Operation Grange officers working alongside experts in their field from around the UK, the Policia Judicial and the Guarda Nacional Republicana today, Wednesday 11 June completed an eight day period of work searching specific areas of land in Praia da Luz....The decision to search the “horse shoe” shaped piece of waste ground to the west of Praia da Luz and other sites was as a specific result of the UK’s investigation work to date.

The total area of land searched and surveyed was of approximately 60,000 sq metres and included all utilities, drainage channels and derelict buildings. 41 ground anomalies were identified initially by both aerial survey and ground analysis which were then investigated fully. These included three outside of the original area.

There is still a substantial amount of work yet to be completed in the coming weeks and months, which again should be viewed as no more than normal operational activity in a case of this size and complexity. This recent work is part of ensuring that all lines of enquiry are progressed in a systematic manner and covers just the one hypothesis that she was killed and buried locally. This is the same as would be done in the UK for a murder or high risk missing person enquiry. The scientific support staff involved were there to provide the highest level of assurance that this area was searched to the highest possible standards.
http://www.findmadeleine.com/updates/

so the hypothesis is that she was killed...