The Sun claims Madeleine McCann was kidnapped during a botched burglary.

[pegasus]

The child is on top of the bed, sedated, having been lifted from under the covers as per how she was put to bed by KM.
 The process was interrupted by GM returning unexpectedly & the intruder had to hide in the parents' bedroom. (Door move 1). The intruder could not leave by the front door because he/she would be seen from the lounge.
After GM had left, the window & shutters were opened from the inside (exact reason unclear).
Intruder leaves by front door - bedroom door move 2 - and the curtains are now tinged green by the exterior street light shining through the open shutter as seen by MO.
Just my opinion. Child possibly then taken up to 5J for change of clothes & hair alteration.

In your scenario GM entering lounge would see your abductor going from child bedroom to parent bedroom.

[misty]

In your scenario GM entering lounge would see your abductor going from child bedroom to parent bedroom.

I don't believe he would if you look at the view from his entry point on the left side of the patio door into a semi-darkened room. The children's bedroom door is in a recess & the opening side is nearest the adjacent bathroom door.
By the time GM had gone through the patio door, turned & closed it, the intruder could have made it to the other bedroom quite easily.

[pegasus]

One thing I agree on Misty is that someone probably did go from the child bedroom to the parent bedroom.

[pegasus]

I don't believe he would if you look at the view from his entry point on the left side of the patio door into a semi-darkened room. The children's bedroom door is in a recess & the opening side is nearest the adjacent bathroom door.
By the time GM had gone through the patio door, turned & closed it, the intruder could have made it to the other bedroom quite easily.

Where in the adult bedroom would your abductor have hidden Misty?

[misty]

Where in the adult bedroom would your abductor have hidden Misty?

Behind the floor length curtains or possibly just down behind the far-side of the bed, praying that the incomer wouldn't enter.

[stephen25000]

I believe that witness's statements because they concur with the evidence Steve.

I am afraid it doesn't.

People do use their hands to open windows after opening the catch.

It is a regular practice.

[Carana]

Behind the floor length curtains or possibly just down behind the far-side of the bed, praying that the incomer wouldn't enter.

Inside the parents' wardrobe? Less likely, though, as someone could have come back for an extra jacket.

[Alice Purjorick]

Riddle: a burglar opens a window and shutter from outside but then doesn't climb in.
The solution is elementary my dear Alice. A child could solve it.
Someone must have disturbed the burglar just before he would have climbed in.

You could argue that of the many hundreds of witness statements taken by police, not a single witness statement mentions disturbing a burglar outside 5A that night.

Here is the surprising deduction:
The person, who disturbed the burglar just after he opened the window and shutter, has never made a statement to police.

Find a child and solve the problem that, for 9 years, has baffled two police forces and three(?) sets of Private Defectives

[Alice Purjorick]

Because they believed it was impossible to open the window and shutter from outside Merc.

Two minutes dicking about outside with the shutters and windows on first arrival would answer the question irrefutably.
I don't understand why anyone would rely on an assumption that can be so easily checked in practice.

[John]

Riddle: a burglar opens a window and shutter from outside but then doesn't climb in.
The solution is elementary my dear Alice. A child could solve it.
Someone must have disturbed the burglar just before he would have climbed in.

You could argue that of the many hundreds of witness statements taken by police, not a single witness statement mentions disturbing a burglar outside 5A that night.

Here is the surprising deduction:
The person, who disturbed the burglar just after he opened the window and shutter, has never made a statement to police.

It is very possible that occurred, a startled and terrified Madeleine runs off in the opposite direction towards the patio door.  Opens it and goes out?

[Carana]

Two minutes dicking about outside with the shutters and windows on first arrival would answer the question irrefutably.
I don't understand why anyone would rely on an assumption that can be so easily checked in practice.

I can understand why the McCanns initially assumed that the shutters had been opened from the outside. If I entered my place, that would probably have been my first reaction as well.

What I still don't understand is why the PJ assumed that an abduction couldn't have happened because it seemed unlikely that an abductor could have got through the window.

It was an initial assumption from a panicked family.

It's up to the police to take that into account and work out other possibilities. Yes, including the parents and entourage. And also the possibility of access to strange contraptions called keys.

It's not rocket science.

[G-Unit]

I can understand why the McCanns initially assumed that the shutters had been opened from the outside. If I entered my place, that would probably have been my first reaction as well.

What I still don't understand is why the PJ assumed that an abduction couldn't have happened because it seemed unlikely that an abductor could have got through the window.

It was an initial assumption from a panicked family.

It's up to the police to take that into account and work out other possibilities. Yes, including the parents and entourage. And also the possibility of access to strange contraptions called keys.

It's not rocket science.

I think the assumption was jemmied. smashed or broken rather than 'opened'. I wonder how their friends would feel about being referred to as their entourage? Quite miffed I expect.

[pegasus]

I am afraid it doesn't.

People do use their hands to open windows after opening the catch.

It is a regular practice.

A person inside that bedroom wishing to open that sliding window would put a hand around the handle and slide the right half of the sliding window to their left. No person would open it by pressing on the glass. It is possible but it would be a bizarre way of doing it.
Who do you think opened the window and shutter stephen25000?

[stephen25000]

A person inside that bedroom wishing to open that sliding window would put a hand around the handle and slide the right half of the sliding window to their left. No person would open it by pressing on the glass. It is possible but it would be a bizarre way of doing it.
Who do you think opened the window and shutter stephen25000?

The person whose fingerprints were identified.

I have tried that on several windows and once the catch is released it is very easy  to use your hands and slide it open, and even more so if the catch is difficult to reach and the person is straining to reach it. The bed did look relatively undisturbed, didn't it ?

So, next question pegasus.

[pegasus]

Two minutes dicking about outside with the shutters and windows on first arrival would answer the question irrefutably.
I don't understand why anyone would rely on an assumption that can be so easily checked in practice.

In the first minutes after the apparent disappearance, GM and 2 others tried raising a shutter.
But they did not solve the complete 3-stage Heri opening method Alice.

This raises the question - who was the very first "amateur detective" to have some element of doubt re KM's account of finding the window and shutter already open?