The tracker dogs

[Robittybob1]

I'm not the arbiter of what you can and cannot post, Robittybob1.  As long as it complies with forum rules, that decision is entirely yours :)

I was asking you who you thought it could be.

[Brietta]

I was asking you who you thought it could be.

Hmmm ... I have no idea whatsoever ... 

[misty]

Hmmm ... I have no idea whatsoever ...

The unnamed person who handed the towel to the S&R dog handlers?

[Robittybob1]

The unnamed person who handed the towel to the S&R dog handlers?

OK.  To know that towel was used by Madeleine would make it either Kate or Gerry. So to have Gerry's or Kate's scent on it is not beyond belief.  Surely when the dog handlers acquired the towel they took precautions not to add additional scents on it.  Still doesn't make sense to be either of the two of them.

[G-Unit]

OK.  To know that towel was used by Madeleine would make it either Kate or Gerry. So to have Gerry's or Kate's scent on it is not beyond belief.  Surely when the dog handlers acquired the towel they took precautions not to add additional scents on it.  Still doesn't make sense to be either of the two of them.

The correct way to treat such items is to use tongs to pick them up and then to place them in a plastic bag, which the dogs sniff.

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.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/INFORMATION-SERVICE.htm

So the correct procedure was at least partly followed. The tracker dogs never seemed to have the princess blanket which was given to the first dog [a patrol dog with some training in tracking].

Nevertheless the tracker dogs followed the same route as the patrol dog. Whether they followed the same scent we don't know, but it's quite a coincidence.

When the patrol dog handlers arrived at 2.30am [his colleague says 1.55am] they entered the apartment

When they arrived at the scene, they entered the McCann's apartment by the front door, and entered the living room, where there were some PJ officers as well as the MCCann couple. The just talked to some colleagues from the PJ and asked for a piece of clothing that Madeleine had worn or used recently. They were given a pink/orange blanket that the child had been covered with in her bed.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/CARLOS-LACAO.htm

Kate went to get the blanket, so she touched it.

The handler doesn't say he took the blanket away, so it may have been handed back. In theory the blanket should have been saturated with Madeleine's scent above any other scents on there.

If, on the other hand, the two little girls both had these blankets and were both dried with the same towel, we could have the scent of a child who did go to 4G. She didn't, however, have any reason to be on the other side of the road next to block 6.

[Robittybob1]

I like the way you analyse the situation G-unit. 

[sadie]

I like the way you analyse the situation G-unit.

Yep a good analysis, Gunit

BUT it leaves out the fact that a smelly sweaty abductor would have handled the cuddle blanket and might have lifted the towel if on the bed, as well

[Robittybob1]

Yep a good analysis, Gunit

BUT it leaves out the fact that a smelly sweaty abductor would have handled the cuddle blanket and might have lifted the towel if on the bed, as well

I think G-unit already factored that in, but I'll let her answer that.

[G-Unit]

Thank you both.

In support of your theory, Sadie, is an item which could be a towel draped over the bottom of one of the cots in the 5A photos. Kate may have taken Madeleine to the bedroom in the towel to put her pyjamas on. Against your theory is finding an explanation as to why a smelly abductor may have been to 5H and 4G.

I would guess that the scent followed was not one of the T7. Their most recent scent trails would be in or out of block 5, so the dogs should have entered the block if they were following one of their scents. They passed the entrance.

Gerry entered block 5 also on the evening of 3rd when he searched upstairs with Rachael. [in her rog interview]

I'm not sure if Kate went in or not.

So, provisionally, we're left with Kate or someone unknown.

[misty]

Thank you both.

In support of your theory, Sadie, is an item which could be a towel draped over the bottom of one of the cots in the 5A photos. Kate may have taken Madeleine to the bedroom in the towel to put her pyjamas on. Against your theory is finding an explanation as to why a smelly abductor may have been to 5H and 4G.

I would guess that the scent followed was not one of the T7. Their most recent scent trails would be in or out of block 5, so the dogs should have entered the block if they were following one of their scents. They passed the entrance.

Gerry entered block 5 also on the evening of 3rd when he searched upstairs with Rachael. [in her rog interview]

I'm not sure if Kate went in or not.

So, provisionally, we're left with Kate or someone unknown.

Kate & Gerry both went into the apartment via the side gate after Madeleine went missing. The dogs did not follow that scent trail.

[G-Unit]

Kate & Gerry both went into the apartment via the side gate after Madeleine went missing. The dogs did not follow that scent trail.

I assume they would follow the strongest freshest or easiest to find scent, which must have been the one crossing the road.

[Brietta]

I assume they would follow the strongest freshest or easiest to find scent, which must have been the one crossing the road.

This particular effort made in the hope of locating Madeleine is an irrelevance to that.

The dogs undoubtedly followed something which was of interest to them all.  Nothing was made of it at the time, except that in the eyes of the investigation it diverted attention specifically from the route taken by the man Jane Tanner had seen.

At this remove there is no hope of second guessing what they actually followed.

When the road was crossed was that as a result of following traffic to the apartment or from the apartment or both?

[G-Unit]

This particular effort made in the hope of locating Madeleine is an irrelevance to that.

The dogs undoubtedly followed something which was of interest to them all.  Nothing was made of it at the time, except that in the eyes of the investigation it diverted attention specifically from the route taken by the man Jane Tanner had seen.

At this remove there is no hope of second guessing what they actually followed.

When the road was crossed was that as a result of following traffic to the apartment or from the apartment or both?

There's not much hope of using the forum to locate Madeleine in my opinion.

We have clarified what type of dogs were used and what they did. We know what items they sniffed. It's possible they followed someone carrying the child out of the front door and along the path if two scents were on the items sniffed.

It's a good job they didn't follow Tannerman as he seems to have been a red herring. If he was a holidaymaker he didn't even enter block 5 car park.

[Brietta]

There's not much hope of using the forum to locate Madeleine in my opinion.

We have clarified what type of dogs were used and what they did. We know what items they sniffed. It's possible they followed someone carrying the child out of the front door and along the path if two scents were on the items sniffed.

It's a good job they didn't follow Tannerman as he seems to have been a red herring. If he was a holidaymaker he didn't even enter block 5 car park.

Long before DCI Redwood suggested who Tannerman might have been, the Portuguese investigation appears to have dismissed him because the dogs showed no interest in his route.

Had the dogs shown an interest it is possible a more diligent search could have turned up creche man ... if indeed it was he ... and the investigation progressed from there.

The dogs in this instance merely reinforced an opinion which had already been formulated, if what Amaral has said about it in his book is considered accurate.

[G-Unit]

Long before DCI Redwood suggested who Tannerman might have been, the Portuguese investigation appears to have dismissed him because the dogs showed no interest in his route.

Had the dogs shown an interest it is possible a more diligent search could have turned up creche man ... if indeed it was he ... and the investigation progressed from there.

The dogs in this instance merely reinforced an opinion which had already been formulated, if what Amaral has said about it in his book is considered accurate.

Amaral pays little attention to the sniffer dogs in his book; he doesn't mention them in relation to the Tanner sighting.  I understood Jane Tanner was perceived to have changed her story, embellished it and so on. Also the fact that she wasn't seen by Gerry and Jez.