Apartment Key

[G-Unit]

Kate McCann said her daughter would have had to open and close the patio door, the child gate and the garden gate to leave the apartment herself. The front door was never mentioned except by Gerry's sister who said it was open.

Could MBM open the front door? If she could then she may have done so. The GNR dogs followed a trail from the front door on three separate occasions.

[misty]

Kate McCann said her daughter would have had to open and close the patio door, the child gate and the garden gate to leave the apartment herself. The front door was never mentioned except by Gerry's sister who said it was open.

Could MBM open the front door? If she could then she may have done so. The GNR dogs followed a trail from the front door on three separate occasions.

Madeleine may well have been able to open the front door. I think Gerry's sister just made an error or was misquoted /misinterpreted when she said that the front door was open.
The starting point for the GNR & S&R dogs  should have started from the place where she was reportedly last seen, i.e. her bed. The dogs should have followed the freshest scent from that point & not the front door.

[Robittybob1]

Madeleine may well have been able to open the front door. I think Gerry's sister just made an error or was misquoted /misinterpreted when she said that the front door was open.
The starting point for the GNR & S&R dogs  should have started from the place where she was reportedly last seen, i.e. her bed. The dogs should have followed the freshest scent from that point & not the front door.

Exactly and if she walked that way she walked with bare feet.  I can't think of a better way of leaving a scent trail.
Getting out is as easy as pulling the tow bar as John called it.
If she did leave by the front door as the tracker dogs indicate then was the door found open or had someone else closed it after she had left? (This is still possible by closing the front door from the inside and exiting via the patio door.)

[G-Unit]

Madeleine may well have been able to open the front door. I think Gerry's sister just made an error or was misquoted /misinterpreted when she said that the front door was open.
The starting point for the GNR & S&R dogs  should have started from the place where she was reportedly last seen, i.e. her bed. The dogs should have followed the freshest scent from that point & not the front door.

They left by the veranda door, which they left closed but not locked. Main door was closed but not locked. She thinks it could be opened from the inside but not from the outside.
https://mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/KATE-MCCANN_ARGUIDO.htm

[misty]

https://youtu.be/5HHZYs15tCM?t=307

Similar lock, door being closed using latch inside.

[G-Unit]

https://youtu.be/5HHZYs15tCM?t=307

Similar lock, door being closed using latch inside.

Although the key was in the lock, the lever opened the door, didn't it? Does that explain this statement by a previous occupant of 5A?

In this sequence, we left the door always closed with the key in the lock. The next morning, the cleaning woman knocked on the door and entered normally independent of the door being locked with the key in the interior of the lock.
https://mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/JUNE-HUGHES.htm

[Alice Purjorick]

https://youtu.be/5HHZYs15tCM?t=307

Similar lock, door being closed using latch inside.

Spring loaded. So that's that question answered.

[misty]

Spring loaded. So that's that question answered.

Yes.....but can you just pull it shut from the outside without using the "one turn to the left two turns to the right" key? Someone....please.

[misty]

From memory, when Gerry returned to 5A (Dispatches?) he said inside 5A that the key had been left on a countertop or table-top.  Sorry, not interested enough to dig out his actual words or the time in the prog.

I have re-watched both the C4 Dispatches programme & Panorama Nov 2007 & neither features Gerry saying that he left the key on the kitchen counter. The original source appears to be Amaral saying that Gerry told Control Risks that he had left the key on the counter but there is no mention of that in the report from the online files. (http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/ANALYSIS-SEP-07.htm)

Amaral:-(http://www.gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/Nigel/id408.htm Scroll down to "blue bag" interview with Julia)

"There is a report from Control Risks, the first private detective agency which was brought to the case [by the McCanns] in the very first days, where they state, after speaking with Gerald McCann and other witnesses in that group [Tapas 9], that the key that Mr. Gerald McCann alleges to have used had in fact been left in the kitchen, in the kitchen’s counter. Right away, the lies started."

[Robittybob1]

Yes.....but can you just pull it shut from the outside without using the "one turn to the left two turns to the right" key? Someone....please.

I would say NO.  the door does not know if it is being shut from the inside or the outside. We have seen the cleaner pull the latch back manually from the inside, that action would need to be done through the use of the key on the outside.  That way in all times the person outside has a key, either that or there is another person on the inside.

[misty]

I would say NO.  the door does not know if it is being shut from the inside or the outside. We have seen the cleaner pull the latch back manually from the inside, that action would need to be done through the use of the key on the outside.  That way in all times the person outside has a key, either that or there is another person on the inside.

Thank you, Rob. So, if the front door was closed at 10pm we can conclude that Madeleine did not wake & wander outside through that door. Equally, if she was abducted then either the AA did not exit via the front door or had to have used a key to exit that way.

[Robittybob1]

Thank you, Rob. So, if the front door was closed at 10pm we can conclude that Madeleine did not wake & wander outside through that door. Equally, if she was abducted then either the AA did not exit via the front door or had to have used a key to exit that way.

Well I take it meaning something different again.  In my theory there are some people aware that Madeleine has exited the building.  The first thing they may have done is to secure the front door so that the other two kids didn't wander off and then they exited via the patio door and then went looking for Madeleine.  This fits with the Carpenter statement of Mrs Carpenter hearing someone call out for Madeleine prior to Kate's alert.  Also the man seen by the lady picking up the the last child from the drop in creche  was a Mark Warner guest.   The nannies were aware of the missing Madeleine prior to Kate's alert as well, that enabled Amy Tierney to get there when the shutters were still up and the window open.

[Brietta]

Well I take it meaning something different again.  In my theory there are some people aware that Madeleine has exited the building.  The first thing they may have done is to secure the front door so that the other two kids didn't wander off and then they exited via the patio door and then went looking for Madeleine.  This fits with the Carpenter statement of Mrs Carpenter hearing someone call out for Madeleine prior to Kate's alert.  Also the man seen by the lady picking up the the last child from the drop in creche  was a Mark Warner guest.   The nannies were aware of the missing Madeleine prior to Kate's alert as well, that enabled Amy Tierney to get there when the shutters were still up and the window open.

       A very complicated explanation of what we may yet find out was a very simple exercise.

[Robittybob1]

Thank you, Rob. So, if the front door was closed at 10pm we can conclude that Madeleine did not wake & wander outside through that door. Equally, if she was abducted then either the AA did not exit via the front door or had to have used a key to exit that way.

I, like John, promote the woke and wandered hypothesis.  From the route followed by the tracker dogs Madeleine is likely to have exited the front door and gone down between blocks 4 and 5 then turned left toward the road once in the alleyway.  Since she is now outside the building the AA does not have to break in, doesn't have to exit the front door nor have to use a key to lock it.
I have a rather complex theory where there are 3 or 4 people or groups of people operating separately, with Madeleine being influenced by them all in some minor way.

[G-Unit]

Thank you, Rob. So, if the front door was closed at 10pm we can conclude that Madeleine did not wake & wander outside through that door. Equally, if she was abducted then either the AA did not exit via the front door or had to have used a key to exit that way.

From inside you use the lever and go out. You pull the door closed with that fixed knob and off you go. It answers another question for me too. I wondered how the children got far away down the gardens the day they ran off without being overtaken by a parent. If Madeleine opened the front door and the parents didn't notice straight away that would have given them a start.