Apartment Key

[Alice Purjorick]

I've never heard a mention of an open front door.

Plus, the children's window and the front door are on the same north face of 5A, so wind coming in one should have also been coming in the other.  Plus, this wind surely should have being going to ... where?

Where it always goes the world over: from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
The laws of physics and fluid mechanics see Daniel Bernoulli.
Air is a gas, a gas is a fluid.

[ShiningInLuz]

Where it always goes the world over: from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure.
The laws of physics and fluid mechanics see Daniel Bernoulli.
Air is a gas, a gas is a fluid.

My first degree was in Physics, so I think I can work out that if air was coming in the kids bedroom window plus the front door, it had to be getting out somewhere else.

[Mr Gray]

My first degree was in Physics, so I think I can work out that if air was coming in the kids bedroom window plus the front door, it had to be getting out somewhere else.

but of course it doesnt have to......air can enter a space and not escape  but simply increase the pressure...a liquid of course cannot

[Mr Gray]

The more important point is Brownian motion whereby surely any cadaver odour would be long gone in 3 months

[ShiningInLuz]

but of course it doesnt have to......air can enter a space and not escape  but simply increase the pressure...a liquid of course cannot

Oh dear.  Are we now to have a myth of wind entering from two points and simply increasing the pressure?   

[ShiningInLuz]

The more important point is Brownian motion whereby surely any cadaver odour would be long gone in 3 months

The thread title is 'apartment key'.  Perhaps if you wish to raise the dogs v Brownian motion you would be kind enough to do it on one of the many dog threads.

 

[Robittybob1]

The knob is for pulling the door behind you, it does not turn, it has no other function.  The McCanns never claimed nor denied that the double locking mechanism was ever engaged.  If the door wasn't locked with the key from the inside any small child could have opened it by pulling the slide. You don't need a key to close the door.

So you have said, but I know these types of doors from the days I was a security guard going from building to building.  These you can't just pull behind you to lock it again.  I'm certain of that.  I'll go down to the hardware store and check it out.
I agree that a small child could open it, but I dispute your concept of just pulling it to close it behind you.

[sadie]

"They were all sound asleep, windows shut, shutters shut," said Trish Cameron, Madeleine's aunt. "Kate went back at 10pm to check, the front door was lying open, the window had been tampered with, the shutters had been jammied open, and Madeleine was missing."
Trish Cameron, Timesonline 6/5/07

With all due respect, Trish wasn't there.

Chinese whispers come to mind.

[Robittybob1]

With all due respect, Trish wasn't there.

Chinese whispers come to mind.

Maybe this is the missing element the front door was found open but it is too embarrassing to mention.  In the Sky News reports a local also mentions the front door was open.

[Innominate]

Precisely.

It is more than likely Madeleine was able to get out of the apartment without any difficulty.

The aborted burglary/disturbed and wandered theory is a potential match.

But, there is a caveat.

If the door is so easy to open. Why didn't the parent secure it by deadlocking? Why overlook such an obvious risk?

KMcC states:

Before they left she took some precautions: put the medicine inside a bag with a clasp in her room inside the wardrobe or the dresser. These were Calpol (paracetamol) and Nurofen (Ibuprofen), for fevers and pains, both for adults and children (liquid form for children). In this bag there was also a small pair of scissors. In the kitchen were cutting elements used to prepare the meals and which were not put out of sight.

JT states:

“And the door, they couldn’t get out, we made sure they couldn’t, well from the point of Ella you know we made sure she couldn’t err not escape, because that sounds terrible, but you know she, the door was dead locked so she couldn’t have, she couldn’t have wandered off so I mean obviously there’s harm, you could say she could have done herself harm in the apartment anyway but from our own view of knowing Ella we thought you know she couldn’t, couldn’t come to any harm, and Evie was in her cot so couldn’t get out the cot, so.”

Why would the McCanns overlook such an obvious risk? They considered knives and medicine.

They state they cannot remember whether the door was deadlocked.

Why not?

When they came back after the alarm was raised they entered the apartment together, and shortly after they would have opened the front door.

There is only one key.

I'm surprised they cannot remember whether the door was deadlocked or not.

[Robittybob1]

The key was needed to open the front door from the outside, so for some reason they felt that was safe, but it was too easy to open from the inside.  Even though they felt if Madeleine was going to come over to the Tapas she would use the patio door, so I suppose that reduced the likelihood of the front door being the door of choice for Madeleine to exit.

[Alice Purjorick]

My first degree was in Physics, so I think I can work out that if air was coming in the kids bedroom window plus the front door, it had to be getting out somewhere else.

I went to the University of Life and read Graffiti so as I can work it out from that then you with your first degree in physics should find it a piece of p**s as they say.
Hint: builidings are not sealed units.

[Alice Purjorick]

The key was needed to open the front door from the outside, so for some reason they felt that was safe, but it was too easy to open from the inside.  Even though they felt if Madeleine was going to come over to the Tapas she would use the patio door, so I suppose that reduced the likelihood of the front door being the door of choice for Madeleine to exit.

Why so?

[Angelo222]

So you have said, but I know these types of doors from the days I was a security guard going from building to building.  These you can't just pull behind you to lock it again.  I'm certain of that.  I'll go down to the hardware store and check it out.
I agree that a small child could open it, but I dispute your concept of just pulling it to close it behind you.

Have you not looked closely at the two bolts on the door mechanism?   

The bottom bolt is called the latch bolt and is tapered in order to allow it to engage the strike plate easily. It is this bolt which engages when the door is closed. From the inside you pull the slide to open it. From the outside you need the key to retract it.

The top bolt is square in profile and is called the deadbolt.  This bolt has to be engaged and disengaged with the key.

From this you must surely understand that the key is always needed to enter from the outside. The key retracts both the deadbolt and the latch bolt when turned fully.

Most door locks allow them to be pulled shut, the Chub for example has to be locked back to disable this function. However, the default setting allows you to pull the door closed behind you.  People don't want to have to physically lock an outside door every time they leave a property.

[misty]

The aborted burglary/disturbed and wandered theory is a potential match.

But, there is a caveat.

If the door is so easy to open. Why didn't the parent secure it by deadlocking? Why overlook such an obvious risk?

KMcC states:

Before they left she took some precautions: put the medicine inside a bag with a clasp in her room inside the wardrobe or the dresser. These were Calpol (paracetamol) and Nurofen (Ibuprofen), for fevers and pains, both for adults and children (liquid form for children). In this bag there was also a small pair of scissors. In the kitchen were cutting elements used to prepare the meals and which were not put out of sight.

JT states:

“And the door, they couldn’t get out, we made sure they couldn’t, well from the point of Ella you know we made sure she couldn’t err not escape, because that sounds terrible, but you know she, the door was dead locked so she couldn’t have, she couldn’t have wandered off so I mean obviously there’s harm, you could say she could have done herself harm in the apartment anyway but from our own view of knowing Ella we thought you know she couldn’t, couldn’t come to any harm, and Evie was in her cot so couldn’t get out the cot, so.”

Why would the McCanns overlook such an obvious risk? They considered knives and medicine.

They state they cannot remember whether the door was deadlocked.

Why not?

When they came back after the alarm was raised they entered the apartment together, and shortly after they would have opened the front door.

There is only one key.

I'm surprised they cannot remember whether the door was deadlocked or not.

When Kate returned to the apartment at 10pm & discovered Madeleine was missing she did not venture outside the front door, merely looked out the window. One explanation for that is the door was double-locked & Gerry had the key with him in the Tapas Bar.
I find it difficult to believe that the parents left the key in the apartment during dinner because, in the event of the patio door jamming or being locked by a mischievous child, they'd have been in a bit of a bother.