Could all three children have been sedated by an intruder?

[ShiningInLuz]

You have to start somewhere - take samples test them, then work out where the metabolites came from.

Take which samples?  Test them how?  For what?

This is fantasy land, IMO.

[Robittybob1]

Take which samples?  Test them how?  For what?

This is fantasy land, IMO.

Take hair samples from the twins and the parents and test them.

[G-Unit]

I'm glad you're agreeing that clear, logical thinking might evade you if you were desperately searching for answers to explain your child's disappearance.

Are you also agreeing that it might not?

[Vertigo Swirl]

They were drawing attention to something which could be neither proved nor disproved. In my opinion that equals starting a rumour.

It could have been proved, either by the discovery of the body or by testing the other children.  The McCanns could not have known in advance that neither of those events would have occurred, and I hardly think that expressing a concern that your disappeared daughter may have been drugged constitutes “starting a rumour”.  That implies deliberate intent to deceive or mislead IMO.

[G-Unit]

You have to start somewhere - take samples test them, then work out where the metabolites came from.

You have to have a reason to start first. I have seen nothing which would lead a police force to start taking samples.

[Vertigo Swirl]

You have to have a reason to start first. I have seen nothing which would lead a police force to start taking samples.

Well the GNR remarked on the twins sleeping through the commotion, a child had disappeared in mysterious circumstances from a room in which two other children were left, just what would it have taken for the lightbulb to be switched on?

[ShiningInLuz]

Take hair samples from the twins and the parents and test them.

So now enlighten me as to testing capability re hair samples for sedatives, in Portugal in May 2007.

Not CSI Las Vegas please - Portugal.

[G-Unit]

It could have been proved, either by the discovery of the body or by testing the other children.  The McCanns could not have known in advance that neither of those events would have occurred, and I hardly think that expressing a concern that your disappeared daughter may have been drugged constitutes “starting a rumour”.  That implies deliberate intent to deceive or mislead IMO.

A rumour is an unverified account. The sedation story is unverified.

[Vertigo Swirl]

A rumour is an unverified account. The sedation story is unverified.

Starting a rumour has negative connotations as well you know.  When do you believe the McCanns started this rumour in your view?  Was it when they asked the FLOs if there was any evidence of sedation used?  Was it three months later when they had the twins tested?   Do asking questions and trying to get answers constitute starting rumours in your view?  Oops.  Guilty of asking you questions, sorry no need to reply, all rhetorical.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Why, if they had sedated their own children, would the McCanns "start a rumour" within days that sedation was involved in Madeleine's disappearance?    How did they propagate this rumour and where is the evidence that they did so?

[faithlilly]

But only a day or so before they raised the possibility of sedation as part of the (alleged) abduction.  So, once again I have to raise the question - why, if sedation is something they themselves had performed, did they even mention it at all in the first place?  This would be drawing attention to something that some people believe they went to great and illegal lengths to hide.

I have given explanation. Unfortunately it was removed.

Safe to say if a legal drug which had sedative effects was given to the children it would be undetectable a few days later yet remnants of the drug remaining in the apartment eg in undetected vomit, may still have been a danger to the parents.

[Vertigo Swirl]

I have given explanation. Unfortunately it was removed.

Safe to say if a legal drug which had sedative effects was given to the children it would be undetectable a few days later yet remnants of the drug remaining in the apartment eg in undetected vomit, may still have been a danger to the parents.

If Madeleine died shortly after receiving a dose of this legal drug are you telling me it wouldn’t have been detectable at post-mortem?  I don’t understand what you’re suggesting by your undetected vomit comment.

[G-Unit]

Well the GNR remarked on the twins sleeping through the commotion, a child had disappeared in mysterious circumstances from a room in which two other children were left, just what would it have taken for the lightbulb to be switched on?

They remarked, when asked, in November 2007. They're not detectives, and even if they were they didn't know it was unusual. Perhaps Kate McCann, who said (after the event) that she did see it as unusual, should have told them. Failing that she could have told the PJ when they arrived. Or the day after when they interviewed her. Then there were the FLO's on 5th. So many missed opportunities.

[Vertigo Swirl]

They remarked, when asked, in November 2007. They're not detectives, and even if they were they didn't know it was unusual. Perhaps Kate McCann, who said (after the event) that she did see it as unusual, should have told them. Failing that she could have told the PJ when they arrived. Or the day after when they interviewed her. Then there were the FLO's on 5th. So many missed opportunities.

If they didn’t know it was unusual why did they remark on it in the first place?  You don’t seem to be crediting the GNR with much perception or presence of mind... By the 4th May morning her twins were fine and she had rather more pressing things on her mind, but in any case she raised the issue on the 5th with thr FLOs, thereby drawing atention to the possibility of sedation, something which IMO would be a very stupid thing to do if she and her husband had routinely been sedating all her kids.

[Sunny]

Gerry McCanns rogatory

When questioned if the twins woke while the apartment was being searched, he replies negatively. When they were taken to another apartment he does not know if they woke as he did not take them. When asked, he says that this was not normal, and can find no reason for it happening. He still thought at this moment that the twins might have been drugged by the possible abductor, even if he only mentioned this to the Police several days later. When questioned, he says he never gave his children anything to help them sleep, nor did Kate. When asked why he did not ask the twins what happened to their sister, he says that when the events took place they still did not speak fluently, which is now a normal developmental difficulty. At this point he did not ask them because he thought that they would not have the correct perception of what had happened, in addition to thinking that they would have been sleeping.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/GERRY-MCCANN-ARGUIDO.htm

From the Guardian

9.05pm: Gerry returns to the apartment through the unlocked patio doors to check on the children. Earlier that week, the McCanns had used a key to go in through the front door next to the children's bedroom but, worrying the noise might wake the children, they began using the patio doors, leaving them unlocked.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/apr/11/madeleinemccann

So Gerry thought it was "not normal" but didn't speak to the police about it until "several days later".