Tuesday, June 3, 2014

How Madeleine Died During a Burglary

Right up the Rocha Negra from the Beach
I have worked on rare occasion for defense attorneys and more than once, when I have told them that their client was guilty, they then said, "Well, okay, but what other scenario could you come up with?" I would shake my head and tell them I wasn't going to make up something for them to defend their client with, but, you know, if you work hard enough at it, you can often come up with a plausible enough story that will make them happy (and earn you a few more dollars).

Right now, there is great hope that Scotland Yard is actually following the evidence in the files or perhaps a confession from the McCann group and they are searching for some intermediate grave that Gerry might have been miraculously able to dig in that rock hard ground with a Tapas spoon (as opposed to hiding Maddie's body in the easier spot on the Rocha Negra, in a crevices that already has gravel and loose rocks that could easily cover a body). Then he would have to unearth her again and carry her off another location (which I believe should be a place like Monte do Jose Mestre to the west of the town). Recovering Maddie's body from under some stones on the Rocha Negra is quite a bit easier than having to dig her up again from that wasteland.

Or, it could be that Scotland Yard is following the burglar theory. If I were concocting a plausible scenario for them, here is how it would go.

Burglar One enters the McCann flat through an unlocked door (wearing a skull cap to keep hair in place) and gloves so as not to leave fingerprints. As he is about to look around the living room, he hears Gerry turning the front door knob. Panicked, he flees into an adjacent room and hides behind the door. Gerry enters the children's room and the burglar presses himself up against the wall behind the door, daring not to breathe. Gerry looks about at the children and then leaves the room and the flat.

The burglar comes out of the room but hears Gerry outside talking to Jez. As he stands there frozen, trying to decide what to do, Maddie wakes up and comes out of the room. She sees the man and starts screaming. The burglar panics, grabs Maddie and covers her mouth with his hand. He doesn't realize as he is attempting to keep her quiet, that when one covers a small child's mouth, it is easy to also accidentally cover her nose as well, blocking both airways.

Gerry and Jez finish their conversation and they both move off. The burglar is relieved and takes his hand off Maddie's mouth. Then he looks down and is horrified. The child is not breathing. The burglar panics and doesn't know what to do with this dead child. He pulls the couch away from the wall and pushes Maddie's little body behind it. He rushes from the flat.

Once outside, he calls his other two burglar friends and asks them what they should do. They tell him h needs to remove the child's body because his DNA might be on her in some way or other. The burglars meet up with him and one watches the back of the flat and the other stands outside the window. Burglar One goes back in and opens the window of the children's room. He then goes into the living room and gets Maddie's body from behind the sofa and takes it to the window. He passes the child's body to Burglar 2 after they are sure no one is on the street to observe them. Then, he goes out the back and the burglars head away from the flat. Maddie's body remains in the flat long enough to account for the cadaver dog.

Burglar 2 is seen carrying the body of the child by the Smith family. He takes the child to one of the burglar's homes where they decide what to do next. Eventually, they decide to bury the child in a shallow grave in a scrubland nearby that one of the burglars knows well. One man digs while the other two stand guard. It is possible that they decided later that they should move the body to a place farther away or dump her in the ocean, so using the same three person system, they may have removed Maddie's body from Praia da Luz to a place from which it cannot be retrieved.    

I am sure many of you can argue that there are flaws in this scenario. But, if you think about it, there are difficulties with the McCann scenario as well. If you don't actually have to prove it in court, a scenario only has to be good enough to be accepted by the audience you are trying to influence.

This scenario isn't a bad one. The McCanns can't be blamed for being unaware that a burglary ring was operating in the area (that would be the resort's fault for failing to inform its guests) and Maddie would have died quickly in an unfortunate accident, something Kate could surely forgive the hapless burglar for.

The sex predator scenario also could be used with the same unfortunate accident occurring while trying to keep the child from screaming during an assault or attempted abduction. A little less savory but if there is a handy sex predator in the area (that guy in jail in England lived there), he could fit the bill just as well.

Once again, I hope I am wrong, but I would be a lot more confident that this investigation had taken a turn for the better if Scotland Yard were up searching on the Rocha Negra, a place which should have been the easiest location to get permission from Portugal to dig.

Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

June 3, 2014



 Cover for 'Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann'

Published: July 27, 2011
By Pat Brown
Rating: 1 star1 star1 star1 star1 star
(5.00 based on 5 reviews)


What really happened to Madeleine Beth McCann in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007? Was she abducted as the Gerry and Kate have claimed or did something happen to Madeleine on May 3 in the vacation apartment and the incident covered up? Criminal Profiler Pat Brown analyzes the evidence and takes the readers through the steps of profiling, developing a theory that is intriguing and controversial.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

pat I wonder what Gerry thinks about sy and pjs using sniffer dogs after all he said it loud and clear the were no good I have to agree with you pat sadley I think its all a white wash

Anonymous said...

I reckon the police know what they are doing. Far too much time and money gone into it now. Very hopeful...

Anonymous said...

I wonder if there is any type of
munchausens by-proxy that involves
an attention starved parent, or
parents who fatally harm their
children for media attention?

I've read cases involving parents
who make their child sick in
order to satisfy various needs.
(like being the savior/healer,
or simply for some other attention
fulfillment.) But is there ever
a money angle, or Media attention
angle in such cases?

Of course all of the money the
mcanns have gotten since the
girls disappearance could have
just been an unintended consequence too, after an
accidental death.

guerra said...

You know what irritates me about all this is that English would never allow the Portuguese authorities to pull a stunt like this in England. If I had any say in Portugal I would tell Scotland Yard to take a hike. Actually I would use more colourful language which I don't want to display here.

Unknown said...

thanks ,,,,,

Anonymous said...

@guerra - 4.14

I was thinking the same thing and I too would tell SY to sling their hook.
What gives SY any rights to tramp all over the jurisdiction of another country and why?
How has this case come to be of such significance that the British government has intervened/ interfered from day one?
When the Find Madeleine Fund was being set up how could the parents know she wouldn't be found?

Anonymous said...

Dear Guerra,

The Portuguese people are the most Asian-like, or should I say Indian-like, of all European people. We hate violence and aggression and probably most people here would view a refusal to cooperate like a form of (passive) aggression. I think the general view here is: if this can, in any way, help the investigation, then why not? Granted, it's inconvenient, it's getting old and almost pathetic, but really it's not the end of the world, considering that the little girl has still not been found. Besides, what's really on most Portuguese people's mind is really not this, rather how to face our ever increasing tax burden, how to find a job, how to keep our jobs, how to put food on the table, how to get to work each day through all the strikes and ... you know ... basically, we couldn't care less about SY and the whole enchilada.
My feeling is that the whole apparatus behind this case is related to corruption at the highest level and, in that connection, this is the UK's problem, not ours.

Anonymous said...

A total whitewash.

Thomas Baden-Riess said...

Brava Pat, I'm once again amazed that the skills needed to be a crime novelist are those needed to do fraudulent police work/PR.

Maybe the burglars motivation for moving the body came from the unexpected media spotlight that suddenly came down. Plus,with blood and cadaverine on their hands and clothes, they could have planted something in the Mccann hire car in order to set them up.

The sad thing is, you really shouldn't be giving the Powers that be any ideas!

Anonymous said...

why do we assume that if Maddie died it was on the date she was reporting missing? She could have died before hand allowing time for her to be buried

Pat Brown said...

Anon 1:54

As a profiler, my analysis of what happened to Maddie occurred on the 3rd. Please read my previous blogs or book to understand why I determine this to be so.

Anonymous said...

@PAT, i beleive you are correct to how the body was transported, this is what makes this most likely, it is always suspect to change a routine around a hired car?
Plus these are the elements that have never made any sense at all?
Normaly in brtain rubbish is put into refuge sacks then into a dustbin, and the local authority empty the bins?
Soiled nappies are usualy bagged not chucked into a hire car in such heat because of health risks?
How would nappies leave any residue through plastic?
Why wasnt the bin used at that time?
Its more odd the hire car was over washed considering rubbish is normaly bagged up?
Why would they go from bagging rubbish, to simply not caring about hygeine?
As doctors they know alot about contamination, but for some unexplained reason this lapse is alien to their professions, and their experience in transfering harmful waste?
Was this evident on previous holidays, and if not, can gerry and kate explain this isolated change in their habits before this child couldnt be found in seven years?
I certainly dont recall any of the group stateing this on any other holiday before madeleine went missing?
Gets more odd by the day, unlocked doors all over the place where this case stinks of only one thing?
A contrived cover up to obstruct the truth about the behaviors, towards a burial site.
Not a rubbish dump?

Anonymous said...

There was no room behind the door for anyone to hide.

Pat Brown said...

Anon 6:25

Anon, it doesn't matter if the story is factual or true. It is just a story.. Didn't you hear about the father carrying his child the wrong way from the creche, the one that eliminated Tannerman? Do you see any proof of that story? Stories aren't required to be valid....just useful.

John said...

Dear Pat,

SY doesn't work for a Defense Attorney. We don't have many details about their investigation. Do they look ahead to a possible involment of the close relatives of the little Madeleine? Do they look ahead to a possible escape on her own from the flat (and a possible "bad encounter" with somebody)? Do they look ahead to a possible crime comitted "accidentally" by a burglar who could have taken away the body?
The mystery of this disappearence has not been solved yet, seven years later.
What we know for sure is that the crime scene has not been protected and that this flat has been rented to several families a few weeks after this disappearence.
Several fingerprints found in the flat have never been indentified.
It seems to me difficult to draw conclusions on the basis of the crime scene's inspections, unfortunately.
The close relatives of the child would'nt have had many time for hidding a body. Less than anybody else, in any case.
The surroundings of this resort are a mixture of residential and wild areas. They've been explored by portuguese police and volunteers, but most probably not perfectly, during a few days after the disappearence. I don't know if these new inquiries on the ground could be more efficient, the way they're done by SY, but why not?

Anonymous said...

Hi Pat, I have been following this case for awhile now, and just want to thank you for your ongoing profiling of this case.

I watched part of the program last night here in the UK about the hiring of the conman to find Maddie.

5 mins into the program, my worst fears were confirmed - another elaborate media whitewash of the McCanns.

They seem to be stepping up this campaign, and the public seem to be swallowing the lies. A lot of time has passed now, and many have forgotten the original evidence.

I could not watch the whole program as it made me feel so angry at the injustice and the cover-up that's been going on all along, with the help of the media and "secret handshake" friends in high places.

If there is any justice in this world, the McCanns will be held to account. Particularly where the evidence points to paedophilia.

But it makes you realise that there are powers in this world which control things and information which we have no knowledge of. It's scary.

Again, thank you so much for your bravery and forthrightness. And most of all, for the truth.

Anonymous said...

The programme about Halligen last night was on obvious set up at a time when the media is supposedly focussing on the ongoing search.
It's just too coincidental and seems designed to encourage sympathy for the parents at a time when the search is at a place readily reachable by anyone who may have disposed of the child after some scenario such as accidental death (why not just admit it if that was the case) burglary gone wrong (why take the body rather than leave it in situ?) or paedophile..... well if a paedophile took the child and she was dead before leaving the flat any reason for removing her body is negated.
In all of the above circumstances there is no logiccal for the child to have been taken away.
However if the child walked out of the flat made her way towards wasteland (unlikely -as she would have known the way to the pool area - but possible) she could have fallen down an open hole and died.
None of this though answers the questions of why both dogs originally taken to PDL by martin grimes alerted indpeendent of each other to the same areas of the flat.
Could it be that SY are looking for the candlestick that killed Rev Green in the ballroom??

Anonymous said...

It changes nothing about what happend, they can spin that white wash as much as they want, madeleine was dead the minute the parents put out them photos, that arrogance reflects upon why this child could never be found alive, they carnt dispute that warning in any poor excuse, their company is fraudulant on the basis it does not turn up every stone, and that obstruction is clear in their flawed theory, they havent followed the evidence to turn up anything, the maccanns have spent more time on libel court injunctions than actualy just letting the police do their job?
Its ludicrous to apply any injunction before a case can be solved, that hampers any detective who dosent beleive this is a abduction, meaning to turn up anything that is possible?
Not shy away because the maccanns have lawyers preventing a genuine investigation that has seen the case become cold under the maccanns direction, they need to go back to when it was hot.
Just a opinion.

trustmeigetit said...

Even if there were burglars there still is the cadavor scent. It takes 1.5-2 hours to leave a scent.

So that doesn't mesh with the timeline.

And the scent was also in the closet and outside in the dirt.

Anonymous said...

I think they might realise the public are getting mighty fed up with them, so, in an effort to wind it down, start the elaborate, as Pat says, "looking everywhere but" charade which will tick all the boxes that don't make them murder suspects. In other words, all along, the bottom line is that if Madeleine is found to be dead, the finger points directly at the parents. They would be held to account for murder.

I tell you this case makes me so angry. There is a cover-up of paedophilia and child neglect.

There will be no justice in this world if this latest joke of an "investigation" leaves the McCanns looking squeaky clean.

trustmeigetit said...

I also agree about the "nappies". No one just tosses them in the trunk of the car.

Nasty.

And I still wonder, even of these bones they found are Madeleine what can be done. SY has no jurisdiction in Portugual so what legally would then happen.

Any know know?

Has anyone ever seen police investigate in another county like this?

Anonymous said...

Guerra

I agree ...so why haven't your fellow countryman done as you would have ? are you saying your officials don't see it the same as you? ..or some other reason why they are not doing as you would.

Portugal are the LEAD country and CAN do as you have said!..so that may be worth chasing up and seeing why you are at odds with Portugals officials.

Pat ..I never realised that defence was about making up cock and bull stories to get clients off?....isn't that a form of aiding and abetting?....and perjury.

is money the God for everyone in the world of LAW.

Mojo