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



 

Published: July 27, 2011

By Pat Brown
Rating: 
(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.