Revealed: what happened the night Madeleine McCann went missing

[Honey]

The full details of what happened on the night Madeleine McCann went missing are revealed today.


An investigation has pieced together the events on the night the four-year-old vanished from the family's apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal almost four months ago.
It shows that the abductor is most likely to have struck between 9.05pm and 9.15pm. But her disappearance could not have been discovered until 10pm, because her family and friends did not enter the bedroom where she was sleeping until that time. scroll down for more

Like clockwork: the McCanns at the Praia da Luz resort. Their regime of checking their children every half hour could be observed by any would-be abductor

Read more...

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Gerry McCann checked on his daughter at 9.05pm and then neither he nor his wife Kate checked on their children again until 10pm when they discovered Madeleine was missing.
Although the McCanns always monitored their children every 30 minutes, the night Madeleine vanished a friend of the family Matthew Oldfield offered to check for them at 9.30pm.
But instead of entering the bedroom, it is understood he listened at the door, heard nothing and assumed everything was fine. In fact, Madeleine had almost certainly been snatched by then.
Fifteen minutes earlier, at 9.15pm, a friend of the McCanns, Jane Tanner, who had gone to check on her children, saw a man walking away from the Ocean Club resort carrying a small child. Ms Tanner later described the pyjamas the girl was wearing - matching the description of those worn by Madeleine on the night.
Mr Oldfield's failure to check inside the bedroom may have cost vital time in the search for the little girl.
The Mail's sister newspaper, the Evening Standard, has spoken to a series of sources close to the McCanns and their friends who have revealed details of the events on the night. scroll down for more

The McCanns are adamant Madeleine was abducted and are angered by vicious smears that they are somehow complicit in her disappearance



They have also revealed that the McCanns have been frustrated over not being allowed to speak publicly about the events on the night - because of Portuguese rules preventing witnesses talking about a criminal case.
But they have also expressed surprise that so much information has leaked out, apparently through Portuguese police.
They are adamant Madeleine was abducted and are angered by vicious smears - published by the Portuguese media - that the McCanns and their friends are somehow complicit in her disappearance.
One source says he believes Madeleine was taken between 9.05pm and 9.15pm and that the patio windows at the rear of the apartment had been shut but unlocked on the night so the McCanns could check on their children more easily.
He said: "It could not be anything other than abduction. There is no doubt in anybody's mind that the girl Jane Tanner saw being carried away was Madeleine."
Almost four months after Madeleine vanished police in Portugal appear to have little idea what happened.
A series of leaks claim Madeleine died in the apartment and that she may have been murdered or killed by accident, with the friends of the McCanns somehow implicated.
But the source is adamant that none of the dining companions was away from the table at the tapas bar long enough not only to kill the little girl but then to dump the body.
The source said: "If it was one of the friends then it would have to be all of them to ensure a cover up. That's just plain nonsense."
Friends now believe that Madeleine was targeted during the course of the week at the resort. She was taken on the sixth night of the McCanns' stay at the Ocean Club, allowing her abductor to observe the family's routine - easily achievable since the McCanns stuck to the same arrangements.
Each evening, said the source, they and their friends dined at the tapas bar about 100 yards from the holiday apartment, and they always checked on their children every 30 minutes - almost like clockwork.
The table at the tapas bar was booked every night at 8.30pm after the children had all gone to bed. There were nine diners each night - the McCanns, Rachael and Matthew Oldfield, Ms Tanner and her partner Russell O'Brien, and David and Fiona Payne and her mother Dianne Webster.
Anybody watching the McCanns' movements would have known that as soon as Mr McCann had left the apartment after the first check, there would have been half an hour in which to snatch the child.
On 3 May, said the source, the friends arrived at the restaurant later than usual after participating in a tennis event.
The McCanns were the first to arrive at the tapas bar at about 8.40pm - previous reports had falsely suggested they had been there since 7pm and that the group had drunk several bottles of wine. The source insists no more than three bottles had been drunk by the nine adults.
Mr McCann left the table at around 9.05pm to check on Madeleine and her siblings, returning a few minutes later. Each set of parents was responsible for checking their own children but at 9.30pm when the McCanns were to check again, Mr Oldfield offered to check on them instead. Madeleine was not discovered missing for another half an hour.

Revealed: what happened the night Madeleine went missing | the Daily Mail

[lisalucy69]

Still not taking one ounce of responsibility for leaving their small children alone, unbelievably disgusting.

[hotncmom]

at 9.15pm, a friend of the McCanns, Jane Tanner, who had gone to check on her children

The friends left their kids back in their room too. That is just plain stupid in this day and time.

My parents did stupid stuff like that a couple of times so they could fuck (looking back as an adult now I know that's why). We stayed in a one room cabin in Gatlinburg, TN once and they made me sleep on the porch. Anyone could've grabbed me. Then one time we were staying in a motel (I don't remember where) and they locked me out and told me to go play on the motel playground for a while. Also, we stayed at a KOA campground in Canada once and my dad made me go by myself to a store across the campground to buy a cord of wood. I don't know if my parents just didn't give a damn if I got taken or if they really were that ignorant, but I don't let my kids out of my sight unless I know another responsible adult is watching them.

[louiswinthorpe111]

^^I don't know, times were different back then. You could leave an 8 year old alone for 15 mins to run and get a gallon of milk, now you get brought up on neglect.

When I was my sons's age, I was riding my bike all over the neighborhood, playing in the woods a few blocks away. Now, my kid can't ride his bike past the corner because I may not see him.

Kicking you out for sex was probably a combination of the times and ignorance.

Although, leaving very small children alone in a room by themselves is just stupid on all parents' part. WTF were they thinking?

[lisalucy69]

I know I may get some flak for this, but...It breaks my heart to see pictures of Madelaine 'cause she looks so much like one of my nieces. But it disgusts and pisses me off to see pictures of her parents. I do not feel one ounce of sympathy for these two. There's something shifty about them, and I find their actions to be more of an act than sincere. Even if they are found to have absolutely nothing to do with Madelaine's disappearance, they should be charged with some form of child endangerment for all three children. I have not seen or heard anything out of them where they are admitting what they did was wrong. I know the outcome must be traumatic for them, but it was their own ignorance and neglect that led to it. It appears they and their other friends do not have any common sense. Even if there hadn't been a kidnapping, those children could've choked, there could've been a fire, electrical sockets, whatever. But because they're upstanding, well-off Dr.s (who now could trust anyone with such a lack of sense to be their Dr. now?), I'm supposed to ignore the fact that they are the reason their daughter is missing or dead. If someone leaves their child standing alone in the middle of a busy intersection and the child gets hit by a car, should all the blame go to the driver? Every time I see the parents, I feel like slapping their ignorant expressions right off their faces. Maybe it's for the best that they've deserted their other children to go on their money making media tour. They disgust me to no end.

[A*O]

Leaving very young children unattended, even if they are asleep, is never OK. But I think a lot of parents these days (myself included) are sometimes a bit too over-protective when it comes to allowing older kids to go and play outside with their friends or run small errands to the local store. When I was around 8 I'd spend every waking moment out in the street with all the other kids kicking a ball around, riding bikes, building 'camps' etc etc. There were adults around of course who could be there in a minute if there was a problem, and we were all taught the rules about Stranger Danger, etc, but we weren't watched for every second. I don't recall a single situation where we felt uncomfortable or in danger but this was a small country town where everyone knew everyone else and any 'stranger' would have been very obvious.

I know times have changed but I think that parents these days read all these horror stories in the media and perceive more danger than actually exists. Having said that, I know I could never forgive myself if something happened due to my negligence or stupidity and even now I find myself watching the clock around the time my kids, both teenagers now, are supposed to be home from school on the bus. It's a great shame that kids today aren't given the opportunity to 'spread their wings' and learn how to deal with situations, even perfectly safe/innocent ones, without a parent on hand to show/tell them how to behave.

[crackho]

God, I am so glad my parents we overprotective with us. They wouldn't even let the four of us kids sleep in a different hotel right next door to my parents' room when my oldest sister was 12. My mother never let me go in a Men's room alone until I was about 8 years old (she would take me in the ladies room - and now I'm gay - ha!) and wouldn't think twice. We were to never go in any of the neighbor's homes unless my mother knew. Turns out, when I was about 9 a man who lived two doors down was arrested for touching a little neighborhood boy inappropriately. My mom believed that if you have children, you raise them in as safely as possible.

[Honey]

When the guy went to check at 9.30pm he only listened at the door! Not that this is his fault, but that is a whole HOUR of leaving the kids without checking on them.

I wish they would find the body so they can be put out of their misery- I don't mean that as harsly as it came out, but waiting about must kill them

[sputnik]

Originally Posted by A*O

Leaving very young children unattended, even if they are asleep, is never OK. But I think a lot of parents these days (myself included) are sometimes a bit too over-protective when it comes to allowing older kids to go and play outside with their friends or run small errands to the local store. When I was around 8 I'd spend every waking moment out in the street with all the other kids kicking a ball around, riding bikes, building 'camps' etc etc. There were adults around of course who could be there in a minute if there was a problem, and we were all taught the rules about Stranger Danger, etc, but we weren't watched for every second. I don't recall a single situation where we felt uncomfortable or in danger but this was a small country town where everyone knew everyone else and any 'stranger' would have been very obvious.

I know times have changed but I think that parents these days read all these horror stories in the media and perceive more danger than actually exists. Having said that, I know I could never forgive myself if something happened due to my negligence or stupidity and even now I find myself watching the clock around the time my kids, both teenagers now, are supposed to be home from school on the bus. It's a great shame that kids today aren't given the opportunity to 'spread their wings' and learn how to deal with situations, even perfectly safe/innocent ones, without a parent on hand to show/tell them how to behave.

agree.
i roamed the streets of my neighbourhood in ottawa when i was a kid and my parents never worried. there were always other kids around and lots of playgrounds and parks and kids riding their bikes up and down. my mum would check on us every now and then and we had to report back at specific times but today my parents would be called irresponsible and accused of neglect. a lot of things were different then. my younger siblings had a similar experience after we moved to geneva - we lived in a small village outside the city and kids roamed the fields and woods freely and during the summer swam and camped by the lake. there were rules though, and parents checking and within easy reach and my brothers didn't see the inside of a men's room until they were older (and were mortified about having to go in the women's) but overall it was way more relaxed than it is for kids today.
this isn't safety-related but i also remember buying cigarettes for my mum at the store and talking about it with her recently she felt guilty about it but this was before political correctness became the norm and a lot of how kids were brought up not so long ago (i'm 28) is considered britney spears territory today.

[sweetrebel]

Originally Posted by louiswinthorpe111

^^I don't know, times were different back then. You could leave an 8 year old alone for 15 mins to run and get a gallon of milk, now you get brought up on neglect.

When I was my sons's age, I was riding my bike all over the neighborhood, playing in the woods a few blocks away. Now, my kid can't ride his bike past the corner because I may not see him.
Kicking you out for sex was probably a combination of the times and ignorance.

Although, leaving very small children alone in a room by themselves is just stupid on all parents' part. WTF were they thinking?

We did, too. It was not unusual on weekends and probably daily during the summer to walk to a friend's house a mile away. We would walk to the store, too. Granted it was really rural...but times just felt safer then.
I tell hubby sometimes, things just didn't happen like that back in the day. He says bad things have always happened, now we have the media to spread the news...
I don't want to say they got what they deserved-no parent deserves that-but leaving your kids alone like that is inviting trouble. Not just to be abducted, but anything could have happened.
I have thought about A*O's theory that she died while they were out and they staged this to cover it up, but I keep coming back to 2 things...First, if they covered it up to keep from people knowing she was alone, they had to tell anyway...and secondly, how do you convince that many people to keep that secret?

[Tati]

There was a really interesting feature in the paper here recently about the differences in the "roaming areas" of three generations of a family. It had maps showing the area the grandfather roamed about/rode his bike in as a boy, and how the circle shrunk for his son, and shrunk even further for his son. The grandfather used to explore an area of a couple of miles, and the boy now maybe a couple of blocks. It was really dramatic and sad to see it graphically.

Whether there's really a need for that or not (I think it's largely a response to the increased media attention, rather an actual increase in danger), I can understand how parents would rather be safe than sorry. I know I was allowed free reign of the neighbourhood when I was a kid, I just had to let my parents know generally where I was going. Heck, our house, and my school, backed onto a huge forest conservation area, and we would walk, ski or ride our bikes through there all the time.

[southernbelle]

I feel for the McCanns, but I don't understand why they didn't have some sort of babysitter. When I was growing up, my mom would take us to the beach for one to two weeks every summer with her group of girlfriends and their kids. We would take our babysitter and one of the other families brought their sitter (a teenaged boy) as well.

This allowed the parents to go out for dinner and drinks in the evenings and leave us with the sitters. During most days and on nights when the parents stayed in, the sitters would go out and enjoy themselves. Each family paid each sitter between $50-100 for the week (and also covered all of the sitters expenses during the trip such as food/lodging/etc), so this was a very affordable and safe solution.

[Just Kill Me]

I love how this article makes it seem like it is the fault of the friend who didn't open the door and just listened at the door... what crap. I'm insanely protective of my son; I can't even leave him unattended on my patio to play okay so maybe it is a bit much that I am his shadow but he is only 2 1/2... I remember roaming all over the place when I was old enough to ride a bike but I also had two older siblings that I tagged along with...better have some more babies!
And what is up with buying cigarettes for parents; I used to do it too and then when I was bad and smoking underage we would write the fake ass notes telling the clerk they were for our parents...

[Aella]

I think we're definitely living in a culture of overprotectiveness-caution and common sense are never a bad thing, but kids living in protective bubbles will grow into useless adults.

I was lucky, because most of my childhood was spent in Communist Bulgaria, with a non-existant crime rate. I was taught caution and warned about strangers/sex predators, but other than that, was free to explore.

As for kids buying cigarettes for their parents-that still happens here, it's no big deal. I remember being 13 and buying wine or whiskey when sent in the supermarket too.

[blissfullyunaware]

Originally Posted by lisalucy69

I know I may get some flak for this, but...It breaks my heart to see pictures of Madelaine 'cause she looks so much like one of my nieces. But it disgusts and pisses me off to see pictures of her parents. I do not feel one ounce of sympathy for these two. There's something shifty about them, and I find their actions to be more of an act than sincere. Even if they are found to have absolutely nothing to do with Madelaine's disappearance, they should be charged with some form of child endangerment for all three children. I have not seen or heard anything out of them where they are admitting what they did was wrong. I know the outcome must be traumatic for them, but it was their own ignorance and neglect that led to it. It appears they and their other friends do not have any common sense. Even if there hadn't been a kidnapping, those children could've choked, there could've been a fire, electrical sockets, whatever. But because they're upstanding, well-off Dr.s (who now could trust anyone with such a lack of sense to be their Dr. now?), I'm supposed to ignore the fact that they are the reason their daughter is missing or dead. If someone leaves their child standing alone in the middle of a busy intersection and the child gets hit by a car, should all the blame go to the driver? Every time I see the parents, I feel like slapping their ignorant expressions right off their faces. Maybe it's for the best that they've deserted their other children to go on their money making media tour. They disgust me to no end.

I couldnt have written it better myself.