An Open-And-Shut Case

Immediately from the “discovery” of the missing child, the Parents and their surrogates were at great pains to emphasis that when Kate checked the room supposedly about 10pm, the window was wide open and shutters were fully up.  They claimed that it was obvious that an abductor had entered the room via the window.  However, this didn’t even pass muster with Diane Webster who seems to have been the first to check the outside of the window and found no signs of entry.  (Incidentally this is a potentially important clue, along with her also entirely sensible questioning  whether the twins might have been drugged clue that alone among the Tapas 7, DW was at least at that point not an insider as to what had really gone on – unlike all the others she is asking the questions that any sensible person who though an abduction might really have taken place would.)  The police forensic team confirmed the following day that there was zero forensic evidence that the windows had been entered, the shutters been jemmied  etc.  The only fingerprints found were Kate’s thumb prints positioned in a way consistent with her having opened the windows from the inside.

 It is important to realize that the shutters were the type which could only be raised and held up by winding them up from the INSIDE.  You might be able to force them up from the outside but they would immediately fall back as the inside ratchet mechanism had not been engaged.  Conceivably they might have been held up by a stick or pole BUT KATE NEVER MENTIONS ANYTHING LIKE THIS and none was found.  The only way that the shutters could have been in the state Kate described them in would be had someone WOUND THEM UP FROM THE INSIDE.  Given this pretty incontrovertible evidence that the “abductor” CANNOT have entered via the window, the McCann’s were forced to concede the point and fell back to the well we must have left the door(s) unlocked so he came in through the door and must have exited via the window.

Now when was the last time you decided to leave a room by clambering out a smallish window rather than simply walking out the door you had entered through a few minutes earlier? 

For most people the answer is I suspect NEVER.  Yet this is exactly what the McCanns are demanding that you believe of the purported abductor who they claimed mysteriously whisked away their 3 year old daughter Maddie McCann some time between 9pm and 10pm Thursday 3^rd May 2007.  The most common refrain from McCann sympathisers is: “But I’ve never been abducting a toddler”.  The problem is that though exiting via a small window would in normal circumstances be crazy, it would be WAY MORE CRAZY STILL in the case you were doing so whilst trying to sneak off with someone’s 3 year old.  There are at least two reasons who compelling reasons who no abductor in his right mind would exit via the window having just come through the door a few  minutes before:

(1)  The biggest risk of getting caught is that one or more of the kids wake up and start screaming.  Opening a noisy shutter system, letting in the street light and cool evening air to a darkened room and then attempting to  clamber out of the room through  the window holding  said 3 year old or passing her to a hypothetical accomplice is sure fire way to wake kids who you would have no reason to guess may have been sedated.

(2)    Exiting onto a window either carrying or passing through a 3 year old that directly overlooks a road and a small parking area would be extremely high risk as any passerby can be assumed likely to immediately raise the alarm.  Exiting via a door, not immediately visible from the road would be way safer as any observer is unlikely to raise an alarm unless they happen to know you are not the parent or someone collecting the kid on their behalf.

(3)    The bed where Maddie was supposedly sleeping was right next to the door, to get to the window one would need to get round the two twins cots to get to the window, wind  up the shutters, and open the window, get round the cots again and pick up and  then get by the cots yet again and carry her out or potentially pass  her out to a hypothetical accomplice.  The alternative of simply picking her up and exiting via either the patio door or the front door would be the only sane strategy for an abductor.

It is important to note that as the “Abductor gets in by the window argument fell apart Gerry changed his own testimony about how he had checked the room at 9pm.  the story that Gerry initially gives, that when he came to check on the kids he came around to the front door, unlocked it with his keys and he enters that way is changed so that he now enters via the unlocked patio door, as do Kate and Matthew Oldfield according to their testimonies. Gerry also concludes that the front door must also have been left unlocked.  The McCann’s have taken a lot of criticism for being so negligent with their kids as to leave them in a supposedly unlocked apartment with direct access from the street. In reality we don’t know whether the McCann’s really were as negligent as they have claimed they were.  They had to say the doors were unlocked as the “through the window” story was not going to be credible.

So much has been written and speculated about the case, that it is easy to forget that the McCann’s story collapsed at the first hurdle.  Kate has always maintained unequivocally that she found the window and shutter open.  There are only two possibilities.  The purported abductor(s) opened them or she is lying.  There is no even vaguely credible explanation of how the purported abductor could either have opened and entered through the window or decided it would be an even vaguely sensible idea to exit via them or pass Maddie through them.  Kate is therefore lying and the only conceivable reason she  would have  to do so would be  to cover up the death of Maddie which presumably she felt if admitted to would implicate Gerry and her in negligence/recklessness and/or criminality.

Unlike many unsolved crimes, in this one there can be no legitimate doubt that the parents were involved.  But the difficult questions remain.  What exactly happened?  When did it happen?  Who else was an insider to the immediate cover up?   How did the McCann's achieve such unprecedented official and media help in covering up  their crime?