Timeline -- No Discussion

christine2448

Retired WS Staff
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
10,390
Reaction score
280
Here is a chronology of developments:
May 3 - The girl goes missing from her bedroom between 9.30 and 10 p.m. while her parents Kate and Gerry are dining just 100 yards away at the Mark Warner Ocean Club holiday resort in Praia da Luz. A window and shutter are open and she is presumed to have been abducted.

May 4 - McCann family members and British media criticise local police for what they call a slow initial response, failure to notify ports and borders in time, and failure to secure the crime scene, which may have led to vital clues being lost.
Police say that under Portuguese secrecy laws they are unable to reveal details of the investigation.

May 5 - Police say they have put together a sketch of a suspect and confirm they believe Madeleine is still alive and being held within three miles of the crime scene. Media reports say the sketch is vague and only features the back of a man's head.

May 8 - Police say they have investigated 350 suspicious incidents but still have no idea where she might be.
Portuguese newspaper Correio de Manha says Madeleine may have been kidnapped by a paedophile ring.
Manchester United's Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo joins appeals for her release.

May 10 - The search around the resort winds down. Attention focuses on a blonde woman seen acting suspiciously before the girl's disappearance.

May 11 - Scottish businessman Stephen Winyard offers a one million pound reward.
Former England soccer captain David Beckham makes televised appeal for information.

May 12 - Madeleine turns four.

May 13 - Virgin boss Richard Branson, author J.K. Rowling and footballer Wayne Rooney are among those to have contributed to rewards now totalling 2.5 million pounds.

May 13 - Half a million pilgrims attending the 90th anniversary of the first appearance of the Virgin Mary at the Sanctuary of Fatima pray for Madeleine's return.

May 14 - Her parents say they will not return home until they have found her but say they think she is safe.
Police search a villa just up the road from where Madeleine was snatched and take a British man, Robert Murat, to a police station for questioning. He is later released.

May 15 - Police say they have identified a suspect but do not have enough evidence for an arrest.
Five properties have been searched in the area, and two other people questioned as witnesses.

May 17 - Web site, www.findmadeleine.com, is launched.

May 19 - Appeals are broadcast at the F.A. Cup final at the new Wembley stadium.

May 25 - Gerry and Kate McCann speak of their guilt over Madeleine's disappearance.

May 30 - They meet Pope Benedict during a general audience at the Vatican

June 1 - The couple travel to neighbouring Spain where they hold a news conference to appeal for help from Spanish police.

June 6 - They take their appeal to Berlin. The Algarve is popular among Germans. They move on to Amsterdam. After British and German tourists, the largest group of nationals who make up the tourists in the Algarve are the Dutch.

June 10 - The couple fly to Morocco. British media reports suggest it might be the last country they visit before "taking stock" of their campaign.

June 13 - Police start searching an area of deserted scrubland 20 km north of Praia da Luz after a tip-off to a Dutch newspaper. They find nothing.

June 21 - Police in Malta check two reports of possible sightings.

June 22 - Worldwide balloon release to mark the 50th day since
Madeleine's disappearance.

July 22 - Gerry McCann flies to the United States to consult experts on missing children. While there, he is asked persistently by the media why the couple left their children alone that night.

July 26 - The McCanns' local paper the Leicester Mercury is forced to ban all comments on stories about the case after it was bombarded with messages calling for the couple to be prosecuted.

August 3 - Belgian authorities carry out DNA tests on a bottle and straw after a possible sighting of Madeleine with a couple in the eastern town of Tongeren. The test proves negative.

August 5 - Police complete a two-day search of the home of Murat.

August 7 - Traces of blood were found on the wall of the apartment where Madeleine went missing, local newspaper Diario de Noticias says.

August 10 - Gerry and Kate McCann say in a series of television interviews they would not be "bullied" into leaving Praia da Luz after some negative press reports, especially in the Portuguese media.

August 11 - Portuguese police Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa tells the BBC that Madeleine may be dead.
The McCanns mark the 100th day since her disappearance with a special church service and launch "Don't You Forget About Me," a channel on the video-sharing Web site YouTube to help trace missing children.

August 31 - Gerry and Kate McCann say they have instructed their lawyers to begin legal action against Portuguese newspaper Tal & Qual after it claimed police believe the couple killed Madeleine. The newspaper said it was "totally confident" in its report.
The couple are reported to be planning to leave Portugal and return home.

September 6 - Kate McCann spends 11 hours being questioned as a witness by police, a lawyer for the family says.

September 7 - She is due to be formally declared a suspect, a family spokeswoman says.
 
DisappearES_468x291.jpg
 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/portugal_missing_girl_chronolongy
Key events in the disappearance of 4-year-old Madeleine McCann.
May 3: The child is reported missing from a holiday apartment in the town of Praia da Luz in the Algarve resort region. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, left her asleep
with two smaller siblings while they had dinner at a nearby restaurant, and said they
checked frequently on the children. They say Madeleine was kidnapped.
May 6: Police say there is evidence the girl was abducted, and appeal for her return.
May 11: David Beckham and other soccer stars appeal for Madeleine's safe return. Police in Portugal scale down local searches, saying the case has become an international investigation.
May 12: Madeleine McCann turns 4.
May 13: Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling pledges a contribution to a $3 million reward for the safe return of the child.
May 13: Robert Murat, a Briton who lives near the complex where the child vanished, is questioned after British journalists report him to police, saying he was poking around the crime scene and implying that he was part of the investigation.
May 18: A Web site set up to help find Madeleine receives some 65 million visitors in 48 hours.
May 30: The McCanns meet at the Vatican with Pope Benedict to discuss their ordeal. The pontiff pledges to pray for her safe return.
July 10: Murat is questioned by police in the company of his lawyer, and again the next day. He insists he has nothing to do with her disappearance.
Aug. 3: Authorities in Belgium say they are taking seriously a reported sighting of the child in the town of Tongeren. Police issue a drawing of a Dutch-speaking man reportedly seen with the girl and an English-speaking woman at a table outside a pub. Authorities eventually carry out DNA tests on a milkshake bottle from the pub, but no DNA from the child is found on it.
Aug. 7: Portuguese media report that sniffer dogs found traces of blood in the hotel room where Madeleine went missing. This forensic evidence is sent to Britain for testing.
Aug. 11: Police say new evidence prompts them to consider the possibility the girl is dead.
Sept. 7: Kate McCann is reportedly named as a suspect in her daughter's disappearance, and a family spokesman says Gerry McCann has been told he too will be named as a suspect
 
calikid put alot of time into making this timeline of the night a few weeks back. i found it very intresting.

This is the timetable at the Tapas Bar as best as I can reconstruct it. The movements of some of the McCann friends don't make sense.
posted by Calikid

Tapas Timetable:

5:30 to 6:00 pm McCanns pick up their children from the crèche.

6:30 McCanns take Madeleine out for a snack.

7:30 (approx) Madeleine and the twins go to bed.

8:30 McCanns arrive at the Tapas Bar.

At Tapas Bar ---------------------------------- Not There

Kate McCann ---------------------------------- Everyone else
Gerry McCann

8:45 Russell O’Brien, Matthew and Rachael Oldfield arrive at Tapas Bar.

Kate ------------------------------------------ Jane Tanner
Gerry ----------------------------------------- Fiona Payne
Russell O’Brien --------------------------------- David Payne
Rachael Oldfield -------------------------------- Dianne Webster
Mathew Oldfield? (May have arrived later)

8:55 David and Fiona Payne arrive at Tapas Bar. David says all members, including Mathew, Russell and Jane, were there. Rachael Oldfield claims Mathew arrived a few minutes after the Paynes. No specific mention is made of Fiona’s mother, Dianne Webster, or Jane Tanner’s arrival.

Kate
Gerry
Russell
Rachael
Mathew
Fiona Payne
David Payne
Dianne Webster? (Assume she arrived with her daughter/son-in-law.
Jane Tanner? (No arrival time given)

9:00 Mathew Oldfield checks on the children- he went back to apartments to do first check 5-15 minutes after his arrival time, depending on witness statements.

At Tapas Bar ---------------------------------- Not There

Kate ------------------------------------------- Mathew
Gerry
Russell
Rachael
Fiona
David
Jane?
Dianne

9:05 Gerry leaves to check on children- this is corroborated by acquaintance Jeremy Wilkins who encounters Gerry while out walking his own child- they talk for a few minutes. Neither of the men see Jane Tanner (nor her, them) when she leaves for her child-check five minutes later, even though they are using the same narrow street to and from the Tapas Bar. Nothing is said about whether Gerry or Jane cross paths with Mathew Oldfield. Gerry will later report seeing light in the bedroom and the door open but assumed all was okay.

Kate ------------------------------------------ Mathew (not back yet)
Russell ---------------------------------------- Gerry
Rachael
Fiona
David
Dianne
Jane?

9:10 Jane Tanner is now checking on children- the 3rd person in ten minutes. If each parent was responsible for own child-check, this makes sense. But, when you take into account that Mathew Oldfield claims to have checked on the McCann children later on, it doesn’t. Also, has Jane already joined them at the Tapas Bar and left the group to check, or was her first appearance at the Bar after she checked the children? According to reports, one of her daughters was vomiting.
Jane, Gerry and Mathew have never said whether they ran into each other coming and going between the Tapas Bar and the apartments that night. But if this account is true, they must have seen each other.
Jane Tanner will also claim she saw a man in the dim light outside the apartment building holding something wrapped in a blanket and hurrying away. After Robert Murat is named an arguido, she will positively state it was him, and she will give a detailed description of him, claiming he was carrying a child who looked like Madeleine and dressed like her. However, she doesn’t mention this to anyone at the Tapas Bar at the time.

Kate ------------------------------------------ Mathew
Russell ---------------------------------------- Gerry
Rachael --------------------------------------- Jane
Fiona
David
Dianne

9:25 Gerry returns to the Tapas Bar, and Russell O’Brien will later tell the PJ that he and Mathew plan to visit the children. How can Mathew check on the kids when, if the reports are accurate, he hadn’t returned from his first visit? Neither is there any testimony of Jane’s return, so why is Russell checking their children if she is still with them?

Kate ------------------------------------------ Mathew
Gerry (after 20 min. absence) ------------------ Russell
Rachael --------------------------------------- Jane
Fiona
David
Dianne

9:30 Mathew and Russell leave the Tapas Bar. Mathew will also state that he saw light in the McCann apartment, and Russell will say his daughter was vomiting and he had to change her sheets. But housekeeping has no record of him asking for clean linens.
Najova Chekaya, aerobics instructor and quiz director, joins the party at Gerry’s invitation. She will later state that one chair was empty and nobody got up from the table except Kate (around 10:00).

At Tapas Bar ---------------------------------- Not There

Kate ------------------------------------------ Mathew
Gerry ----------------------------------------- Russell
Rachael
Fiona
David
Jane -------------------- or ------------------ Jane?
Dianne

9:35 Mathew Oldfield returns to Tapas Bar.

Kate ------------------------------------------ Mathew?
Gerry
Rachael
Mathew
Fiona
David
Jane? (When did she rejoin group?)
Dianne
Najova

9:45 Jane Tanner confirms that at this time, and not at 9:30, Russell and Mathew left to check on children. However, this is unlikely as Najova Chekaya makes no note of this and says Mathew was there.

Kate ------------------------------------------ Mathew?
Gerry ----------------------------------------- Russell?
Rachael
Fiona
David
Dianne
Najova
Jane? (When did she rejoin group?)

9:55 Russell O’Brien returns to Tapas Bar.

Kate
Gerry
Russell (gone either 10 or 25 minutes)
Rachael
Mathew?
Fiona
David
Dianne
Jane
Najova

10:00 Kate McCann goes to the apartment and discovers Madeleine missing. She goes back to the Tapas Bar to sound the alarm. They all leave the table except Dianne Webster. No mention is given about her departure except to say she returned to the bar at 10:05 for her purse and camera. Since, according to Jane’s testimony, Mathew hadn’t returned to the restaurant before Kate left, when did he get back?


If any of the McCann friends are suspected of harming Madeleine, I doubt it's Rachael Oldfield, the Paynes or Fiona's mother, Dianne. They didn't leave the table the entire time.
 
btw incase i forgot to say it at the time thank you for the hard work you did on this cali.
 
:eek:
Thank you for the timelines, I am just becoming familiar with the case and had not previously formed any opinions.

I find the detailed timeline (calikid?) very illuminating, very disturbing.
 
The timelines are great. Thanks so much.

Aside from subterfuge, there might be other reasons for contradiction or confusion: At what seems to have been a festive dinner (with many bottles of wine consumed), time and sequence were not being closely watched or precisely remembered. (Also, I would imagine that some people would disappear for bathroom breaks too.)
 
These timelines are very helpful. Thanks Christine2448 and CaliKid for sharing your work. I keep flipping back to this timeline of the Tappas Bar party. CaliKid, do you recall reading anything that suggested one of the other "7", offered to check on Maddie...and the offer was declined by Kate?

I have been up way too many hours, and am loosing focus. Thought it was in your timeline. It's a small point, but it is nagging me.

Greatly appreciate the timelines.
 
SUNDAY-09.09.07

McCanns Plan to stick to their original plan of a few weeks to leave PT on a 9.30 am flight back to UK

Media links posted above under the media thread

(Thanks for the great timeline cali, christine and all--feel free to add this and delete my message)
 
The most suspicious thing about timeleines is that the times aways end in a 5 or a 0.

This means that -unless you believe in huge co-incidences - that they are wrong.

They are only useful for giving rough estimates, which is annoying for amateur detectives but I wouldn't think that the PJ had any better timelines either.

The best thing about the firsdt timeline on this site is that it rules certain people out of any action during the evening and gives a rough guide as to where people were throughout it.

However, it is based on newspaper reports.
 
It's interesting to re-visit timelines compiled by former forum members some time ago, here's one from 'Calikid' with my comments appended:

=======================================================

Calikid’s TimeLine posted on websleuths 8 September 2007

This is the timetable at the Tapas Bar as best as I can reconstruct it. The movements of some of the McCann friends don't make sense.
posted by Calikid

Tapas Timetable:

5:30 to 6:00 pm McCanns pick up their children from the crèche.


REPLY: Kate is confirmed by statements made by the Tapas 9 and Gerry McCann to have been ‘jogging’ from 4.30pm to 5.20pm.

Charlotte Pennington says she was having ‘high tea’ with the entire McCann family from 5.30pm to 6.00pm - but Gerry McCann maintains he was ‘hanging around the tennis courts’ at this time.

++++++++++

6:30 McCanns take Madeleine out for a snack.

REPLY: Not confirmed by anyone nor CCTV nor anything.

++++++++++

7:30 (approx) Madeleine and the twins go to bed.


REPLY: David Payne says that Gerry McCann asked him to check on the children at 6.20pm. Round about 6.30pm he says that he saw the children, al dressed in white, and looking like angels [re-typing this, I am wondering if our David may have had a ‘vision’ - TB]. Kate and Gerry both maintain they read bedtime stories to the children.

++++++++++

8:30 McCanns arrive at the Tapas Bar.


REPLY: Other versions say 8.35pm or 8.45pm

++++++++++

8:45 Russell O’Brien, Matthew and Rachael Oldfield arrive at Tapas Bar.

REPLY: Russell O’Brien’s handwritten timeline rather ominously uses the word that they all ‘assembled’ at 8.45pm. No mention of David and Fiona Payne arriving later

++++++++++


8:55 David and Fiona Payne arrive at Tapas Bar. David says all members, including Mathew, Russell and Jane, were there. Rachael Oldfield claims Matthew arrived a few minutes after the Paynes. No specific mention is made of Fiona’s mother, Dianne Webster, or Jane Tanner’s arrival.


Dianne Webster? (Assume she arrived with her daughter/son-in-law.
Jane Tanner? (No arrival time given)

9:00 Mathew Oldfield checks on the children - he went back to apartments to do first check 5-15 minutes after his arrival time, depending on witness statements.


REPLY: Matthew Oldfield has now moved his check to 9.30pm, but he did tell police that he was ‘listening outside’ at 8.55pm, heard nothing, and that the shutters were down

+++++++++

9:05 Gerry leaves to check on children - this is corroborated by acquaintance Jeremy Wilkins who encounters Gerry while out walking his own child - they talk for a few minutes. Neither of the men see Jane Tanner (nor her, them) when she leaves for her child-check five minutes later, even though they are using the same narrow street to and from the Tapas Bar. Nothing is said about whether Gerry or Jane cross paths with Mathew Oldfield. Gerry will later report seeing light in the bedroom and the door open but assumed all was okay.


REPLY: All that is corroborated is that Gerry McCann was away from the Tapas bar at around 9.05pm. We simply don’t know from Wilkins whether Gerry was on his way to or from the Tapas bar or, according to the first reports from Wilkins, that he saw Gerry interfering with the shutters

++++++++++

9:10 Jane Tanner is now checking on children - the 3rd person in ten minutes. If each parent was responsible for own child-check, this makes sense. But, when you take into account that Mathew Oldfield claims to have checked on the McCann children later on, it doesn’t. Also, has Jane already joined them at the Tapas Bar and left the group to check, or was her first appearance at the Bar after she checked the children? According to reports, one of her daughters was vomiting.
Jane, Gerry and Mathew have never said whether they ran into each other coming and going between the Tapas Bar and the apartments that night. But if this account is true, they must have seen each other.
Jane Tanner will also claim she saw a man in the dim light outside the apartment building holding something wrapped in a blanket and hurrying away. After Robert Murat is named an arguido, she will positively state it was him, and she will give a detailed description of him, claiming he was carrying a child who looked like Madeleine and dressed like her. However, she doesn’t mention this to anyone at the Tapas Bar at the time.


REPLY: Very good points, seeing as they were made nearly a year ago and based only on newspaper reports.Tanner now says she saw the abductor at 9.15pm. We have absolutley no idea whether Tanner was going to or from the Tapas bar - probably neither - nor whether she ever returned to the Tapas bar. Was she there at all that night?

++++++++++

9:25 Gerry returns to the Tapas Bar, and Russell O’Brien will later tell the PJ that he and Mathew plan to visit the children. How can Matthew check on the kids when, if the reports are accurate, he hadn’t returned from his first visit? Neither is there any testimony of Jane’s return, so why is Russell checking their children if she is still with them?


REPLY: Again, good questions

++++++++++

9:30
Matthew and Russell leave the Tapas Bar. Matthew will also state that he saw light in the McCann apartment, and Russell will say his daughter was vomiting and he had to change her sheets. But housekeeping has no record of him asking for clean linens.


REPLY: Two very unlikely stories from these two ‘Tapas 9’ men

++++++++++

Najova Chekaya, aerobics instructor and quiz director, joins the party at Gerry’s invitation. She will later state that one chair was empty and nobody got up from the table except Kate (around 10:00).


REPLY: We now know that Chekaya was not there that night, only on Tuesday and Sunday. Her evidence relates to Tuesday 1 May

++++++++++

9:35 Mathew Oldfield returns to Tapas Bar.

9:45 Jane Tanner confirms that at this time, and not at 9:30, Russell and Matthew left to check on children. However, this is unlikely as Najova Chekaya makes no note of this and says Matthew was there.

REPLY: They can’t agree whether it was at 9.30pm or 9.45pm! Russell O’Brien’s now-notorious handwritten timeline says he left to check on his children at 9.30pm. It makes NO MENTION of Matthew Oldfield doing a check at 9.30pm


++++++++++


9:55 Russell O’Brien returns to Tapas Bar.

10:00 Kate McCann goes to the apartment and discovers Madeleine missing. She goes back to the Tapas Bar to sound the alarm. They all leave the table except Dianne Webster. No mention is given about her departure except to say she returned to the bar at 10:05 for her purse and camera. Since, according to Jane’s testimony, Matthew hadn’t returned to the restaurant before Kate left, when did he get back?

If any of the McCann friends are suspected of harming Madeleine, I doubt it's Rachael Oldfield, the Paynes or Fiona's mother, Dianne. They didn't leave the table the entire time.


REPLY: So far as we know

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Differences in the times given by the McCanns and their friends are easily explained by a former FBI profiler :-

http://www.truveo.com/Van-Zandt-holds-parents-responsible/id/3158676816#

He says quite sensibly that the McCanns and their friends were in a relaxed situation - having dinner and a few bottles of wine with their friends. No-one was taking notes expecting to be interrogated about times later on.

You have dinner with friends and during the course of the meal, some get up and go to the toilet and come back again - could you recount several days later the precise times of that? Or did you even notice?

Surely it would be much more suspicious if the McCanns and their friends all came out with precisely the same timeline of events - right down to the minute?

There has also been criticism of the variations in media reporting. One newspaper attributes an action to Gerry, another to kate. Given the sheer tsunami of reporting errors we've seen in this case, it really isn't a stretch to suppose that here is another questionable report about the case? yet there are people who persistantly attribute the discrepancies to the McCanns themselves - that they "cannot keep their stories straight". As if the McCanns were giving exclusive interviews to all the tabloids on a daily basis!

And of course we have the problem of language. I speak several languages and I know how things get lost in translation. I have personal knowledge of a case where a woman told a German doctor that she was nervous about having surgery. This was translated into German but was later translated back into English. Except that instead of describing the woman as nervous, the doctor said she was "unstable" - quite a different meaning! Fortunately, in this case, all parties involved were able to discuss it and laugh about it and it was resolved, but imagine if this had been Kate McCann what a field day her attackers would have had?

In the early days of this case, the tabloids were in competition to get new stories out fast and to H*ll with accuracy. Stuff got lost (or "found") in translation and the record was rarely set straight as the next batch of new falsehoods hit the news stands.

Sadly, there are people who have neither the intelligence nor human decency to see how damaging the false stories have been and how essential it is to separate them from the facts of the case - which is that a little girl is missing and that she may still be alive.
 
An updated timeline published in May, 2011:

BBC News, 13 May 2011

British girl Madeleine McCann vanished aged three from a Portuguese holiday apartment in May 2007.
A Portuguese police investigation which ran until July 2008, and a continuing high-profile international campaign run by her parents Kate and Gerry, have failed to locate her.
At one stage, Mr and Mrs McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, and another British man - Robert Murat - were considered formal suspects in the case, but all three were later cleared.
continued at the link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13386785

In the latest news, Portuguese police are conducting a review of the original investigation:

17 March 2012
A team of Portuguese detectives is re-examining the investigation into the disappearance of the three-year-old while in Praia Da Luz in May 2007.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-17414919

Scotland Yard began a review last May:

9 September 2011
British detectives reviewing the search for Madeleine McCann have held their first face-to-face meetings with Portuguese police chiefs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-14851170

13 May 2011
The Metropolitan Police are to "bring their expertise" to the search for Madeleine McCann, the Home Office says.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13378289
 
Luisa Rodrigues said Portuguese police investigating Madeleine’s abduction questioned the convicted burglar about a spate of sex attacks at Algarve holiday villas in 2008, the year after the three-year-old vanished.

She claimed DNA tests had put the recovering heroin addict, a former worker at the Ocean Club holiday complex in Praia da Luz that Madeleine vanished from seven years ago yesterday, in the clear.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...McCann-suspect-questioned-18-sex-attacks.html

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I think the other break ins and attacks should be added to the overall timeline. Latest information from the met gives nearly twenty attacks or attempted attacks of female children including at least one in pdl.
The last known attack was in 2010 which rules out the convicted burglar as he had died by then, he was also of African origin whereas this man has been described as tanned so is white.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27122951
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
101
Guests online
1,473
Total visitors
1,574

Forum statistics

Threads
589,163
Messages
17,915,056
Members
227,745
Latest member
branditau.wareham72@gmail
Back
Top