The Ocean Club Videos

http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal048.flv
http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal049.flv
http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal045.flv
http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal050.flv
http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal051.flv
http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal057.flv
http://s215.photobucket.com/al.....gal058.flv

Hope this isn't old news. I found the videos pretty interesting, but then forgot where they were with all the different threads. So ... with a thread of their own they are easier to find. My biggest reaction to them is a new understanding of how private and isolated the apartment was from the rest of the Ocean Club. The video shows a walled lane running between apartment and Ocean Club, and the voice over says the lane "goes nowhere". A few thoughts:

1. This lane would have formed a visual and acoustic barrier, meaning struggle and even screams could easily go unheard from the noisy environment of a holiday bar/restaurant.

2. It explains the wide range of estimates given for how far the apartment was from the Tapas [bar/restaurant]. Direct (crow flight) was short, but actual travel distance was long. You couldn't walk straight there, and neither was Madeleine likely to have fallen into the pool -- since it was on the other side of the walled lane.

3. If Madeleine had sleep-walked (common among young children and also a side-effect of certain sleep aids), she would have exited onto the street, not into the more protected Ocean Club property.

4. The fact that the lane goes nowhere puts more doubt on Jane Tanner's report (seeing a man receding down the lane carrying a child-like bundle). Was he going nowhere? Maybe he was talking his own child home from the creche, via a back entrance to his apartment. He could not have been exiting the place, as Jane herself would have been standing at the outlet point and she says he was walking away from her.

Funny that no one has come forward and admitting to being that man. With all the media buzz, the guy HAD to have recalled that he was out with a child at that time of night. This suggests a small number of possibilities: 1) it was an abductor; 2) Jane's lying; or 3) a man DID come forward but we're just not hearing about it.

More thoughts, anyone?

Hmm, I'm getting "page not found" errors on photobucket today. Maybe the videos have been removed?

At any rate, it's easy to see from certain maps that there were certainly barriers such as the pool between the McCanns and their apartment. And the area around the apartment where the children slept was neither visible nor secure because it was on the opposite side of the building from the Tapas Restaurant.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/graphics/2007/05/07/wtodd07big.jpg

Thanks for the map. It's not clear to me what path the children checkers traveled from the bar to the bedroom.
Maybe someone can write out how the checkers got to the childrens' bedrooms.

Hcc2007, Jeremy Wilkins has said he was walking his 8 month old child around at that time, and he saw and talked to Gerry. He didn't see or talk to Jane, but it's possible he's the man Jane saw since he was in the vicinity at the time and carrying a child.

Zelda, no one knows the exact route the "checkers" took as there are some conflicting reports.

Try these links:



http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal048.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal049.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal045.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal050.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal050.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal051.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal057.flv

http://s215.photobucket.com/albums/c...ortugal058.flv

All the statements I've seen from Jane Tanner have her at the corner of the public road and the bundleman crossing the road. I'm not sure why she would be at that corner though because it is away from the restaurant. Maybe her apt. was accessible from the side where the infamous window opens. The man carrying the child in a blanket was rushing eastward or to the south. Southeast perhaps. If she pointed, it would depend on the inner compass of the person taking notes.

But Jeremy Wilkins was using a stroller.

Sorry, Tuba, I don't remember seeing that, but of course it would not be unheard of for him to use a stroller, especially with a larger toddler.

What is the drop to pavement outside the window of the children's bedroom? Even a guess would help me because I have never seen a photographed angle that exposes that distance.

Tuba said:

What is the drop to pavement outside the window of the children's bedroom? Even a guess would help me because I have never seen a photographed angle that exposes that distance.

Click to expand...

Maybe 4 feet, or so. It's a big window but it's not that near to the ground, IMO. It's definitely not a floor-level or anywhere close window.

AFAIK. the Paynes, the McCanns, and the Tanner/Obriens were on the ground floor level. This would mean that they could exit their rear/patio doors and walk down the pathway which ran between the apartment buildings and the pool area. The Oldfields had a first (American second) floor flat, and they could have only exited through the front/wooden doors, out to the parking area and street.

Also, any ground floor couple who wished to lock the doors had to exit through the front/wooden door, as it was not possible to lock the rear/patio doors from the outside.

Jane exited from her front door and walked along the road/parking lot until she turned right onto the road which ran alongside the apartment and the OC reception. She could have spotted bundleman at the top of the alongside road, walked on a bit and seen him head down the road in the direction of Casa Liliana. If Gerry and Wilkens were strolling and chatting on the pathway, it's quite possible that she would not have been seen by them.

Do we know (ha, ha, we probably don't!) if she reported seeing them together- or did she say she saw Gerry, and Wilkens? I think she could have seen someone. I just can't imagine her making such a story up, and she and Russell are said to be in bad shape, taking sick leave, etc. If she's not a nutjob falsely injecting herself into the story, she must know something terribly upsetting.

Morag said:

AFAIK. the Paynes, the McCanns, and the Tanner/Obriens were on the ground floor level. This would mean that they could exit their rear/patio doors and walk down the pathway which ran between the apartment buildings and the pool area. The Oldfields had a first (American second) floor flat, and they could have only exited through the front/wooden doors, out to the parking area and street.

Also, any ground floor couple who wished to lock the doors had to exit through the front/wooden door, as it was not possible to lock the rear/patio doors from the outside.

Jane exited from her front door and walked along the road/parking lot until she turned right onto the road which ran alongside the apartment and the OC reception. She could have spotted bundleman at the top of the alongside road, walked on a bit and seen him head down the road in the direction of Casa Liliana. If Gerry and Wilkens were strolling and chatting on the pathway, it's quite possible that she would not have been seen by them.

Do we know (ha, ha, we probably don't!) if she reported seeing them together- or did she say she saw Gerry, and Wilkens? I think she could have seen someone. I just can't imagine her making such a story up, and she and Russell are said to be in bad shape, taking sick leave, etc. If she's not a nutjob falsely injecting herself into the story, she must know something terribly upsetting.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Morag. I have never seen the article where she admitted to seeing either Gerry or Jeremy, I only know that neither one of them says they saw her.

I think just being associated with the McCanns and this terrible event (no matter what happened) would be traumatic. I don't think she's a nutjob, although I don't know that she saw Murat (or anyone else) carrying Madeleine away.

Unlike the McCanns, the Tapas 9 all have to continue making a living and going to work each day to provide for their children. They are in some ways, perhaps, collateral damage of this whole terrible affair.

With the dining and wining area being imo a good bit away from the apartment, and with the drinking of said wine to be 14 bottles, there is no way imho that those people checked on the kids every 30 minutes.

I'm trying to find some information without much luck, can anyone point me in the direction of the thread that lists who stayed in the apartment closest to the McCann family?
tia if you can help me.

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/images/homepage/maddie_16_map.jpg

Pictures thread #28

_____________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2GX8bvv5Ls
For Dan, the Insurance Man

Morag, you mentioned that Jane and Russell are taking a lot of sick leave. Do you know about the other Tapas 9? Are they also doing this?

One can only imagine comments and questions for them as they all try to survive in daily jobs. Of course, the McCanns have no such problem. (I just had to interject this.)

Barnaby said:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=PT8QJL9nlaw

Click to expand...

That is really interesting, Barnaby! I took two screen captures from it.

This first shows the identical body language that the McCanns had when asked about the drugs (see the pictures thread). In this one, the reporter asks why they felt 'safe' leaving the kids alone in the apartment. Kate closes her eyes, and Gerry starts flipping at his nose. It's almost uncanny.


Then this one is a diagram from the movie - is this correct? The front door was facing away from the Tapas Bar?

ThoughtFox said:

Then this one is a diagram from the movie - is this correct? The front door was facing away from the Tapas Bar?

Click to expand...

Yup, the videos (the ones made by the woman walking around the complex with a hand-held, not the videos of Kate & Gerry) show that the front door and shuttered window are on the far side from the Tapas bar. If Madeleine (alone or with abductor) had exited there, she would've been in a parking lot. If she exited the side/back door she would've been on the sidewalk that leads to the Ocean Club reception.

Bob&Bob said:

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/images/homepage/maddie_16_map.jpg

Pictures thread #28

_____________________
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2GX8bvv5Ls
For Dan, the Insurance Man

Click to expand...

Bob&Bob,
Thanks so much!
Now my brain can understand who stayed where. lol

It makes it so much easier to understand the mechanics of the running back and forth by the Tapas Nine. And the ambiguity (lies?) of Jane Tanner's statements.

It is also appalling to me to imagine a bevy of little tots left in there unattended. There are so many ways they could have been hurt. Much has been made of the "gate" to keep the kids in, by the McCann defenders. Any 2-year-old could have scaled that gate, with all its footholds. I know my grandson could have been over it in less than a minute.

What awful selfish, feckless people these Tapas Nine are!