Where was Maddie when the lights went out? Updated with an interesting puzzle!

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Image from PJ files vol 1a page 15

The above is an image from the official police files, taken by Assistant Specialist Joao Barreiras on May 4th, 2007, the day after Madeleine disappeared into thin air from Apartment 5A. Apart from some ruffling near the pillow, the covers are perfectly smooth and flat, almost as though the bed had not been slept in. This is what Kate McCann supposedly had a view of in the darkened bedroom when she did her check at 10pm. Notice any bulge that could possibly be mistaken for a child? Notice any bulge that would give rise to doubts, even in semi-darkness as to whether it was the bedclothes or a child? Only FlatStanley could have slept in that bed and left if perfectly flat!

Right enough, though, a Maddie that shape would have been much easier to have got through the very narrow opening of her bedroom window. Hang about, though, the abductor would have to have been subject to flatiosis too! Mmmm! Did Jane Tanner fail to mention something? She didn't see very much of him because in profile he was half an inch thick?



But Kate McCann was obviously expecting a Flat Stanley type child in that bed.

00.13 - 01.31

Kate McCann starts by telling us that the first thing she noticed was:

"..the door was open much further than we'd left it."

But Matthew Oldfield apparently looked into the room at 9.30pm. Had he been given instructions to return the door to the exact degree he was told it had been left at by the McCanns? Maybe he didn't, the wee scunner!

Then Kate describes what she saw:

"..I could see Sean and Amelie in their cot." Singular cot?

And Madeleine?

"...and I was looking at Madeleine's bed, which is here and it was dark (but she saw the twins?) and I was looking and I was thinking, 'is that Madeleine or is that the bedding? I couldn't make her out."

Well, you wouldn't 'make her out,' if the bed was as flat as that, would you? Something wrong with your depth vision, Kate McCann? Should've gone to specsavers!

With the above statements, Kate McCann establishes that the twins and Madeleine had, at one time, all been in the bedroom and in her Woman's Hour Interview Kate tells us how she had left Madeleine:

Jenny: 'Was she sleeping when you left her?'

Kate: (Long pause) 'Errm, yes, she was, yeah'.

Why should Kate need a significant pause to be able to answer that question?

The immediate impression from both the pause, her answer and the way she says it, is that she momentarily didn't know what to say. But how could that be? Comment by Nigel Moore. (http://www.mccannfiles.com/id59.html)

OK, so Kate McCann tells us that all three children were in that bedroom when she left for the Tapas restaurant, that Madeleine was asleep, and that when she checked at 10pm, she saw the twins.

Who else can verify that all three children were in that bedroom and were asleep when they were left?

Gerry McCann's statement May 4th 2007

Yesterday, after the daily routines, MADELEINE and the twins were put to bed in their respective beds at 7.30pm. The parents remained in the apartment to relax and drink a glass of wine until 8.30pm. After checking that the children were asleep, the parents, accompanied by other adults, went to the, "Tapas," restaurant

And:

9.05pm

Thus, at 9.05pm, the interviewee entered the apartment using his key, the door being locked, and went to the children's room and noted that the twins and Madeleine were OK. He then took several minutes going to the toilet. He left the apartment and bumped into someone with whom he had played tennis and had a brief conversation. He then returned to the Tapas.

Gerry doesn't actually say where the children's 'respective beds,' were, but it is to be assumed that he meant in the apartment somewhere.

This is all repeated almost word for word in Kate McCann's statement May 4th 2007

Yesterday, after the daily routine, Madeleine and the twins went to bed at around 7.30. They were in their respective beds. The interviewee and her husband stayed in their apartment to relax until 8.30pm.

Anyone else? On May 4th Matthew Oldfield stated that he visited the apartment at 9.25pm. He saw the twins in their cots, but didn't see Madeleine.

At around 9.25pm, the interviewee went into his apartment and Madeleine's apartment to check on the children. He states that the door of the fourth room, that was occupied by Madeleine and the twins, was half-open and that there was enough light in the bedroom for him to see the twins in their cots. That he couldn't see the bed occupied by Madeleine, but as it was all quiet, he deduced that she was sleeping.

Matthew insists that he had looked into the children's bedroom, as detailed above. However, he also describes the children's bedroom like this:

He states that the bedroom has two windows. The twins occupy two cots placed in the middle of the room and Madeleine occupies a bed pushed against the wall, facing the wall which has the two windows that look out onto the outside of the complex.

Two windows? What room was he looking into?

Kate McCann saw something that could have been Madeleine or bedding on a perfectly flat bed and Matthew Oldfield saw two windows where, as you can see, there was one! Too much vino? Matthew also states that he listened at the window at 9.05pm: I'll return to that later.

According to the Times Online December 16th 2007:

When he entered the apartment, Gerry immediately saw that the children’s bedroom door, which they always left just ajar, was now open to 45 degrees. He thought that was odd, and glanced in his own bedroom to see if Madeleine had gone into her parents’ bed. But no, she and the twins were all still fast asleep.

But he obviously didn't tell Kate about the door being open more widely than they had left it. The door was a bit more open, but Madeleine and the twins were asleep. He confirms having seen Madeleine and that he left the door just ajar at five degrees.

Gerry paused over Madeleine, who – a typical doctor’s observation, this – was lying almost in “the recovery position” with Cuddle Cat, the toy her godfather, John Corner, had bought her, and her comfort blanket up near her head, and Gerry thought how gorgeous, how lovely-looking she was and how lucky he was. Putting the door back to five degrees, he went to the loo and left to return to the restaurant. That, of course, was the last time he would see his daughter.

Right! So, the children were all asleep in their 'respective beds,' Gerry McCann saw all three at around 9.05pm and Matthew Oldfield saw the twins at around 9.30pm, in their cots, in a room that, strangely, had two windows. Right!
So, where is all this leading? I'll tell you! I don't think the twins were in cots in that room and I don't think Madeleine slept in that bed behind the door. If Madeleine had been in that room at all, I think the twins had been elsewhere and Madeleine's bed was the one by the window. The bed behind the door was perfectly tidy, but the one by the window looks slept in. (See photo above.) OK, that proves nothing, and this, of course, is just my speculative opinion, but I think a good case can be made for that opinion.

In Chapter 11 , "Analysis of a crime scene: apartment 5A," of Gonçalo Amaral's book "The Truth of the Lie," Dr Amaral joins the teams of investigators for a meeting at which photos of the crime scene, taken on May 4th, are discussed.

We carry on looking at the photos of the bedroom: the two cots are in the middle of the room and are in the way of an adult moving around.

- Why is there nothing more than mattresses? All the bed linen has been removed. I really wonder why...

- Perhaps a child vomited or soiled the sheets, and they didn't want to leave them in that state...

The cots were in the middle of the room, which, as seen from the photos, makes the room very cluttered and very difficult for someone to move through to the window, carrying a child. Leaving that aside, the cots had no sheets on and the police wonder why. They hadn't been slept in?

From the police files, the statement given by Maria Serafim da Silva on May 7th 2007, concerning the last time she had cleaned the McCanns' apartment: the morning of Wednesday May 2nd.

She remembers that when she entered Apartment A on the Wednesday, the parents were inside. After being duly authorized, she entered and carried out her work, because they were already on their way out. While she was in the apartment, there were no children there, and she supposed that they were in the creche. While performing her work, she remembers having noticed that the couple was sleeping in the room located opposite the entrance, where she confirmed the presence of a child's bed (crib). The room gives onto an outdoor garden by means of a terrace, as it is on the ground floor,. In the room next to the entrance to the apartment there was a bed placed next to the wall (where she supposed the missing child slept), and also the second child's bed (crib). All these beds were untidy at the time, meaning that they had been used. She also declares that in the room next to the entrance was another bed that had not been used.

In the parents' room there was a cot and in the other room, the room that Madeleine was said to have disappeared from, there was one cot and two beds, one of which had not been slept in.

In an interview with Vanity Fair magazine, published on January 10th 2008, this is how Gerry McCann describes the scene in the children's bedroom when it was discovered that Madeleine was missing.

It wasn’t until Kate walked into the villa at 10 and felt a sickening breeze—the front window had been jimmied open—that she realized something terrible had happened. “The scene was stark,” Gerry tells me. On one bed the twins lay sleeping. In the next lay only the plush cat toy Madeleine was never without.

On one bed the twins lay sleeping? Together and on one bed? And in the next...? That sounds like there were two beds very close together. Otherwise, with one bed by the door and one by the window, wouldn't it have been more logical to have said, "In the other."?

For both Gerry McCann's and Matthew Oldfield's statements to be true, and for them, therefore, to have seen Madeleine's bed, she had to have been sleeping in the bed behind the door. (If she had been sleeping in that room.) With two cots in the way, they would not have seen her if she had been sleeping in the bed by the window. So, she had to be behind the door for their observations and their statements.

The messy bed by the window could be explained by Kate McCann's statement, reported in the Daily Mail on August 7th 2008.

Kate and Gerry McCann slept in separate beds after an argument during their family holiday, the police files revealed.

Mrs McCann stayed in her children's room the night before Madeleine's disappearance because she was upset that her husband had 'ignored' her at dinner.

We can see from looking at the photos of Madeleine's bedroom, taken on May 4th, the day after she disappeared, that the bed Kate supposedly slept in on the Wednesday night was unmade, but the bed that Madeleine supposedly was put to sleep in on the night of Thursday May 3rd, was so tidy it looked like it had not been slept in. If she had been in that bed on Wednesday night, someone must have tidied that bed on Thursday morning, but not the one that Kate McCann had slept in. Why not?

Summing up: there were said to be two cots in the room with the twins very sound asleep when the apartment was entered by the friends of the McCanns soon after Madeleine disappeared.

That he never went into the said bedroom occupied by the children but he could see that there were two beds and two cots. The cots were placed in the middle of the bedroom. One of the beds was placed against the window and the other, the one occupied by Madeleine, was against the wall facing the one which has a window. (David Payne May 4th)

Not the arrangement the cleaner saw on Wednesday May 2nd, and not how Gerry McCann described the scene in the Vanity Fair interview.

So, what do I think was the arrangement? I think it's most likely that if Madeleine had been occupying that room, she was probably sleeping in the bed by the window and that the two cots were not in the room. I think Madeleine would have been in that bed so that she was next to the window and anyone checking could just listen at the window, rather than enter the apartment. Matthew Oldfield stated that he had listened at the window at around 9.05pm on May 3rd and I think that was probably the usual method of checking. My opinion, of course. If she had been sleeping in that room at all. And where were the twins? If Madeleine had been in that room, and there had been one cot, or two cots, then where were they on the night of May 3rd, if not there?

As you would expect (well I certainly would!) with all the inconsistencies and contradictions, there might be a totally different scenario, or scenarios!

The cleaner stated that the couple had been sleeping in the room opposite the entrance.

Plan of apartment 5A and the room described as being that of Kate and Gerry

Let's consider an alternative scenario. Whose bed was not slept in on the Wednesday night? We are told it was Kate McCann's. Which room has a bed that does not appear to have been slept in? That described as being the children's. Now, was the cleaner told that the bedroom pictured above was Kate and Gerry's or did she see their things or the clothes/items belonging to one parent in that room? Did Kate join the children in that bedroom on the Tuesday night as well as the Wednesday, and the cleaner saw her things there? Tuesday, I believe, was the quiz night, when Gerry may have been paying rather too much attention to the quiz mistress.

The room pictured above has two beds that appear to have been slept in and Kate and Gerry did not sleep in apartment 5A on Thursday night. So, can we conclude that both beds had been slept in on Wednesday night? And had both had occupants on Thursday night?

What I'm suggesting is Gerry's statement to the Vanity Fair journalist makes more sense if the children had actually been sleeping in the other bedroom, that pictured above. “The scene was stark,” Gerry tells me. On one bed the twins lay sleeping. In the next lay only the plush cat toy Madeleine was never without."

I am quite sure that the scene in 5A was staged in some way and why not switch the bedrooms around to make it appear that all three children had slept in the other room? Why the switch-round? Something to hide, perhaps, in the room the children had been sleeping in? And not enough time to sort it out?

The above is a reconstruction from the documentary based on Gonçalo Amaral's book, although it has been said that Kate and Gerry were actually on the floor, leaning over the bed. It has also been suggested on various fora that this bizarre behaviour was designed to keep the police out of the bedroom. And why? What was in the room that the McCanns may not have wanted the police to see? Something in the wardrobe perhaps? We know that on one occasion during that week, Madeleine was said to have hidden at bedtime. Did she hide in the wardrobe and was found there by an angry parent, who wanted to get ready to go out for dinner?

Eddie definitely showed a keen interest in the wardrobe.

And the two cots? Perhaps there had been one in each room, as the cleaner said, but not being used, hence no sheets. The twins may have been in one bed. Gerry told us that the twins had been due to go into proper beds when they went home, but suppose they had already gone into proper beds and they were definitely not going to go back into cots, especially not those travel cots, which are really too small for two-year-olds. Gerry does tend to come up with explanations for everything, where it's not always necessary and maybe he slipped up in the Vanity Fair interview. Perhaps in explaining that the two-year-olds, who were really too big for those cots, would be going into proper beds at home, he was giving a little too much information? Reinforcing the idea that they had been sleeping in the travel cots when this hadn't been the case? Also responding to the question of the twins being too big for cots, any kind of cot.

So, where was Maddie when the lights went out? In the bed behind the door? Not in any bed, because she had already met with an accident? In a bed in the room described as being the one the parents slept in? That might explain why none of Maddie's DNA was found in the room she was said to have been sleeping in.

If we really knew the answer to that question, we might be closer to knowing what happened to Maddie on the night of May 3rd 2007. Where was she when the lights went out?

Update:

Two views of the bedroom that Madeleine McCann was said to have slept in. Number 1 is from the police files and number 2, I would imagine is from publicity photos about the apartment for tourists. The puzzle is: in photo number 1, why is the headboard of the bed Madeleine was said to have slept in behind the chest of drawers?

Photo 1

Photo 2

Image number 2 is from an article which appeared in the News of the World in May 2008, in which the newspaper claimed to have been given exclusive access to the apartment.

http://www.mccannfiles.com/id21.html

It seems unlikely to me that the McCanns would have been allocated an apartment where a headboard was propped behind a chest of drawers. Surely if it had been damaged, it would have been repaired or replaced before the apartment was rented out? Why prop it behind the chest of drawers rather than just remove it, if it had been damaged before the McCanns moved in?

Why did the headboard have to be propped there? Why not in what appears to be its original place? The bed appears to be in the same place in both photos, so why has the headboard been moved?