The abduction of Madeleine McCann: photos of apartment 5A and the surroundings

Between 2012 and 2017 I traveled six times to the location of the abduction of Madeleine McCann. My pictures, taken in 2012 and 2013, of apartment 5A and the surrounding area, were published here, minimized. They show a different perspective than StreetView from Google Maps.

 

As an example, the camper van parking to the West of Praia da Luz. 



 

Another example, details of the apartment 5A front door.

 

The abduction of Madeleine McCann: Why can't Martin Smith, the star witness, recognize Chistian B?

That Martin Smith does not recognize Christian B does not imply that it was not him. Let me explain.

 

Martin Smith made the following statement in 2007 to the Portuguese Policía Judiciária: "[H]e was Caucasian, around 175 to 180m in height. He appeared to be about 35/40 years old. He had an average build, a bit on the thin side. His hair was short, in a basic male cut, brown in colour. He cannot state if it was dark or lighter in tone. He did not wear glasses and had no beard or moustache. He did not notice any other relevant details partly due to the fact that the lighting was not very good."

 

The description does not rule out Christian B, at first.

 

By the way, the theme of lighting is important. On one of my trips to Praia da Luz, I obtained these two photos a few meters from the place where Martin Smith saw the individual with a girl in his arms. One was taken at daylight, the another at night. The lighting was produced by Low Pressure Sodium (LPS) lights.

 

 

The Low Pressure Sodium (LPS) lights like those in Praia da Luz streets do no emit in the same frequencies as the Sun or the incandescent lights. The Sun and the incandescent lights emit in all the frequencies of the visible spectrum, being the color we perceive the reflected light frequencies by the reflecting body, ie the frequencies that are not absorbed.

 

What we call “white” in sunlight is the reflection of all frequencies that the “white” body receives. Conversely what we call “black” in sunlight is the absorption of all frequencies that the “black” body receives.
     
The LPS lights mainly emit in two wavelengths:  589.0 and 589.6 nanometers (the wavelength is the constant speed of light divided by the frequency). So what we call “white” in sunlight or under incendescent lights mainly reflects these two frequencies under LPS street lights (see LPS spectrum below).

 

 

So it is no surprise that Martin Smith was unable to see "any other relevant details partly due to the fact that the lighting was not very good".

 

On the other hand, also the statements by Peter and Aoife, from Martin Smith's familiy, do not permit to discard Christian B.

 

According to the testimony of Peter Smith the individual was Caucasian, from 1.75 to 1.80 meters tall, about 35 years old. He had dark skin due to Sun exposure. Normal complexion, in good physical condition. Short hair, brown color.

 

The statement made by Aoife Smith shows that the man would be Caucasian, fair skin, and appeared to be about 30 years old. Normal complexion, 1.70 to 1.75 meters tall. Thick hair, light brown, short to the back, and slightly longer on top.

 

But the most important statement by Martin Smith to my understanding, made in 2007 before the Portuguese Policía Judiciária, is the following. He states that it is not possible for him to recognise the individual in person or by photograph.

 

However, Martin helped to create an efit in 2008, which for me is totally invalid, given his 2007 statements.

 

 

 

The abduction of Madeleine McCann: was Christian B. living in a house in May 3, 2007?

According to The Mirror, Portuguese police went to Christian B.'s home shortly after Madeleine McCann's disappearance in Praia da Luz, Portugal, however he was not in when they visited, ex-chief Gonçalo Amaral said.

 

Amaral said: “I have been told by colleagues, who are retired like me, that they had come knocking on the door. That person was not at home.”

 

So, was Christian B. living in a house or apartment by the time Madeleine was abducted? Or was he living in a vehicle, like a VW Westfalia van, or a Tiffin Allegro van? If living in a house or apartment, was it properly searched? Maybe Amaral or one of his colleages could give details about the suspect's "home".

 

 

The abduction of Madeleine McCann: the shutter's fingerprints

The Portuguese authorities found, in the crime scene, the day after the abduction of Madeleine McCann, at least two fingerprints in the outside part of the shutters of the girl's room.

 

 

 

Those fingerprints, however, could not be valid to search for matches in police databases. But today, 13 years after, the technology of image processing has evolved. Maybe a reprocessing of the originals may result in valid images.

 

 

 

It should be of great importance to evaluate again, with new techniques, the evidence collected at the crime scene, on May 4, 2007.

 

 

 

Madeleine McCann: single-nucleotide polymorphism, the key to solve the crime?

The German prosecutor working on the abduction of Madeleine McCann said the girl was killed by the main suspect by now, known as Christian B. Taking into consideration that he also said that they do not have the body, or even forensic evidence about the killing, I guess that the "non-forensic evidence" they have are testimonies of people very close to Christian B, especially in April and May, 2007. Protected witnesses? Anyway, it is not enough to charge the suspect.

 

 

Maybe the German prosecutor is considering the following: the day after the abduction, the Portuguese police collected samples from Madeleine's apartment, mainly hair. Here I list the human hair evidence (between brackets those which were used to obtain DNA profiles).

 

Zone 1. Madeleine's bedroom entrance, 32 hair (23).
Zone 2. Floor of Madeleine's bedside, 28 hair (10).
Zone 3. On Madeleine's bed, 4 hair (1).
Zone 4. Floor beside the bed next to the window, 15 hair (14).
Zone 6. Floor of the living room, 31 hair (22).
Zone 7. Entrance hallway to apartment, 58 hair (42).

 

From the 112 profiles, only 1 was nuclear DNA (nuDNA) and corresponded to Madeleine's father. The rest 111 profiles were mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Unlike the nuDNA, the mtDNA has almost a null value by itself to identify a person.

 

The reason why there are 111 of mtDNA profiles, and only one nuDNA profile is that, in 2007, was not posible to extract nuDNA form hair shaft without follicle. But in 2020, it is posible to obtain single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) nuDNA profiles from hair shaft without follicle.

Besides, another type of DNA analysis, the Short Tandem Repeat (STR) nuDNA one is not suitable because it uses repetitions of nucleotides for each marker, and nuDNA are fragmented, degraded, in hair shafts (while SNP uses only one nucleotide for each marker).

 

DNA databases are implemented using STR analysis profiles, but if there is a suspect, it is posible to apply SNP analysis to both the evidence and the suspect. The question is: have the police some of those 167 hair (or part of them) available, or all were destroyed while performing the first analysis? 

The saliva found in one of the beds in Madeleine McCann's room underwent DNA testing and a person was identified

The Portuguese authorities applied a DNA test to the saliva sample found on the cover of one of the beds in Madeleine McCann's room. The sample had been collected the day after the girl's kidnapping, which occurred on May 3, 2007.

 

The profile obtained consists of 17 autosomal STR markers plus a sex marker (amelogenin). The latter, XY, indicates that the DNA belonged to a man.

 

Finally, with that DNA profile, a person, C.G., has been identified, unrelated to the crime.

The abduction of Madeleine McCann: strange communication

On June 16, 2020 the press reported that German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters confirmed Madeleine McCann is dead.

  

 

But The Mirror reported that Wolters said: "All I can say is there is no forensic evidence but there is other evidence which indicates she is dead" (the enphasis is mine).

 

How can they prove a person is dead if they do not have the body or any other related forensic evidence to present to a Judge?

 

In the same vein, German prosecutor Wolters seems to be unable to prove, at this point, that Christian B., the main suspect of the abduction, was at the crime scene on May 3, 2007, between 21:10 and 22:00.

 

They have a call between two Portuguese Vodafone prepaid card mobile phones, numbers 912.730.680 and 916.510.683. The first activated one antenna in Praia da Luz,  between 19:32 and 20:02, on May 3, 2007. But not necessarily the mobile was at the crime scene. The second activated one antenna outside Praia da Luz.

 

Having the mobiles prepaid cards, the name of the owners are unknown. That is why German authorities launched an appeal to the public, to see if the person using the second mobile was speaking with Christian B. on that evening.

 

It is good for the police to try to confirm the presence of the suspect at the crime scene. But it is also good police practice to try to rule out his presence there.

 

I also want to mention the big mess that can be done in Christian B. timeline, by asking the public to testimony of his presence at different places 13 years ago. In 13 years memories loss easily the notion of time, unless helped by pictures, videos, diaries or documented logs.

 

Criminal profile of Christian B. is impressive, but it can not be used as proof of commiting another crime, even if the similarities are overwhelming. The Judges do not decide considering "probabilities", only considering facts. If, for example, according to his or her criminal profile, there is 99% "probability" that a person commited an horrible crime, he or she is not 99% guilty, but 100% guilty or 0% guilty, after analyzing the facts.   

 

 

 

The Madeleine McCann satellite picture revisited

I had been told by a reliable source that police investigating the Madeleine McCann abduction have found that the van which appears in the image is a Renault which belonged to a neighbour's friend and was there until August 2007.

But I continued searching images from Landsat and Copernicus satellites programmes, and found some evidence (not proof) that the van maybe was there not only until August 2007, but until April 2011, and perhaps more time.

I have got four pictures at different times showing or not the image of the van:

- October 2006: van image absent. (c) IGP/DGRF.  

- June 2007: van image present. (c) Aerodata International Surveys.

- April 2011: van image present at the same place. (c) Maxar Technologies.

- May 2013: van image absent. (c) Maxar Technologies.

An abandoned van which may constitues proof? Maybe abandoned during 4 years or more, since 2007 to 2011? And the van was recovered when the case was getting cold?

The "burglary that went wrong" theory of the abduction of Madeleine McCann

Since 2013 I came to the conclusion that the abduction of Madeleine McCann was a burglary that went wrong.

I explained it in the BBC Panorama programme "Madeleine McCann Ten Years On", May 2017.

 

Where was the VW Westfalia campervan of Christian B. at the time of the abduction of Madeleine McCann?

Information from Operation Grange and Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) indicates that Christian B. was living in the campervan at the time of the abduction.

 

In 2013, I had written in this blog: "Where was the abductor going to? [...] If we draw a vector, with origin in the sighting of Jane Tanner [very close to apartment 5A], and end in the Smith family sightings, we may infer, though not with absolute certainty, where the abductor was going to. What is in that area? A small house almost deserted, some apartments, a makeshift campsite for camping vehicles, the southeastern part of the small hill, many manholes, some rubbish bins, the Mata Porcas plant for treating wastewater, the sea." 

 

" ...a makeshift campsite for camping vehicles ..."

 

 

The yellow vector has its origin in apartmen 5A and its end at the location of the Smith family sighting 

A indicates the Dolphin restaurant, B to C is the camping area (all the basic maps are provided by Google).

 

Was Christian B.'s campervan parked in that zone (B to C)? It was a free parking area. If so, neighbours or tourists  maybe have seen it. Even maybe they have pictures of it. 

 

 

Madeleine McCann: Novedades (News) 2007-jun-11

Hans Christian Wolters, Braunschweig state prosecutor, said that they are convinced that the 43-year-old suspect [Christian B.] is the murderer of Madeleine McCann.

Hans Christian Wolters, fiscal del estado de Braunschweig, dijo que ellos están convencidos de que el sospechoso de 43 años [Christian B.] es el asesino de Madeleine McCann.

 Source (fuente): The Sun 

 

A year ago I had written in this blog: "Madeleine McCann case is solved in the sense that we know what happened. There were two burglaries which occurred 7 and 17 days before the night Madeleine was abducted. The two burglaries were in the same block of apartments where Madeleine was spending her holidays. One in 5G, and the another in 5L (Madeleine was in 5A)."

Hace un año había escrito en este blog: "El caso de Madeleine McCann está resuelto en el sentido de que sabemos qué ocurrió. Dos hurtos ocurrieron 7 y 17 días antes de la noche que Madeleine fue secuestrada. Los dos hurtos fueron en el mismo bloque de apartamentos donde Madeleine pasaba sus vacaciones. Uno en el 5G, y el otro en el 5L (Madeleine estaba en el 5A)."

"We also have the location of another burglary near the 5A. Not in the same block but only 55 meters from 5A front door. It happened in "Casa María" in February 2007, some three months before the abduction, and a window was opened from outside, like in Madeleine case and the other two burglaries."

"Tenemos también la ubicación de otro hurto cerca del 5A. No es en el mismo bloque, pero está sólo a 55 metros de la puerta principal del 5A. Pasó en "Casa María" en febrero, más o menos tres meses antes del secuestro, y una ventana fue abierta desde el exterior, como en el caso de Madeleine y los otros dos hurtos."

 "A local thief entered 5A apartment on May 3, 2007, through a window, and abducted Madeleine. The Polícia Judiciária and Scotland Yard must locate him." 

 "Un ladrón de la localidad entró al apartamento 5A el 3 de mayo de 2007, a través de una ventana, y secuestró a Madeleine. La Polícia Judiciária y Scotland Yard deben localizarlo."

Portuguese Polícia Judiciária and British Scotland Yard were unable to locate him, it was the German Bundeskriminalamt.

La Policía Judiciária portuguesa y la británica Scotland Yard no han podido localizarlo. Lo ha hecho la Bundeskriminalamt alemana.

Source (fuente): MADELEINE MCCANN CASE SOLVED 

Madeleine McCann police is urged to search house of Christian B. after evidence that the VW white van was there days after the abduction

Breaking News

I have just been told that the police are aware now that the van which is shown in the satellite picture is a Renault which belonged to a neighbour’s friend and was there until August 2007.

If that is truth, then the picture says nothing about Christian B. movements or Madeleine McCann abduction.

Original post

For the last five days I was looking for evidence concerning the houses and vehicles belonging to Madeleine McCann's crime new suspect Christian B., following Scotland Yard Operation Grange and German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) appeals.

I found a NASA satellite photograph taken days after the abduction of Madeleine (in June, 2007). It shows one of the houses where Christian B. lived, and an image totally congruent with the dimensions and colour of the VW Westfalia van that the suspect were using at that time.

 

Picture of the house made public by Bundeskriminalamt

I have passed this information to Operation Grange and German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) yesterday. BKA has showed interest in this evidence.

If Christian B. is involved in Madeleine McCann abduction, as the police appeals and the media suggested, maybe he carried her to that place, and some evidence or her remains were hidden in that location. Will the police search that house and the field around, including the wells?

Here is the screenshot:

NOVEDADES EN EL SECUESTRO DE MADELEINE MCCANN

7 de junio

A pesar de lo que dicen los medios periodísticos, todo indica que todavía la policía no tiene evidencias sólidas para "situar" a Christian B. , el principal sospechoso por el momento del secuestro de Madeleine McCann, en Praia da Luz, a la hora del crimen.

Mi interés en este sospechoso se basa principalmente en que habría entrado a robar en apartamentos de Praia da Luz, y que quien haya entrado en el apartamento 5L en el mismo edificio donde se hospedaba Madeleine, 17 días antes del secuestro, debía haber sido un hombre joven, alto y delgado, por las características de la entrada a través de la ventana. Christian B. tiene es un hombre alto y delgado, y de 30 años en esas fechas.

6 de junio

Mucha de la información dada por los medios periodísticos contiene errores, producto de los apresuramientos por lograr una primicia.

Veremos si la policía logra "situar" al sospechoso en Praia da Luz el 3 de mayo por la noche, porque no estoy seguro que puedan probar que el número 912730680 le pertenecía y lo utilizaba él.

5 de junio

Las tres policías implicadas en la investigación (portuguesa, inglesa, y alemana) están tratando de localizar a la persona que realizó una llamada desde el móvil de Portugal número 916510683 hacia el móvil de Portugal ubicado en Praia da Luz número 912730680, el día 3 de mayo de 2007, con una duración de media hora (desde las 19:32 hasta las 20:02). Ver abajo datos proporcionados por Scotland Yard.

4 de junio

Información de la Operation Grange de Scotland Yard Metropolitan Police

Detectives leading enquiries into the 2007 disappearance of Madeleine McCann have made a new public appeal for information.

It is now 13 years since Madeleine was reported missing during a family holiday in Portugal and the team of officers leading the Met’s investigation, known as Operation Grange, made a public appeal on Wednesday, 3 June, linked to a significant new line of enquiry. 

Met detectives working with German authorities have identified a man currently imprisoned in Germany as a suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance.

This man is white and in 2007 is believed to have had short blond hair, possibly fair. He was about 6ft in height with a slim build. He is 43-yearsold, but in 2007 may have looked between 25 to early 30s.

We have established that he lived on and off in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007. He is connected to the area of Praia da Luz and surrounding regions, and spent some short spells in Germany.

This individual, who we will not identify, is currently in prison in Germany for an unrelated matter. 

The Operation Grange team is revealing details of two vehicles which the suspect is known to have had access to and used around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

The first vehicle is a distinctive VW T3 Westfalia campervan. It is an early 1980s model, with two tone markings, a white upper body and a yellow skirting. It had a Portuguese registration plate. 

The suspect had access to this van from at least April 2007 until sometime after May 2007. It was used in and around the area of Praia da Luz.

We believe he was living in this van for days, possibly weeks, and may have been using it on 3 May 2007. 

We are appealing for anyone who may have seen it in or around Praia da Luz on 3 May, the night Madeleine went missing, the days before, or weeks following the disappearance.

The second vehicle is a 1993 British Jaguar, model XJR 6, with a German number plate and registered in Germany.

This car is believed to have been in the Praia da Luz and surrounding areas in 2006 and 2007. The car was originally registered in the suspect’s name. On 4 May 2007, the day after Madeleine’s disappearance, the car was reregistered to someone else in Germany.

To re-register the car in Germany you don’t have to have the car in the country or region. We believe the car was still in Portugal and would like information if you saw it.

The Met is asking if anyone saw these cars together or individually during the spring and summer of 2007. Both of these vehicles are now held by the German authorities. 

Detectives are also appealing for information about two mobile phone numbers, one of which is believed to have been used by the suspect on the day of Madeleine’s disappearance. 

The first number is +351 912 730 680. Extensive enquiries have led investigators to believe the suspect was using this number and received a call, starting at 7.32pm and finishing at 8.02pm on 3 May 2007. This call was received in the area of Praia da Luz. 

The second mobile number is +351 916 510 683. This number is the phone number that made this call. We know the person was not in the area of Praia da Luz.

Investigators believe the person who made this call is a highly significant witness and are appealing for them to get in touch.

The Operation Grange team is also asking anyone if they recognise these numbers. Did you ever call them? Do you have them in your phone, an old phone or your electronic contacts?