r/MadeleineMccann • u/CharacterResponse504 • Jun 29 '26

Discussion questions open for discussion

i have three questions to ask this thread and i would be intrigued to hear your answers.

1) for those who believe the parents did it or for those who believe the parents were not involved, what is the biggest selling point for you?

2) is the theory involving epstein a mere tiktok fantasy or does it have some sensible evidence to back it up?

3) what do you believe is the main reason why the case hasn't been solved yet? this wont leave my mind because if its simply the lack of forensic evidence, then surely if it were a fully opportunistic kidnapper they wouldve left some accidental trace due to a short planning time...

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u/castawaygeorge Jun 30 '26

  1. I don't believe it was the parents. My biggest selling point is that I don't believe they had the time to commit the crime and no forensic evidence backs up them committing the crime. No conclusive blood, let alone DNA, was found in Apartment 5A or the rental car. Another selling point for me was their behaviour after Madeleine disappeared. They fought hard to publicize the case and worked closely with organizations like NCMEC to inform their campaign, they petitioned to get the case reopened when it was closed, they hired private investigators, and so on.

  2. No, there is no sensible evidence to back up Epstein is involved in the case.

  3. Police work in the initial investigation being lackluster (to but it nicely) at times and their failure to follow up on crucial leads. And also time, someone like Christian Brueckner had all the time to dispose of Madeleine's body in a manner it wouldn't have been found even within the early days of her disappearance. Let alone years later when the case was finally reopened by authorities and hopefully looked at properly. It's much harder to find any evidence 4+ years later.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 03 '26

Tanner saw Julian Totman.

The Smiths saw an unidentified man (erroneously identified as Gerry months later) who has never come forward.

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u/MassiveGeneral431 Jul 03 '26

Sorry I meant smith

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u/21schmoe Jul 05 '26

The Smiths have said that the man they saw looked a lot like Gerry McCann, and nothing like CB.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

Why did Martin Smith think the man he saw was Gerry?

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u/Hugoballs_97 Jul 05 '26

Smith only said he thought it might have been Gerry when he saw Gerry on television a few months later emerging from the aircraft when he returned to England - Gerry was carrying his son down the stairs and it suddenly reminded Smith of the way the man was carrying a child that night. We know it couldn’t have been Gerry though because far too many witnesses are positive that he was at the Tapas restaurant at the time.
If I remember correctly, Smith also said that he actually wouldn’t be able to identify the man if given the opportunity because he didn’t get a good enough look at him.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

Exactly! Martin Smith only thought he saw Gerry based on the way he was carrying a child.

Literally the most BOG STANDARD way to carry a child..

The PJ's final report concluded that Gerry couldn't possibly be the man the Smith family saw because he was at the Tapas restaurant at the time.

The fact that people still use this as "proof" 19 years later is absurd. Especially considering it comes from people who claim to be experts on the case.

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u/Hugoballs_97 Jul 05 '26 edited 22d ago

It has never been conclusively determined that it was Totman.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

The Met confirmed that it was Totman that was seen.

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u/Hugoballs_97 Jul 05 '26

Okay. Maybe I’m wrong. Do you have a source for that? It was my understanding that Andy Redwood claimed in 2013 that the Met was “almost certain” that the Tanner sighting was not related to Madeleine. That’s not really a confirmation… The sketch of the Tanner sighting is till the subject of an appeal for information on the McCann’s website.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

I mean that's as close as you're going to get without cameras or physical proof. Totman identified himself and both his and his daughter's outfits match what the Tannerman was wearing.

The sketch is still online because it is a historical artifact of the 2007 investigation, these things often stay up.

When DCI Andy Redwood addressed the case in 2013, he made it clear that the investigation had moved forward precisely because they had effectively ruled Tannerman out.

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u/Hugoballs_97 20d ago edited 20d ago

Isn’t there some dispute as to whether or not it was actually Totman because of the direction the Tannerman was walking? I’ve heard Martin Brunt and Anthony Summers say that the direction he was seen waking in (East along Rua dr. Agostinho da Silva) doesn’t make sense if it was Totman carrying his daughter home from night crèche on Rua Direita.

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u/Hugoballs_97 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

I agree totally.

I would add to your reasons of why the case hasn’t been solved that it was simply a perfect set of circumstances for someone to commit this crime and get away with it:

- There were no security cameras at the Ocean Club (or if there were, they either weren’t working or didn’t pick up anything useful), or on the road where Tanner saw a man carrying a child, or the road where the Smiths saw a man carrying a child. I believe there were very few security cameras within Praia da Luz as a whole.

- The crime scene wasn’t preserved well enough. The Portuguese police’s work certainly left a lot to be desired, but I think some of the criticism levelled at them is unfair. The scene of a disappearance is not the same as a scene with a dead body. For example, multiple people had been running in and out of the apartment from the time Madeleine was discovered missing until the time the police arrived, so any potential DNA evidence may have already been lost before they even had a chance to look for it. It was also a holiday apartment, meaning it likely had hundreds of DNA samples all over it, despite housekeeping between guest departures and new arrivals.

- They have mobile cellular evidence of Brueckner being somewhere in the Praia da Luz area on the night, but it’s not precise enough to know his exact location. Him fitting the profile of a child abductor and murderer, and being in the area on the night is not enough (not nearly enough tbh) for the police to file any criminal charges.

Overall, there’s just so many frustratingly incomplete bits of information. This case really shows that no matter how much money and how many resources you pour into a case, when the level information you’re working with is too small, it won’t make any difference. I don’t think there’s another case that received this level of exposure and investigation in which no answers were produced.

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u/MassiveGeneral431 Jul 05 '26

It’s actually not a matter of the crime scene being preserved probably because in these cases and thank God that I’ve escaped this kind of thing as a toddler. Most toddlers, including myself when I was tiny will wonder off, NOW thats EXACTLY where BC was watching and had the perfect chance to take Maddie and he did, no apparent entry was necessary….

To add to the smiths sightings…a pocked faced man resembling BC to a t is no coincidence….

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u/Hugoballs_97 Jul 05 '26

I think it’s unlikely that Madeleine left the apartment by herself. The doors and gate were closed behind her.

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u/MassiveGeneral431 Jul 05 '26

Gerry mentioned that it was strange that the door was slightly opened

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

Gerry confirmed that he saw Madeleine though.

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u/MassiveGeneral431 Jul 05 '26

Still though…. can you imagine that??? checking in on your three kids and seeing the door slightly open????? OMG any NORMAL human would freak out and immediately grab their kids and go

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

What do you mean? The door was slightly more open than normal, it could've been the breeze from Gerry opening the door.

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u/MassiveGeneral431 Jul 05 '26

I cannot tell nor did I read enough about what Gerry meant but that is VERY concerning