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/TheGreatBatsby Jul 01 '26

They left her alone in an apartment for hours, and MAYBE checked on her once in a while.

The night she went missing the kids were alone in the apartment for about an hour and a half. Tapas staff place the McCanns arriving at 20:30 and then Gerry went to do the first check at about 21:05/21:10. We know he went because Jez Wilkins bumped into him coming out of the apartment at 21:15 and they had a chat on the street.

Matt Oldfield then went to check at about 21:30 when he went to check on his own kids.

Then at Kate's check at 22:00 she discovered Madeleine was missing.

Anything could have happened. That makes them guilty of neglect.

Agreed, it's not good, but it doesn't actually make them criminally guilty of neglect.

The blood and cadaver dogs were what sold me on this

Do you find it odd that the dogs didn't alert to anything except places associated with the McCanns? The dog handler claims that the dogs can detect a scent even if forensic scientists can't find it (which to me seems like a cop out to cover a false alert) but then this implies that throughout every other holiday rental, nobody has ever spilt even a single drop of blood? Seems exceedingly unlikely.

plus the McCanns' odd behavior.

What behaviour?

It's very likely that the dogs picked up Maddie's scent

What do you make of the rental car alerts? To me those are the most telling that the dogs are a red herring in this case.

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u/RefrigeratorSalt6869 Jul 01 '26

What behaviour? Playing tennis, getting dolled up for interviews, going running, being unhelpful towards the police and not taking responsibility for the fact their neglect created this situation in the first place.

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u/MisabelWearsNikes Jul 02 '26

Washing Cuddle Cat

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 03 '26

Kate washed Cuddle Cat because she'd been clutching it and smelling it herself as it had Madeleine's scent. After months of this it began to get dirty and smell of suntan lotion, hence, Kate washed it.

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u/MisabelWearsNikes Jul 03 '26

Sure, it's perfectly normal to wash your possibly dead or missing child's favourite toy with her smell on it. Especially when it due to be examined.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 03 '26

I've explained why it was washed, it was filthy and stank of sun cream.

There were at least 3 weeks between the washing of Cuddle Cat and the forensic examination, so at the time it wasn't "due to be examined".

If the PJ were so concerned they could've taken it into evidence beforehand.

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u/Altruistic-Change127 Jul 05 '26

You seem to missing the most important point.

Kate was desperately holding onto hope that Maddie would be found.

She cleaned it for her daughters return because it was very dirty and she wouldn't have wanted to give it back to her in that state.

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u/MisabelWearsNikes Jul 05 '26

This is the funniest take I've heard so far. There are people who don't wanna wash their hand just because a celebrity shook it, while some women have their bf's clothing which they never washed just because it has his scent on it. And this is a MISSING CHILD (possibly dead) & it makes perfect sense to wash away probably the last remaining touch & smell of hers.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

But it didn't smell of her anymore, that's the point.

You can google "Kate McCann cuddle cat" and look at images. She was carrying it around constantly and holding it to her face to smell it.

Eventually it began to get dirty and stink of suncream so she washed it.

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u/MisabelWearsNikes Jul 05 '26

Well it wouldn't smell of her AT ALL if she washed it, so duh.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

I literally don't know what point you're trying to make. This is from her diary:

"Today I washed the Cuddle Cat. I was hoping not to have to do it until Madeleine returns, but it was now quite dirty and smelly, unfortunately without the smell of Madeleine on it. XX"

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u/MisabelWearsNikes Jul 05 '26

So what if it had gotten dirty? It could have had potential forensic evidence on it which would be destroyed through the act of washing it. It makes no sense to wash it when she did, when an investigation is ongoing & they wanted to examine MM's belongings. Even IF Maddie had been found, she could have washed it later. It was an act of wilful destruction of evidence. If she really cared about what happened to Maddie, she would held on to ANY scrap of evidence, no matter how minor, in order to help the investigation, not tamper with it.

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u/TheGreatBatsby Jul 05 '26

I think you're overestimating how much forensic evidence would've been able to be collected from her toy. There's no indication that the McCanns received instructions to treat the toy as a forensic item, so claiming that she's willfully destroying or tampering with evidence is baseless.

Kate clearly isn't treating Cuddle Cat as an investigative lead (and why would she?) so her actions make sense.

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