To Dig Or Not To Dig

Pat Brown has posted "Criminal Profiling Topic Of The Day: To Dig Or Not To Dig" on The Daily Profiler. Sorry, I guess you know by now I need help with "links". Here's hoping someone can provide the link to this article. Pat posted it at 8:16 PM EST, Saturday, July 14 (I believe that would be about 1:16 AM, Sunday, July l5, U.K. time).

Here it is.

http://patbrownprofiling.blogspot.co.



The Daily Profiler
Hosted by The Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency
SATURDAY, JULY 14, 2012
Criminal Profiling Topic of the Day: To Dig or Not to Dig

South African businessman Stephen Birch says he has proof of some sort of cavity beneath a second pebble driveway (put in after Madeleine McCann's disappearance) and he believes that Maddie may be buried in that particular spot, a possible grave he located with a geo-radar machine he ran over Robert Murat's property (where his mother is living) a number of times quite illegally. He admits he had no permission to be on the grounds and, under the cover of night, slipped onto the property and ran his tests. He recognizes he may be sued for this and has his lawyers in place to deal with the possibility.

I am not going to speak of legalities and ethics in this particular post. Personally, I do not approve of trespassing on private property, possibly terrifying anyone at home (although some will claim I am the pot calling the kettle black because I touched the shutters on Apartment 5A when it was vacant which were accessible from the public walkway in the resort at which I was staying). Anyway, the issue at hand I am wishing to discuss is not whether Mr. Birch should be dealt with legally, but whether there is any merit to his claim and if anyone should dig at the spot on the driveway and who that should be.

 First, to the issue of Mr. Birch's theory that Madeleine was dead on May 3rd and buried on Murat's property the same night. I will not get into his entire theory as to who was involved and why. Suffice it to say, his theory is possible, if not all that probable, at least from this profiler's experience. IF his theory were to be true, it would be a major anomaly. If Maddie is buried on Murat's property, I would have to believe that Robert Murat was himself involved in the crime, that he was a child sex predator who saw a lucky opportunity, grabbed the child, and ran back to his house with her. Then, finished with his enjoyment of the child, he would have done what most child sex predators do; kill the child straight away. Then, he would have buried her on his own property believing that he would not become a suspect and, thereby, her body would not be found with his DNA on it somewhere on the side of the road.

Do I believe that this is what happened? Do I believe Murat is involved? No, but only because the evidence, in my opinion, doesn't point in his direction (see all my blogs on the case and my Profile of the Disappearance of Madeleine McCann). I don't believe Maddie was abducted, I do believe the McCanns are involved, and my Number One choice of where Maddie would be found buried is Monte do Jose Mestre, a desolate area west of Praia da Luz where Gerry McCann's cell phone pinged.

If Murat were not involved in the disappearance of Maddie McCann and the Gerry and Kate McCanns did have something to do with their daughter's demise, I would find it highly improbable that Maddie would be buried by one of her parents (with or without the help of any of their friends) nearby on someone's private property. I find it would be extraordinary, that  under great duress right after finding her dead that evening,  Gerry would have the audacity and balls to go onto someone's property, dig a hole, and bury Maddie there in an attempt to to frame someone in the community. I could believe someone burying their child on some stranger's farm in the country in some remote and area easily accessible to the road, but just down the street on a property behind an inhabited house in the middle of town, this is too unbelievable to me. If the McCanns were involved and Gerry was seen trotting toward the beach with Maddie by the Smith family, that behavior is more in line with known behaviors of parents involved in the death of their child; he would have been in a panic and quickly trying to get her body away from the vacation residence and to a remote place where any predator could have dumped her. What might have happened after that would all depend on luck and circumstances and having more time to think things through. But to place her just down the street on someone's property, I doubt it. Could be true, but it would be extremely odd.

Now, on to the issue of should the property be dug up at that spot just to make sure? I don't object to it. Who the suspect would be if it turned out Maddie was buried on the property is secondary to locating the chid and seeing justice done for her. Also, if the theory she is buried there does not pan out, perhaps Mr. Birch and others will take that machine and a search party over to Monte do Jose Mestre and see if they can find Maddie over there.

But who decides if the driveway at Murat's should be excavated? If the police do not have probably cause and they don't believe Birch's video of his radar scanning means much, they are not going to be knocking on Murat's mom's door. Is there really any evidence pointing to the Murat property or Murat? Is that video really indicative of a grave? If it is, could it be the grave of a dog? Could that cavity be the result of some other disturbance to that ground could cause a scan that looks to Birch like a grave?

Next, should Robert Murat just say, "What the hell! Let me just shut this guy up!" and allow the driveway to be dug up?  I would say if he wasn't worried about a body being there, he could do that. But, on the other hand, even if he had nothing to do with Maddie's disappearance, he might now be paranoid someone has put her body there and he will indeed be framed, or that someone has planted some kind of evidence to make it look like a body might have been there. If I were in his shoes, I don't know what I would do.


Should the McCanns push the police or Murat to take action? Well, if I were them and I were innocent, I would damn sure want that ground dug up because it would drive me crazy not to know if Maddie was really there or not.

What do I think will likely happen? Nothing. I think the police don't have probable cause, Murat won't want to take the chance, and the McCanns, in my opinion, already know whether she is under that driveway or not. So, nothing will happen unless the Murat family no longer owns the property and the new owners have no problem with the matter being settled with a little digging on the drive. I don't think we are going to see that coming down the pike any time soon.

What I wouldn't be surprised to see is Stephen Birch ending up on the end of a Carter-Ruck lawsuit via the McCanns for claiming Maddie is dead.  We all know how the McCanns deal with differing opinions, don't we?


Criminal Profiler Pat Brown

July 14, 2012

Thanks to "Angelique" for your prompt response.

Pleased to help

Good blog from Pat as usual.

And of course McCanns are not in favor of this dig, they IMO know MM is dead and that Murat had nothing to do with it and would fear getting sued if they wanted to do what any parent would want, which is to know. Too bad they've been so litigious and caused such trouble for Murat before, otherwise he might just be willing to have police come in and quietly dig just to be sure.

If it were my drive, I'd allow it, to put the rumor to rest and to find out myself -however it's his mother's house, she still lives there and I think as an older lady who had seen her son go through this HELL, she would say no way.

Intriuging idea that someone might have put something there that made it look like Maddie had been there - I wouldn't have thought of that.

But I can understand how Murat would be paranoid at this point and truly want to be done with these people.

Interesting that Gerry trotting toward the beach - away from the apt - with Madeleine would be in line with what other parents would do had they killed their child or found her dead. Most parents are probably at home in that event and know their way around. To think like a person who has killed their child and is now doing what you would do IF YOU WERE ON HOLIDAY is a stretch, you have to be a profiler I would think, this has happened so few times, there can hardly be statistics to apply here.

Yes, get the child away from the apt (once you've determined you cannot revive her and aren't going to risk calling an ambulance) so it looks like someone abducted her. But then what? Where?

Monte do Jose Mestre - any locals know anything about that place?

Kate McCann admits in the book that they lied about why they were in Huelva on the day they were, because they had to be out of the house for the police to do more forensics...

has she ever lied about (talked about, written about) what they were doing in Monte do Jose Mestre when their cell phones pinged?

Her typical excuse is handing out flyers or in some way helping the search.

that's what they claimed Gerry was doing when he went back to PT to hire a libel attorney... any time they say they are doing that, helping to search or doing anything to do with Madeleine, I think you have to look more closely, especially if it involves going to a remote location.

very interesting post widowan...

I'm inclined to think Pat might be right about Monte do Jose Mestre based on Gerry's phone pings. I wonder if the McCanns are considering calling in Carter-Ruck based on death claims. I'm very impressed with all the work that Pat Brown has put into Madeleine's case. She has had the parents pegged from very early on.