HANGING ON THE TELEPHONE?

Something bothers me.

It seems to me that they (the McCanns & co) would like us all to believe they did not use their mobiles to communicate with each other on the night in question.

You see, I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that Kate ran back to the restaurant to sound the alert, because it was such an illogical action. In this day and age of everyone having a phone to their ear 24/7, why wasn't the first alert made this way? I just find it strange. The quickest thing to do would be to phone up Gerry or one of the party of friends. Even if nobody answered, surely though Kate would have tried to phone them before thinking, "Oh s..t, nobody's answering"..

I feel under such circumstances you would do everything humanly possible in the first initial moments, even if it turns out to be of no avail, at least you would know you had tried your hardest at the most crucial time of all and the phone can be such a rapid way of communicating an alert to someone when it goes right, when they pick up and answer.

I mean to say, did Kate just think there was no point, did she know they didn't have their phones with them, did she assume they might not hear their phones? Whatever she thought she proceeded to take the longer route to alerting everyone.

In my opinion Kate and Gerry were/are in that particular age range, 30 and 40 somethings, who still think they are 'with it' and who probably conduct most of their day to day business by phone. They are not like the 'older' generation, who take half a day just to send a text message. No, they would be well into their phones I would think, scrolling up and down the screen searching for this and that.

But they couldn't search for their daughter this way apparently. In fact, it seems to me the only time they used their mobiles was to make phone calls to family in the UK, followed by deleting their phone memory!

But, as I say, I get the distinct impression they want us all to think that they did not communicate by phone to each other.

Why?

It was all just a play to stage "abduction". That's why, imo only, of course.

weissnicht wrote:It was all just a play to stage "abduction". That's why, imo only, of course.

Thanks to Clarence Mitchell, the man called in to plug the holes we have the statement that 'they were so 'into' each other' that they didn't have either watches or mobiles with them.

So as 'no valuables had been taken' as Gerry reported within a very short time to his family, I take it that they were really lucky. Only lost a child, could have been worse, passports, keys, mobiles and watches might also have been taken. Phew!
In the Vanity Fair interview Gerry elaborated on this lucky escape with the remark that it could have been worse, all three could have been taken... You can't make it up.

In the book however, Gerry gets up from the table that evening at 9.05 'by his watch'.

KNOWBODY would be able to see her distress if she phoned....none off the others apart from the tapas lot that is...

If it was so close she could off shouted too....

kitti wrote:If it was so close she could off shouted too....

Exactly. And according to mccanns; you could see the flat too. Really close.

kitti wrote:KNOWBODY would be able to see her distress if she phoned....none off the others apart from the tapas lot that is...

Yes, that's my thinking as well. It seems she wanted to put on a show and make song and dance over it, instead of keeping it a private matter in the very early stages. Okay, I realise when a child goes missing that, at some point, all hell will inevitably let loose, but initially I would have thought you would feel complete puzzlement, thinking 'okay there's going to be a simple explanation for this - she's playing tricks on us, just wait until I get my hands on her, but I need to alert Gerry urgently', so using the phone would be the obvious thing to do for most of us and, if there was no response, you'd then shout for Gerry to come quickly, without making a big scene. I feel the panic felt would be more inside you in the very early stages, more like 'am I imagining things here' and 'we'll find her because she can't be far away', and only when it becomes crystal clear that this is something far more serious would the nightmare hit home and the panic would become more verbal, your voice would start to rise and get louder with the gradual hysterics that would inevitably take over and other people, at that point, would turn their heads because they could hear you screaming.

This is why it seems staged to me, its as if she automatically swung into action by running back to the restaurant screaming and causing chaos, whereas, in reality I feel, it just wouldn't be like that somehow.

Very well put LJC.

Dianne Webster thought it was a game, didn't she...

kitti wrote:Dianne Webster thought it was a game, didn't she...

kitti you beat me to it. Dianne Webster didn't rise from the table because she thought it was just another of their games. So what stunts had they pulled earlier in the week, to make her think that?

I would love to know what Dianne Webster is thinking now!

SteveT wrote:I would love to know what Dianne Webster is thinking now!

"What did our Fiona ever do to deserve getting mixed up with this lot"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWhkbDMISl8

Now I can't get the song of the same name as the topic out of my head!

I wonder what Dianne Webster felt about her grandchildren being left unattended while their parents were on the razzle?

SteveT wrote:I would love to know what Dianne Webster is thinking now!

Wtf is Andy Redwood doing at my house with handcuffs out

SteveT wrote:I would love to know what Dianne Webster is thinking now!

Living in fear for the rest of my life is not what I planned for my retirement..
If I could turn back time ...

Not Born Yesterday wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWhkbDMISl8

Now I can't get the song of the same name as the topic out of my head!

I wonder what Dianne Webster felt about her grandchildren being left unattended while their parents were on the razzle?

She never thought anything off them because she was on the dazzle with them......


What's the betting oldfields child was in with the paynes child that night as they had the baby monitor.

This is a list of early witnesses who may or may not have got the time right. But my feeling is that the alarm was raised earlier than was admitted closer to 9.45.

I've never seen witness statements of other diners, then there is also a waiter who had to go into hiding, as the PJ considered his testimony crucial.

Jeremy Wilkins indicated that the time of 9.15 was the latest he could have met G.

Now recently someone suggested that when Gerry was seen by the Smiths (too many and too inquisitive and too close) at 9.55, he decided that he needed an alibi. So then he was stuck with JW's time of abduction.
It would fit better if they had planned the discovery time for 10.45 - then the Smith sighting would be spot on.

The 9.45 time of 'discovery' fits better with the following witness statements and in any case, one can discount the 'evidence' of any of the T9.
At 10.00 DW was sitting alone at the table. That's too early for Kate to have walked to 5a, taken some time to search the flat and to have run back. In all at least 10 minutes.

All times approx. except when stated as exact:

Jeremy Wilkins:
As stated in my original deposition, I believe that I left the apartment around 20h30. I calculate that I met Gerry on the road between 20h45 and 21h15. I am aware of the importance of this hour and am also aware that the media announced our meeting time as 21h05. Even if this were correct, I have no idea from where such information originated. It is not possible to give you a more exact time.
http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/JEREMY-WILKINS-ROGATORY.htm

20.45 - 21.15 Jeremy Wilkins meets Gerry.

21.20 chef AEGFP Tapas hears ‘clamour’ .

21.40 he leaves Tapas restaurant - where until moments before he’d seen the table occupied now empty.

21.30 to 21.40. BJJW hears from Dutch owner of Atlantico restaurant.
He then went to 5a (presumably) at 21.45 - 21.50 .

21.30 to 22.00 receptionist OC HJSL contacted by Tapas rest. He immediately contacted GNR in Lagos. After this father and John Hill arrived and he phoned GNR again.

21.45.Waiter RAEDLO saw no one at the tapas table.
Fitness instructor/waiter JRS between 21.30 and 22.00 spoke to DW .

21.55 Smith family see man and child approx.

21.58 Exact time. MMMdS leaves apt. at (exact time) to car park block 6. Passing block 5 saw no movement of people and no vehicle except small car - grey in colour close to the window of 5a. Saw a light in the apartment above 5a and in 5a. Nothing abnormal.

22.00 (after) RRSB and wife on veranda in apt. Heard noises . GM seen and spoken to. Both went down and helped search.

22.00 to 22.30 Waiter JJMB beween in kitchen, alerted that a guest entered the restaurant screaming and entire group left.


Nothing makes sense does it? Unless part of the screaming in the restaurant did happen earlier and was repeated later.
Mobiles (pay as you go) are likely to have been used. There is absolutely no way you could stage a thing like this without them. The photograph of Wright and Gerry below the rocks standing in the sea whilst texting/ringing may well have been an attempt to locate one of these which might have been thrown from the rocks above during the 'search'. The PJ was v. interested in these photographs.

I would have imagined that the reception of OC would have had a better system of verifying what time they were alerted and asked to make phone call to the police. Most big companies now have phone recording technology or cctv footage. Shame that there seems to be nothing that can absolutely prove once and for all what time the first call to the police was made and shame there is no cctv footage of the police arriving at the OC.

LJC wrote:I would have imagined that the reception of OC would have had a better system of verifying what time they were alerted and asked to make phone call to the police. Most big companies now have phone recording technology or cctv footage. Shame that there seems to be nothing that can absolutely prove once and for all what time the first call to the police was made and shame there is no cctv footage of the police arriving at the OC.

That is a very good point LJC. Where was the first phone call to the police actually made? Was it from one of the mobiles that they didn't have, or OC reception, or somewhere else? If it was from the OC there must have been a call log. It would show up on their phone bill, which would be required for accounting purposes, if nothing else.

Oh yes, the OC's telephone bill call log. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks Iris! I am certain it was OC reception that made the eventual call to the police - something to do with the language barrier if one of the tapas lot did it I believe.

I would have thought this would have been investigated by the PJ, but proper confirmation to put a halt to the confusion of what time the call was made would be helpful.

LJC wrote:Oh yes, the OC's telephone bill call log. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks Iris! I am certain it was OC reception that made the eventual call to the police - something to do with the language barrier if one of the tapas lot did it I believe.

I would have thought this would have been investigated by the PJ, but proper confirmation to put a halt to the confusion of what time the call was made would be helpful.

Not certain but I think MO went to reception.

http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/TIME_LINE_INFORMATION.htm

22.50 pm - First call to GNR Lagos precinct (Guarda Nacional Republicana, rural police); The first call to Police Precinct of GNR (Portuguese Rural Police) in Lagos, reporting a missing child and asking for Police help was made at 10.50pm and a patrol was sent, arriving at Ocean Club 12/15 minutes later, according to Lieutenant-Colonel Costa Cabral, Head of Public Relations of GNR.

e.t.a. Millennium waiter G. C. C. C. says that when the events occurred he was working in the restaurant and heard about the disappearance at about 22.30 - 23.00 from a Mark Warner employee (he doesn't know his name, but he is of English nationality) who, at that moment asked to use a telephone in the bar to make a call as he had received information about the disappearance of the girl on his mobile.


M.Oldfield.
so Fiona, I think, asked me to go and phone the Police, so I actually went down the route to where she would have gone for Nursery drop off, which his back to the, to the main reception essentially, so I went down that route looking for her at that time and I asked the reception to phone the Police, and that must have been about five past, it’s difficult to know what time it was at that time, but maybe about ten past ten, five past ten, ten past ten”.
00.51.10 4078 “Quite quick then?”
Reply “Yeah, sort of pretty much, you know, straight away, erm, I think it was only, but then it was a kind of, it was surreal when you got there, I said, you’ve got to phone the Police, you know, a child’s been taken, and they went, oh no, she’s probably just sort of woken up and he thought she’s probably sort of wandered off or something like that and you thought, yeah, maybe you’re right, maybe you’re right, erm, can you please, it was sort of, it was kind of, it was sort a weird kind of lack of urgency, you know, he’d ring, but you had to sort and stand there and say, ring now, ring now, so I don’t know if they rang at that point, but certainly, erm, you know, I certainly asked them to, about perhaps sort of maybe about ten past ten maybe.

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Erm, at some point we were back and forth to the, to the reception as well. And I think what the reception probably did was ring the MARK WARNER people and say, there’s somebody that’s saying there’s a child missing, because by that time there were lost of MARK WARNER people around, erm, and they were very good, they, you know, they obviously, you know, got there and that might have been the impetus that got them to ring the Police, if, because I understand that there is some discrepancy about when we thought we’d called the Police and when the Police were actually called and that might be that they went on the, on that route first and then went, I think it’s Stuart HILL or, well the Manager, the sort of Manager got involved, that might have been when it occurred.