IS THERE A CASE FOR MADELEINE’S BODY BEING TRANSPORTED ON APRIL 30th?
This subject came across my mind again thanks to Beth Hayles. The comings and goings from Portimao port were all recorded and checked out. Six boats left port on the 3rd of May, but only 5 could be accounted for.
By 2009, the press jumped on this. Headlines like ‘Maddie Yacht mystery’ http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/119199/Maddie-yacht-mystery started popping up, and this yacht was inexplicably linked with the nonsense ‘Victoria Beckham lookalike’ story, which was eagerly bandied about in the media. Said story was quite obviously a nothing and was dismissed when the woman was identified.
So, what can we glean about this yacht? It appears not a lot. What we do have is a record of when and where the ship came into port:
On May 30th, the boat is in Lagos, having arrived from Portimao. It is destined to visit Portimao again.
It comes back the same day, then records being headed for an unknown destination on the 2nd.
However it arrives in Portimao, saying from Alvor, on the 1st.
It is then registered to leave for Albufeira on the 3rd, whether it kept this schedule isn’t clear from these records. Supposedly there is no record of it ever arriving in Albufeira.
Unfortunately these records don’t tell us the time of day each docking/departure occurred – if we knew this we could get a better picture.
Lagos and Portimao are less than 20 miles apart by car. By sea I would imagine it’s a rather short journey. They’re part of what looks like a natural cove when looked at on a map.
Bear in mind also that there are who knows how many vessels which would’ve been in the area and not docked. For that reason (and the fact the boat seemingly disappeared), if this yacht is relevant I don’t believe Madeleine’s body would’ve been dumped at sea. I think it could’ve been passed between vessels and made its way elsewhere.
After all, these back and forth journeys all took place on the 30th and after. The final departure was probably meaningless, or perhaps just out of contingency (in case there was evidence on board).
Nine years later we still know nothing about this boat – I find that pretty incredible. Unless it’s permanently docked on a private island or had a renovation/been renamed, it’s inexplicable.
What did the files say? Turns out not much. There is no confirmation that they ever found the boat, just this;
‘With regard to the vessels “Moonraker” and “Fun Too” mentioned in your fax, which were the object of confirmation as regards their declared destinations upon leaving Portimao marina, it was established that the former was in the previously mentioned marina and inquiries are still being made in order to establish the location of “Fun Too”, in the knowledge that the vessel did not enter the Albufeira or Lagos marinas after leaving Portimao on 4th May 2007.
With compliments
Commander Marques Pereira ‘
And that Swedish flag – can we make anything of that? It seems not at this point. I can think of zero links to Swedes in the case. In Sweden all vessels measuring over 12 metres (40ft) long must be registered with the Swedish Maritime Administration. But inquires the head office in Stockholm resulted with the conclusion that no such boat existed in their records. What to make of that? Was the Swedish flag a misnomer? Another act of ‘misdirection’?
On the face of it, this yacht seems to be a coincidence, and I observe other ?’s in the destination column, so it’s not like it’s extremely unusual that they didn’t sail where they said they were going.
But I can’t help noticing one little detail in the rogatories.
Remember, the yacht arrived in Portimao (which is a mere 18 miles from Praia da Luz) on April 30th.
April 30th happens to be the same day our avid sailor Matthew Oldfield was ‘in his apartment all day’ because of illness. We are told in graphic detail how he had diarrhoea and vomitting, and how ‘unusual’ it was for him. It’s even blamed on airplane food that ‘wasnt covered properly’. This is quite an incredible statement from a doctor – considering his wife Rachael was ‘beset’ by the same illness on the tuesday. Even I know that’s not how food poisoning works.
So there’s that.
But back to Matthew – he makes a point of reminding us how much he loves sailing, and sailed every day. This mysterious boat docked on a day Matthew said he ‘wouldn’t have been seen out much’ because he was ‘in his apartment all day’. But what if that was a fabrication? What if that day involved Matthew transporting a small girl to a yacht?
I’ve seen some people look at Matt and Russell ‘disposing’ of Madeleine at sea during sailing. This I find hard to believe because there would’ve been other tourists about, both on the shore and out sailing. Plus, they wouldn’t have sailed out far enough to ‘dump’ her body without it being returned to shore.
But this new hypothesis allows for that and more. Without knowing the exact times the boat left and docked in each location on the 30th, we can only speculate. But what could’ve been going on in those minute voyages? Were they really A to B? Where did the boat sail when it’s destination was the same as the port it had just sailed from (Portimao back to Portimao)? The boat left port at least 4 times in one day. Most people would take what they need and spend a day at sea, then head back. The to and fro is somewhat interesting, if not definitively suspicious.
Given the amount of ‘just in case’ information revealed, is Matthew’s constant reminding us that he likes sailing a planted statement in case he ever gets reported as seen sailing?
Were Kate’s ‘visions’ and ‘dreams’ of Lagos port relevant in the same way her rocha negra ones were?
A trip out on a yacht could serve several purposes, from disposing of a body at a reasonable distance from shore (though this is risky – given that she wasn’t to be reported missing for several days and if the tides brought her in the game would be up), to perhaps exchanging the remains with a different yacht (which never docked and hence was never recorded in the area) to allow a ‘proper’ burial at a place of choosing.
So, today’s question – does this warrant a closer look, or is it a complete misnomer?
Reference: http://www.mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/BOATS.htm
ADDENDUM:
This is the only other information in the files:
SE flag and owner\skipper (70) with wife (69), the cops had some fun, too, with these latter-day Vikings.
Before we get the the trip there were some clerical issues between the documents held by Lagos and Portimao.
– In Lagos the wife’s year of birth was 1938; in Portimao it was 1936;
– In Lagos the expiry date of the identity documents was May 2011; in Portimao it was May 2006, i.e. already expired!;
– In Lagos the country code of the flag and persons’ nationality was SE (Sweden); in Portimao it was SW (Sweden under the US FIPS standard, not the EU ISO standard);
– The owner’s address was totally different, albeit both being in Germany (that must make the World Cup interesting);
– The year the boat was constructed differed by 18 years;
– and a few other minor details …
As for the trip:
One Lagos record showed the boat arriving from Portimao on 30 April and returning the same day.
The other record showed its arrival on 30 April and then disappearing into the unknown on 2 May.
The Portimao record showed it arriving from Alvor on 1 May and sailing on to Albufeira on 3 May, but there is also a hand-written note under departure ’04/05/07 – 07:44′
I don’t know whether this information was summarising something from Portuguese or if there’s an image in the files I have yet to stumble on.
h42a 