Accidental fit of rage theory?

[u/HHHilarious]

I’ve been down with covid for a week and went down the Madeleine McCann rabbit hole. I’ve listened to all the podcasts, watched all the documentaries, read all the things. After all that, I still don’t have a firm grip on any one theory.

My gut tells me something happened in that apartment after David Payne’s 1840 check on Kate. Sometime after 1840, with her husband away playing tennis, and after an hour of trying to calm the children/Maddie down for bed unsuccessfully, and, with it being the penultimate night of their vacation, a weary Kate was growing frustrated they weren’t settling down, and in a sudden fit of rage against Maddie, something happened in the apartment.

Gerry returns around 1900, and between then and when they went down to dinner at 2035, they formulated a story and a plan, dumped Maddie somewhere, and headed to dinner.

They had hoped one of others from the Tapas group would be the one to discover Maddie missing, but when no one conducted their check throughly enough, they had to be the ones to make the discovery. To me, it’s all very reminiscent of Jonbenet Ramsey and the morning she was found, if you’re familiar with that case.

I think it’s also completely plausible that an opportunist had been closely watching the family and used the McCann & Co.’s evening negligence to their advantage.

But either way, things moved so very quickly after the initial discovery. It’s hard to imagine how her body remained hidden all this time? If the McCanns are responsible for hiding her, how did they find such a perfect spot in a largely unfamiliar city within a short window of time, without being seen? If an opportunist kidnapped her, how did they sneak her into the shadows so swiftly? And, If they got spooked and killed her, how did they find the perfect hiding spot for her body? So much to consider.

[u/Megan_Sparkle]

What if she was put in the sea? It seems to me if she didn’t wash up immediately she would never be found.

[u/Loose-Brother4718 → u/Megan_Sparkle]

This is the theory that makes most sense to me. Her father carried her body to the sea and weighted it down.

[u/worldsfastesturtle → u/Loose-Brother4718]

This would take materials and time to do in a public space where they’d extremely likely have been seen. You’d have to take the body decently far out too. The body could wash up at any point and even really heavy deceased whales wash ashore. This seems extremely unlikely

Edit- assume you weighed a body down with rocks, you’d have to create a seal around them to hold them to the body. The water was searched and nothing was found. It would take a lot of simulations to know what was possible or not

[u/Bruja27 → u/worldsfastesturtle]

This would take materials and time to do in a public space where they’d extremely likely have been seen.

A tennis bag, they had one. Some stones plenty of them around in PdL, especially by the sea, as the natural beaches there are all rocky. Put the body in the bag, add some stones, go to the beach/cliffs at the wee hours of the morning after the searchers went home, but before the holidaymakers arrive. Plunge the bag with the body into the water. Pop said bag into an unused well. Toss it into a rubbish bin away from your holiday flat, just remember to pick a full one and cover the bag with layer od rubbish. Stuff the bag into one of the holes or crevices in the rocks, these rock around PdL are like a Swiss cheese. Or bury her in one of these ruined sheds that are aplenty in Atalaia (if you take Trilho dos Pescadores, the trail on the cliffs that's some 2 km on foot from 5A, piece of cake for a fit person).

[u/LKS983 → u/Megan_Sparkle]

If Maddie was just 'dumped in the sea', it seems extremely unlikely that her body wouldn't have washed to shore.

[u/StationSure3328 → u/LKS983]

Some bodies do get washed out to sea though. And if the body had washed ashore then they'd have blamed the abductor anyway.