imogen11
Junior Member
lol
Wow, detective Celibate you should be working for the Portugese police. They're having trouble with this one. Do they know you've got this insider knowledge?
What's Your Verdict On The Madeleine McCann Case?
- Thread starter Coiffeur_En_Flame
- Start date
lol
Wow, detective Celibate you should be working for the Portugese police. They're having trouble with this one. Do they know you've got this insider knowledge?
celibate
Forever Ill
I sincerely hope so, or that she's alive.
celibate
Forever Ill
lol
Wow, detective Celibate you should be working for the Portugese police. They're having trouble with this one. Do they know you've got this insider knowledge?
it's been allover the news in europe.
also that they found blood in Madeleine's parents car, and in the rented
bungalow where they stayed during their holiday in Portugal.
My feeling says , the police don't question the mother intensively for
days if they only guessing, I think they got a few facts, and they related
that to the parents, a standard procedure.
That's it for now, Miss Marple fans
Hellie
Lost
"When you have eliminated all that is impossible whatever remains however improbable must be the truth...." or so says Sherlock Holmes and he solved a lot of crimes.
Some interesting things have come to light.All three children appear to have been sedated i should imagine so they could go out and not worry.I find that quite disturbing.Not if it was an anti-histamine-but a real sedative.
Some interesting things have come to light.All three children appear to have been sedated i should imagine so they could go out and not worry.I find that quite disturbing.Not if it was an anti-histamine-but a real sedative.
celibate
Forever Ill
that's new info for srgt celibate.
another fact that will be put on ' against the parents' file.
damn
that's new info for srgt celibate.
another fact that will be put on ' against the parents' file.
damn
Do you believe everything you read on newspapers?
As I said earlier, "trial by media" just started.
celibate
Forever Ill
no I don't
I can understand yours and others vieuw, deep in my heart I hope I;m
wrong, and that Madeleine's alive.
I'll stay silent in this issue from now, till the truth is out, or Madeleine's home safe.
Morrissey the 23rd
Banned
THIS WOULD HAVE TO BE MOTHER OF ALL INJUSTICES by George Galloway, 10 September 2007
NOT since Dr Crippen - long before the blizzard of 24/7 satellite media - will there have been a case like Madeleine McCann's if the now official suspicions of the Portuguese police turn out to have been well founded.
They have turned it into a circus, with daily appearances at mass and the flight to the Vatican to kiss the hand of the Pope, invoking celebrities, inducing millions of people around the world to raise a fortune in a campaign fund and turning their child into one of the iconic faces of our age.
So even Dante himself would find it difficult to describe any circle of the inferno fit for Kate and Gerry McCann if it all turns out to have been a lie.
I have been in and around the Ocean Club in the sleepy Algarve village of Praia da Luz for more than 20 years and it has been surreal enough watching its tiny cobbled streets bristling with television crews broadcasting around the world from a once little-known holiday idyll.
And now this.
On my Talk Sport radio shows I have been critical of the McCanns from the start. Not least because I knew aspects of their story could not be true.
Their supposed constant vigilance of their three toddlers while they ate in a tapas bar and the children slept in an unlocked apartment was not possible. The distance between the two points was both greater and more convoluted than they said.
In any case, the children's bedroom was on the OTHER side of the apartment block and, though both doctors, neither parent possessed X-ray vision.
I said that if a single mother had left her three kids in the chalet at Butlins while she supped scampi and chips in the boozer, she would have immediately been attacked as a feral, feckless, unfit mother by the same media which was painting the grieving McCanns as the very embodiment of modern middle-class Britain.
For months I have watched that media poke ridicule at the supposed bumbling Inspector Clouseaus of the Portuguese police for their apparent leaden-footedness in the investigation.
Of course no Johnny Foreigner could be as good as our own police, who brought us the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six.
Now with this new development, the same media seems coiled like a spring to turn on the McCanns as they previously did on the other "suspect" Robert Murat.
Sensing they may have been made the biggest fools in history, the Press tables can be seen turning, the plates beginning to move.
Of course, the most xenophobic commentators say the science which has led to the Mccanns being named as suspects is inherently suspect due to the foreign hands through which it has passed, oblivious to the fact that it came from British laboratories.
If Madeleine's blood and other DNA evidence really has been found in the boot of her parents' hire car, there are only a few possible explanations. A previous renter of the car - it was 25 days after the child went missing that the family took possession of the vehicle - transported Madeleine in its boot and she was bleeding at the time.
Or Madeleine's body was transported in the boot at least 25 days after she disappeared once the McCanns took possession of the car.
In these circumstances the Portuguese police really would be clots if they did not consider the girl's parents to be suspects.
Of course there could be other, some would say unlikely, possibilities.
The DNA and blood evidence in the boot may not, after all, be Madeleine's and the forensic scientists may be mistaken.
Theblood in the boot of the McCanns' hire car may be somebody else's, in which case Goodfellas comes to the Algarve and the family are the victims of the most grotesque coincidence.
The DNA could have been planted in the boot of the McCanns' car, presumably by the police.
The sort of thing which happened to Mr OJ Simpson.
The McCanns have either been the victims of a cataclysmic historic injustice, almost unprecedented, or they have been complicit in a scheme so duplicitous, so evil, so foul that Shakespeare himself could not have written it.
Either way, the name McCann is now well and truly in the history books.
NOT since Dr Crippen - long before the blizzard of 24/7 satellite media - will there have been a case like Madeleine McCann's if the now official suspicions of the Portuguese police turn out to have been well founded.
They have turned it into a circus, with daily appearances at mass and the flight to the Vatican to kiss the hand of the Pope, invoking celebrities, inducing millions of people around the world to raise a fortune in a campaign fund and turning their child into one of the iconic faces of our age.
So even Dante himself would find it difficult to describe any circle of the inferno fit for Kate and Gerry McCann if it all turns out to have been a lie.
I have been in and around the Ocean Club in the sleepy Algarve village of Praia da Luz for more than 20 years and it has been surreal enough watching its tiny cobbled streets bristling with television crews broadcasting around the world from a once little-known holiday idyll.
And now this.
On my Talk Sport radio shows I have been critical of the McCanns from the start. Not least because I knew aspects of their story could not be true.
Their supposed constant vigilance of their three toddlers while they ate in a tapas bar and the children slept in an unlocked apartment was not possible. The distance between the two points was both greater and more convoluted than they said.
In any case, the children's bedroom was on the OTHER side of the apartment block and, though both doctors, neither parent possessed X-ray vision.
I said that if a single mother had left her three kids in the chalet at Butlins while she supped scampi and chips in the boozer, she would have immediately been attacked as a feral, feckless, unfit mother by the same media which was painting the grieving McCanns as the very embodiment of modern middle-class Britain.
For months I have watched that media poke ridicule at the supposed bumbling Inspector Clouseaus of the Portuguese police for their apparent leaden-footedness in the investigation.
Of course no Johnny Foreigner could be as good as our own police, who brought us the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six.
Now with this new development, the same media seems coiled like a spring to turn on the McCanns as they previously did on the other "suspect" Robert Murat.
Sensing they may have been made the biggest fools in history, the Press tables can be seen turning, the plates beginning to move.
Of course, the most xenophobic commentators say the science which has led to the Mccanns being named as suspects is inherently suspect due to the foreign hands through which it has passed, oblivious to the fact that it came from British laboratories.
If Madeleine's blood and other DNA evidence really has been found in the boot of her parents' hire car, there are only a few possible explanations. A previous renter of the car - it was 25 days after the child went missing that the family took possession of the vehicle - transported Madeleine in its boot and she was bleeding at the time.
Or Madeleine's body was transported in the boot at least 25 days after she disappeared once the McCanns took possession of the car.
In these circumstances the Portuguese police really would be clots if they did not consider the girl's parents to be suspects.
Of course there could be other, some would say unlikely, possibilities.
The DNA and blood evidence in the boot may not, after all, be Madeleine's and the forensic scientists may be mistaken.
Theblood in the boot of the McCanns' hire car may be somebody else's, in which case Goodfellas comes to the Algarve and the family are the victims of the most grotesque coincidence.
The DNA could have been planted in the boot of the McCanns' car, presumably by the police.
The sort of thing which happened to Mr OJ Simpson.
The McCanns have either been the victims of a cataclysmic historic injustice, almost unprecedented, or they have been complicit in a scheme so duplicitous, so evil, so foul that Shakespeare himself could not have written it.
Either way, the name McCann is now well and truly in the history books.
george would probably have disapproved of this thread:
http://forums.morrissey-solo.com/showthread.php?t=72698
i'm sure his contribution, along with that of all the others in the mass media, will ensure the delivery of justice in this case.
Coiffeur_En_Flame
New Member
Like most of the Sherlock Holmes books, this argument is completely illogical. I don't think 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc' applies here...
Coiff.
Hellie
Lost
Like most of the Sherlock Holmes books, this argument is completely illogical. I don't think 'post hoc, ergo propter hoc' applies here...
Coiff.
It wasn`t an argument it was a quote from a ficticious novel and a mere observation as i love Sherlock Holmes
As for the actual quote i find it completely logical.
Coiffeur_En_Flame
New Member
Whatever remains after elimination of the "impossible" (assuming for this purpose that there is such a thing) is highly likely, but not the truth. As all legal sentences are based on inductive arguments, "the truth" is not something that can ever be gained - even in our world of high-tech forensics.
Coiff.
Kewpie, have you ever heard of a woman named Nancy Grace? I think she'd annoy you to no end.
imogen11
Junior Member
Thank god someone on here is talking sense.
imogen11
Junior Member
..well, almost unprecedented, but not quite - the Australian people and media are a lot more wary about condemming the McCanns because of the Lindy Chamberlain case, I believe:
http://law.anu.edu.au/highcourt_project/Chamberlain Case rtf.rtf
I'm sure this generated world wide attention ('a dingo stole my baby' - you know the one) and I'm surprised that the rest of the world seems to have forgotten.
the more you explore me!
retired :)
oh god grief did this have to be posted here, "George Galloway"...so if they do get charged and convicted of a crime involving this little girl, he be twisting his words to tell everyone "i told you so".
lovemorrissey
Now My Heart is Full
At the end of the day, whatever has happened to her and whether she is alive or dead, someone out there knows something, whether its who took her or who killed her, I hope they cant bloody sleep at night!
Morrissey the 23rd
Banned
Before I posted yesterday, I wrote the following post. Before posting, I wanted to check some things. During that internet search it struck me that the parents might be guilty. This shocked me as I have been defending them from the start. Soon after she went missing I met Madeleine's aunt and she asked for my support in spreading the word to find her neice. Since then a poster that Maddie's aunt gave me has been in my cars rear window and I have called a radio talk show to defend the parents and ask people to look out for this girl when on holiday. Like many people, this missing girl and their parents plight had a huge effect on me.
This is what I planned to post yesterday but stopped due to shock. I post it unedited. I'm reforming my opinion since writing this. I have feelings of a Lindy Chamberlain echo.
Lets see. Kate and Gerry were on holiday in a place they had never been. The Portuguese police claim that perhaps they accidentally murdered her then hid her body in the few minutes window of opportunity that they could have potentially had. There it lay for sometime and was not found in any search. The McCanns then sneaked out avoiding the media and went back to the hiding place to move and dispose of their dead daughter's decomposing body some weeks later (At least 25 days later), and that it has still not been found. I fear that like Robert Murat, they are being made scapegoats.
It has seemed to me since the first week that the lack of police action in trying to find her may be explained by them knowing she is dead and suspecting the parents. How I hope that is not true. None the less, if it is true then I hope the police can prove what happened and convict.
If the only wrong thing the McCanns are responsible for is irresponsibly leaving their children in bed while they went to dinner round the corner, then their punishment has been extremly high. Imagine that they are completely innocent. How do they cope?
I believe in innocence until proved guilty. It would be such an injustice to Maddie if her real abductor or killer is not found, or an innocent person is stitched up or found guilty by mob rule. In a murder, statistics back the need for family to be thoroughly investigated. The Portuguese police would find it hard (but not impossible) to convict unless they had proof. Especially with such world-wide interest in the case. They would love to wrap this case up and end the continual criticism directed at them for their slow and amateur investigation. They have been criticised from day one when two police turned up two hours after being called and left saying that she probably just wandered off. It took the McCanns to keep this in the public eye. The police have always tried to play it down. I'm also sure that the people of the Algarve are sick of the McCann's and the damage this disappearance has caused to their tourist income.
Cross-contamination by poor police work may have resulted in what was found in the hired car. The "biological fluids" with an 80% match of Madeleine's DNA were found in the hired car. Does that mean the DNA may be families and not Maddies?
Sniffer dogs also allegedly found evidence of a decomposed body on clothes and the bible belonging to Mrs McCann. Apparently, a page in Kate's bible that mentions the death of a child is a bit crumpled - proving it's been read it a lot.
Why were forensics were not carried out in the apartment on May 3rd?
Why was it thought best to re-rent the apartment and wait until the middle of July to do the tests?
Who was the child seen by witnesses that was wrapped up in a blanket on the night of Madeleine's disappearance?
Who was the guy carrying this child?
Why does he match the description of an intruder at the apartment weeks before the abduction?
Are the biological fluids DNA evidence and sniffer dog decomposed body evidence enough to convict?
If not, what is the explaination for them?
May 3rd:
McCanns arrived for dinner at 2040.
At 2105 Mr McCann went to check on the children.
At 2130 Dr Oldfield (A friend in the party) went to check on the children.
At 2200 Mrs McCann went to the apartment to find the outside shutter and window to Madeleine's room had been opened and her daughter was missing.
By 2210 the police has been called.
On May 3rd Kate McCann is understood to have told police that after tucking the children up in bed Madeleine - who was wearing pink pyjamas with the words "Sleepy Eeyore" on them - said: "Mummy, I've had the best day ever. I'm having lots and lots of fun."
Until she is found dead or alive, I don't think anyone should stop looking for her.
This is what I planned to post yesterday but stopped due to shock. I post it unedited. I'm reforming my opinion since writing this. I have feelings of a Lindy Chamberlain echo.
Lets see. Kate and Gerry were on holiday in a place they had never been. The Portuguese police claim that perhaps they accidentally murdered her then hid her body in the few minutes window of opportunity that they could have potentially had. There it lay for sometime and was not found in any search. The McCanns then sneaked out avoiding the media and went back to the hiding place to move and dispose of their dead daughter's decomposing body some weeks later (At least 25 days later), and that it has still not been found. I fear that like Robert Murat, they are being made scapegoats.
It has seemed to me since the first week that the lack of police action in trying to find her may be explained by them knowing she is dead and suspecting the parents. How I hope that is not true. None the less, if it is true then I hope the police can prove what happened and convict.
If the only wrong thing the McCanns are responsible for is irresponsibly leaving their children in bed while they went to dinner round the corner, then their punishment has been extremly high. Imagine that they are completely innocent. How do they cope?
I believe in innocence until proved guilty. It would be such an injustice to Maddie if her real abductor or killer is not found, or an innocent person is stitched up or found guilty by mob rule. In a murder, statistics back the need for family to be thoroughly investigated. The Portuguese police would find it hard (but not impossible) to convict unless they had proof. Especially with such world-wide interest in the case. They would love to wrap this case up and end the continual criticism directed at them for their slow and amateur investigation. They have been criticised from day one when two police turned up two hours after being called and left saying that she probably just wandered off. It took the McCanns to keep this in the public eye. The police have always tried to play it down. I'm also sure that the people of the Algarve are sick of the McCann's and the damage this disappearance has caused to their tourist income.
Cross-contamination by poor police work may have resulted in what was found in the hired car. The "biological fluids" with an 80% match of Madeleine's DNA were found in the hired car. Does that mean the DNA may be families and not Maddies?
Sniffer dogs also allegedly found evidence of a decomposed body on clothes and the bible belonging to Mrs McCann. Apparently, a page in Kate's bible that mentions the death of a child is a bit crumpled - proving it's been read it a lot.
Why were forensics were not carried out in the apartment on May 3rd?
Why was it thought best to re-rent the apartment and wait until the middle of July to do the tests?
Who was the child seen by witnesses that was wrapped up in a blanket on the night of Madeleine's disappearance?
Who was the guy carrying this child?
Why does he match the description of an intruder at the apartment weeks before the abduction?
Are the biological fluids DNA evidence and sniffer dog decomposed body evidence enough to convict?
If not, what is the explaination for them?
May 3rd:
McCanns arrived for dinner at 2040.
At 2105 Mr McCann went to check on the children.
At 2130 Dr Oldfield (A friend in the party) went to check on the children.
At 2200 Mrs McCann went to the apartment to find the outside shutter and window to Madeleine's room had been opened and her daughter was missing.
By 2210 the police has been called.
On May 3rd Kate McCann is understood to have told police that after tucking the children up in bed Madeleine - who was wearing pink pyjamas with the words "Sleepy Eeyore" on them - said: "Mummy, I've had the best day ever. I'm having lots and lots of fun."
Until she is found dead or alive, I don't think anyone should stop looking for her.
Morrissey the 23rd
Banned
Controversial past of policeman leading the McCann investigation
By Amol Rajan in Praia da Luz
Published: 11 September 2007
As the Portuguese press continued to round on the McCanns yesterday, newspaper columns remained pointedly silent on a separate investigation into the police officer leading the hunt for Madeleine.
Despite the recent furore surrounding Kate and Gerry McCann being made suspects in their daughter's disappearance, Goncalo Amaral – head of the Policia Judiciara's investigation – has himself been charged over the alleged assault of a woman whose daughter disappeared in similar circumstances to Madeleine three years ago.
Earlier this year, Mr Amaral and four colleagues were made suspects ( arguidos) in the beating of Leonor Cipriano during an interrogation following the disappearance of her daughter Joana, who vanished from a village seven miles from Praia da Luz.
Joana's mother and uncle were convicted of murdering and dismembering her after she discovered them having an incestuous relationship. However, Mrs Cipriano claimed she was beaten up in custody under the watch of Mr Amaral and accused the police of setting her up.
She has produced graphic photographs of her face after interrogation which showed heavy bruising around her eyes.
In June, Mr Amaral and his colleagues were charged, three with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth withfalsification of documents. It is unclear which offence he was charged with.
Police sources in Portimao, from where the Madeleine McCann investigation is being conducted, refused to comment yesterday but the disquiet surrounding Mr Amaral overseeing such a prominent case has raised questions over his suitability and pitched the British tabloid press against their Portuguese counterparts.
Mr Amaral is widely respected and generally regarded by the Portuguese papers as a man doing a good job in difficult circumstances. But the emergence of Leonor Cipriano's accusations and the serious charges have led to some argue he should not be working on a similar case.
The investigation into Joana's disappearance was marred by the failure to seal off the house in which she was last seen. The police investigating Madeleine's disappearance have also been criticised for allegedly being slack in sealing off the resort where the McCanns had been staying.
Local journalists close to the case say the charges brought against Detective Amaral are inconclusive.
By Amol Rajan in Praia da Luz
Published: 11 September 2007
As the Portuguese press continued to round on the McCanns yesterday, newspaper columns remained pointedly silent on a separate investigation into the police officer leading the hunt for Madeleine.
Despite the recent furore surrounding Kate and Gerry McCann being made suspects in their daughter's disappearance, Goncalo Amaral – head of the Policia Judiciara's investigation – has himself been charged over the alleged assault of a woman whose daughter disappeared in similar circumstances to Madeleine three years ago.
Earlier this year, Mr Amaral and four colleagues were made suspects ( arguidos) in the beating of Leonor Cipriano during an interrogation following the disappearance of her daughter Joana, who vanished from a village seven miles from Praia da Luz.
Joana's mother and uncle were convicted of murdering and dismembering her after she discovered them having an incestuous relationship. However, Mrs Cipriano claimed she was beaten up in custody under the watch of Mr Amaral and accused the police of setting her up.
She has produced graphic photographs of her face after interrogation which showed heavy bruising around her eyes.
In June, Mr Amaral and his colleagues were charged, three with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth withfalsification of documents. It is unclear which offence he was charged with.
Police sources in Portimao, from where the Madeleine McCann investigation is being conducted, refused to comment yesterday but the disquiet surrounding Mr Amaral overseeing such a prominent case has raised questions over his suitability and pitched the British tabloid press against their Portuguese counterparts.
Mr Amaral is widely respected and generally regarded by the Portuguese papers as a man doing a good job in difficult circumstances. But the emergence of Leonor Cipriano's accusations and the serious charges have led to some argue he should not be working on a similar case.
The investigation into Joana's disappearance was marred by the failure to seal off the house in which she was last seen. The police investigating Madeleine's disappearance have also been criticised for allegedly being slack in sealing off the resort where the McCanns had been staying.
Local journalists close to the case say the charges brought against Detective Amaral are inconclusive.
Morrissey the 23rd
Banned
Doubt cast on strength of forensic 'evidence'
By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:54am BST 10/09/2007
Forensic science experts have questioned whether Portuguese police have "gone too hard" in interpreting complex and qualified evidence supplied to them by British specialists in the Madeleine McCann case.
While stopping short of dismissing the apparent views of detectives in the Algarve, experts highlighted the dangers of putting too much emphasis on partial and potentially misleading identifications and the temptation for police to jump to conclusions not supported by the forensics.
Reports suggested that DNA material from Madeleine has been found in the McCann's holiday apartment and in a car they hired 25 days after she disappeared.
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The Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS), which carried out tests for police, declined to comment.
At least one report, though, claimed the samples fell short of the minimum of 20 points of correspondence - genetic markers - between the material and Madeleine's DNA, which would conclusively suggest an identification.
Anything short of that would be a "partial" investigation.
Alan Baker, of the leading independent forensic science organisation, Bericon, said that experts had to guard against the possibility that DNA traces from Madeleine's parents and siblings, who would share many identical points, could give such a partial ID.
It remained unclear whether the evidence involved traces of blood, bodily fluids which may contain traces of blood, or traces of human material, such as skin, hair or saliva.
Mr Baker said: "It is important to find out whether they were traces from swabs, or specks of blood. If you have specks of Madeleine's blood in the car, it is potentially explainable but also potentially more incriminating than a swab."
There was no police comment on whether the traces in the car come from a time when Madeleine was still alive or raised the gruesome possibility of a decomposing body being moved 25 days after death.
Dead bodies, in a hot climate, decompose and can give off "all sorts of horrible materials".
Experts believe the presence of a dead body in a car would leave tell-tale traces.
If the DNA traces did not come from a decomposing body, then a central problem is that DNA cannot be dated.
The FSS would not be able to tell police when the fragment was in some way left or secreted by Madeleine.
British police are counselled to be wary of reaching too-solid conclusions on often complex forensic clues which bear multiple explanations.
Mr Baker said: "We're in the dark about the detail of the findings but the FSS are world leaders and they would be careful. There will be caveats in their report."
Even more caution has been urged on suggestions that sniffer dogs found a "scent of death" on certain items, such as a bible.
Dogs can be trained to identify traces from a decomposing body but this is regarded as far from an exact science which would be evidentially reliable.
By John Steele, Crime Correspondent
Last Updated: 1:54am BST 10/09/2007
Forensic science experts have questioned whether Portuguese police have "gone too hard" in interpreting complex and qualified evidence supplied to them by British specialists in the Madeleine McCann case.
While stopping short of dismissing the apparent views of detectives in the Algarve, experts highlighted the dangers of putting too much emphasis on partial and potentially misleading identifications and the temptation for police to jump to conclusions not supported by the forensics.
Reports suggested that DNA material from Madeleine has been found in the McCann's holiday apartment and in a car they hired 25 days after she disappeared.
advertisement
The Birmingham-based Forensic Science Service (FSS), which carried out tests for police, declined to comment.
At least one report, though, claimed the samples fell short of the minimum of 20 points of correspondence - genetic markers - between the material and Madeleine's DNA, which would conclusively suggest an identification.
Anything short of that would be a "partial" investigation.
Alan Baker, of the leading independent forensic science organisation, Bericon, said that experts had to guard against the possibility that DNA traces from Madeleine's parents and siblings, who would share many identical points, could give such a partial ID.
It remained unclear whether the evidence involved traces of blood, bodily fluids which may contain traces of blood, or traces of human material, such as skin, hair or saliva.
Mr Baker said: "It is important to find out whether they were traces from swabs, or specks of blood. If you have specks of Madeleine's blood in the car, it is potentially explainable but also potentially more incriminating than a swab."
There was no police comment on whether the traces in the car come from a time when Madeleine was still alive or raised the gruesome possibility of a decomposing body being moved 25 days after death.
Dead bodies, in a hot climate, decompose and can give off "all sorts of horrible materials".
Experts believe the presence of a dead body in a car would leave tell-tale traces.
If the DNA traces did not come from a decomposing body, then a central problem is that DNA cannot be dated.
The FSS would not be able to tell police when the fragment was in some way left or secreted by Madeleine.
British police are counselled to be wary of reaching too-solid conclusions on often complex forensic clues which bear multiple explanations.
Mr Baker said: "We're in the dark about the detail of the findings but the FSS are world leaders and they would be careful. There will be caveats in their report."
Even more caution has been urged on suggestions that sniffer dogs found a "scent of death" on certain items, such as a bible.
Dogs can be trained to identify traces from a decomposing body but this is regarded as far from an exact science which would be evidentially reliable.
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