The McCluskey Sighting

wlbts wrote:

Poppy wrote:But as we were talking a young Portuguese couple appeared? How did she know they were Portuguese?

I'm guessing the fact that they spoke to the first woman in Portuguese gave it away

Could be my mistake Wlbts i took it they knew they were Portuguese by just looking at them when they appeared but if the 2 couples were talking Portuguese fair enough.

Dee Coy wrote:
So how does that explain why, four months later, they would struggle with their consciences and go to the police to make a second statement asserting that the Portuguese-speaking woman was Kate? And, Smithmanesque-like, the man she was with was Gerry? After an internal battle which recognised the consequences such an identification would have and how it could affect the McCanns?

That's what's confusing, imo.

Well, my opinion is that they just made a mistake. I don't believe that the Smiths made a mistake, because of the time and location of their sighting.

As far as I know, Kate doesn't speak Portuguese. That settles it for me, along with the fact that the PJ traced the van by license plate and the Ukrainian couple who did indeed have a daughter who looked very much like Maddie.

This sighting has been definitely ruled out.

It's sometimes a bit tiresome to go over old grounds again. But at the same time, I don't really mind, because sometimes it might throw up a little detail ignored and/or forgotten.

How do we know Kate doesn't speak Portuguese? when she made the appeal for her Daughter she spoke in Portuguese,how long did it take her to learn it? taking in to account she was frantic with worry that Madeleine had been abducted.

So, there's the Smiths sighting, the Marina sighting and the Mcclusky sighting. Remember, the Mccluskys never got any word back from police and they did give efits which hadn't been made public. There's also files that haven't been released.
IMO

From the newpaper report:

However, Mr and Mrs McCluskey said they have never had any response to the information provided in their statements, and would like to have been told it had been eliminated to give them peace of mind.

So we know that the McCluskeys were never asked to confirm that the eliminated Ukrainians were actually the couple they saw.

We know the Ukrainian child looked like a large, rounder-faced Maddie.

There is nothing in the files to say the parents resembled KandG. There is no description of them at all.

What did the eliminated Ukrainians look like? It is a shame a photo was not presented to the McCluskeys after they gave their second statement and the question asked: "Could this have been the couple you saw?" They must have looked very similar indeed to the McCanns for the McCluskeys to be so adamant it was KandG later on. But did they?

There are still questions to be asked about this, I think.

Poppy wrote:How do we know Kate doesn't speak Portuguese? when she made the appeal for her Daughter she spoke in Portuguese,how long did it take her to learn it? taking in to account she was frantic with worry that Madeleine had been abducted.

There is a world of difference between reading some words from an auto-cue in a stilted fashion, to speaking it fluently and apparently forgetting how to speak English and needing somebody to translate for you.

The description from the Mccluskeys is too much to ignore. Where were the mcs between 5&6 am on 4th and where were the mcs around 2am on the 5th of May? Somehow, I just don't think the mcs could get mixed up with an Ukrainian couple. Quite a few believe Madeleine was moved more than once.
IMO

I've only picked up on the McClusky statements today but they do strike me as odd. A poster on here has written that the McCluskeys were returning from an Irish Bar when the incident took place. I can't find any reference to an 'Irish Bar' in the PJ Files but that would be strange if it was Kelly's Bar. There are some striking similarities with the Smith family here. Both have an identical 'revelation moment ' moment on seeing Gerry MC exiting the plane carrying one of the twins. Both wait until September (9th and 13th ) before reporting this and if the statements are correct they used almost identical language to describe the 'revelation moment.' . Almost like following a script?
Other oddities concerning the incident:
1. When the police check up on the couple the mother acknowledges the similarity in looks and age between Madeleine and her daughter.
2. The daughter wasn't there. She had been taken by the husband with a colleague (?) back to the Ukraine during that same month ( May ) I'd have thought this was one for the police to follow up. Why did he take a four year old child on a long journey without her mother? Is she back in Portugal yet?
3. A bit odd how the wife calls her husband 'Raymond' when in fact his name is 'Richard.' Maybe it was something lost in translation but I don't really see how the two names became confused. Maybe it's just another name he answers to?

-----
Snipped from article in original post:

The Sunderland holidaymakers were in the resort of Alvor, about 20 minutes drive along the coast from Praia la Luz, where the McCann family was stating.

Mr and Mrs McCluskey were on their way back to their apartment from an Irish bar in the early hours of May 5, 2007, when they saw a white Transit-style flatbed truck stop in the middle of the road.

I assumed that they were on their way back from an Irish bar in or near the resort of Alvor? Rather than Luz which is 20 minutes away?

But I agree about the similarities with the Smith statement. Returning from an Irish bar when they make the sighting; having a 'revelation moment' when they see Gerry walking down the plane steps carrying Sean.

Weird?

The Irish connection?

Thought I would copy this from twitter, always thought the McCluskey sighting could be important/relevant?







silverdoe‏ @xxMichelleSxx · 21m21 minutes ago


The statements of Susan and Richard McCluskey. A very intriguing one considering just like Martin Smith they mentioned the way Gerry #mccann carried the child how it struck them seeing Gerry carrying his child off the plane on their return to the Uk....

Here we go, TB into the fray   A pre arranged script


Anthony Bennett‏ @zampos · 29m29 minutes ago  

Replying to @xxMichelleSxx

Precisely. Martin Smith & McCluskey were both being directed to follow a pre-arranged script #McCann







silverdoe‏ @xxMichelleSxx · 26m26 minutes ago
 

Replying to @zampos

You do realise that not EVERY single witness in these files lied? T9 Yes, everyone else? Come on! These people, unlike T9 IMO had no reason to lie. Unlike #McCann








So can someone please add up and give me a total...……. just how many witnesses, government, nannies, OC workers ,etc are lying.  Would love to know the figure, it must be in the hundreds now.   Probably easier to name who isn't lying, but struggling to find someone

Hmm.Also clipped from the above lady's Twitter:

https://twitter.com/xxMichelleSxx/status/997752280219881474



So - perhaps not the Ukrainian couple after all? In fact, how was this sighting dismissed as the 'Ukrainian couple' in the first place?

I've always thought these descriptions and similarities to the Smith sighting were too coincidental to ignore. It would seem the McCluskeys were never shown pictures of the 'Ukrainian couple' so how do we know they never saw a completely different man and woman?

Apologies for repeating my comments above, but...

So we know that the McCluskeys were never asked to confirm that the eliminated Ukrainians were actually the couple they saw.

We know the Ukrainian child looked like a large, rounder-faced Maddie.

There is nothing in the files to say the parents resembled KandG. There is no description of them at all.

What did the eliminated Ukrainians look like? It is a shame a photo was not presented to the McCluskeys after they gave their second statement and the question asked: "Could this have been the couple you saw?" They must have looked very similar indeed to the McCanns for the McCluskeys to be so adamant it was KandG later on. But did they?