An Irish family who were on holiday at the same apartment as the McCanns may hold the key to finding out what really happened to Madeleine. Photo / Getty
An Irish family who were on holiday at the same apartment as the McCanns may hold the key to finding out what really happened to Madeleine. Photo / Getty
An Irish family who were on holiday at the same apartment as the McCanns may hold the key to finding out what really happened to Madeleine, according to a Channel Nine investigative podcast.
Labelled "The Smith Sighting", Martin Smith and his large extended family were walking back to their accommodation around 10pm in Praia da Luz the night Madeleine disappeared.
According to the Channel Nine investigation, the Smiths crossed paths with a man who was carrying a small motionless girl down a dark street around the same time Madeleine disappeared.
The alleged sighting occurred less than 300m from the Ocean Club Resort and the man was heading towards the beach just 150m away.
The Smith family later alerted police, claiming the girl was barefoot and wearing pyjamas.
Episode three of the podcast Maddie say various members of the Smith family later claimed the man carrying the girl looked similar to her father, Gerry McCann.
Nine say while the Smiths account is detailed in the podcast, the media company do not suggest the McCann family have any involvement.
The McCanns have strongly denied any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance and a team of private investigators visited the Smiths in 2008 where they produced e-fit sketches of the possible abductor.
E-fit of man the Smith family from Ireland said they saw on the night Madeleine McCann vanished. Photo / Nine News
Another witness, Jane Tanner, who was part of the McCann's holiday group, came forward telling police she saw a man around 9.15pm carrying a girl away from the direction of the accommodation.
Her alleged sighting was just 45 minutes earlier than Smith's account.
After analysing both witness accounts, Washington DC criminal profiler Pat Brown said on the Maddie podcast he believes the Smiths' version of events.
"What makes the Smith sighting very interesting is that Jane Tanner is a friend, and the Smith sighting is a bunch of people that have no clue who the McCanns are. These are not their friends," Brown said.
"I believe the Smith sighting occurred. I believe they saw a man carrying a little girl down that road, which is towards the beach."
Last week on the same podcast series retired Superintendent Peter MacLeod rubbished the theory it was "not possible" for the 3-year-old to be kidnapped using the window as an escape route.
MacLeod, who had visited the apartment complex and inspected Maddie's ground-floor bedroom, produced specific details of McCann's room, saying it discredits the family's theory of what happened.
Kate and Gerry McCann have never given up the search. Photo / Getty
"The window is only absolute maximum 50cm wide, in reality about 46cm wide, and it's already a metre off the ground," he said on the podcast titled Maddie.
"I had a [inaudible] at that and my shoulders are wider than that little window. So although you could climb in sideways you certainly can't jump in if you are a normal-sized person.
"But of course the shutters are the problem, because the shutters are going to be bashing down on your head. Either that or you've got to put a piece of wood in or something. And there's no suggestion of any of that.
"Then you've got to pick up a child without waking it up, without waking the other two children. I do not think it can be done, or let me put it another way, I do not see how anyone could do it.
"I frankly do not think it's possible."
He expressed other concerns about the window and said it raised "a first red flag".
From television footage, he said, it was obvious that the window shutters were not damaged or jemmied.
The retired cop says the evidence is in contrast to what was portrayed in the British media where it was claimed the windows and shutters were damaged.
Madeleine went missing on the evening of May 3, 2007, from an apartment complex in Praia da Luz, Portugal, where she was sleeping with her two siblings.
