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29. On British police advice, the Portuguese asked top dog handler Martin Grime to bring his springer spaniels, Eddie and Keela, to Praia da Luz. Eddie is trained to detect the scent of human corpses; Keela is a bloodhound. Eddie had never given a false alert in over 200 previous outings. He alerted to the odour of a human corpse in these locations: four different places in the McCanns’ apartment, two of Dr Kate McCann’s clothes, one of the children’s T-shirts, on the pink soft toy, ‘Cuddle Cat’, and in two places in the car the McCanns hired. Eddie did not alert to a corpse scent anywhere else in Praia da Luz. Keela detected blood, which may have been Madeleine’s blood, at some of these places.
Verdict - False and misleading. The claims about the dogs' abilities and performances are false. The alerts described by the MMRG are incorrect. The alerts of the dogs have to be corroborated by forensic evidence. They weren't.
Source - Amaral's book and police files.
Summary of Verifiable Facts
- Both dogs gave false alerts on several occasions. Read more about their performance and reliability here and here .
- Mr Grime states that Eddie, in six years operational deployment in over 200 cases, has never alerted to meat based foodstuffs. There's no written record to date of the dog's successes and failures.
- Both dogs alert to blood, also dried blood from a living person.
- For the purpose of any crime/police case, the dogs' findings amount to nothing without forensic back up/tests. And in this case, not one of the alerts by the dogs were substantiated by forensic proof.
- The results of the forensic analysis performed by the Portuguese forensic experts on the day immediately after Madeleine disappeared, shows that no vestige of blood was found.
Extracts from Amaral's book, with relevant sections highlighted in red
Apparently this is (part of) the source for the claims of the MMRG, because it most certainly isn't in the files, which were released by the PJ.
The relevant portion from Chapter 16 of Amaral's book is quoted below:
Quote:
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Harrison also suggests that we use the skills of two totally remarkable dogs: the first an EVRD (Enhanced Victim Recovery Dog), achieves outstanding performance in the detection of human cadaver odour; the second, a CSI dog (Crime Scene Investigation) is capable of smelling the tiniest trace of blood, knowing how to recognise its human origin. To convince us of their capability and the extraordinary work carried out by these very special detectives in the course of over 200 investigations, he screens a video for us, showing their training and their intervention on the ground.
More recently, it’s Eddie who helps to find a body buried under a flagstone at the former orphanage, Haut-de-la-Garenne, in Jersey, setting for a terrible case of paedophilia and child murder.
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Amaral has got it wrong. There was no body. It was something that looked like it was a piece of a skull fragment. But it wasn't according to the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit
Quote:
In an email on April 8, the Oxford laboratory told Jersey police the fragment ‘ain’t bone’. It followed this up with a detailed letter on May 1, which Mr Harper claims not to have received, confirming the find was not bone but, in view of its curvature, more likely to be a seed casing or piece of coconut.
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Extracts from the files, with relevant sections highlighted in red
'Eddie' The Enhanced Victim Recovery Dog (E.V.RD.) will search for and locate human remains and body fluids including blood to very small samples in any environment or terrain. The initial training of the asset is conducted using pig as the subject matter for solid hides and human blood for fluid. The dog has also been trained to identify 'dead body' scent contamination where there is no physically retrievable evidence, due to scent adhering to previous material such as carpet or the upholstery in motor vehicles. ...
In six years operational deployment in over 200 cases the dog has never alerted to meat based foodstuffs. The dog has never alerted to 'road kill'.
'Keela' The Crime Scene Investigation (C.S.I.) dog will search for and locate human blood to such small proportions that it is unlikely to be recovered by the forensic science procedures in place at this time due to its size or placement. In order for the dog to locate the source the blood must have 'dried' in situ. Any 'wetting' once dried will not affect the dog's abilities. Blood that is subjected to dilution by precipitation or other substantial water source prior to drying will soak into the ground or other absorbent material. This may dilute the scent to an unacceptable level for accurate location.It is possible however that the EVRD will locate the scent source as it would for 'dead body' scent.
The dog EVRD also alerts to blood from a live human being or only from a cadaver'
The dog EVRD is trained using whole and disintegrated material, blood, bone tissue, teeth, etc. and decomposed cross-contaminants. The dog will recognize all or parts of a human cadaver. He is not trained for 'live' human odours; no trained dog will recognize the smell of 'fresh blood'. They find, however, and give the alert for dried blood from a live human being.
The alerts by Eddie
In apartment 5A:
* between 20h16 (typing error in the report shows 21h16) and 20h30 the "cadaver" dog alerted:
- at 20h20 in the area of the wardrobe of the main bedroom.
- at 20h22 in the lounge, specifically behind the sofa next to the window that overlooks the street.
Between 21h49 and 22h00, in the garden adjacent to apartment 5A, accessible from by way of the veranda and steps, the cadaver dog alerted in a garden-bed directly below the verandah.
Clothing and belongings Family McCann
* in two pieces of clothing belonging to KATE HEALY.
* in a piece of clothing of the minor MADELEINE.
* in the plush toy, possibly belonging to MADELEINE (it was detected cadaver odour, when the plush was inside the residence – at the date occupied by the family)
(note: watching the video of the dog and the alerts, the piece of clothing by the PJ attributed to Madeleine belongs probably in fact to her younger brother)
The car (hired by the McCanns on May 27th)
* signalled the key of the vehicle;
(note: though it's not mentioned in the PJ Report, watching the video shows the dog alerted to the lower part of the driver's door, in one compartment of which was the car's key card)
The alerts by Keela
Apartment 5A - 31.07.2007
* between 20h47 and 21.20 the "blood" dog alerted:
- at 21h10 in the lounge, specifically on the floor behind the sofa next to the window that overlooks the street.
On the 1st of August a forensic team collected samples at the apartment. Here's the relevant part of their report :
Quote
He advised further that after the recovery of the tiles the animal specialised in detection of human blood should perform another search of the area from where the tiles had been recovered to verify [check for] the existence of possible human blood in the area from where the tiles had been lifted.
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Apartment 5A 03.08.2007
19.19 The dog “marked” an area of tiles in the living room, next to the window and behind the sofa.
19.20 The dog “marked” the lower part of the left white coloured curtain of the window behind the sofa.
The car (hired by the McCanns on May 27th)
* signalled the key of the vehicle;
* signalled the interior of the vehicle’s boot;
Quote:
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From the screening of the videos, referred previously, done when the dogs were working, some doubts arise. We don't want and we can't take the place of the trainer, we only wish to alert, with this paragraph, to some facts, that according to us, need further clarification.
If the dog is trained to react when he detects what he is looking for, why, in most of the cases, we see the dog passing more than once by that place in an uninterested way, until he finally signals the place where he had already passed several times'
On one of the films, it's possible to see that 'Eddie' sniffs Madeleine's cuddle cat, more than once, bites it, throws it into the air and only after the toy is hidden does he 'mark' it (page 2099). Whys didn't he signal it when he sniffs it on the first time'
Apart from all that was said about the dogs, we must also take into attention the results of the forensic analysis that was performed by the experts on the Scientific Police Laboratory on the day immediately after the facts, and already mentioned where no vestige of blood was found.
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Forensics
Nowhere in the forensics report is it mentioned that blood was found. DNA was identified but it wasn't Madeleine's. Most of the samples had to be analysed using LCN techniques, and in most (relevant) cases the material of the sample couldn't be identified.
On the samples three DNA profiles were identified:
- A low level incomplete DNA profile which matched the corresponding components in the DNA profile of Gerald McCann was obtained from cellular material on the key card(286C/2007-CRL(12)).
- 286A/2007-CRL 5A & B Swabs collected from the wall of the apartment ... In my opinion, Fernando Viegas could have contributed DNA to this result.
- 286/2007-CRL (17) Cement-glue [grouting] between the floor tiles identified as number 2...In my opinion, the major part of the profile matched that of Lino Henriques.
All three of the above mentioned people are (were at the time) still very much alive. Fernando Viegas and Lino Henriques are Portuguese Forensic experts.
Compare MMRG statement with the actual FACTS
MMRG quote:
- On British police advice, the Portuguese asked top dog handler Martin Grime to bring his springer spaniels, Eddie and Keela, to Praia da Luz.
- Eddie is trained to detect the scent of human corpses; Keela is a bloodhound.
- Eddie had never given a false alert in over 200 previous outings.
- He alerted to the odour of a human corpse in these locations: four different places in the McCanns’ apartment, two of Dr Kate McCann’s clothes, one of the children’s T-shirts, on the pink soft toy, ‘Cuddle Cat’, and in two places in the car the McCanns hired.
- Eddie did not alert to a corpse scent anywhere else in Praia da Luz.
- Keela detected blood, which may have been Madeleine’s blood, at some of these places.
Actually:
- On advice of Mark Harrison, the PJ asked a dog handler, Martin Grime, to bring his dogs to Praia da Luz.
- Eddie is trained to search for and locate human remains and body fluids including blood. The dog has also been trained to identify 'dead body' scent contamination. Keela is indeed trained to detect blood. Both dogs will alert to dried blood of live human beings.
- In six years operational deployment in over 200 cases the dog has never alerted to meat based foodstuffs. The dog has never alerted to 'road kill'. Yet in training the dog has alerted to a 1 cm cube of pork soaked in petrol for 1 week and then burnt until only a residue remains. That's according to the handler, Mr Grime. He hasn't provided any records of the dog's successes and failures to substantiate his claims. He worked at South Yorkshire Police Force from 2003 to August 2007. During that period he was deployed on 37 occasions. That's an average of 9 per year. Eddie was seven in 2007..........
- He alerted to two different places in the McCanns’ apartment, the garden, two of Kate McCann’s clothes, one of the children’s T-shirts, on the pink soft toy, ‘Cuddle Cat’. He was not deployed in the car, so he didn't alert to two places in the car. He did however alert to the driver's door, in one compartment of which was the car's key card. Eddie alerted to the key card.
- None of the alerts by Keela have been confirmed by forensics as being blood. No blood or DNA of Madeleine was found/identified. The DNA that was identified belongs to three living persons.
- Portuguese forensics examined the apartment the day after Madeleine disappeared. No vestige of blood was found.
Conclusion
The claims by the MMRG are both false and misleading. There's no forensic supporting evidence to verify what the dogs alerted to. The only DNA that was identified belongs to three (living) men. Is the MMRG suggesting that Madeleine is dead? Why would anybody want to declare a missing child dead without any evidence of such?
"Eddie did not alert to a corpse scent anywhere else in Praia da Luz". Is the MMRG suggesting that no one ever died in Praia da Luz?
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