The McCanns and the Tapas 7 maybe.. a distinction?

Bearing in mind the purpose of this blog should be primarily one of the disappearance of their child, it may be better if the focus was split between the McCanns and the rest of the party.  Remember too, like Dianne Webster, the McCanns rarely, if ever, met communally at lunchtime at the Payne's apartment with the rest of the Tapas, preferring to make their own arrangements. Some critics, clutching at straws in the author's view, suggest a tension within the group prior to the mayhem that was to unfold on May 3rd and 4th.

As close friends of the Paynes, Kate and Gerry had had several holidays together with them and other friends of the Paynes. Goncalo Amaral, a lead investigator in the disappearnce tells us, in his book 'The Truth Of The Lie', that In September 2003 they attended the Payne's wedding in Umbria, Italy, and took a holiday in Lanzarote in January 2005 and again in Majorca in the September of that year. According to Rachael Oldfields testimony of 15th May, the group, without the McCanns, also took a holiday in Zante, Greece in 2006.  This group, it would appear, were no strangers to one another and comfortable in each others company.  From Rachael Oldfield's testimony:

"When asked she says that all the couples have been together for various years (between 8 and 12 years).

They all have stable relationships. She does not know whether any female or male members of the group have had any other relationships between them, other than the current.
She does not have any knowledge of whether any member has a parallel relationship with any other members of the group.

When asked, she says that there is no friction or conflict between those that make up the group as they are in total harmony as regards the kind of holidays they take, they all have good jobs and identical levels of living as well as having the children in common, whom they all have to look after and they try as hard as possible to do everything together.

She says that in terms of harmony and friendship the group is very close."

 Excluding events between the 28th April and 2nd May, some might feel, is appropriate because, in essence 'nothing' happened.  To do so would, my opinion, give no indication of how the dynamics of the group, especially including the children, worked during that period, and offer no insight into why some of the things that happened during the 3rd May happened in the way that they did.  Each member of the group had their own routine, and this can be teased out from the content of the testimony, so each person will be looked at seperately.

In looking at testimony and events prior to 3rd May I have tried not to be too analytical regarding timelines as this detracts from the nature of what a holiday actually is.  The Butlin Camp regimentation of a 1950's holiday has long gone, thankfully, though I daresay, tongue in cheek, it would have been of some considerable help in this investigation.  The events of May 3rd, however will be examined a lot more closely. As I have said at the beginning, what is apparent, though, is that the McCanns were not so group oriented as the others and as such their holiday experience was a little more insular, though they took full advantage of the crèche facilities for their children much as everyone else.

It must be said that many who have read material regarding this case have raised a critical eyebrow over the alacrity and regularity with which this group deposited their children in creches while pursuing their own holiday interests during the week. Neither did any of the group feel, it would seem, that an evening meal with their children was ever an option, preferring instead to leave them asleep in their apartment while they dined free from care in the nearby Tapas Bar: Much more will be said about this later on because this action in particular sits at the eye of the storm of this mystery. So, not so much a family holiday then, some might say, as a singles holiday with children.

So tomorrow I will start to look more closely at the characters and what they got up to on their holiday until the day of the disappearance.  The disappearance itself is a whole new matter.