Her parents reported to the police that they had taken Madeleine to their holiday apartment at 18:00 Western European Summer Time, to prepare Madeleine and her two-year-old twin siblings for bed.[14] Then they left at 20:30, leaving the apartment unlocked, to dine with friends approximately 130 yards (120 metres) away at a tapas bar within the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club.[1][15] The McCanns said that they were taking turns checking on their children. At 20:55 Matthew Oldfield approached the bedroom window of the children to check if he could hear any noise in the room and at approximately 21:05/21:15 Gerry checked on the children. At 21:20 Jane Tanner noticed a man carrying a child going down the road next to the apartment of the McCanns. Slightly further down the road, Gerry was chatting to Jeremy Wilkins, whom he had met at the resort, and neither noticed Tanner as she walked past them to join the rest of the group at the tapas restaurant.[16] At 21:30 Matthew Oldfield went to check the children but saw only the twins through the open bedroom door.[17]
At around 22:00, Kate returned to check on the children and found Madeleine's bed empty and the bedroom window open.[18] An Ocean Club nanny, Charlotte Pennington, who was one of the first people to arrive at the apartment, said that Kate screamed both "They've taken her, they've taken her!" and "Madeleine's gone!".[19] Kate said that the police were called within 10 minutes of finding her daughter gone.[20] Gerry said it was one of their friends who alerted the resort manager and the police.[21]