Media Links ONLY - No Discussion

[chicoliving]

Post media links here - No Discussion

[christine2448]

SKY NEWS FULL COVERAGE (http://news.sky.com/skynews/madeleine)

[sherri79]

official website/dad's blog.
http://www.findmadeleine.com/

[Morag]

http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=15034042&p=y5x34x88&n=15034130

[colomom]

The Sun

http://www.thesun.co.uk/

Paulo Reis' Blog-Gazeta Digital

http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/

[colomom]

The Mirror

http://www.mirror.co.uk/

and their Madeleine forum

http://forums.mirror.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=31

[CaliKid]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20624424/

From AP World News, 25 minutes ago:

Missing Girl's Mother Named Suspect

------------------------

Also from USA Today

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-09-07-missing-mccann_N.htm

[Jdee]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_McCann

Wikipedia

[Morag]

Diario de Noticias:

http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/09/07/sociedade/escutas_e_mails_decisivos_investigac.html

[CaliKid]

From May 4 and 5- 1st stories of Madeleine's disappearance

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/6623127.stm
Toddler 'abducted' during holiday

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2073270,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

False arrest (not Murat) of man suspected of kidnapping Madeleine

http://www.functionpix.com/index.php/article/Police_Arrest_Portugal_Child_Abductor/1376/

Prayer service in PDL for Maddie

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6629471.stm

Information on the Mark Warner Resort in PDL, Portugal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/leicestershire/6627799.stm

Portuguese Police Make Suspect Sketch

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270294,00.html

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1264418,00.html

Includes video

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23395262-details/Maddy%3A+Staff+were+warned+of+%27weird%27+man+in+s hadows/article.do
Report that the McCanns left their children alone before May 3.

http://portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?ID=18698
Update on May 8

[petra]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283278,00.html

[petra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6984781.stm

[CaliKid]

Online appeal for Madeleine
http://www.madeleine.ceopupload.com/

Information on Kate M.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6983007.stm

Suspicion of Pedophile Ring Taking Madeleine
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,271134,00.html

Madeleine's parents stay positive (5/10)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6637469.stm

Madeleine's parents didn't want to leave her with stranger
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23395686-details/Madeleine%27s+parents+didn%27t+want+to+leave+her+w ith+a+stranger/article.do

Results are zero in hunt for Maddie
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2530766.ece

[petra]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/09/08/maddy-parents-are-police-suspects-89520-19753057/

[CaliKid]

Information about Madeleine's 4th birthday
Reward for information set up by celebrities
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23395743-details/Two%20suspects%20in%20'Madeleine'%20CCTV%20footage %20'100%20per%20cent%20identified'/article.do

Madeleine's parents "won't give up"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6645341.stm

Website dedicated to collecting information and locating Madeleine: FindMadeleine.com
http://www.findmadeleine.com/

From Crimeblog- The Abduction of Madeleine with early comments supportive of them and critical of those who questioned their leaving the children on May 3.
http://crimeblog.us/?p=411

Information on Mark Warner resort childcare
http://www.markwarner.co.uk/sun/portugal/ocean-club

PDL Search Winds Down, Searching For Suspect
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=265331

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1265391,00.html
Police are trying to trace a man seen near her holiday apartment

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1265416,00.html
Information on Madeleine's coloboma

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=740312007
Another opinion on leaving children alone

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1265415,.html
First questions about whether Madeleine was kidnapped- Former
Scotland Yard detective John O'Connor advances "wandered away" theory

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...265436,00.html
Parents hire attorneys

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1265397,00.html
Reward hits £2.6 million

[ronniejo]

McCanns fear Madeleine search diverted

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/09/08/madeleine.mccann/index.html

[SewingDeb]

'I have a terrible nagging doubt the McCanns might be involved'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=480628&in_page_id=1770

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...265689,00.html
Robert Murat's villa searched

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21733449-1702,00.html
Police quiz three over missing Maddie

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,70131-1265692,00.html
Who Is Robert Murat?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,272395,00.html
Police seize suspect's computers, cellphones

http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/latest-national-news?articleid=2879268
Murat still a suspect

http://www.worksopguardian.co.uk/latest-national-news?articleid=2879444
Murat says "I'm a scapegoat"

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-05-16-portugal-missing-girl_N.htm
Missing girl's family lobbies in Britain

[CaliKid]

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/families/article1762734.ece
Article on leaving children alone

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21749250-2,00.html
Secret room found in Murat villa

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=454964&in_page_id=1770
Timeline of events: one hour window

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456348&in_page_id=1770#
McCanns' diary of courage

http://gazetadigitalarquivo.blogspot.com/2007/05/em-directo-da-praia-da-luz-algarve-news.html
Gazeta Digital- PAULO REIS

http://groups.google.com/group/crimeblogus/browse_thread/thread/830be4f569222230/5c3456b73b4d0a1c#5c3456b73b4d0a1c
Special report on Madeleine's abduction and Robert Murat

[CaliKid]

http://community.verizon.net/thread.jspa?threadID=1700001824
Questions about the McCanns' parenting

http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_z/deborah_orr/article2524418.ece
In the media frenzy, other children are disappearing without notice

http://www.policiajudiciaria.pt/htm/Ingles/missing_person/madeleine.htm
PJ's Missing person's site for Madeleine

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1829442.ece
Madeleine slept between the twins, inquiry stalls

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456974&in_page_id=1770
Madeleine's parents visit Fatima shrine

http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1411855.0.madeleine_hunt_moves_to_afri ca_after_sighting.php
First mention of Norwegian woman who swears she saw Maddie in Morocco

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_10086.shtml
Information on child kidnapped in Canary Islands, Yeremi Vargas

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1266986,00.html
Murat's lover and her estranged husband questioned

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23397707-details/%20Madeleine:%20Two%20suspects%20released%20as%20p oli%3Cbr%20/%3Ece%20errors%20emerge/article.do
Suspect's friend questioned as criticism of police grows

http://www.derehamtimes.co.uk/content/derehamtimes/news/story.aspx?brand=DFTOnline&category=News&tBrand=DFTonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED23%20May%202007%2013%3A48%3A49%3A870
Father John Wilson, previously the priest at the church at Praia da Luz and now ministering to church of Murat's ex-wife, has met daily with McCanns

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/sunday/tm_headline=why-i-shopped-maddy-suspect%26method=full%26objectid=19135270%26siteid =98487-name_page.html
Lori Campbell's suspicions of Robert Murat

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=456803&in_page_id=1770&ICO=NEWS&ICL=TOPART
Murat protests his innocence

http://forums.mirror.co.uk/viewtopic...c&start =1245
Mirror forum thread from Portuguese poster explaining Madeleine search

http://www.operationcybertip.org/madeleine.html
Contains maps of Portugal, maps of the Ocean Beach resort, etc.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,275193,00.html
Reported last photo of Madeleine helps confirm final day

[colomom]

The Official Missing Child Website of the PJ


http://www.policiajudiciaria.pt/htm/Ingles/missing_person/madeleine.htm

[petra]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,30000-1283291,.html

also other video clips if you scroll bar below with the pictures.

[petra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6984836.stm

Includes timeline and pictures

[Jdee]

http://topics.cnn.com/topics/madeleine_mccann
All about Madeleine McCann

[CaliKid]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1837778.ece
Attempted kidnapping of another Portuguese girl last year

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1267568,00.html
Transcript of interview the McCanns gave with Sky News on 5/25

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1267576,00.html
Description of man "seen carrying Madeleine the night she disappeared"

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1267576,00.html
Includes odd, unemotional interview with the McCanns where they first
attempt to minimize blame for Madeleine's disappearance

http://www.iflg.uk.com/
Website for attorneys hired by McCanns in June

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007240311,00.html
Parents force Portuguese police to release details of kidnapping

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6694999.stm
PM Brown puts support behind McCanns

[CaliKid]

http://tinyurl.com/2qnsjw
Kidnapped by boat theory- Translated by Emma
One of the computers taken from Robert Murat's house has references to an English citizen, the owner of a yacht in the marina of Lagos. The theory they are following is that Madeleine was led to the boat in the marina of lagos, this is being seen as the most reasonable lead by the PJ. The abductor could then have gone to another country, one named is morocco and this is strengthened by a sighting of a girl with a man at the marina on the same night. The English man is supposed to have had the boat for a number of years and lives on it, but also travels to other countries. When the owner of a boat wishes to leave the marina they only have to give the time they want to leave and how many people are leaving, nobody goes on the boat to check the identity of the occupants. The recent description of a man that police are looking to speak to is then given. I'm not quite sure of the next part (something about Interpol) but it then goes on to say that with nothing concrete the PJ continue to see Marraquexe, in Morocco as being the strongest lead, this is fuelled by a sighting of a girl in a petrol station asking for her mum.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6696497.stm
Madeleine's parents to see the Pope

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1847879.ece
Jane Tanner's report of seeing child being carried away

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/7901/Madeleine:+Last+photograph+before+snatched
Child-trafficking in Africa fears

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=151388&version=1&template_id=38&parent_id=20
Portuguese police go to Morocco to investigate sighting

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1848426.ece
Search for Maddie extends across Europe

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1267797,00.html
McCanns fly to Rome

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/05/18/wmaddy18.xml
Murat wanted hire car in a hurry

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007210138,00.html
Weird man reported at hotel

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/8335/Tears+as+Maddy's+parents+meet+Pope
Maddie's parents meet the Pope

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1265436,00.html
Parents to stay in Portugal until Maddie is found

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=454466&in_page_id=1770
Window/shutters untampered with, apartment door left unlocked

http://www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/dailynews/2007/05/31/madeleine-cops-use-psychics-89520-19226194/
Portuguese police use psychics

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=453724&in_page_id=1770
Drawing of Madeleine abductor: egg with side-part

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1268369,00.html
Hunt for Madeleine moves to Spain

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/01/wmaddy101.xml
15 key blunders in the investigation (according to the UK press)

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1268694,00.html
Mystery DNA found in Madeleine's room

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2093570,00.html
Global campaign to find Madeleine

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=3391456&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1
Murat gives 2nd sample of DNA

[Salem]

More recent links:

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5j2SAr7hQw2EVFPiEimFX_9XoCm_w

http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4303169&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.4.1

Articles about the McCanns heading back to England.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=480808&in_page_id=1770

This article is great. It is the beginnings of the fall of Justine McGuinness.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=480807&in_page_id=1770

This one asks why the Tapas 9 don’t talk, but it never answers the question.

Salem

[petra]

McCanns to Leave PT today on 9.30 am flight to UK

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070909/ap_on_re_eu/portugal_missing_girl


Also

http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

Sky News Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt says: "The McCanns are reverting to their original plan to fly home to Leicestershire on a flight at 09.30.
"That plan, of course, had been thrown into disarray by them being declared suspects.
"They have been clarifying their position and they have been told they are allowed to go.
"It appears a deal has been struck - the authorities are satisfied that Kate and Gerry McCann will return to Portugal if required," he said.
The McCanns' spokesman confirmed the plans in a statement, saying: "Kate and Gerry will be returning home to the UK this morning as originally planned. They will depart from Faro Airport.
"It is emphasised that their return is with the full agreement of the......................SNIPPET

[petra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6985454.stm

Speaking on Friday, before she was made an arguida, she added: "Police don't want a murder in Portugal and all the publicity about them not having paedophile laws here, so they're blaming us."
Her husband Gerry, also 39, told the News of the World that Portuguese officers were looking for a quick end to the case and were exploiting apparent discrepancies in the couple's account of what happened.
He said: "In a system that you don't know and don't really trust it's incredibly frightening."
Mrs McCann's parents said that the couple were returning to the UK "with the full agreement of the Portuguese authorities and police".
No bail conditions, travel restrictions or charges have been imposed on the couple, who had been questioned separately for more than 24 hours.
Mr McCann was officially given "arguido" status 12 hours after his wife.



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++SNIPPET

[petra]

SNIP=====================


http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2165457,00.html

McCanns to fly home amid fear of charges



Ned Temko and Mark Townsend in Portimao
Sunday September 9, 2007
The Observer (http://www.observer.co.uk/)

Kate and Gerry McCann were due to fly home to Britain this morning amid mounting speculation that they were involved in the disappearance and possible death of their daughter, Madeleine.It is believed the McCanns fear they could be charged with their daughter's death after they were named as official suspects this week by Portuguese police. But sources close to the investigation told The Observer that DNA evidence that led to the couple being considered suspects was incomplete and not a perfect match to their daughter.



Although evidence from blood found on the floor of the family's holiday flat was said to be 'very strong', it was not conclusive.The first authoritative account of the sudden change of direction in the search for the missing four-year-old came last night from a senior source who is close to both the British and Portuguese police teams.
In a dramatic sign of the growing tension surrounding the fast-moving investigation, it also emerged that family and friends of the McCanns were in contact with the Foreign Office in the hope of securing support from the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband.
The McCanns spoke to Miliband a month ago, and family sources said he had been 'very supportive'. Now, they are hoping he might help head off any decision to lay charges against the McCanns on the basis of what one relative branded as 'repulsive' suggestions they were involved in their daughter's disappearance.
Revealing the details behind the decision to shift the focus of the investigation onto the McCanns, the source said that in addition to the blood at the holiday flat, DNA evidence had been found in a car rented by the McCanns more than two weeks after Madeleine went missing.
He said that while both samples had matched Madeleine's DNA, since they had degraded over time, this was based on an incomplete picture - only 15 of the available 20 genetic markers usually used for such analysis were found: 'Nineteen out of 20 is what we consider conclusive. In this case, they could extract only 15 - but all of the 15 exactly matched Madeleine's DNA.' He also dismissed as 'simply wrong' recent media reports that blood had been found in the car.
He said the Portuguese police were taking the sample recovered from the flat seriously - in part because of 'contradictions and changes' in the accounts given by the McCanns and their friends of what happened the night Madeleine disappeared.

SNIPPED=========================================== ===============================

The source added that it was the 'very strong' probability from the DNA results of a direct match with Madeleine that convinced police to put 'detailed and specific questions' to her parents'. Their answers 'did not provide a satisfactory explanation, which is why it became virtually inevitable under the Portuguese legal system that they would be named arguidos before further questioning'.
Amid the shock of the shift in the investigation and alarm over the possibility of formal charges, the McCanns' family and closest friends yesterday rallied in support. One friend, describing the 'ordeal' of hours of police questioning on Friday and Saturday, remarked last night: 'They did not give Portuguese police the satisfaction of crying.'
Kate McCann's uncle, Brian Kennedy, said: 'We still say as a family and friends that this suggestion that in some way they were responsible for the death of Madeleine is just nonsense, pure and simple.'
Portuguese police, meanwhile, last night described as 'absolutely absurd' reports that Kate McCann was offered a plea bargain during questioning should she admit to the accidental death of her daughter.
The McCanns' Portuguese lawyer, Carlos Pinto de Abreu, said that the newspaper reports were due to a 'misunderstanding' that had arisen during questioning.





Related articles
07.09.2007: Timeline: Madeleine McCann case (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/uk_news/story/0,,2080070,00.html)
08.05.2007: Q&A: Madeleine McCann (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/crime/article/0,,2074964,00.html)
06.05.2007: For parents, our best is not always enough (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2073653,00.html)

In pictures
Madeleine McCann (http://www.guardian.co.uk/gallery/2007/may/15/1?picture=329854829)

Map
Key sites in Praia da Luz (http://www.guardian.co.uk/graphic/0,,2080741,00.html)

Special reports
Crime (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/Guardian/crime/0,,339240,00.html)

Useful link
Find Madeleine (http://www.findmadeleine.com/)



=================================SNIP

[CaliKid]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2607184.ece
Psychic drawings are "no help" to McCann family (Phil McCann critical of Brian Ladd)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6719561.stm
McCanns in television appeal

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1269195,00.html
'Somebody Knows Who Has Madeleine

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1269394,00.html
Sighting in South America (Later proves to be a hoax)

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23400010-details/McCanns+wind+down+%27tour%27+for+missing+Madeleine/article.do
McCanns wind down European tour

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1269847,00.html
McCanns go to Morocco

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=1&story_id=40818
Dutch Telegraaf Newspaper receives tip about Madeleine

http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=48&story_id=31197
Corresponding story on Belgian girls

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007270242,00.html
Investigator Antonio Toscano claims Madeleine is in the hands of notorious French pedophile

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1270362,00.html
Portuguese police search area outlined in Dutch news tip

[CaliKid]

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/06/13/missing.mccann/
Police search wasteland for missing girl

http://www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1469180.mostviewed.breaking_news_p olice_receive_madeleine_tip_off.php
Police seal off area

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1270251,00.html
McCanns hire manager

http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=13&num=13983
Police officer in charge of Maddie case accused of beating mother of another missing girl

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1270454,00.html
Madeleine's parents "furious" over burial claims

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1270637,00.html
Search of scrubland called off

http://revelation13.net/KingJames2f.html
Bible code: Where is missing Madeleine?

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1270838,00.html
6 weeks after disappearance, parents' faith is sorely tested

[petra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6985454.stm

McCanns at their home in Rothley

[CaliKid]

http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=20&num=86733
Parents believe Madeleine may never be found

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1270915,00.html
Parents' fatal errors

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6761669.stm
Evidence destroyed in McCann apartment

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,283813,00.html
Global pedophile ring nets 700 suspects

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1270983,00.html
Madeleine's school gets involved

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007280253,00.html
Apartment Madeleine disappeared from up for sale

http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=21&num=87170
McCanns respond to claims they contaminated evidence

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007280398,00.html
Sighting: Madeleine kidnapped by gypsies

[petra]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2165720,00.html

Cuddle Cat is still with Kate!!!!!

[CaliKid]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/10476/Bungling+Madeleine+police+to+search+the+flat...sev en+weeks+on
"Bumbling" cops to search flat 7 weeks after disappearance

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1271363,00.html?f=rss
"Return Stolen Maddie Pics"

Madeleine McCann's father has appealed to the thief who stole his wallet to give back two pictures of his missing daughter he kept inside.
The wallet was snatched on a rare return trip to the UK - after he acted as a good Samaritan on the flight over.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007280318,00.html
Father makes emotional plea to Irish tourists to check holiday photos

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=463087&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
Maddie sightings in Malta

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007240151,00.html
Attempted kidnapping of child from near where Madeleine disappeared

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007230172,00.html
Mari Pollard positive she saw Madeleine in Marrakech

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1268489,00.html
Madeleine's parents cling to hope

http://sadlynormal.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/morocco-study-finds-child-abuse-widespread-and-hidden-in-morocco/
Study finds child abuse widespread and hidden in Morocco

[Barnaby]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/article2418919.ece

[CaliKid]

http://my.telegraph.co.uk/dtracey/june_2007/clarence_mitchell_the_mccann_press_officer_is_a_go .htm
Clarence Mitchell, press officer behind government blackout

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007280877,00.html
Suspicious Madeleine sighting in Malta: Arab said, ‘Get up, little girl’

http://www.uhl-tr.nhs.uk/index.asp?pgid=9385
Hospital to release balloons for Madeleine

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1271653,00.html
50 days after disappearance: More chance of finding stray dog

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1271728,00.html
McCanns certain Madeleine is alive

http://www.maltamedia.com/artman2/publish/law_order/article_2380.shtml
More Malta sightings

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2007281061,00.html
14 separate sightings in Malta

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1271908,00.html
McCanns discounting Malta sightings

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2669865.ece
Information on the 50-day balloon launch

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007281060,00.html
Search for Maddie: Day 50

[CaliKid]

http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/friendsreunited.asp?WCI=Logon
Friends Reunited website where Gerry McCann posted a blog

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article489524.ab
Swedish article about pajamas found on PDL beach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHARGE_syndrome)
Wikipedia information on CHARGE syndrome\

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1272511,00.html
Irish vigil; Spanish investigator hands over evidence of pedophile abduction

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/11302/Police+in+Malta+probe+eight+more+sightings+of+Made leine
More Malta sightings of Madeleine

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287189,00.html
Spanish Cops Detain 2 With Possible Links to Madeleine

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287189,00.html
Italian man, Portuguese woman try to extort money from McCanns

http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/2007/06/arrests-in-spain-not-connected-to.html
Arrests in Spain not connected to Madeleine

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1272677,00.html
Pair investigated for extortion

[CaliKid]

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=275878
Arrested pair investigated for Madeleine's disappearance

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n115981
Italian man was jailed for child abuse

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=132935&command=displayContent&sourceNode=132702&contentPK=17690022&folderPk=77465&pNodeId=132393
Gerry McCann's wallet with precious Maddie pictures returned

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,488819,00.html
German tourist disappears in Algarve

http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=22&num=89417
Post Chronicle: Is Madeleine McCann Disappearance A Hoax?

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsrequested=C&trademark=2456061
Trademark for FindMadeleine "Leaving No Stone..." fund

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=7536
Italian man thought to have been involved in a blackmail plot

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1273786,00.html
Police think Madeleine still in Portugal

[CaliKid]

http://sol.sapo.pt/EdicaoImpressa/1Caderno.aspx

published in Sol, on June 30, 2007
an article by Felicia Cabrita and Margarida Davim
Translated by Summer

Madeleine Case - Pact of Silence

Madeleine’s parents and the friends with whom they spent their holidays in PDL are suspects in the inquiry. There are contradictory versions about the night of the kidnapping, and an assumed pact of silence in the group

The beginning of June is flowing in a strange way in the Algarve. A chilly wind and overhead clouds help to fill the auditorium of Lagos, where a solidarity concert is being held for the missing english girl. It’s been a month since Madeleine McCann vanished without a trace.

A few kilometres from Lagos, in the Ocean Club resort at Praia da Luz, the faint illumination further densifies the climate. At the reception, which leads to the Tapas restaurant, there is nobody. Getting inside is easy.

A portuguese waiter, but with a british ‘behaviour’, strikes the first blow on the journalist’s plan: “We only serve dinner to the club’s clients”. “What about a drink?”. He says yes.

It’s 9.30 p.m. If we were to believe the several members of the McCann’s holiday group, and after several mismatching versions, at this time Madeleine was being carried out of her apartment by a dark-haired man, who would be around 35 years old.

From the same table where the group of nine had dinner on that evening, one tries, in vain, to observe the apartment’s front – a ground floor apartment that faces the restaurant. A linoleum screen on the side of Tapas and the corridor of bushes that follows the limits of the apartment’s back yards prevents any vigilance to that level.

The image of Madeleine – big blue, questioning eyes and an innocent smile, fixed on the photographic films – is always present. It doesn’t leave the conversations of whom passes by. One remembers the words that the mother, Kate Healy, is supposed to have said to a friend (and that the husband, Gerry McCann, did not know): “I had a bad premonition about my children, when I found out the Ocean Club had no baby listening service”.

The choice of Algarve as a holiday destination would come to change their lives. Everything was arranged with three other couples, with whom they used to travel. Some of them had recently been to Greece, with their children, and the Mark Warner agency, the same that prepared their trip to the Algarve, had done their itinerary for the islands. According to their reports, the hotel where they stayed had a baby listening service – a service that is assured by four or five members of staff who would control the children while the adults dined, by listening through doors and windows to confirm that everything inside was quiet.

At the Tapas bar, from bartenders to staff from the Kid Club, criticism is whispered: “We have a creche where they left their children for most part of the day, where they could be until 11.30 p.m. without spending another Euro. They could also have used our baby-sitters, who stay with the children in their rooms until 1 p.m. In this case, they would have to pay an extra fee, but these people looked like they could afford it”, an employee comments, concluding that “this was a very strange group, that never stayed with their children”.

The children’s routine

The story of Madeleine looks like a tangled ball of wool. In the last days of April, Kate and Gerry, both 39 and doctors, arrive with their friends in Praia da Luz. The weather is not very good, but the group makes the best of it. The children seem to exist outside of the adults’ world. In the morning, Kate would take Madeleine, almost 4, and the 2-year old twins, to the Kid Club. The other couples in the group did the same. While the little ones entertained themselves with collages and paintings, the group divides itself between tennis and jogging until lunchtime. In the creche, the girl’s picture is taken: “She was shy and had some difficulty in adapting to the group. She always stayed close to the english children she already knew”.

It is at lunchtime that the families socialize a bit. After a short nap, the children go back to the Kid Club, while the parents use the activities that the club offers. They only get to meet again in the late afternoon, when the children’s dinner is served. Before 8 p.m., Madeleine and her siblings, who seem to function like a clock, are already asleep. Half an hour later, the group of friends meets at Tapas. The staff remember that they only leave at midnight: “They were very lively and drank a bit too much. I didn’t even realize they had children, because I never saw them around”.

Mathew Oldfield, one of the elements of the group, is back in England. He reacts with surprise upon the contact of Sol, but he does not avoid the conversation: “We drank. We were on holidays. So what?”.

And thus the days followed one upon another, at the Ocean Club. The holiday week is almost over and the group’s spirit does not change. Nobody had noticed until then, how the children were kept at a distance.

The most reliable way to undrestand what happened on May 3, when Madeleine disappeared, is to analyze the various versions that emerged.

It would have been 10 p.m. when Kate decided to check the children at the apartment. This is the only moment in the story that gathers consensus. Madeleine had vanished from her bedroom and the twins were sleeping like nothing had happened. The mother was back at the restaurant in one leap. She was disoriented.

PJ called two hours later

In seconds, the resort is in turmoil. The group’s four men and the club’s employees check every corner. They seem to be oblivious of the essential: to call the authorities. GNR is the first to arrive at the scene, but the news only reach Policia Judiciaria (PJ) more than two hours later. The first explanations arise. Where were the parents when the child disappeared? Gerry explains that, inspired in the scheme that some of the friends had used on their holidays in Greece, the nine members of the group took turns in checking on the children with some regularity.

This is the beginning of a story that will change in many chapters. Gerry starts by saying that he first left the table to check on the children around 9.05 p.m. When he entered the apartment the children were fine, he just noticed that the door to their bedroom was partially open. He looked at the window, which was closed, just as the shutters, and relaxed.

Ten minutes later, his friend Jane Tanner, who went around the apartments, crossed ways with a dark-haired man who was walking in the opposite direction, carrying a child. She didn’t make any connections either.

A few minutes later, Mathew Oldfield enters the room, sees the McCann children fast asleep, and notices nothing out of the ordinary. It is at 10 p.m. that Maddie’s mother discovers her daughter has disappeared. The window was wide open and the shutters were up.

To GNR, who is in the area with sniffer dogs to search for the child, this is a highly unlikely scenario. One of the military assures: “This is an extremely silent area, where there are practically no passing cars. That shutter was very difficult to lift from the outside, and would have made a lot of noise. It would have been a lot easier to use the door, but there were no signs of a break-in”.

This was just one of the reasons why the group became suspicious in the eyes of the investigators. Russell O’Brien, Jane Tanner’s husband, is already back in England, but he knows he could be summoned back to Portugal for a deposition anytime. Over the phone with Sol, he tries to keep his british phlegm: “It is normal that we are suspects, and the DNA test is a consequence thereof. We were the closest people involved”.

The conversation always comes back to the same issue: the night of the disappearance. The account of that last dinner has disparate versions among the group’s members. Some swear that someone left the table every half hour to check on the kids; other reduce that time to half of it. Some say control is made window by window; others say the adults entered each other’s apartments.

One of the employees that was on duty that evening does not remember a lot of movement: “I only remember a tall, grey-haired man getting up once from the table”. It was Russell, who, two days earlier, also had attended dinner.

An aerobic instructor from the resort entertains the dinner guests at Tapas with a ‘Quiz’. At 9.30 p.m. the game ends, and Gerry invites her to their table, where she stays for half an hour. During that time, as she later confided to friends, nobody left the table, but one of the chairs was vacant. Najova Chekaya refuses to talk to Sol. And Russell, when the questions start to surround him, loses his sympathy: “I have nothing further to tell you. I am not going to dishonor the compromise I assumed with Kate and Gerry. They want to control all infornation that is disclosed”.

Gerry changes his version several times, but he maintains that the door to his children’s room was open. Mat revokes his first statement: when he entered Madeleine’s room, the door was open and there was more light, as if the shutters had been raised. Here starts to develop the theory that there was already someone inside the apartment. Which reinforces Jane Tanner’s version (that she saw a man carrying a child).

Only Jane saw the man carrying a child

But there is a witness whose deposition contradicts this theory. Jeremy Wilkins – a tv producer who had met Maddie’s father during their holidays and used to play tennis with him – was walking his eight months old son at that time. He met Gerry, who went out through the apartment’s back door after having checked on the children, and the two man exchanged a brief conversation. At that time, if one is to believe the first accounts, Jane would have left Tapas in the direction of the apartment’s main entrance, and would have crossed paths with both of them. “It was a very narrow road and I think it would have been almost impossible to walk by without me taking notice”, Jeremy says, pointing out the fact that he saw no man carrying a child, as Jane states.

But Jane continues to guarantee that, at the top of the street, she saw a man with a child in his arms.

Although the area is scarcely lit, and the situation did not make her suspicious at the time, she describes the beige trousers, the dark thick jacket and the black classic-style shoes in a detailed way. Once again, Jeremy disagrees: “If that happened, I would have likely seen it”.

On the next day, the media circus was fully installed. The first reports are on Sky News first thing in the morning, even before portuguese press takes hold of the story. Journalists and locals dispute the information. Robert Murat, the son of an english mother and a portuguese father, with little luck in business, does not waste the opportunity. He moves from failed businessman into the role of a translator for the press and the police. Some british journalists, after sucking him to the bones, start suspecting his availability.

The Murat contradiction

Contrarily to the GNR elements and the Ocean Club’s staff, who participated in the searches on the night before and assure they did not see Murat around, Gerry and some of his friends guarantee that he was there. And thus he becomes an arguido.

Gerry and Kate’s friends, who are interrogated tightly by the PJ over almost a month, refuse to clarify this contradiction, when asked by Sol. “We have a pact. This is our matter only. It is nobody else’s business”, says David Payne, another element with the group. Minutes after we tried to contact Kate, Gerry, in a fury, calls the Sol journalist: “What do you think you are doing? Do you think you’re better than the portuguese police? I’m going to forward your contact to PJ and you will have to explain yourselves”.


-------


PJ says ‘everybody is a suspect’

The director of the Policia Judiciaria in Faro, Guilhermino da Encarnacao, confirmed with Sol that “we do not discard the possibility to have the family and friends as suspects”. This is always done “without neglecting other clues. Everybody who was at the resort at the time are suspects”.

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1273333,00.html
Mum's anger at Shrek ads

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1273630,00.html
Mother of Madeleine has pleaded for daughter's return

http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/gunmen-seize-3yearold-british-girl-in-nigeria/20074405-m7y.html
Gunmen kidnap 3-year-old in Nigeria

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1274141,00.html
Nearly £1m Raised For Madeleine Fund

http://rarediseases.about.com/od/rarediseasesc/a/chargesyndrome.htm
More information on CHARGE syndrome

http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/07/08/s.....acion.html
PJ abandons all international clues of Maddie

Sixty-six days after Madeleine McCann mysteriously disappeared from the room where she was sleeping with her twin siblings, in an apartment at the Ocean Club resort, in Praia da Luz, Policia Judiciaria (PJ) abandoned all the clues that they had in various countries, which pointed to the possibility that the british child had passed through or was staying there. The investigations are more and more concentrated in the area where Maddie was kidnapped.

“None of the many sightings that were registered in Malta, and which were exhaustively investigated by local authorities, was confirmed, so we discarded that lead”, chief inspector Olegario de Sousa told DN yesterday. And the indication that came from Morocco “was put aside, given the bad quality of the images from the petrol station in Marrakesh”, where a norwegian tourist guarantees she saw the child with a man.

“Moroccan authorities did not even send us the requested images, given the fact that they were taped one over another, which made the idetification of the people who circulated there, totally impossible”, he observed, admitting that the inspectors’ work is more and more centralized in Praia da Luz. One of the persons who are responsible for the investigation had already referred that “the key to the mystery lies in Praia da Luz”. Madeleine’s parents also don’t exclude “the possibility that she is here”.

I know some will connect this to Murat but I really dont think so. I actually think the PJ have been a lot smarter than people have given them credit for, I also think they could be playing a bit of a mind game with G & K

I did wonder with the parents moving into a new apartment recently, wonder if PJ might have installed any listening devices? Mind you think they G & K might be wise to that.....just a thought.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1274221,00.html
British girl freed by Nigerians

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30100-1274311,00.html
More arrests pending

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/news/tm_headline=maddie-cops-grill-murat--&method=full&objectid=19431938&siteid=66633-name_page.html
MADELEINE McCann prime suspect Robert Murat is to be interrogated again

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1274529,00.html
Madeleine Suspect Quizzed For 8 Hours

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23403730-details/Hunt%20for%20missing%20Madeleine:%20police%20relea se%20chief%20suspect%20after%20eight%20hour%20gril ling/article.do
Suspect Murat grilled for 5 hours by McCanns' friends

http://www.postchronicle.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=23&num=91122
Maddie sighted in Malta again

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272614657.shtml
Police discount Malta sighting

http://www.politics.co.uk/news/zopinion-former-index/foreign-policy/brown-thanks-portugal-over-madeleine-mccann-$475815.htm
PM Brown thanks Portugal over Maddie case

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1077792007
Murat reinterviewed

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1274738,00.html
McCann Friends 'Will Do All They Can'

[christine2448]

Some forensic scientists have begun to question some of the evidence against the couple - supposedly samples of Madeline's blood found in the boot of the car they hired 25 days after the disappearance, and the "death smell" allegedly found on Mrs McCann's belongings by a police sniffer dog.
There is suspicion that tiny DNA samples obtained from the McCanns' apartment - and compared with the blood found in the car boot - could have been contaminated.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/09/nmcann609.xml

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1274868,00.html
Madeleine's parents plan to learn Portuguese

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1274977,00.html
Madeleine's parents shocked, distressed by reports of body near marina

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007320182,00.html
McCann friends confront, ID suspect

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1275069,00.html
Friends in showdown over Maddie

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1275024,00.html
Madeleine's father gets standing ovation

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1275160,00.html
Madeleine friends in holiday campaign

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/13425/Maddy:-Suspect's-alibi-is-in-doubt
Key suspect's alibi is in doubt

http://missingchild.wordpress.com/2006/12/31/who-kidnapped-whom-first/
Non-Madeleine article on adoption kidnapping

http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=15&num=14750
Robert Murat has no sympathy for Madeleine's parents

[petra]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283359,00.html

SNIFFER DOGS WILL SEARCH FOR MADDY

[petra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6986514.stm

McCanns Talk With UK Attorney

[petra]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2166124,00.html

Police clutching at Straws- Auntie Phil

[petra]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/09/10/kate-weeps-in-maddy-s-room-89520-19761811/


Kate Weeps in Maddys Room

[petra]

Sky News:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/ar.....59,00.html (http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283359,00.html)

Prosecutor To Consider Madeleine Charges
Updated: 11:43, Monday September 10, 2007

Papers outlining the case against Kate and Gerry McCann are expected to be passed to the Public Prosecutor today, police said.

He will then consider any charges against the couple over Madeleine's disappearance,

[petra]

Sky News:
http://news.sky.com/skynews/ar.....59,00.html (http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283359,00.html)

Prosecutor To Consider Madeleine Charges
Updated: 11:43, Monday September 10, 2007

Papers outlining the case against Kate and Gerry McCann are expected to be passed to the Public Prosecutor today, police said.

He will then consider any charges against the couple over Madeleine's disappearance,


......................UPDATES ARE HAPPENING ALL THE TIME

[Rino]

DA To charge mother with manslaughter, dad accessory


http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=recent&rid=21385

[Salem]

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1391412007

Would never sedate the children.

[Barnaby]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=480963&in_page_id=1811&ct=5

Want to use fund to pay legal expenses

[Barnaby]

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view/15130/Dad-I-ll-use-1m-Maddie-fund-to-clear-our-names/

Gerry McCann says he will use the fund to clear their names

[Jdee]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283359,00.html

'Police Match DNA To Hire Car'

[angelmom]

Fox News Video

I don't think the story is new, but the accompanying video is good and new (I think). Surveillance by Portuguese AND British LE. Manslaughter charges coming against KM.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296186,00.html

[Jdee]

New video on the DNA

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91210-1283507,00.html

[Brefie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/10/wmaddy1210.xml

Twins may go into care.

[Salem]

I think you guys are way ahead of me, but here are a few more links:

http://www2.skynews.com.au/news/article.aspx?id=188964

~snip~ Police are adamant the DNA could not have been transferred by Madeleine's toys or clothes, but that her body must have been in the boot of the car. ~end snip~

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/law_order/mccanns+phone+line+tapped/786152

More about the phone calls and emails.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_2180910,00.html

~snip~"But the crucial thing is that police have also found a second full match in the car. "Police say that is the most damning evidence that has been returned by the tests," said Brunt. ~end snip~

Salem

[Shazza]

Here is the headline news in Australia.


http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=269533

[CaliKid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfm1sF2I9Dg
Youtube video- reverse speech says "She's in the church, she's in the vault".

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1275488,00.html
Madeleine investigation- where now?

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1276372,00.html
Gerry McCann to go to America to discuss Madeleine case

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/14355/Maddy's-parents-to-face-inquiry
Maddie's parents to face inquiry

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23405351-details/McCanns%20'could%20be%20prosecuted'%20for%20leavin g%20their%20children%20alone/article.do
McCanns hit back at whispering campaign

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07232007/news/nationalnews/cops_eye_folks_of_missing_kid_nationalnews_cynthia _r__fagen.htm
NYPost: Madeleine's parents to face charges

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/14417/Madeleine-'smuggled-out-of-country-on-a-boat
Maddie smuggled out of country?

[CaliKid]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=470179&in_page_id=1770
1st Lady refuses to see Gerry McCann, father forced to defend himself to US media

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1276691,00.html
Aids to help Madeleine's father

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1276925,00.html
Dad faces grilling in America

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19927652/
Parents remain hopeful

http://www.maltamedia.com/artman2/publish/local/article_2809.shtml
Was Madeleine smuggled to Malta on a yacht?

http://www.eveningecho.ie/news/bstory.asp?j=14743736&p=y474378z&n=14743824
Leicester Mercury blocks messages after overload of negative McCann comments

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/14686
McCanns facing "hate campaign"

http://uk.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=viewChildDetail&caseNum=LEICS02&orgPrefix=UK02&seqNum=1&caseLang=en_GB&searchLang=en_GB
Madeleine's profile on UK Missing Kids

[Brefie]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2427017.ece

DNA in car is 100% match to Madeleine.

[Brefie]

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n121736


DNA NOT 100% Madeleine's. Jeez

[CaliKid]

Transcript of BBC video describing phone taps and e-mail confiscation between McCanns and others

http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/society/law_order/mccanns+phone+line+tapped/786152

[SewingDeb]

Madeleine McCann: the key questions

David Brown looks at the puzzles and mysteries at the heart of the four month investigation

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2422967.ece

[CaliKid]

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/news.cfm?newsid=18636398&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6
The Evening Bulletin (Philadelphia, USA) article on McCanns

[CaliKid]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=481124&in_page_id=1811
Madeleine: Hunt for body moves to church where McCanns prayed

[Texana]

The McCanns return to their homes, psychological impact.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=A2EMWVXUMNDEFQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQ UIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/10/wmaddy410.xml

[Texana]

More on the state of the investigation and the McCanns' return home:

Comment from the great-uncle/spokesman Brian Kennedy about how the twins slept:

http://www.eontarionow.com/international/2007/09/10/gerry-and-kate-mccann-may-be-charged-with-daughters-disappearance/

[colomom]

Good information on the various media we are getting our information from:


Jacobean put together a very good overview of the British media for us here:

http://websleuths.com/forums/showthr...t=52538&page=6

Post # 147

_______________________
To go along with this I just received this information from one of our Portuguese friends on another board:

Colomom - I'll try to assess the portuguese newspapers, but it'll always be my opinion only, ok?

The most reliable of all sources would be Lusa, the central newsagency for Portugal. But they are no newspaper; they are just the main source for the media in general.

Let's start with the more 'serious' side of the scale, which would be Expresso (a weekly) and Publico (daily). They have devoted very little of their editions to the Madeleine case, and usually it's very 'dry' stuff. Circumspect & reliable.

Sol is a respectful weekly, in fact an offspring of Expresso and its closest competitor. The coverage from Sol has been more intense, but you'll have to distinguish between 'investigative' reports from Felicia Cabrita and news articles, which will cover the stuff they get from Lusa. Controversial in a well founded way.

At the center of the scale, there are dailys Diario de Noticias, Jornal de Noticias and Correio da Manha. CM is the most sold daily newspaper in Portugal. It is usually a bit 'popular' in a sense that it does cater for the 'masses', but they have built a reputation, over recent years, of having good police sources. Diario de Noticias & Jornal de Noticias belong to the same group, and they are in fact very similar. JN is mainly read in the North area of Portugal, while DN is maily read by the South. They are not very different from Correio da Manha, although they pretend to look more 'serious'. These three are the most popular papers and it shows. Exciting, but not tabloid style.

Then at the other end there is 24Horas. The closest thing that Portugal has to a tabloid - but they are mere apprentices when compared to what I've seen in the Sun, for example. Don't believe everything they print, I would advise. Saucy and mostly exaggerated.
__________________

Special thanks to Jacobean and our friends at Proboards79!!! :clap:

[petra]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nmaddy112.xml

[petra]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

[petra]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6988485.stm

[petra]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/home

[Barnaby]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=ZYGHFWT4Y3DIZQFIQMGCFFOAVCBQ UIV0?xml=/news/2007/09/11/wmaddy1111.xml

[CaliKid]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/07/28/murat-altered-tale-in-quiz-by-madeleine-cops-89520-19534073/
Murat altered tale in quiz by Madeleine cops

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2005320001-2007340855,00.html
Murat changed alibi

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22149443-401,00.html
McCann parents face loss their own way

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1779638.ece
Courageous parents

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=18342149&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
Parents of kidnapped child to blame (American newspaper)

http://www.thebulletin.us/site/index.cfm?newsid=18371835&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=8
Britain defends McCann parents (American newspaper)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://cn.last.fm/music/Oliver%2BShanti&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=7&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Doliver%2Bshanti%2B%252B%2Bpaedophile% 26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG
Information on Oliver Shanti, German pedophile

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/07/31/cracker-team-join-hunt-for-madeleine-89520-19545687/
Cracker team join hunt for Maddie

http://www.nationalledger.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=15&num=15099
McCanns' friend's relationship with Murat questioned

[CaliKid]

http://www.anorak.co.uk/madeleine-mccann/175562.html
McCanns' friends targeted by hate campaign

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/15116
Specially trained police head to Portugal

http://briansdreams.com/dd/5441page3.htm
picture source

http://functionpix.com/index.php/article/Madeleine_McCann_Cracker_detectives_in_too_late_sa y_police/1543/
"Cracker" detectives in too late

http://www.polizei.bayern.de/content/7/0/1/3/schulz_eng.pdf
Arrest warrant for Ulrich Schultz aka Oliver Shanti, pedophile

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1278250,00.html
Gerry's illness delays Madeleine push

http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/68410281/Maddie_gespot_met_Nederlander.html
Brussels – Witnesses told belgium police that they saw a child resembling Madeleine McCann at the belgium-dutch border, accompanied by a dutch man and a supposedly british woman. A drawing of the suspect was released by belgium police.

According to the police in Torges, the suspicious individual had a “strange behaviour”, and it is informed that the person is approximately 40 years old, 1.80 m high, and had a beard grown for a few days. The supposedly british woman appeared to be 25 years old.

The same witnesses indicated that the suspicious couple was using a Volvo, of a recent model, with a belgium number plate that starts by the letters VUV.

Other witnesses also said that Madeleine McCann had been on the terrace of the café “De Pause”, in Torges. The belgium police released a drawing of the suspect on Wednesday.

(The Nederlander, roughly translated, says that a student was in a flower shop when a man and woman came in with a little blond girl with blue-green eyes. Although the man spoke Dutch, she was suspicious when she heard English being spoken by the woman with an English accent. When they took the girl to a cafe, she called the police. They came a half-hour later and took away the drink and straw the girl had used.)

[CaliKid]

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://sosmaddie.dhblogs.be/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsos%2Bmadeleine%26hl%3Den%26client%3D safari%26rls%3Den

Toscano: credibility definitively sullied

The credibility of Antonio Toscano, Spanish who is presented in the form of an journalist-investigator, has just taken a solid blow following the business of removal of a girl 15 years, Fernanda Fabiola Urzúa, in the island of Tenerife. In a telephone conversation with “S.O.S Madeleine”, the alleged investigator had denounced, once again, “El Francês” as being behind the removal of the Chilean young person.

Now, it is learned that Guardia Civil with decree Colombian a 28 year old, close to the victim, that would have acknowledged kidnapping, the rape and the assassination of Fernanda. A Rumanian citizen is actively required as joint author of the crime. The body of the victim to found summer and one awaits the results of the autopsy but the rape is regarded as obvious.

The file is covered by the secrecy of justice but it is known that the author with antecedents in crimes in sexual matter, perpetrated it there at five years on the territory of Tenerife. The arrest at possible summer thanks to the collaboration of the inhabitants of Santa Cruz of Tenerife which one transmitted to the police force details in connection with a whole blue ground which had been observed around the place from where the young person had been removed.

For recall, Antonio Toscano appeared in the business of Madeleine McCann affirming to know the man behind the kidnapping of small the British, called “El Francês” which we could join in Paris: the man in question with a past related to the paedophilia but it was in France on May 3. The Criminal Investigation Department, which with questioned Toscano twice, with always qualified its assertions like not being “not in connection with the removal of Madeleine and noncredible”.

Antonio Toscano did not want to comment on the recent evolution in the removal of Fernanda Urzúa, but a source of the Spanish police force affirms with “S.O.S Madeleine” that “it forever be question of following the assertions of this Mister”.

http://jornaldigital.com/noticias.php?noticia=14685
Madeleine sighting in Belgium
http://copy.pnn.pt/noticias_imagens/madmcann.jpg
Underneath the picture, the caption says: EMPHASIZE

Witnesses affirm will have seen Madeleine in the Belgian border Brussels – Witnesses designated to the Belgian police will have seen a similar infant to Madeleine McCann in the Belgian border accompanied of a Dutch man and of a supposedly British woman. A portrait-robot of the suspicion was diffused by the Belgian police.

It's hard to tell if he's an egghead from the front.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=472663&in_page_id=1811
'Police are investigating the sighting of girl who bore a "striking resemblance" to missing Madeleine McCann at a restaurant in Belgium. Officers stressed they were taking this latest lead "very seriously". A woman reported seeing a child she believed to be the missing four-year-old with a young couple on the cafe terrace in the town of Tongeren, near Maastricht, on Wednesday. It raises hope for her parents on the eve of the 100th day anniversary of her disappearance. Madeleine disappeared three months ago on Friday and her parents Kate and Gerry McCann had been preparing a fresh publicity wave to coincide with the milestone.

The eye-witness - a children's therapist - told police a child like the British girl was with an English-speaking woman and a Dutch man. The man was described as white, 5ft 10ins tall, aged about 40, with dark hair, large eyes and protruding teeth and several days' growth of stubble. The woman was described as aged around 25 with tanned skin and and brown hair and of Mediterranean appearance.

A police spokesman said: "The woman told us the little girl bore a striking resemblance to Madeleine McCann and was behaving nervously. She said she got up to call us as soon as she saw the girl, but when she returned to her table all three of them got into a car and left.

"The woman is a credible witness and we are taking the sighting very seriously."

Police released an identikit picture of the couple and a description of the four-door Volvo they were driving. The Volvo was a recent model with a Belgian number plate beginning with the letters VUV, police said.

[CaliKid]

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2831149.ece
Hunt for Madeleine moves to Belgium

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1278405,00.html?f=rss
Police probe new Maddie sighting

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51990&highlight=Ylenia
Websleuths thread on Ylenia Lenhard, missing Swiss girl

http://www.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.20min.ch%2Fday%2Fstor y%2F28425243&langpair=de%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF8
Main Ylenia suspect traced to Spain

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_11837.shtml
Police check links between missing Swiss girl and Madeleine

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_11837.shtml
website devoted to saving the SOL reports

[CaliKid]

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_11837.shtml
in Sol on August 4, 2007:

a report by Felicia Cabrita with Margarida Davim
translation by astro


Looking for Maddie’s body

The investigations have returned to their initial course. Portuguese and british police search for the body of the child in the surroundings of Praia da Luz

“There are strong signs” that Madeleine, the english child that disappeared from Praia da Luz almost one hundred days ago, “is dead”, police sources have told Sol.

The 180º turnaround that the investigation by the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) from Portimao seems to have done in the past few days, even led the Attorney General, Pinto Monteiro, to postpone the making of an interview that had been requested by british media chain BBC – an interview that would be focusing on the fact that, so long after Maddie’s disapperance, the authorities still remain without real clues concerning her whereabouts.

Although an official source from the PGR justified the postponing of the interview with “agenda issues”, the moves by the PJ and some elements from the british police during these last days – accompanied by two dogs, in Praia da Luz – seem to indicate that the investigation is now centered on the McCann family and their group of friends.

Sol could find out that the english dogs are trained for different tasks. One, to detect human remains originating from dead flesh, and the other one to detect human blood or fluids. A specialist that was contacted by Sol explains that the technique of these animals rests on scientific bases, and that while “one of the dogs can distinguish between natural death or death by accident that does not involve bloodshed, the other one can diagnose whether someone died a violent death, with bloodshed or other spilled fluids”.

Tuesday night, a black and white cocker spaniel that is trained to detect death, spent several hours in the apartment that the McCann family occupied in the Ocean Club resort, and from where Maddie disappeared on May 3. According to sources within the investigation, the dog marked the death of the child inside the apartment.

On the dogs’ trail

The english dogs do not contradict the clues that were detected by the sniffer dog that GNR sent to the location, on the day following the english girl’s disappearance. It’s an animal that only follows odours, and that “detected the movement of the child from the room to another point inside the apartment”, according to a source with the Guarda.

The same source said that “based on that signal, it was not possible to conclude whether the child was alive or dead – because a sniffer dog will smell both the living and the dead”.

Yet, outside the house, both through the windows that faced the Tapas restaurant – where the McCanns had dinner with their seven friends – and through the main door, “the dog lost the trail, as if the child had exited, for example, rolled up in a blanket”, that source said.

A team from Sol, on the terrain for the last two weeks, could observe the work of the cocker spaniel from the british police, performing several diligences along the water in Praia da Luz and in a nearby valley.

The animal’s path, on Wednesday night, seemed to test the deposition from several witnesses that were heard by the PJ in late May – namely an irish family that have been living in Luz, and who, on the day that Maddie vanished, reportedly crossed ways with a man that carried a child that seemed to be asleep.

According to their deposition to PJ, Martin Smith, his wife and his children, after leaving the Kelly bar, which is located approximately 400 metres from the Ocean Club, around 9.50 / 10.00 p.m., saw an individual described as caucasian, measuring 1.70 – 1.75 m, walking towards the beach.

The irish man told Sol that he knew Robert Murat (the only arguido in the process) visually for years – and also remembered seeing the anglo-portuguese man in a bar that evening, “already a bit intoxicated”. Therefore, the irish dismissed the possibility that the person he saw carrying a child could be Murat: “If it was him, I guarantee to you that I would have recognized him”.

Concerning the clothes the man he saw on that night was wearing, Smith only refers the “beige trousers”, given the fact that his upper body was hidden by the child’s body, which was not covered. It is curious that one of the elements that formed the group of Maddie’s parents’ friends, guaranteed to PJ several days before Smith was heard, that - at a moment when she left the table to check on the group’s children - she had crossed ways with a man that was wearing trousers that fit the description that was also made by the irish man.

That individual was also carrying a sleeping child. And the witness, who even managed to see what pyjamas the child was wearing, just “thought it was strange that the child was barefoot and uncovered”. This witness said it would be 9.15 p.m.

Direct access to the PM

According to the course the PJ from Portimao is now conducting the investigation, and considering the trail that the british police’s cocker spaniel tracked along the sea shore, the individual would have descended to Praia da Luz, where he could have disposed of Maddie’s body. Sol knows that the english team contacted Joao Alveirinho Dias, a professor at the University of Algarve and a specialist in oceanography, in order to collect information about the sea’s dynamics and the beach area where everything may have happened. The investigator, who was not briefed about the context of the police inquiries, told Sol that he was consulted on “the sand movements, where they come from and where they go to”.

The police investigation has therefore, and according to our sources, returned to its initial course, and it becomes increasingly clear, as Sol had reported previously, that there is no proof against Murat.

Yet, the british media continue to point a finger at the anglo-portuguese man, although the criminal investigation has returned to clues that relate to the group of friends of Madeleine’s parents.

A journalist with the Daily Express – who has repeatedly contacted Sol searching for new information on this case – recognized this week that it is “difficult for an english newspaper to adopt a critical tone concerning Madeleine’s parents”.

The Daily Express cited, in one of its last reports, the news that have been published by Sol, describing them as a “hate campaign” against the McCanns. The same journalist ended up confessing that “it’s the only way we can transmit your data”.

Sol knows that Gerry McCann has regular contact with Gordon Brown, the british Prime Minister. Clarence Mitchell – who was the first spokesman for the McCanns and is now in the press cabinet at Nr. 10, Downing Street – confirms those contacts. “I know there is a communication line between Gerry and Gordon Brown. I know they talk. But I don’t know what they talk about, because those are informal conversations”, he clarified, further adding: “The Madeleine case is treated whenever there are bilateral meetings between Portugal and the United Kingdom. Gordon Brown is sensitive to the case and wants it solved quickly”.

[CaliKid]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1278599,00.html?f=rss
Police Search Suspect's Home

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,2141412,00.html
Restaurant DNA test in hunt for Madeleine

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/08/04/dna-test-on-maddy-milkshake-89520-19569059/
DNA test on Maddie milkshake

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6931159.stm
New searches

http://gazetadigitalmadeleinecase.blogspot.com/2007/08/murat-didnt-travelled-alone-in-his.html
Murat not alone upon return to Portugal

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2199226.ece
"Madeleine, I'm so sorry..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2188493.ece
Memories of a lost daughter

http://airprocommunity.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=58583&sid=2dc3a27baa66ecdcbc582e9344c64ced
Russell O'Brien looking for new job?

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/15644/Madeleine:-Police-dig-for-body
MADELEINE: POLICE DIG FOR BODY

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6930000/newsid_6931700/6931785.stm?bw=bb&mp=rm&asb=1&news=1
Video- Portuguese police resume search suspect's home

[CaliKid]

http://www.geocities.com/hallsofmirrors/SOL.html


SOL, SATURDAY 4 AUGUST

By Felicia Cabrita
The PJ have not found the slightest traces of Madeleine McCann in the gardens of Robert Murat’s house.

According to Sol’s inquiries, the search will continue tomorrow morning, very early, but this time will run through the interior of the home wher Murat lives with his mother.

The PJ - who are conducting the search together with a team of English police, accompanied by tow dogs that have also come from England - spent the whole of Saturday going through the gardens and tomorrow will revisit the interior of the house, including searching for hidden places and double walls.

As Sol indicated in yesterday’s (Saturday) edition, since the middle of this week the Portuguese and Englisg police have been conducting searches with dogs in the Ocean Club apartment where the McCann family spent their holidays, and in the immediate vicinity of the apartment, located in Prai Da Luz.

According to police sources “there are strong indications” that Maddie, who disappeared almost 100 days ago “is already dead”.

Sol’s inquiries indicate that in the search of the McCann’s apartment the English dogs ‘indicated’ Maddie’s death [had occurred there].

These are dogs that are trained specifically for two types of tasks: one to detect human traces that originate from a dead body and the other to detect blood or other human fluid.

Despite this, the police have to conduct inquiries to rule out all hypotheses that have been raised in the case and it is in this context that the searches of the Murat home are being conducted.

One of the bits of information that reached the investrigators is that Murat’s mother frequently conducts work in her garden, and is a specialist in rapid landscape gardening.

To date, nevertheless, it is increasingl clear that that no evidence exists against Murat and his mother. And, according to our sources, the police investigation has returned to its initial focus - on those close to the McCanns.

[CaliKid]

http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=252822&idselect=9&idCanal=9&p=200

This is the latest from a local Portuguese newspaper, the Correio da Manhã. It's in Portuguese and appears to be slightly slanted against the McCanns. I think this is the correct translation:

Traces:English dogs find trail
Madeleine possibly killed in the apartment

Justice centers its inquiries into the McCanns’ close circle of friends attempts to eliminate clues pointing at Robert Murat. The likelihood of an abduction appears to be remote after English dogs detected a trail that points to the existence of a corpse in the resort apartment.

Aug. 5, 2007

The Policia Judiciaria (PJ) believes that Madeleine may have been killed in the Algarve apartment while on vacation with her parents and siblings in May. On Wednesday, specially trained dogs from the English police, including a cocker spaniel brought in to track the scent of the missing child, detected traces that point to the presence of a corpse on those premises.

Yesterday, after searches of the beach, where the body is suspected to have been thrown into the water, authorities centered their attentions on the home of Robert Murat, the only suspect of the case.

The same dogs sniffed the entire garden of Casa Liliana again – which was cleaned and cleared of shrubbery by the Civil Protection workers – but they found nothing. They left the area around 8 p.m., having detected no residues of the girl’s presence.

The lead that is now being followed by authorities, which was revealed by ‘Sol’ yesterday and confirmed by CM, complements another piece of data that misled the PJ’s elements at the beginning of the investigation. A sniffer dog used by GNR tracked the child between the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping and another apartment within the same resort, which led elements from PJ to never dismiss the possibility that the girl was taken by someone who knew her.

The clue that was now detected in the McCanns’ apartment refocuses the investigation on the close circle to the girl’s parents and friends, although it sheds no light on the reasons that led to the child’s death. PJ is being especially careful in this phase, and the names of the main suspects are omitted.

MURAT COULD BE INNOCENT

The searches that were done yesterday at Robert Murat’s house may have contributed to render the suspect innocent. Nothing relevant was found at the house of the english translator, who was constituted an arguido at the beginning of the process. This is a possibility that meets the certainty of lawyer Francisco Pagarete, who reaffirmed his client’s innocence to CM yesterday. “We only let GNR stay on the premises so we can avoid the house to be devastated”, he assured, admitting that the diligence continues today and that the purpose of the militaries’ presence is to ensure that no clues are destroyed during the night.

CM could further discover that the investigation met a turnaround over the last few weeks. The arrival of the english dogs and their presence in the holiday apartment has the purpose to confirm that possibility, given the fact that suspicions are now centered on the McCanns’ close circle, the only persons who can explain the alleged death of the child, while still at home.

The kidnapping theory, according to a source with PJ that was contacted by CM, is being increasingly dismissed, as it would only fit a scenario where the child would have been alive. Yesterday’s searches, which were duly ordered by a court, started around 7.30 a.m.

CORPSE IN THE APARTMENT FOR OVER 2 HOURS

The body only smells like a corpse at least two hours after dead, “until that point it remains warm and transmits a living person’s smell to the dog”, subcomissaire Paulo Brissos, a former second commander of the PSP’s sniffer dog operation team, has guaranteed to CM.

This means that for the english authorities’ cocker spaniel to have marked the death of Madeleine within the apartment where she slept, at the ‘Ocean Club’, the girl had to be dead inside the apartment for “between 2 and 4 hours”.

Paulo Brissos, who was also a military dog trainer at the Air Force, explains that “Portugal does not have dogs that are capable to search for dead people because the chemical susbtance that is used for training, and which simulates a dead body’s odor, is very expensive”.

For example, in the tragdy of the bridge that collapsed at Entre-os-Rios, “we had foreign dogs brought in to search the corpses, not because they were of a different race, but because they were trained to do that”. And they work exclusively on the detection of decomposing bodies, while “in our country, dogs are trained to search, detect and rescue the living”.

“The difference does not reside in the races, and PSP also uses a cocker spaniel, but for drug searches”. And they do this in spite of the fact that labradors have better characteristics. The difference is a chemical product that is only affordable to foreign authorities.

SEARCHES CONTINUE TODAY

The PJ’s searches at Robert Murat’s house will continue all day today. Yet, because they have to finish after sunset, the investigators left the residence around 8 p.m., and will return in the early morning. During all day, the cleaning work at Casa Liliana’s surroundings was intensive. The gardeners from Civil Protection clered the entire surrounding area that was practically abandoned, which made the searches more difficult. Apart from cleaning the trees, some trails were made for the dogs to smell clues more easily, but that apparently did not happen.

THEORIES

Voluntary Exit

The first possibility the PJ considered was that the child could have left the apartment voluntarily, given the fact that the doors and one of the windows were open. The searches that were done after the disappearance eliminated that possibility.

Kidnapping For Sale

Another theory that was admitted by the investigators was that Madeleine might have been taken into a network for illegal adoption. Yet, the fact that there were 2 other children in the house (the twin siblings, who would have been a preferential target due to the fact that they were younger) always led PJ to consider it less probable.

Sexual Abuse

The possibility that Maddie was taken to satisfy the impulses of pedophiles was a strong possibility for a long time. This was the scenario that integrated the suspicions on Robert Murat and also the inquiry that the Russian, Sergei Malinka, was subject to.

[CaliKid]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=473408&in_page_id=1811&ito=newsnow
Madeleine parents' secret emails 'intercepted by police'

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1278615,00.html?f=rss
Police end search of Murat villa

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6931725.stm
Search finished

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2007/08/06/second-madeleine-suspect-on-24hr-watch-89520-19576499/
2nd Madeleine suspect under 24-hour watch

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6932584.stm
Weekend searches draw blank

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=284465
Swiss pedophile my be linked to missing Maddie

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2214913.ece
Madeleine's parents reinterviewed

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1616593&postcount=53
Lusa news article on DNA

[CaliKid]

http://jn.sapo.pt/2007/08/06/p....._cann.html

Jornal de Noticias Aug. 6

Blood in the McCanns’ bedroom

Madeline McCann can have died for accident in the room of the Ocean Club, in the Algarve, where she was installed with the parents, she advances the Periodical of Notice in its edition of today[/b]

Traces of blood from a dead person, presumably from little Madeleine, have been discovered on a wall in the bedroom that was occupied by the McCann couple, in the apartment at the ‘Ocean Club’, in Lagos, from where the girl vanished on May 3. This fact locates the child’s death inside the apartment, but the investigators do not take it as certain that this was a homicide, although according to the clues that were collected by forensics experts, somebody tried to clean up these traces. On the contrary, JN knows that the explanation that is seen as more likely at the moment to explain Maddie’s death – practically given as certain – is that this was an accident.

New elements of proof were apparently discovered early last week, through the use of dogs that are specially trained to detect the biological residues of dead persons, independently of the time that has passed after they were left. Investigators are convinced that the blood belongs to Madeleine, but they wait for more detailed analysis in order to confirm their suspicions.

The day before yesterday and in the early morning yesterday, the McCanns’ apartment was still being subject to intense technical examinations by the PJ’s technical staff, namely using ultra-violet light sources. JN could witness that numerous pictures were also taken.

New interrogations

The discovery has led to an entirely new perspective on this case and may focus the investigation on the child’s family circle and the McCanns’ close friends. The possibility of new interrogations on these persons has not been dismissed.

Almost 100 days after the english girl disappeared, while her parents were dining in a restaurant that is located approximately 50 metres from the apartment, the case investigation seems to be coming close to its final. It is now clear to the Policia Judiciaria that the child’s death happened inside the bedroom. But there is still a lot of doubt concerning the body’s destiny.

Intense searches made during the last days in the garden of Robert Murat’s house, were an attempt at clearing this aspect, but apparently without any results. Yet, JN knows that the searches will intensify over the next days, in various locations. Many of these, that were already inspected before, will be analysed again by the dog that was brought in from England.

Joana case

But the discovery of the body may not be determinant in order to close this case. We just have to remember the case of Joana, the 8-year old girl that disappeared from the village of Figueira, in Portimao, in September 2004. Her body was never found, but her mother, Leonor Cipriano, and her brother were condemned to prison for 20 years and 4 months, and 19 years and 2 months, respectively.

Contamination eliminated

JN also knows that one of the main concerns of the investigators was to eliminate any doubts about a possible contamination of evidence, which has been done succesfully.

Since the day Madeleine disappeared, dozens of people went through the McCanns’ apartment, including police, family, friends, hotel staff and even dogs.

In the investgation’s initial phase, over 300 biological residues were collected by elements fron the Judiciaria’s Scientific Police, and then analysed at the Instituto de Medicina Legal.

Even after the inspectors’ work in the apartment was considered finished, there were other people inside. Since June 11, the apartment was rented to other couples on holidays by the ‘Ocean Club’.

JN knows that any possibility of clue contamination was definitely dismissed.

Dogs distinguish residues of dead people

They are trained to detect biological residues and they are able to tell whether these belong to a living or a dead person. The dogs that were brought to Praia da Luz by english police can trace corpses, or even a skeleton. The resies’ age is not a problem either. Therefore, their capacity is extremely important. “These dogs were trained just for this function”, a source with GNR said, adding that this mission “is not specific for one dog race”, but “is all about the training that is given”. In Portugal, there are no dogs trained for this type of action, but according to our source, “that is a future goal”. The sniffer dogs that are used by GNR and PSP are trained to detect people’s odors. “The person may be alive, and that makes it easier for the dog. If the person is dead, the animal can only detect her smell if the death is recent”, the same source explained. In the searches that were done in the garden of Robert Murat’s house over the last two days, english police used a border collie race sniffer dog. In order to evaluate if the soil was hiding anything, holes of half a metre were made, using steel cables, but the animals detected nothing.

Robert Murat is confident and continues to plead his innocence

Francisco Pagarete, Robert’s lawyer, did not offer any comments on the processual diligences that were done in the garden of Casa Liliana. He assured that they “counted on the collaboration from Robert Murat and his mother”. Not speaking many words, the lawyer also pointed out that the arguido was “cooperative” and by the end of the actions he was “confident and satisfied”. Now, according to Francisco Pagarete, Murat awaits the result of the diligences “in order to quickly prove his innocence”. The diligences may determine the change of the coaction measure that was applied to Robert Murat. The police is still trying to discover whether or not there is a connection between the anglo-portuguese man and the McCanns or their friends.

[ceeaura]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...283685,00.html (http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283685,00.html)
Police Bid To Seize Kate McCann's Diary

Updated: 14:23, Wednesday September 12, 2007
<H2>Prosecutors in the Madeleine McCann investigation have made an emergency application to seize her mother's private diary, say Sky News sources.The judge in the case, Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias, has less than 24 hours to decide whether to grant the order.
Police sources believe Kate McCann's diary may hold clues to her daughter's disappearance.
The McCanns' spokesman David Hughes refused to comment on the development as he left the family house in Rothley, Leicestershire.
He faced the media circus waiting outside the couple's £600,000 four-bedroom home shortly after the family returned from a trip to a nearby park
When asked how the McCanns were, he replied: "They had a nice day out for a while. They seem fine."
He confirmed that the couple would return to Portugal if called in by police.
Earlier, it was reported the police wanted to confiscate Madeleine's toys, including her favourite Cuddle Cat.
Mr McCann's sister, Philomena McCann, said the possibility that police might seize the toy was a "disgrace".
"It would be extremely distressing for Kate because she has seen it as a symbol of her daughter since she went missing," she added.
She went on: "Why on earth do they ask for the toys now? Why didn't they think of this before?"
The judge is also sifting through a 4,000-page police dossier as Madeleine's parents face an agonising wait to learn if they will be charged over her disappearance.
He has 10 days to consider the contents - said to be stored in 10 lever arch files.
But a friend of the McCanns, who was quoting legal sources, believes it could take the judge weeks to go through the papers.
"Our understanding is there's no filtering process whatsoever - everything is in there," he said. "The judge has had the kitchen sink thrown at him."
It is not known if prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses is recommending charging Kate and Gerry McCann over their daughter's disappearance.
Lawyers in Portugal say it is more likely he wants to carry out fresh searches, conduct more interviews, or impose stricter bail conditions.
Officers are planning new searches in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing, including digging around the village church of Nossa Senhora da Luz, according to Portuguese newspapers.
Police spokesman Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa refused to confirm or deny the reports.
It is known Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39-year-old doctors, were given a key to the church so they could go and pray for their daughter any time they wanted.
There is no sign yet of any searches being carried out at the church, which still has yellow and green Madeleine ribbons on the pews and altar.
Sky News Online's Kate Sullivan, who flew back from Portugal with the McCanns, said: "It's a small, well-tended church just up from the beach.
"But around the back there's a fenced-off building site area. The ground's been dug up and workmen are laying foundations."
Mr and Mrs McCann were declared "arguidos", or formal suspects, in the case during police questioning in Portimao last Friday.
They flew out of the country to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, two days later.

[SewingDeb]

'GERRY MAY NOT BE THE FATHER'

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/18977/-Gerry-may-not-be-the-father-

[chicoliving]

British police are reportedly preparing to seize items belonging to Kate and Gerry McCann, Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt has learned.

Brunt said the Portuguese judge considering evidence in the case of their missing daughter Madeleine had signed a warrant giving British detectives the right to take a number of items from the couple.

These included Mr McCann's laptop computer and various correspondence, he added, saying that Leicestershire Police officers were likely to attempt to seize the items tomorrow.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283685,00.html

[kiltubrid]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article2948182.ece

Belfast Telegraph, Sept 10, 2007: "Madeleine McCann: The Vanishing, the Mystery and the Accusations." -- (Excellent overview of the case to date.)

What really happened on the night Madeleine McCann disappeared? And during the days that followed?

Monday, September 10, 2007

David Randall separates the facts from the theories

The investigation has been beset by conflicting detail since the outset, in large part because of Portuguese law preventing the police and witnesses discussing details of the case.

Into the vacuum has come speculation. One suggestion yesterday was that there had been deliberate leaks to the Portuguese press in an attempt to force a reaction from the McCanns, with investigating detectives aware that, in the vast majority of cases like this, the parents are involved.

The day of 3 May
It was the day before the family – Gerry, Kate, Madeleine, three, and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie – were due to return to Rothley in Leicestershire. Kate McCann said later that Madeleine called it "her best day ever". There are conflicting reports over the last confirmed sighting of Madeleine outside. One report yesterday suggested it was as early as 2.30pm. Another report said that no one has emerged publicly to say that they saw her after 6pm. Yet another said police were focusing on the time after 8pm. There are also conflicting reports over what the couple did. One report said they spent several hours together resting in the apartment. Another that Gerry McCann went to play tennis at 6.30pm.


Bedtime
Every night, say the McCanns, they would put the children down at 7pm-7.30pm, and at an unknown time leave them sleeping in the apartment. At 8.30pm on 3 May, they arrived for a meal at a nearby tapas bar with their friends. They chose not to use the resort's crèche or a babysitter. The apartment's French windows are believed to have been unlocked. There have been unsubstantiated suggestions that the McCanns sedated Madeleine, who was sometimes difficult at bedtime, and allegations that a syringe was found in the apartment. The family deny that. They say there was a dropper, used to give medicine to kids, and agree they sometimes gave the mild infant painkiller Calpol to the children. Reports, never denied, that the McCanns' younger children did not wake in all the commotion after the raising of the alarm has fed suspicions that they might have been sedated. One piece of circumstantial evidence is the claim of a barman in Lagos, five miles away, that he saw the McCanns in the town one night without their children. The McCanns deny this.


The tapas bar
This is about 70 yards from the apartment, further than the 40 yards claimed by the McCanns' relatives in the early days of the disappearance. The apartment's French windows may have been visible from the tapas bar, a crying child in the flat would have been out of earshot. The McCanns arrived at the bar at 8.30pm, earlier according to some reports, and there were seven others in their party: Russell O'Brien and his wife, Jane Tanner, who have two young children; Matthew Oldfield, a doctor, and his wife, Rachael; Dr Fiona Payne and her husband, David, a senior research fellow at University of Leicester; and Mrs Payne's mother, Dianne Webster. One report in Portugal suggested the group got through 14 bottles of wine. The party says it was no more than three shared by nine adults.


Checks on the children
Gerry McCann was the first parent to check on the children, at 9pm. Matthew Oldfield listened outside at about 9.30pm. Jane Tanner, late leaving her apartment for dinner because one of her children was ill, said she saw a man carrying a child in his arms in the vicinity of the McCann apartment at 9.15pm, but thought nothing of it at the time. Gerry McCann returned to the restaurant at 9.25pm, having stopped to talk to an acquaintance, who confirmed this. A woman in a nearby apartment said that she had heard Madeleine crying for her parents for long periods, but she was unable to say on which nights. The next person to check the children was Kate McCann, at 10pm. She found Madeleine missing and ran back to the tapas bar, screaming, according to Gerry McCann's sister Trish Cameron, "They've taken her! They've taken her!" The odd use of the plural pronoun, if accurately reported, has raised eyebrows, and has not been explained away. Police also want to know why she assumed Madeleine had been abducted rather than wandered off.


The crime scene
The McCanns believed the ground-floor apartment had been broken into. There were suggestions that a shutter on a window had been forced. The Mark Warner holiday group said there was no sign of a forced break-in. Madeleine was reportedly holding her favourite soft toy, her "cuddle cat", when she was sleeping. But it was found on a ledge beyond her reach, suggesting she had been abducted by an adult.


Raising the alarm
The McCanns said that the alarm was raised with the resort manager within 10 minutes. But a spokesman at Guarda Nacional Republicana headquarters said the first call to police was patched through to the GNR precinct at Lagos at 10.50pm. Two GNR officers went to the Ocean club and called CID HQ in Portimao just after 11pm. They assembled a team that was on the scene by 11.50pm. Another report said yesterday that a neighbour offered to call the police but Kate insisted she had already rung – then waited 40 minutes before making the first call. The McCanns reject this.


The first suspect
In a story that has consisted of unknowns and speculation, it is appropriate that it was a British tabloid reporter was first to draw the attention of police to Robert Murat, an expatriate Briton living 100 yards from the McCanns' apartment, in his mother's home. He had been involved in the search, had helped several reporters, and acted as a police interpreter. He was taken for questioning on 14 May, and on the following day was made an official suspect or arguido, as the somewhat contorted Portuguese legal procedures call it. Weeks of speculation, the digging up of his mother's garden, and more questioning followed before police lost interest in him.


The investigation
The lack of a swift and comprehensive search, and immediate sealing-off of the area, plus the failure to secure the scene, has been a problem. What in any jurisdiction would be a very difficult case was clouded by the inexperience of the Portuguese police, especially when local laws and customs of releasing little or no information were confronted by the 24-hour appetite of the rolling news industry. The tsunami of publicity, may have created some of the many red-herring sightings of Madeleine that have bedevilled the hunt. And, until the past few days, police have had virtually no concrete evidence to go on. What changed that was the belated forensics.


The forensics
Portuguese sniffer dogs had failed to find anything of significance, as far as we know, but British dogs – one a specialist in detecting traces of blood and body fluids, the other in detecting the scent of dead bodies – found material in a car that the McCanns rented. Samples were then sent to the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham, where, over several weeks, they were analysed. Traces of Madeleine's blood or body fluid – it is not known which – were found in the car being used by the McCanns, say their family. Unconfirmed reports say traces were found in the boot and on the key fob. What created an immediate sensation was that the the Renault Scenic was rented by the McCanns 25 days after their daughter disappeared.


The Renault Scenic
The McCanns did not have a car in Portugal before they rented this one. The police want to know why it was rented at that time, especially since it was the day before the couple left to go and see the Pope. They did not use it to go to the airport, but were driven there by an aide. The McCanns say they needed it to ferry friends and family about. They said they had ordered the car some time before and the day before the Rome trip was simply when it could be supplied. This car was – astonishingly – still being used by the McCanns last week.


The theories
* If the traces of Madeleine's body fluid or blood found in the car are proved to have come from direct contact with her body, then either she – dead or alive – must have been in that car, or something that was in direct contact with her body has been in that car.
* If the traces could have been left by indirect, or historic contact with Madeleine, then a more prosaic explanation will suffice.
* If the McCanns are telling the truth, then their daughter must either have left the apartment on her own between 9.05pm and 10pm or been taken by one or more abductors between these hours.
* If the McCanns have lied about the early evening, ghastly possibilities open up, including – at the extreme – the involvement of one or both of the parents in Madeleine's disappearance, and possible death. If that were the case, they would have to have been capable – throughout their appeals and the months-long search for their daughter – of a level of callous chutzpah unequalled in the history of crime.


Media onslaught
The news that Kate and Gerry McCann are suspects in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine is a bittersweet moment for the Portuguese newspapers that have spent several weeks reporting a series of allegations against the couple.


Yesterday's 'Diario de Noticias' revealed that Kate McCann will not be allowed to leave Portugal until the investigation is complete, and that a relative has admitted that Madeleine may have been given medicine on the night she vanished.


Kate and Gerry McCann have endured increasingly hostile treatment by the Portuguese media in recent weeks, amid lurid allegations against them and their friends. These have ranged from claims about their "swinging" sex life, to alleged heavy drinking – and their choice of holiday companions.
Barely a week ago it emerged that the McCanns are launching a libel action against a Portuguese newspaper over reports stating police believed they had killed their daughter.

[kiltubrid]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/12/nosplit/nmaddy912.xml

The Telegraph Sept 13, 2007 -- "Police Seek McCanns' Laptop to Read Emails"
(Very detailed account)

[CaliKid]

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/05/14/madeleine-kidnap-070