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http://www.24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2922&link=13

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It was between the week of July 31 and August 6th, when the investigations related to Madeleine McCann’s disappearance began to indicate that something was about to happen. The arrival of Eddie and Keela, dogs specialized in detecting cadaver odour and blood, together with the police surveillance of the friends with whom Maddie’s parents dined in the Tapas Bar, confirmed a turnabout in the work of the police and the thesis of abduction was abandoned.

On the 31st of July, 2007, the first page of our journal did not make any illusions about the case, but in the beginning of August information surfaced that suggested a complete turnabout in the investigation. On the 1st of August, a British Team specialising in crimes against children reached the Algarve to help the PJ investigators. At that point, the team wanted to establish the profile of an abductor, but the information that was available was tenuous and a conclusion was never reached. On that same day, Gerry McCann uttered a phrase, published in our journal, “The vital piece of information may only be a phone-call away!” It was never clear to the authorities what this piece of information was supposed to be and what number should be called in the event [the information needed to be transmitted].

Tanner is Sorry

The woman who claims to have seen Maddie’s abduction is full of remorse for not having stopped the crime. In accordance with the files being made public on the 20th, it is true that, as 24Horas pointed out, the searches carried out in the home in which Murat lived, which involved an excavation machine, and later the English dogs, did not result in any proof that tied him to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Also proven in the files is that he did not know the McCanns or their friends before this case.

From a reading of legal documents, to which 24Horas has access, it is evident that Jane Tanner was never in the street where she claimed to have seen Maddie’s alleged abductor. Employees of the Tapas Bar stated that she did not leave the restaurant between 19h30 and 22h30--when the disappearance occurred--and Gerry, nor his friend, who were on this same street, remember having seen the Briton [Jane] and much less the abductor. It was some two months after the disappearance when Tanner remembered to tell the authorities what the abductor was wearing and also helped in creating the photo-fit.

The person that came again to be implicated was Robert Murat, until that time, the only arguido in the process. The British press told that he already know Jane Tanner and her companion Russell O’Brien before the disappearance of the child—a fact that was outright denied by 24Horas. The coverage of the case, by our journal centered on the 3rd and 4th of August, in a lead from Belgium. A woman, a children’s therapist, claimed to have seen Maddie in a café called “De Panzel” accompanied by a couple. With information given to them, the Belgian police issued a photo-fit together with a national alert. However, this time, [the photo-fit] was opposite to the photo made with the help of Jane Tanner, and had a face. Also found was a milk-shake bottle that was supposedly consumed by the little girl in that café. The authorities hoped that test carried out on that bottle matched Madeleine’s DNA. But the exams were not a match.

On the 5th of August, things started to get complicated for the McCanns. In accordance with e notice put out by 24Horas, on the evening of, authorities had begun searching with the British dogs. The investigations began in Murat’s house, at the point, the only arguido. Nothing incriminating was found.

But on the 6th of August the floodgates opened. Searches made in the Ocean Club apartment complex rented by the McCanns, the dogs detected cadaver odour and blood smells. Our headline that morning read “British dogs detect death in Maddie’s room.” Later came the detection of blood and cadaver odour in the McCann rental car. Refer to the fact that, according to the British specialists, the dogs can only lead to clues regarding dead human brings. The McCanns opted, at the time, for silence.

Judiciária “attentive” towards new evidence in the Maddie case

Mysterious photos interest the PJ

Police investigates the possible existence of new photos from the night that Madeleine McCann disappeared

The Judiciária is analyzing the case of the supposed existence of photographs that were taken by a tourist inside the Tapas Bar restaurant on the day that Madeleine disappeared, a source at the PJ stated to 24Horas.

“Despite the archiving of the judicial process, we remain attentive to any fact or any piece of evidence that allows for us to clarify the circumstances under which the child disappeared”, the same source referred. If the facts justify it, the process may even be reopened.

Yesterday, 24Horas published statements from French journalist and blogger Duarte Lévy, in which he says that he saw some of the 24 photos that a tourist says he took inside the Tapas Bar between 8.10 and 10.15 p.m. on the 3rd of May.

At that time, the McCann couple dined with the group of seven British tourists that accompanied them in their Algarvian holidays, until the moment, at around 10 p.m., when Kate got up from the table. She would return shortly afterwards, saying that Maddie had disappeared.

Easily identifiable

According to Duarte Levy, the images “are not coincidental” with the report that was made by the English to the PJ, about what happened that evening.

According to the journalist, the photographs were taken by a tourist who was having dinner at the Tapas Bar, in the company of his wife and another couple.

Based on this description, the PJ should not have any difficulties in reaching the owner of the photos, given that at a certain point in the process the reservation list of the restaurant was apprehended.

24Horas has been able to establish that on the 3rd of May, apart from the McCann group – that had booked a table for 8.30 p.m. and where 9 persons were seated – there were only three other tables that were occupied by four persons, identified by their surnames: Edmonds, Buller and Patell. All of them were already inside the Tapas Bar when Kate and Gerry McCann arrived there, only a few minutes after the scheduled hour.

source: 24Horas (http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2923&link=12), August 20, 2008

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Thanks to Leo for posting this on Proboards.....

The following information is summarized by Summer (no pun intended) from 'The Truth Of The Lie' by Gonçalo Amaral

WITH KIND REQUEST TO BUY THE BOOK IF/WHEN IT COMES OUT IN ENGLISH (me too - colomom)

Chapter 11 - Analysing a crime scene. Apartment 5A

- routine meetings between the investigators include the presence and the participation of English colleagues from Leicestershire, as well as José Freitas, a senior official from Scotland Yard, who is a British citizen, a descendant of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira

- this particular meeting is dedicated to analyse the photographic report that was made inside apartment 5A on the evening of the facts

- the first thing that jumps out is the ‘tidiness’ of the bedroom where Madeleine and her twin siblings were supposedly asleep. no signs of an abductor in the access to the bedroom window



- windowsill is 91 cms above the floor, a bed is placed against the wall, with signs of someone who slept in it. a wicker chair stands against the far wall. no markings of shoes on the chair, or on the bed

- conclusion: the window was not used for anything, or there were 2 abductors, one on the inside and one on the outside

- bedroom window is protected by a shutter on the outside. on the inside, an opaque curtain that reaches until the top of the windowsill, and two side curtains, that reach until the floor, with embraces. all the curtains are pulled towards the window centre, not covering it entirely



- the embrace on the right hand side lies on the floor, between the bed’s feet and the wicker chair, which is pushed against the curtain on the right. the embrace on the left side is hanging from the wall bracket, the left curtain is ruffled, making it look like someone pulled it close in a hurry

- none of the curtain’s embraces is in its normal position, suspended on the wall



- Kate says that when M was noticed missing, the curtains were completely closed, i.e. they would have been closed by the parents and the eventual abductor would have positioned them in that manner, in order to facilitate his passage through the window

- the embraces could only have landed in the position in which they were found, when the curtains were pulled shut. other possibility: the curtains were open and were taken out of that position after the disappearance. an abductor would not have wasted time with that; this action is more coincident with an intentional change of a crime scene

- other indicia pointing towards the change of the crime scene would surface



- the bed sheets and the position of the soft toy raised suspicions. bed looks like nobody slept there, soft toy is position symmetrically to the pillow, pink blanket is almost folded. father confirmed that the blanket and the soft toy were in that position when he went to check his daughter

- the two cots stand in the middle of the bedroom, making the movements of an adult rather difficult



- no bed sheets in the cots, only the mattresses; twins were taken out with sheets and everything, only woke up when they were taken into another apartment

- analysis of photographs of the living room: the sofa beneath one of the side windows is not in position, and the curtains of the window are pulled shut but rolled up and distorted



- the father would end up giving an explanation for the sofa’s position. the sofa was normally not pushed against the wall, but he pushed it against the wall because the children used to throw toys into the space behind the sofa while playing

- sofa may have played crucial role in the accident theory. if sofa was not pushed against the wall, M could have tried to access the window and fell between the sofa and the wall

- a digital camera is visible on the living room table, the investigators remark that they need the photos from that camera; they want to know what happened during the dinner, who sat where, what was eaten, what was drunk, who was close, what they were wearing, every detail

- the father dropped to his knees in front of the GNR officers when they arrived, made no sense as he is always under control - possibly to contaminate his trousers?

- in the couple’s bedroom, two beds are pushed together, a wide empty space between them and the wardrobe. one of the beds is made: nobody slept there



- empty space was apparently for one of the cots

- possible conclusions: the couple used to sleep in their bedroom with the twins, and M in the other bedroom; the children started sleeping all together in the other bedroom at some point; the spare bed in the children’s bedroom had been slept in; only one person slept in the couple’s bedroom; did the mother stop sleeping with the father and started sleeping with the children?

- not one single medicine was found, only a box of band-aids

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On-Line Resident

Updated: 21 August 2008

MADELEINE: Police should search for body said British expert

By DAISY SAMPSON and CECÍLIA PIRES

daisy.sampson@the-resident.com

A SUMMARY by police in February 2008 reveals, for the first time, that there were only two possible causes, in their opinion, that could account for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The report, written on February 5 by investigators, concludes that by analysing the evidence up to that point, police felt that Madeleine was kidnapped or killed, either accidentally or deliberately, and continues to give detailed reasons as to why these conclusions have been drawn.

The possibility of kidnap is taken from evidence including the statement made by Kate describing windows in the apartment being open that were not open earlier.

The testimony by Jane Tanner is also taken into account and her statement describing an individual carrying a child in their arms at 9.15pm adds to this theory. Police files reveal that the alternative explanation for Madeleine’s disappearance is that she died in the apartment and her body was then removed.

The summary states that the specialist British police dog, Eddie, detected the smell of a dead body in the apartment near the window and behind the sofa.

The dog also detected signs of a body in the Renault car hired by the McCanns and in other areas in and around the apartment used by the McCanns. Keela, the dog used to detect the smell of human blood, is reported in the files as finding the smell of blood in the sitting room of the apartment, adding to the suspicions by the police that Madeleine died in the apartment.

At no point in the summary is anyone specifically accused of killing or kidnapping Madeleine.

In July 2007 Mark Harrison MBE of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) made a report to the Portuguese police stating that in his opinion: “Police have concentrated on finding Madeleine alive, they now need to start to consider other options and the possibility that she has been killed and her body hidden.”

Mark Harrison assessed the Portuguese investigation between May and July and recommended that areas should be searched again but using dogs that detect blood and dead bodies.

The McCanns have countered the reports from the police files and have pledged to continue to look for their daughter. Gerry McCann told press: “The content of these files has been extensively reported. It will be clear to everyone now that there is absolutely no evidence that suggests Madeleine has been seriously harmed, we strongly believe that Madeleine is out there and can be found.”

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the McCanns have hired a new detective agency to help in the search for their daughter. The unnamed US firm reportedly uses former members of the FBI and CIA.

Clarence Mitchell confirmed: “It is correct that an international firm of investigators has been appointed. I am unable to say anything about them because of the covert nature of their work”.

Metodo 3, the Spanish private investigators used by the McCanns, are still involved in the case but are dealing with leads in Iberia and northern Africa while the new team will be looking at international leads.

http://www.portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?ID=28839

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...chaos-private-eyes-axed-draining-500-000.html

A team of private investigators working behind the scenes to find Madeleine McCann has been axed after being paid £500,000 from publicly donated funds.

The Find Madeleine Fund quietly engaged the services of a US-based company which was awarded the lucrative six-month contract earlier this year.

The company, Oakley International, which boasts former British security service and FBI contacts, was hired to monitor the Madeleine Hotline, carry out detective work and review CCTV footage of possible sightings of the missing girl around the world.

A source revealed that the company had also spent resources in an attempt to infiltrate a paedophile ring in Belgium.

However, the company’s contract will now not be renewed. The Mail on Sunday has learned that double-glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy, who has been underwriting the fund’s search for Madeleine, has conducted a review of the agency’s work and has become unhappy with the progress it was making.

The deal was abruptly ended following a meeting last week after the fund brought in independent monitors to assess how the money was spent.

The cost of employing the agency - run by a Briton, Kevin Halligen - has drained the Madeleine fund and there is now less than £500,000 left.

The development is likely to dismay the thousands who gave to the appeal, and raise questions about how the fund has been administered.

Mr Kennedy, who owns Sale Sharks rugby club, was said to be ‘angry’ because he believed Oakley’s bills, estimated to be more than £80,000 a month, were too much for the results they achieved.

A source said: ‘There is a sense that they were meaning well but hadn’t got as far as they should for the money involved.

'Brian Kennedy thought their work was far too pricey and wanted to know where the money was being spent. He wasn’t satisfied with their answers and the contract was not renewed.

‘Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate, have been kept informed all along and agree with the decision. A lot of people were asking questions about where the money was being spent.’
Kate and Gerry McCann

Kate and Gerry McCann agree with the decision to drop Oakley International

Oakley International won the contract after an introduction by another company, Red Defence International (RDI), based in Jermyn Street, Central London.

Listed as being involved with both companies was Mr Halligen, 47, a communications expert. He is given as the ‘contact name’ for Oakley International Group, a company registered in Washington DC as the manufacturer of search and navigation equipment.

The company says it has annual sales of £33,000 and only one employee, who appears to be Mr Halligen.

The address given for the company is 2550 M Street NW Washington, which is the downtown office of Patton Boggs, one of the largest and most powerful law companies in America.

A source at the law firm said last night that the lawyer who represented Mr Halligen was unavailable for comment.

RDI, formed in 2005, bills itself as ‘an experienced provider of crisis prevention, management and expertise’. It claims to have a presence in Washington DC and Virginia and representation in the Middle East, Africa and Central America.
Brian Kennedy

Brian Kennedy, who has underwritten the search for Madeleine, is dissatisfied with the agency's work

However, its latest set of accounts is two months overdue and it faces being fined by HM Revenue & Customs.

Among the main players working on the McCann contract were Mr Halligen and Henri Exton, 57, who headed the Greater Manchester Police undercover unit until 1993. He then worked for the Government before moving into the private sector.

One day after a crisis meeting last week with the Madeleine fund administrators, Mr Halligen resigned as a director of RDI.

Mr Exton, of Bury, Lancashire, has the Queen’s Police Medal and an OBE. During the Seventies and Eighties his work included uncovering organised crime rings and recruiting supergrasses.

He also infiltrated football gangs, at one stage becoming a leader of the Young Guvnors, who followed Manchester City, and was forced to take part in organised incidents to preserve his cover.

Previously, the McCann fund had employed a Spanish detective agency called Metodo 3. However, the fund lost confidence in them, especially after they announced they would find Madeleine by last Christmas.

She had disappeared from the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007, nine days short of her fourth birthday.

A spokesman for the McCanns said yesterday: ‘Kate and Gerry, the fund and their backers have always sought to employ the very best people and resources in the ongoing search for Madeleine.

‘Kate and Gerry, via the fund and the backers, continue to employ many such resources and it is true that Red Defence and Oakley were part of those resources.

‘I simply will not comment on any personnel, financial or operational details whatsoever.’

No one could be reached for comment at Oakley International or Red Defence International.

Mr Kennedy, estimated to be worth about £250million, became involved after being moved by the plight of the McCanns during the period they were made formal suspects – arguidos – in Madeleine’s disappearance. Portuguese prosecutors dropped the couple’s arguido status last month.

The 47-year-old made his money in double-glazing and home improvement ventures with companies including Everest windows. His Latium Group business empire has an annual turnover of about £400million.

Madeleine Case

Team of private investigators abandons the case after receiving over 600 thousand euros

The team of private investigators that was investigating all the leads that the PJ didn’t value in the Madeleine case, abandoned the case after six months. Until now, the fund that was created to find the child has already paid 500 thousand pounds (over 600 thousand euros) to this team

The team of detectives, Oakley International, that prides itself in employing former agents of the British secret services as investigators, and contacts at the FBI, was hired to investigate possible leads concerning the whereabouts of Maddie, on the internet.

A source revealed that the team even infiltrated a man into a Belgian paedophile network.

But the contract with the company will not be renewed. Everything points to the fact that multimillionaire Brian Kennedy, who is one of the main contributors to the Find Madeleine fund, is not happy with the work that was developed by the detectives up to the moment.

The contract was suddenly canceled last week, after a meeting of independent ‘monitors’ of the fund’s accountancy. The cost of hiring the detectives reached over 600 thousand euros and now the fund’s amount is below 500 thousand pounds.

Questions concerning the manner in which the money is being spent started to arise, and Brian Kennedy thought that 80 thousand pounds per month was too much for the results that had been accomplished.


source: SOL (http://sol.sapo.pt/PaginaInicial/Sociedade/Interior.aspx?content_id=106615), August 23rd, 2008

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Investigation: Fund has only 600 thousand euros left

Former FBI abandons searches

The detective team that was hired by Maddie’s parents for their weight in gold abandoned the searches as their contract was not renovated. After receiving 600 thousand euros from the fund that focuses on finding the English girl that disappeared at Praia da Luz on the 3rd of May 2007, the Oakley International agency – which incorporates former professionals from the North-American agencies FBI and CIA – failed to reveal encouraging results concerning the child’s whereabouts.

The fund that was created with money that had been donated by thousands of people, is going through a difficult phase after the detectives’ payment was made. According to British newspaper ‘The Mail on Sunday’, the fund has a reserve of only 600 thousand euros. The manner how it is managed is criticized and considered to be chaotic.

Maddie’s parents dismiss a team of detectives that was hired by them to find their daughter, for the second time. The first situation occurred with Spanish firm Metodo 3. The family’s spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, recently informed that the Spanish detectives still work for the McCanns, but in a marginal form.

The non-renewal of the contract with the Oakley International agency was prompted, according to ‘The Mail on Sunday’, by the fact that the main sponsor of the ‘Find Madeleine’ fund, multimillionaire Brian Kennedy, is “angry” at the detectives, in face of the weak results that were obtained by agents that received one hundred thousand euros per month. Maddie’s parents were informed of Brian Kennedy’s decision and did not renew the contract.

The detective team, that was investigating all the leads which the PJ did not value, followed the possibility of an alleged abduction by a group of Belgian paedophiles, even infiltrating one of their agents in this network. The agency was indicated to the McCanns by English company Red Defense International.

Angelina Jolie

Meeting with Kate – Actress Angelina Jolie, a mother of six, wants to meet Kate McCann, in London, to find out how Maddie’s mother faces the nightmare of not knowing anything about her daughter, on an everyday basis.

Film lives nightmare – The 33-year-old actress plays a part in the movie ‘Changeling’, which portrays the fight of a mother to find her daughter, whose disappearance led to a concentration of FBI agents in the searches.

Invitation to the premiere – For the interpretation of her role, the actress, according to the ‘Daily Star’, maintained contact with two other mothers, whose daughters disappeared from the North American states of California and Vermont.

Fighting oblivion – Angelina Jolie wants to give the Maddie case visibility, and will offer the McCann couple invitations for the premiere of the film in London, in November, if they wish to attend.

source: Correio da Manhã (http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia....hannelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010), August 25, 2008

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Algarve: Ocean Club apartment costs 200 thousand euros

House in Luz for sale

For a little over 200 thousand euros, at the moment anyone can try to acquire apartment 5A of the Ocean Club, where little Madeleine disappeared from, in Praia da Luz. According to what Correio da Manhã was able to establish, in the area the price is considered to be within the “market average”.

The owners, British citizens, have recently cut off relations with the Ocean Club, which until recently managed the property, and chose a real estate firm in Praia da Luz, Houses & Casas, to promote the sale of the sadly famous T2 apartment, instead of the agency that is directly connected to the Mark Warner resort, which is also located in that village of the Lagos municipality.

The house, which includes two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchenette and one bathroom, with two entries (one through the main door and one through a small patio, on the pool side), which is furnished, has raised the interest of many buyers – and journalists – but so far, the sale has not been closed.

According to local sources, it was with some relief that the Ocean Club management saw the responsibility for the apartment that the McCann family chose to spend their holidays, taken away. ‘The owners were very unhappy with everything that happened. They picked up the house keys and took care of everything privately, without the resort’s intervention’, they referred.

Houses & Casas describes the apartment as a ‘good house, with an excellent location and the possibility of generating a profit’.

But curiously, until now no plaque with the indication ‘For sale’ and the contact number of the real estate agency has been placed on the apartment or its surroundings, which leads to the belief that the sale is being prepared with utmost discretion, both by the owners and the real estate firm.

Details

Inquiry – Since the night of Maddie’s disappearance, on the evening of the 3rd of May last year, the apartment was under the Judiciária’s hold, but was occupied by private persons twice. Then it returned to the PJ’s responsibility.

Location – At approximately 300 metres from the beach, the apartment is part of a resort that was built over 20 years ago. It’s a semi-detached ground floor residence. This is the house that was rented by Maddie McCann’s parents, where she disappeared from.

Odour – According to the PJ’s report about the case, it was in the apartment that the dogs smelled cadaver odour and traces of bodily fluids. Former inspector Gonçalo Amaral, who wrote a book about Maddie, believes that the child died in the room


source: Correio da Manhã, 03.09.2008 (http://www.correiodamanha.pt/notici...hannelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010)

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Maddie McCann case: International poll by Focus

61% say that they are guilty

an article by: João Vasco Almeida

The first international poll about the Maddie case, done by Focus, reveals that both Portuguese and British are certain that Kate and Gerry McCann are guilty over their daughter’s disappearance. Concerning the little girl’s destiny, the numbers are even colder: She is dead.

The number is crushing: more than two thirds of the British and the Portuguese population blame the McCann couple for the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, aged three, on the 3rd of May 2008 [sic], from an apartment in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve. An opinion poll that was commended to Eurosondagem by Portuguese Focus, and carried out in Portugal, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland leaves no margin for doubts. Despite the behavioural and cultural differences, the majority of populations replies affirmatively to two of the most direct questions of this inedited poll.

Nevertheless, when the numbers are evaluated according to nationalities, it becomes clear that in Portugal the blame that is popularly attributed to the McCanns rises to 77.5 percent. This means that only 22% of the population still believes that the Scottish couple has no responsibility in the disappearance of their eldest daughter.

The British, on the other hand, are divided, although the majority agrees with the Portuguese. The majority, 44.6 percent, states without a doubt that doctors Kate and Gerry are guilty over the disappearance of little Maddie.

The first question of the poll is unequivocal. In both countries, all the persons say that they know what happened on the 3rd of May. This means that it is not necessary to explain the McCann couple’s drama to anyone. Everyone, really everyone knows.

What divides the Portuguese and the British is the belief in Maddie’s destiny. While in Portugal it is believed that the child is dead, far away there is a hope that she is well. The abduction theory collects the sympathy of 72.9 percent of the British, against only 11 percent that sustain the death theory. But it is significant that 15 percent of the British wish to reply “I don’t know” to the question concerning the cause of the disappearance.

Q1. Did you hear about the disappearance of an English child, on holidays in the Algarve, during the summer of 2007?

Portugal Yes: 100%

United Kingdom Yes: 100%

Yes: 100%*
Everyone knows

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann is the most covered event by the entire media in 2007 and 2008. There is no disaster, no attack or political subject that surpasses the media treatment that was given to the case of the little British girl in the media. As an example, there are one and a half million internet pages that are dedicated to the disappearance of the little British child. Sky News, an English television station, broadcast more than one thousand hours, dedicated to the case. In the four Portuguese channels, the number attains almost three thousand hours, with news, debates and special programmes. All the national newspapers, both in Portugal and in the UK, placed the case on their front cover hundreds of times. During the first few days, no element of the media in the whole world ignored the case, with news being published from Germany to Zimbabwe. It is even more interesting to know that for the same news item, like the possible sighting of the girl in Amsterdam, there are 1553 different texts in English, ranging from the BBC to the Public Australian Radio.

More than news, there are already four books about the Madeleine case, three essays and one work of fiction, which together sold, and only in Portugal, almost 200 thousand copies. The champion of sales is the book by Gonçalo Amaral, the policeman who coordinated the investigation of the case during the first few months and who is now retired from the Polícia Judiciária. Due to him, editor Guerra e Paz has already sold more than 140 thousand books and prepares editions in Spain and in the United Kingdom.

No: 0%*
News became a soap opera

Several voices were raised against the apparatus that surrounded the case’s coverage. If Kelvin MacKenzie, an editor with ‘The Sun’, classified the news piece as the story of a lifetime, others underlined the danger of turning Maddie’s disappearance into a pure soap opera. Clarence Mitchell, a former BBC correspondent and presently the McCann couple’s spokesman, has issued hard criticism against the media coverage, classifying it as “soft” and unprofessional.

Q2. Do you consider Maddie’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, guilty over their daughter’s disappearance?

Portugal Yes: 77.5%
No: 22.3%
Don’t know/No reply: 0.2%

United Kingdom Yes: 44.6%
No: 38.4%
Don’t know/No reply: 17%

Yes: 61%*
McCanns guilty

The fact that they left three children alone in an apartment in a foreign location leads to most replies to this question being affirmative. Here, what is asked is whether or not Madeleine’s parents could have avoided the disappearance, if they were in their children’s company. Much was speculated about the possibility of the couple being accused of neglecting the children’s guard, while they were still in Portugal. Gonçalo Amaral, the man who conducted the case investigation during the first few months, sustains in a statement to Focus that there is an indicium that the parents did not take care of their three children. “But the Public Ministry did not consider the possibility of accusing them over that issue”, the inspector says.

The law foresees that the couple can still be held responsible over abandonment or mistreatment, according to article 152, number 1, item a) of the Penal Code of 95, and presently according to article 152-A, item a) of the Penal Code in the redaction that was introduced by Law nr. 59/2007, of 04/09. But for that to be true, facts that are not sufficiently sustained by indicia or evidence would have to be proved, according to the Public Ministry. So it is common sense that prevails over this answer, given the fact that for the Latin culture, leaving children alone at home is something that completely contradicts a costume of permanent surveillance over children. The British accept this type of behaviour more easily, and give their children more freedom, leading to the McCanns’ behaviour being less penalized in the British poll.

No: 30%*
They are not guilty

If it is true that little Maddie disappeared from the room where she was sleeping with her siblings and without the supervision of an adult, it is also true, if the testimonies from the couple, from their friends and even from the employees of the Tapas Bar, the restaurant where they had dinner, are to be believed, that a system had been set into place that ensured checking on the children every ten minutes. Kate, Gerry and Matt were only some of the adults that went to the apartment on the night that the little girl disappeared, to verify that everything was quiet.

Q3. Do you think that Maddie was abducted?

Portugal Yes: 25.3%
No: 74.4%
Don’t know/No reply: 0.3%

United Kingdom Yes: 72.9%
No: 11.3%
Don’t know/No reply: 15.8%

Yes: 49%*
She was abducted

The British continue to believe that Maddie was abducted and is missing. The Portuguese, on the other hand, believe that the little girl is dead. The abduction theory is sustained on several testimonies, like that from the couple’s friend, Jane Taylor [sic], who asserts that she saw a man on the street that led to the McCanns’ apartment, only a few minutes after the consensual hour at which Maddie supposedly disappeared. There is also the issue of the window to the three siblings’ bedroom. It was supposedly closed until Kate made her last visit to the bedroom – when the mother noticed her daughter’s disappearance. Another important testimony in the process comes from an Irish couple that asserts they saw, on the same night, a man carrying a child on the same street where the McCanns’ apartment is located. But this couple, apart from assuring “to 80 percent” that the man was Gerry McCann carrying a child, also places his march in the contrary direction of Jane Taylor’s [sic]. Summarizing: There are two more or less credible, but contradictory statements about a man carrying a child in his arms on the night of the 3rd of May, in Praia da Luz. Apart from this point, the Polícia Judiciária and the media received hundreds of testimonies about sightings of Madeleine at various points of the planet. More: Scotland Yard, the British investigation police, even sent information to Portugal about the possibility of Maddie being involved in an abduction by a Belgian paedophile network.

No: 43%*
She was not abducted

The dogs that specialize in finding cadaver and blood odour found both in the McCanns’ holiday apartment and a vehicle that was rented by them, two weeks after their daughter’s disappearance. The collected blood, according to analyses that were carried out both in England and in Portugal, belongs to one of the McCanns’ children, although only 14 out of 19 alleles are detected. But it is also certain that it does not belong to any of the younger twin siblings. Therefore, those who sustain the death theory, defend that if it belongs to one of the children, but not to the twins, and if the couple has no other children, then the blood belongs to Madeleine. There is also the cadaver odour and the fluids that were found in a rental car, which supposedly belong to Maddie. If DNA that could belong to the little girl is present in a car that was rented days after her disappearance, there are indicia that she may have been transported inside it. But once more, the scientific police was not able to obtain evidence.

Q4. Do you think the child is alive or dead?

Portugal Alive: 12.2%
Dead: 77.0%
Don’t know/No reply: 10.8%

United Kingdom Alive: 36.7%
Dead: 47.1%
Don’t know/No reply: 16.2%

Yes: 24.5%*
She is alive

Those who believe that Madeleine is still alive are a small minority, both in Portugal and in England. The police knows that, even if the little girl was abducted, the possibilities of remaining alive one and a half year after her disappearance are few. Kate McCann said, weeks ago, in despair: “I’d rather know that she is dead than to remain in this uncertainty”, the mother said. The cases where a missing person that attained such a high media exposure remains alive are rare. The case of Mariluz, the Spanish girl that disappeared after Maddie, ended badly because her abductor killed her in fear of the media pressure. The cases of missing children have rare happy endings, but it is still possible that Maddie was delivered to a paedophile network for sexual slavery – and due to the fact that she is blond with greenish eyes, she has a higher “market value” – or even that Maddie was kidnapped and kept as a hostage to this day. The best known case of a hostage that survived captivity is that of Natalia Kampush, the young Austrian who was kept imprisoned in a basement for 14 years.

No: 62%*
She is dead

Dead: Out of the three main theories that were joined in the investigation – abduction, homicide and voluntary disappearance – none leaves major opportunities for Madeleine McCann to remain alive. The first one, which is explained above in greater detail, leads to any abductor, due to the girl’s media expression, wanting to get rid of the most searched child in the world. The homicide theory contains the solution in itself: If Maddie was killed inside the apartment in Praia da Luz, there is no hope that she could resist. The third hypothesis, that the girl could have left the house on her own and fell off a ravine, into a hole or into the sea, leads to the belief that, one and a half year later, there is no possibility that the human body could survive such an ordeal. In one word, Maddie is dead.

Q5. In your opinion, even if they were not directly involved in their daughter’s death, do you think that Kate and Gerry are responsible for her death, or not?

Portugal Yes: 89.6%
No: 6.6%
Don’t know/No reply: 3.8%

United Kingdom Yes: 54.9%
No: 34.3%
Don’t know/No reply: 10.7%

Yes: 72%*
They are responsible

Here, the opinion is the same in both countries. Above all, there is an important piece of data: This question was only answered by those who previously considered that Maddie is dead. Gerry and Kate McCann are held responsible over their daughter’s death even if they had nothing to do with that possible homicide. During the first few months, analysts like Francisco Moita Flores or Barra da Costa underlined the “cold” behaviour of the parents, mainly of the little girl’s mother. Gonçalo Amaral, on the other hand, pointed at the “atypical” behaviour of the couple. The PJ inspector says that the mother, after noticing her daughter’s disappearance, abandoned the twins in the bedroom and ran to the restaurant where her husband was. If Maddie had disappeared, Gonçalo Amaral questions, wouldn’t it be logical to at least protect the twins, phoning her husband and, above all, not leaving them alone?

There is more. The police was only called almost 40 minutes after the little girl’s disappearance. If the phone call had been made earlier, the cited former policemen say, the case might have taken another direction. Another aspect of the guilt that is pointed at the McCanns is the “contamination” of the crime scene: the apartment where they spent their holidays. At the moment when they noticed Maddie’s absence, all the friends went to the location, mixing fingerprints, footprints and DNA traces with those of the possible abductor. This means: Apart from leaving the child to death, the parents did not defend the crime scene, both Portuguese and British believe.

No: 20.5%*
They are not responsible

Contradicting the numbers, there is the simple fact that the disappearance of a child is something unusual and to which no father or mother is certainly prepared. It has been widely speculated that if Madeleine’s parents were Portuguese, today they would be imprisoned over their behaviour. But there are some who believe that despite thinking that the child is dead, the parents are not responsible for the case. Namely: At the moment when the mother noticed the disappearance, she ran towards the restaurant, located only 50 metres as the crow flies, from the apartment, to call her husband in a moment of despair. All the testimonies coincide on the fact that Kate was very upset when she reached the restaurant. The friends immediately got up to attend to the situation and it is more than natural that they searched for the little girl, inside the apartment and in its surroundings, shouting out her name and even walking the streets, looking for her. The hard number of minutes that ranges from the discovery of the disappearance until the GNR was called may also be explained by the fact that the McCanns asked their friends to call the police from the resort’s reception. Furthermore, the process that Focus was given access to reports that the receptionist first notified the resort’s management before she dialed 112. The result: While the friends helped the couple to search for their daughter, the resort delayed calling the authorities.

Q6. In your opinion, is the McCann couple hiding something?

Portugal Yes: 78.3%
No: 9.7%
Don’t know/No reply: 12.2%

United Kingdom Yes: 26.1%
No: 61.6%
Don’t know/No reply: 12.3%

Yes: 52%*
They are hiding

The biggest doubt concerning the participation of the parents in the solution of the case resides in the 48 questions that Kate McCann, after being made an arguida in her daughter’s disappearance, refused to answer. Therefore, the Portuguese majority says that the McCanns are hiding something. These replies do not allow concluding that the McCanns are hiding something that could lead to the discovery of truth about the case. Merely that the perception of the public is that the parents’ behaviour is suspicious and that their media exposure, repeating the same message, asking everyone to do everything to find their daughter, while at the same time refusing to cooperate with the police, leaves the impression that they are withholding information. Kate McCann entered the Judiciária in Portimão as a witness, and after hours of questioning, the authorities decided to make her an arguida. At that point in time, being officially a suspect over the disappearance, Kate defended herself as the law permits. Another doubt that is left to those who answered ‘yes’ is the refusal to return to Portugal for a reconstitution of the evening of the crime, and the leaving of the Algarve on the morning after the couple was constituted arguidos, in a trip that contradicted what the couple had always stated: “We will never leave Portugal until we find our little girl”.

No: 36%*
They don’t hide anything

Contrary to the Portuguese, the British do not believe that the McCann couple is hiding anything. The British press, which has always questioned the Portuguese police’s methods, was quick to point out the failures of the investigation. More than the McCanns hiding something, what the British public opinion seems to believe in is that the right questions weren’t asked. Therefore, when the McCanns are made arguidos, it is better for them to return home with their children, than to stay in Portugal, risking ending up in prison. It is also conceded that the presence of Clarence Mitchell, a former BBC journalist and then an aide to the British prime minister, as the McCanns’ spokesman, contributed to raise their prestige with the population.

<continues/next post>

<continued>

Q7. Do you think that Madeleine’s parents should be penalized or not?

Portugal Yes: 70.4%
No: 16.6%
Don’t know/No reply: 13.0%

United Kingdom Yes: 28.6%
No: 65.4%
Don’t know/No reply: 6.0%

Yes: 50%*
Penalized

Once again, the public opinion in both countries is divided. In Portugal, the clear notion is that the couple of doctors should be held responsible and penalized over losing a daughter. Maybe that was why the couple, understanding how important it would be to have a good defense in the Country, hired one of the most renowned lawyers, Rogério Alves, a former head of the Portuguese Bar. The punishment that is expressed in this reply does not specify a form, therefore the only thing that can be concluded is that the Portuguese would at least like to see the McCanns punished over the lack of attention that they gave their children. The law, as previously seen, both in Portugal and in England, foresees that leaving minor children unaccompanied may be a crime, although with very different penalties under both jurisdictions. But the McCann couple continues to fight for their image to pass in a clean manner to the public opinion. For once, the parents of an abducted child have also the onus of proving that they are not guilty over the disappearance, although no evidence was found and validated against them.

No: 41%*
Not penalized

The British public opinion considers that Maddie’s parents should not pay for what happened. Far from the Latin behaviour of keeping one eye on the beach and the other eye on the child, the British generally accept easily that small children stay home asleep while they leave for moments. In the United Kingdom it is also common to educate the children under less pressure, allowing for individuals to become responsible earlier and less, in a popular language, “mother’s children”. Those who believe that the McCanns should not pay for what happened still believes that the couple is far from being guilty in the case, and even, according to the British press, that they were mistreated in Portugal. An article from prestigious ‘The Times’ should be referred, in which the newspaper stated that the couple has been ignored by the police and that they don’t get replies whenever they ask them from the Portuguese authorities.

* Indicative values of the average of replies, when summing the partials of both countries and dividing by two: POR + UK / 2 = Result.

Next:

The future of the case

Amid fraudulent detectives, bombshell books being edited in London and new reports, the drama is far from over

Over the last few weeks, the Madeleine case has seen new developments, although they are not as publicized as before. The case tires some of the public that wants to rest during the summer. But the truth is that during the summer, editors Guerra&Paz managed to sell the rights to Gonçalo Amaral’s book, ‘The Truth of the Lie’, into Spain, and is close to sealing a deal for the United Kingdom. But this was not the only novelty. A group of private detectives that was working on the case, desisted, cashing in on almost 600 thousand euros without yielding any result from their work. Oakley International left without results.

The money came from the fund for the search of Maddie, which is increasingly slimmer. The case of the detectives that abandon the investigation is a film that the McCanns had already seen before, when the Spanish detectives from Metodo3 also kept their money and failed to produce any results.

Meanwhile, Focus knows that during the first weeks of September, the couple’s Portuguese lawyers are going to make a statement concerning the book by former inspector Gonçalo Amaral and announce which are the next steps that are to be made. On the other hand, Gonçalo Amaral is also waiting for September in order to decide whether he advances a process against the McCanns’ spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, or writes a new book.

Meanwhile, Focus was also able to establish that there are reports about the case, written by criminal scientists, that may shed a new light on the case, namely concerning the certification of the DNA that was found in the apartment where the McCanns spent their holidays in Portugal. Meanwhile, the case remains archived. When the judicial holidays are over, and if none of the parties requests the opening of the instruction phase, the reopening of the inquiry or of the process until then, the McCanns will definitely lose their arguido status. This is due to the fact that the Portuguese law foresees that, after the archiving, one of the interested persons may request the reopening of the process or the passing into the instruction phase, and in that case the former arguidos would recover their status. But it is unlikely that this will happen.

Thus the coming weeks will certainly bring news to the most media exposed disappearance of a child in the world, which took place on the 3rd of May 2007, in the Algarve, Portugal. Madeleine McCann, aged three. From that day onwards, with one single known destiny: missing.


source: Focus 464/2008, September 3, 2008 (paper edition)

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New lead: Spanish lawyer threatens with popular action

Couple resembled Gerry, Murat and Payne

The Spanish lawyer who now revealed a new lead about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann advances further details about the couple that accompanied a little English girl that resembled Maddie, on the 18th of January, in Santander.

Contacted by CM, Manuel Maysounave says that the woman who he saw at the bus station &#8216;resembled Gerry, Madeleine&#8217;s father&#8217;. The lawyer states that it was only after he studied more closely some photographs of the persons involved in the process that he managed to recognize the face of Gerry McCann in that woman. &#8216;I think it could be a relative of his. Despite using sunglasses, she strongly resembled Gerry&#8217;, said Maysounave.

Concerning the man, aged around 50, the Spaniard says that &#8216;it could be Robert Murat or David Payne, the McCanns&#8217; friend&#8217;, who was on holidays with the couple in Praia da Luz and whose involvement was considered suspicious at various moments of the process. Despite the fact that both men are very different, physically, the lawyer insists that it could be one of them, &#8216;maybe with a changed appearance&#8217;.

This is the information that Manuel Maysounave wants to report to the process, and if he is not summoned to give a deposition, he even admits the possibility of advancing a popular judicial action. &#8216;I didn&#8217;t say this earlier because I didn&#8217;t want to disturb&#8217;, argues the lawyer, who now makes an appeal, by letter to the instruction judge at the Portimão Court to reopen the Maddie process.

18th of January

Missing for 260 days &#8211; Maddie had been missing for 260 days when the Spanish lawyer says that he saw the little girl.

Judicial secrecy &#8211; On the day before, it had been revealed that the process would remain covered by the judicial secrecy until September.

Mari Luz &#8211; The disappearance of the Spanish girl was the target of the media.

Kate phones &#8211; The Mari Luz case enlivened the Maddie case. Kate McCann phoned the parents of the Spanish child.


source: Correio da Manhã, 02.09.2008 (Yesterday) link: http://www.correiomanha.pt/noticia....hannelid=00000010-0000-0000-0000-000000000010

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colomom said:

http://radioclube.clix.pt/player/frame_player_7.asp?sound_id=7641

a radio news piece by Augusto Freitas de Sousa

summary of extracts from diary:


. Kate makes several references to the love that she felt for her daughter and says goodbye to her through the diary, almost every day

Click to expand...

Compare this to the reactions of other parents whose children disappeared...children who were likely dead but the parents refused to believe it.

McCann Case: Who Died in The Car?

24 Horas newspaper has been reporting, for the last month, on their own previous publications regarding Madeleine McCann Case, and makes a comparison between their articles and what is in the Public Ministry Process distributed to the media in a DVD. As they state: "Since the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, 24 Horas has made more than two hundred references to the theme in the front page. Up to the end of this week, we will show you the truths we have written and we assume the mistakes. As always, in name of the truth".



Who died in the car?

The vehicle had smell of cadaver and was detected by dogs that came from England. It was never discovered the identity of the thought victim.

The McCann argued at the time that the corporal fluids detected in the boot of the car could be of Maddie's clothes, which were carried in Renault Scénic, rented 25 days after the disappearance.

The odour to cadaver and the biological evidences discovered in the Renault Scénic rented by the parents of Madeleine McCann, 25 days after the child had disappeared, as well as the revaluation of the proofs collected up to that time by the team formed by the superior co-ordinator of the PJ Paulo Rebelo - who substituted Gonçalo Amaral&#8217;s position, marked the news section of 24horas about the mediatic case between the 16 and 31st of October of 2007. On the day 16 we published that the team of the PJ, that was investigating the events of the night of the 3rd of May, when the girl disappeared from Praia da Luz, Lagos, Algarve, had begun reviewing all the evidences that the investigators led by Gonçalo Amaral had gathered. A work that took several months and that ended up by confirming everything that had been already investigated initially.

Car with traces

Of one thing the PJ has no doubts, as it is obvious from the legal proceedings made public to the 20th of July of this year: a corpse was deposited in the van [sic, carrinha] rented by the McCanns 25 days after the disappearance of the daughter. But nobody managed to explain the identity of the supposed victim.

The forensic examinations done in Portugal and in England detected a series of alleles coincident with Maddie's DNA, but not in sufficient quantity to determine with certainty if the collected vestiges belonged really to the girl. The physical fluids that were gathered also did not allow to the authorities to come to any conclusion.

On the 18th of October it was announced that the new team of investigators had begun to "re-visit" the places where Maddie eventually might have been in case of kidnapping.

Searches of the PJ

To the 23rd of October of 2007 it was news the fact of the PJ being doing new searches at the home of Robert Murat, the first arguido of the process. Diggings were done; the computers of the arguido and of the mother and his vehicle were apprehended. One knows now that none of these diligences was useful to the investigations. And the worst is that when the agents took the vehicle of Murat to be inspected they ended up, as announced by our newspaper on the 24th of October, having an accident, which took several weeks to repair and to return to the legitimate owner.

The travelling of Judicial Police team to England to get the results of the analyses requested to a highly prestigious of forensic laboratory located in Birmingham was the principal piece of news on the case on the day 25. Those tests took several weeks to be effectuated and they would be handed only to the Portuguese authorities in November.

Kate cried

The consumption of alcohol by the McCanns and their seven friends at the Tapas Bar - who have consumed at least eight bottles of wine and several digestives-, as well as the report of the shouting that was made after Kate McCann to have given the alarm made the news section on the 26th of October.

The next day the highlight was given to the fact of Maddie's mother having cried publicly- in a televised interview -174 days after the daughter disappears.
Up to the end of the October it was news the fact of the phone calls effectuated by the McCanns not being able to be controlled by PJ, since the telephone operator was British. It is advanced that the couple had begun to use the Maddie fund to pay the rent [sic] of the house in Rothley and also that the police spoilt vestiges that could help to reveal what had happened to the girl on the 3rd of May of 2007.

True

It is true that the dogs trained in the detection of blood of dead persons and of cadaver odour that came from England found vestiges in the car that the McCanns rented almost a month after Maddie had disappeared. The vestiges, after the tests were done and as one reads in the legal proceedings, presented several alleles which corresponded to Maddie's DNA, but the considered percentage was not concluding, such as 24horas announced.

False

It is a lie that the Police destroyed evidences that might show what had happened to Maddie. In fact, the evidences were contaminated by almost two dozens of persons who entered in the flat before the GNR secured the zone. Of the reading of the process it is understood that the authorities did not act in accordance with the internal regulations to this type of cases. It would have been more correct to write: &#8220;Authorities allow destruction of vestiges&#8221;.

Source: 24 horas (http://www.24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2935&link=12)

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http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_17886.shtml

http://www.the3arguidos.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=23028

Ex Portuguese police chief claims that Gerry McCann hid the body of Madeleine McCann on the beach
By h.b. - Sep 6, 2008 - 11:36 AM
ALSO SEE : • Juan José Cortés welcomes plans for new paedophile register - Jul 24, 2008 - 8:25 AM


The ex Portuguese Police Chief, Gonçalo Amaral - Archive Photo
enlarge photo

Gonçalo Amaral has given an exclusive interview to the Spanish El Mundo newspaper today.
The ex Director of the Criminal Investigation department of the Police in Portimao, Gonçalo Amaral, who head the team searching for Madeleine McCann, has given an interview in today’s El Mundo newspaper.

The man who was sacked after making the parents suspects in the case claims that Gerry McCann hid Madeleine’s body on the beach, and that the child died from an accident, claiming she could have fallen off the sofa or there could have been an overdose of Capel, a sleeping drug.

The ex Police chief, whose book on the case has sold 120,000 copies in two weeks – a record in Portugal, claims there are many inconsistencies in the case. He says a window which Kate McCann claims was found open when Maddie vanished was in fact always closed, and he speaks of an Irish witness who said he saw Gerry McCann with a girl in his arms walking down to the beach on the night she disappeared. He thinks it possible that she was then dug up and moved in the hire car which the McCann’s rented 23 days later, and where Scotland Yard dogs found DNA remains which could have been from Maddie.

He claims that the nine people who died together with the McCann’s that night must have agreed to lie in the case.

He also tells the paper that the McCann’s are human, ‘If they admit that Maddie is dead then they cannot collect from a fund of more than a million pounds’.

McCann couple feared being arrested in Portugal

Maddie. The parents of the little English girl assert that they did not escape to England

Kate and Gerry criticize Gonçalo Amaral&#8217;s theories but will not sue him

The McCann couple feared being arrested by the Portuguese police. In a statement to today&#8217;s edition of Expresso newspaper, Maddie&#8217;s father admits that he feared that outcome, taking into account what was being written by the Portuguese press, but rejects that they escaped to England in order to avoid a possible detention.

During the first interview about their daughter&#8217;s disappearance that was given after the archiving of the process, Kate and Gerry McCann recognize that they felt the pressure from the Portuguese police, which motivated the fear of being preventively arrested in Portugal. &#8220;Taking into account everything that was being published in the papers, it is natural that we were afraid of being arrested. It was a horrible situation&#8221;, Gerry McCann remembers.

But in order to discard any suspicion about their behaviour, Kate McCann guarantees that the couple did not return to England as a form of escape, &#8220;even because the Portuguese police could have prevented the trip&#8221;.

After focusing on the statements concerning the investigations, the couple leaves the hope of still finding their daughter alive, in the air. &#8220;Sincerely, I don&#8217;t know whether Maddie is alive or not, or if someone hid her away. There is no evidence&#8221;, Gerry defends.

During the interview that was done in England, the couple seizes the opportunity to criticize Gonçalo Amaral&#8217;s theories. Nevertheless, Kate and Gerry do not ponder to sue the former inspector of the Polícia Judiciária who led the investigations.

The Maddie process was made public on the 4th of August, after having been archived by the Attorney General of the Republic due to a lack of evidence. Kate and Gerry McCann, together with Robert Murat, stopped being arguidos.


source: Diário de Notícias, 06.09.2008 (http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/09/06/sociedade/casal_cann_teve_medo_ser_preso_portu.html)

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Investigation: CM reveals images of the dogs&#8217; work

Dogs ran towards the McCanns&#8217; car

Among ten cars inside a parking garage, the animals marked the McCanns&#8217; Mégane

Ten cars are parked in an underground parking garage. &#8216;Eddie&#8217; and &#8216;Keela&#8217;, dogs that are trained to detect cadaver odour and human blood, respectively, are released inside this garage, and at different moments in time, they run towards a grey Renault Mégane, where they stop and give their handler a sign: it&#8217;s the car that was rented by Madeleine McCann&#8217;s parents, three weeks after her disappearance, and where Gonçalo Amaral believes that the little girl&#8217;s body was carried.

The performance of the British dogs, images of which are revealed first-handedly by CM, was decisive for the Polícia Judiciária and for the investigation, which had been oriented towards the abduction theory until then. &#8216;Keela&#8217; and &#8216;Eddie&#8217;, which are often used in the United Kingdom and with success, coincided in the marking of objects and locations that are related to the McCanns: inside the apartment where Madeleine disappeared from (in the couple&#8217;s bedroom, in the living room and near the side window), in the patio, inside the vehicle that was used by the McCann family (rented three weeks after the little girl&#8217;s disappearance), on two pieces of clothing that belong to Kate, and on Maddie&#8217;s soft toy.

In the case of the car that was rented by the McCanns on the 27th of May 2007, both &#8216;Keela&#8217; and &#8216;Eddie&#8217; ran towards the vehicle as soon as they were released inside the parking garage where it was located together with nine other vehicles, and they coincided in marking the car key and the inside of the car boot. The investigation&#8217;s videos reveal that the dogs gave their signal in different manners, but coincided on the locations. They both stop on the spot, but while &#8216;Eddie&#8217; barks when he detects cadaver odour, &#8216;Keela&#8217; remains completely static when she finds a blood trace.

Concerning the other inspected vehicles, which included all that had been used by Robert Murat, the first person who was made an arguido, and the car that belonged to a friend of Kate and Gerry, nothing was detected by either one of the dogs, according to the final report.

The use of the British dogs was defended by the English authorities themselves, as they are used to this inspection technique in the United Kingdom, and the result of their work led the Polícia Judiciária to constitute Maddie&#8217;s parents as arguidos, in order to confront them with elements that could result in their incrimination.

Dogs defended by the English &#8211; Mark Harrison, the English policeman who was designated to help the PJ in the search for Maddie, wrote a report in which he defended the use of the dogs that are trained to detect cadaver odour and blood.

Animals decisive for the police &#8211; The performance of the British dogs that are specially trained to detect cadaver odour and human blood was decisive for Kate and Gerry to be constituted arguidos.

Body may have been inside the car &#8211; Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator of the case, believes that Maddie&#8217;s body was transported inside the car that was rented by the McCanns three weeks after the disappearance, and marked by the dogs.

&#8220;They never failed&#8221;

&#8216;Eddie&#8217; and &#8216;Keela&#8217;, springer spaniel sniffer dogs that were used in the investigation into the disappearance of Maddie, did not give a single &#8220;false positive result&#8221;.

The assertion comes from English expert Martin Grime, who in his search report guarantees that the behaviour of the dog that is trained to detect cadaver odour &#8220;changed immediately after we opened the front door to the apartment&#8221; where Madeleine McCann disappeared from.

&#8220;He entered the apartment with an above the average interest&#8221;, the document reads, explaining that the dog marked the couple&#8217;s bedroom, the living room, behind the sofa and near the side window. The same signals were issued by the dog that is trained to detect blood traces. The animals marked the same locations and objects that are related to the McCanns, including the car that was rented by Madeleine&#8217;s parents, a Renault Mégane that was rented three weeks after the little girl&#8217;s disappearance. Among ten cars that were placed inside a parking garage, both &#8216;Eddie&#8217;, that is trained to detect cadaver odour, and &#8216;Keela&#8217;, that is trained to signal traces of human blood, changed their behaviour next to the car that was used by the McCanns in May 2007.

Interpretation of a crime

Crime novels, manuals that are exclusively used by the police and others concerning the search for missing children were the couple&#8217;s bedside reading. &#8216;The Interpretation of a Crime&#8217; is one of the book covers that was filmed during the searches that the PJ performed inside the McCanns&#8217; house.


source: Correio da Manhã 06.09.2008, paper edition

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Maddie case: In their first interview since they quit being suspects in the disappearance of their daughter, Kate and Gerry McCann spoke about the re-launch of the investigation, the fear that they felt in Portugal and the unshakable certainty that Madeleine was abducted

“Nothing in the process says that Madeleine has died”

Q – What are you presently doing to find Madeleine?
Gerry – We have had private investigators working with us for several months. Now that the case has been archived, it’s easier because we accessed the process. We carried out new interviews with those that had already testified. And we interviewed others who approached us and had never spoken before.
Kate – As we didn’t know what the PJ had done, we repeated everything that seemed important to us.

Q – Do the new witnesses offer clues about the disappearance?
Gerry – Some report sightings, but it’s not likely that they lead to our daughter. We are more interested in persons that offer credible information that can be verified through photographs or in another form; persons who know who may be involved.

Q – What impression did you get from the process? Were you shocked over its contents?
Gerry – We were investigated into the smallest detail. There are entire volumes about us. We can jump those. It must be disquieting information that will not help us to find Madeleine.

Q – Don’t you think that everything that was possible to do, was done? The investigation reached Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Morocco…
Gerry – Morocco is a good example of what went wrong. A sighting was reported and it was said that there were cameras at the petrol station. When the inspectors went there, they concluded that there were none. The truth is that there were none in the pump area, but in the shop. And when the PJ returned, the tape had been recorded over.
Kate – It’s difficult to describe how it feels to have our daughter taken away… We want to see action everywhere. We wanted spotlights, we wanted helicopters, we wanted everyone on the street, searching.

Q – If Madeleine had disappeared in England, would things have been different?
Gerry – If it had happened in a British city, I have no doubts. But I don’t know if it would have been different if we had been in a small village in Scotland. Clearly, the English police are more experienced in abductions, they are more alert.

Q – If you have an important clue concerning Madeleine’s whereabouts, will you transmit it to the Portuguese police?
Gerry – If something needs to be done in Portugal, we’ll have to. We cannot go around breaking doors down or arresting people. But only when we feel that we cannot advance any further on our own.

Q – Do you trust the Portuguese authorities, after having been considered suspects?
Gerry – We wouldn’t mind if we had been investigated at the beginning, if they thought that could help. But months later, when the evidence had been lost? It’s that once the suspicion is installed, we can never prove our innocence again.

Q – Didn’t you find it strange that the dogs found traces of blood in your room and in your rental car…
Gerry – There was no blood found! The indicia are worthless if they are not corroborated by forensic information. And they were not.

Q – 40 apartments were investigated and the dogs only marked yours. Ten cars and they only reacted to yours.
Gerry – These dogs’ frailty was proved by a study that was carried out in the USA, in the case of a man that had been accused of murder. They had ten rooms, and in each room four boxes were placed, containing vegetables, bones, trash. Some contained human remains. They stayed there for ten hours. Eight hours after the boxes were removed, the dogs came in. And the dogs failed two thirds of the attempts. Imagine the reliability when these dogs test an apartment three months after the disappearance of a child.

Q – Were you surprised when you were made arguidos?
Kate – It was not surprising after weeks with the media saying that we were suspects. And there we have to ask why the information that reached the media was disfigured. Why do the newspapers say that blood was found in the apartment when the police report does not confirm it? Why was it said that the DNA that was found in the car was a 100% match with Madeleine’s?
Gerry – In a way, we would like to have been accused so we could defend ourselves openly. Now, reading the process, there is no evidence that justifies the suspicion, apart from the dogs’ action. There was never a sustained explanation. And the questioning: ‘What happened to Madeleine? How did you get rid of her? Who helped you? Where did you put her? All fantasy! If they had found DNA – so what? And if Madeleine had hurt herself inside the apartment – why would that be our fault?

Q – Do you investigate information that point towards Madeleine’s death?
Kate – We want to find her alive, but if she is dead we want to know.

Q – Do you still believe that she’s alive?
Kate – There are great possibilities that she is alive, isn’t it? There is nothing in the process to indicate that something bad has happened to her…

Q – But there are no indicia that she has been abducted, either.
Gerry – We firmly believe that she was abducted by a man, minutes after I went to see her in the bedroom. There are two independent witnesses that saw a child of around four years of age being carried that evening. Our friend Jane Tanner and also the Smith family.

Q – The PJ discredits Jane Tanner’s testimony. They say that when she saw said man with the child, you [Gerry] were chatting nearby and it was impossible that you hadn’t seen him as well…
Gerry – I didn’t see her because my back was turned to the location where she passed. I was talking to a friend. And there is also the couple with children that saw a man carrying a child with a pyjama that was similar to Madeleine’s, blond hair, the same age.

Q – Later on, that family stated that the man they saw was Gerry…
Gerry – At that time I was at the restaurant. The fact that we became suspects has probably influenced the Smiths’ testimony.

Q – Was it a coincidence that you were made arguidos on one day and returned home the next day?
Gerry – They questioned us on that day because the PJ knew about our return.

Q – Were you afraid of being arrested?
Kate – Obviously. At a certain point we didn’t know very well what could happen.
Gerry – From the information in the newspapers, of course we were afraid. It was scary.

Q – Being in England, you would not be extradited anymore.
Gerry – We asked the inspector that was in charge of the case of he had any objection: the answer was no. It’s obvious that we were afraid that people might think we were escaping, but it was better not to be in Portugal at that point in time.

Q – Why?
Kate – Because of the hostile environment. We couldn’t even leave the house.

Q – Why did Kate refuse to answer questions during your interrogation, that Gerry accepted to clarify the next day?
Kate – I was advised by my Portuguese lawyer not to reply.
Gerry – I received the same advice but decided to disobey. My plan was to remain silent, but the first question was: are you involved in your daughter’s disappearance? It was nonsense and I decided to answer. From there onwards, I replied to all of them.

Q – Why didn’t you authorize the police to see the messages that you sent and received on your mobile phone on the eve of Maddie’s disappearance.
Gerry – Nobody asked to see my messages. On the day before and on the day of the disappearance I did not receive or send 16 messages. I could hardly write a text message. I received three or four phone calls and two were from work. After the disappearance I received hundreds. And when the police asked me for the registry, I told them to ask the service provider. My phone only registers the last ten.

Q – The chief inspector in the case, Tavares de Almeida, writes a report where he says that your friends lied to save you, that Maddie died in the living room, and that you hid the body.
Gerry – What can we say? You will have to ask the police chiefs why they wrote that, why they saw us as suspects.

Q – The majority of crimes where the victims are children are committed by the parents.
Gerry – Not in the case of abducted children. And this is a case of an abducted child. It’s an exceptional case.

Q – When he archived the case, the prosecutor said that the investigation can be reopened if a new clue appears. Do you think that is possible?
Kate – Of course! It could happen at any moment. All that it takes is for one person to make the phone call that we wait for so much. We know that she was abducted in Portugal and we vehemently believe that someone knows or suspects something.

“Mr Amaral’s behaviour is a disgrace”

They have not read the book that is a best-seller in Portugal. And they don’t spare the author and former PJ inspector

Q – Former inspector Gonçalo Amaral remains convinced of your involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance. Did you read ‘The Truth of the Lie’, the book that he wrote?
Kate and Gerry – No.
Kate – Why would I?
Gerry – I won’t learn anything from reading it.

Q – It was a success in Portugal.
Gerry – Was it? How many copies did it sell?

Q – Approximately 200 thousand. Next week, it is edited in Spain.
Gerry – That is what can be called illicit enrichment.

Q – Your English lawyers already have a translated copy and they are analyzing it. Do you intend to sue Gonçalo Amaral?
Gerry – At this moment we are focused on what we can do to find Madeleine and not in suing anyone.
Kate – All that I am going to say about this – because I’m not going to waste any time on Mr Amaral – is that as a professional and as a person his behaviour has been a disgrace.

Q – Aren’t you curious to know what the book says?
Kate – What for? It must be nothing but a load of rubbish. It is so secondary… It certainly won’t help to find our daughter. My consolation is that on the cover he calls her Maddie, the name that the media have invented. We never called her anything like that.

Q – But you do know the theory that Gonçalo Amaral defends: Madeleine accidentally died in the Ocean Club apartment and you concealed the body.
Gerry – It really is a waste of time. And we need all the time that we can get to analyze the investigation’s documents, which contain a lot of information that we didn’t know about.
Kate – You just have to cross, loosely, his theory with the process in order to understand that the facts that he reports are not correct.

Q – There is a theory that defends that the coordinator was removed from the investigation due to British political pressure.
Gerry – Who dismissed him?

Q – The PJ’s national director.
Gerry – Then you have to ask him if he was pressured. Or if Gordon Brown discussed the case with him. He surely didn’t.

Q – He also resigned. And largely due to this process.
Gerry – That was not what I was told. Apparently he had a vision of the police itself that was different from the one held by the Justice Minister.

Q – In a final analysis, they both left the PJ because the investigation failed.
Gerry – That’s not our fault. I do not criticize the authorities over not trying to find Madeleine. It doesn’t matter anymore. Now all that matters is that we do everything to try to find her, through our own methods.

Q – Did you ever get to know Gonçalo Amaral?
Kate – The question is the other way around: did he get to know us?

There are photographs of her all over the house

Gerry has returned to his work as a cardiologist. Kate did not exercise medicine again. Twins Sean and Amelie fill up her days as a mother.

Q – How has your life changed with the disappearance of Madeleine?
Gerry – Independently of what happens, it will never be the same again. If you talk to the parents of other abducted children, they also mention this parallel life which we entered. Sean and Amelie, being so young, force us to introduce a certain normalcy in our lives, to make it normal for them. And it’s them who, for moments, make it normal for us. But it will never be normal for us. They are aged three and a half, and they are very, very happy.

Q – Did you explain to the twins what happened to their sister?
Kate – They perceive Madeleine’s absence perfectly. I have no doubt whatsoever. But they don’t know the details. They know that she disappeared and that we’re looking for her.
Gerry – We were advised concerning what we should tell them, how and when. Larger explanations are kept for later. We realize that they miss their older sister. They know that her not being with us is not a good thing, and they hope that she returns.

Q – How do you keep Madeleine present in your lives?
Kate – There are photographs of her all over the house. And we speak about her with the twins every day – it’s an important part of their lives. Sean and Amelie talk about her and still include her in their playing… If they receive sweets, they say “Let’s keep one for Madeleine”. Or “When she comes home I’ll give her this or that”. It’s endearing and it makes our days less difficult.

Q – Did you fear that you might lose custody over Sean and Amelie because your behaviour was considered to be negligent?
Gerry – We were not negligent, we did what any reasonable parent would do. But we deeply lament what happened, because in our action, someone saw an opportunity to take Madeleine. I’m an optimist person. I never thought that something like this could happen.

Q – Did you change the manner in which you deal with Sean and Amelie?
Gerry – We are more protective and less trusting. We never left our children alone again and many families will never do so again because of us.
Kate – Now we think about everything that can happen, about predators, abductors. We don’t even let go of them in the shopping centre.

€1.200.000

The McCanns say that the fund has spent €1.2 million with the private investigation. But the reward of €3 million still stands

Q – How much have you spent on the private investigation so far?
Gerry – Approximately one million pounds, over the past ten months, paid with money from the FindMadeleine fund. A substantial sum was also spent on our defence, but two benefactors have covered that expense, which means that the fund was solely used in the search for our daughter.

Q – Do you maintain the offer of 2.5 million ponds to whoever finds Madeleine?
Gerry – We do not control that reward, but everything leads me to believe that it still stands. And that there will also be money available for whoever supplies credible information.
Kate – It’s a lot of money, but we cannot set limits, a child is priceless. We’ll pay whatever is necessary.

Q – Is there still money left in the fund?
Gerry – There is still some money left. Recently, British newspapers (‘Express newspapers’) paid us a compensation of 550 thousand pounds, which fed the fund. That had an important impact. And there are still donations, people who send money directly.

Q – But less than in the beginning, before you were made arguidos.
Gerry – Of course! Those who were in doubt stopped contributing. Many write to us asking for forgiveness because they believed in our guilt. We know that we have to make an effort for people to know that there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead and that we were not involved in the disappearance.

Other issues

Dogs – “We read everything that we found about these dogs that detect cadavers. It was due to them that we became suspects”

Clues – “The sightings continue. Since May we received one thousand phone calls and an equal number of emails, some containing relevant data”

Media exposure – “Appearing in the media was never good. We did it to publicize Madeleine’s face and to find her. We failed”

Background

Details of two hours of conversation

Kate and Gerry are different. More relaxed, or conformed. It is difficult to tell. “The twins force us to a certain normalcy”, the mother explains. It’s been 16 months and the mystery of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains unsolved.
The parents have already been victims of a tragedy and suspects of a terrible crime. The process was archived, but they are judged every day. Gerry agrees: “From the moment when the suspicion is installed, we can never prove our innocence”.
This is the first interview since the process was archived, on the 21st of July. It is scheduled in Rothley, a small village in the British Midlands where nobody suspects the McCanns’ guilt. Even less the owner of the Court House Hotel, which is installed in a medieval building and where the interview is held, in the late afternoon last Monday. There is tea with milk and biscuits. There is no guide and there are no forbidden questions.
In almost two hours of interview, Kate and Gerry, both 40, clearly state the intention that supports their availability for the conversation. “We believe that in Portugal someone knows about Madeleine, that it is where the solution for our daughter’s disappearance lies”. And they want that person, whether singular or collective, to know that they search for him, that they ensure his anonymity and that they even give him 2.5 million pounds if he tells them where Madeleine is.
Every day, in their very British house of little bricks, they study a little more of the process of the Polícia Judiciária’s investigation, which they personally consult as it is being translated. They understand “nothing” of Portuguese. From a first reading they reinforced their hope of finding Maddie alive. Nothing tells them that she is dead. The volumes about themselves, from the time when they were made arguidos, have been put aside. “We do not intend to read them”.
They remind them of the days when they were afraid of being arrested in Portugal, accused of Madeleine’s death.


article by: Raquel Moleiro and Rui Gustavo

source: Expresso, paper edition, 06.09.2008

Photos from Expresso Interview (above):

Video of Expresso Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7P-z5HJxr0o and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAdVfGc-d0w

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1053038/Ill-fund-McCanns-Maddie-vows-double-glazing-tycoon-Kennedy.html

I'll fund the McCanns until they find Maddie, vows double-glazing tycoon Kennedy

I'll fund the McCanns until they find Maddie, vows double-glazing tycoon Kennedy
By Daniel Boffey
Last updated at 10:05 PM on 06th September 2008


The multi-millionaire tycoon financing Kate and Gerry McCann's search for their daughter has said he will support them for the rest of his life if necessary.

Double-glazing magnate Brian Kennedy, 48, said he would use his estimated £450million fortune to back the couple as long as Madeleine remained missing.

His pledge will alleviate concerns about what will happen when Madeleine's Fund, made up largely of public donations, runs out. There is currently less than £500,000 in the kitty, with £1million having already been spent on the hunt for Madeleine since her disappearance in May last year.


Missing: £1m has been spent seeking Madeleine

Backer: Glazing millionaire Kennedy


Team McCann is now hiring a fifth group of private investigators to help with the search.

Mr Kennedy, who has five children with his wife Christine, lives in Wilmslow, Cheshire, and made his money through double-glazing firm Everest. He had not met the McCanns before offering his help but now speaks to them almost daily.

A source said: ‘Mr Kennedy got involved after seeing Kate on television after she became an arguido. He felt compelled to do something. A fifth company is going to be hired.


'Everything that can be done is being done. But it is like looking for a grain of sand on a sea shore. The team are just desperate for leads now.’

The couple's lawyers are still sifting through 13,000 pages of Portuguese police files, released last month. One team of investigators believed they had found Madeleine in Morocco last year – but it turned out to be an American girl being kept against her will in a dispute between her parents.

‘It was desperately disappointing when it turned out not to be Madeleine,’ said a source. ‘It was a low point for everyone concerned.’

Madeleine’s Fund is already paying investigators Metodo 3, Control Risks, Oakley International and an unnamed fourth company. However, as The Mail on Sunday revealed last month, Oakley will not have its current £500,000 contract extended after missing a series of targets set by Mr Kennedy.

Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' spokesman, said: ‘We will leave no stone unturned in finding Madeleine.’