New Girl Kidnapped In Spain/portugal

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A major police search was underway for a missing five-year-old girl on the Spanish border with Portugal today, just 120 miles away from where Madeleine McCann vanished last year.
Mariluz Cortesa was apparently abducted on Sunday evening in the town of Huelva around two hours drive from Praia da Luz where four-year-old Maddy was snatched last May.
Kate and Gerry McCann made at least one trip to Huelva to highlight the case of their missing daughter, believing she may have been driven through the town by her kidnapper.
There is no border control between the two countries at Huelva and the frontier was not closed off on the night Madeleine disappeared. Portuguese border police were not informed Madeleine was missing until the following morning.​
And members of the country's Borders and Aliens Service were only given a photograph of the toddler 12 hours after she disappeared.
The lapse would have given an abductor plenty of time to get across the border to Spain unchecked.
Detectives searching for Mariluz are investigating a travelling circus which was said to have been in the area at the time.
Yesterday it was revealed that private detectives searching for Madeleine were investigating paedophile gangs in Spain amid fears she could have been abducted on their orders.
Detectives from agency Metodo 3 travelled to the Costa Blanca, between Alicante and Valencia, to investigate networks operating in the area. Gangs of child-sex abusers there have links with paedophiles in Belgium and Morocco, according to Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias.
Francisco Marco, director of the Metodo 3 agency, believes she was identified by "spotters" in Praia da Luz, abducted on the orders of a paedophile gang and smuggled through Spain into Morocco.​
 
Pity that this little girl won't have the advantage of millions of dollars worth of publicity.

It's hard to see this development as a reason to hope for Madeleine. :( And it's still 120 miles away and almost a year later. It may not have anything more to do with Maddie than any other child disappearance in the past year.
 
Pity that this little girl won't have the advantage of millions of dollars worth of publicity.

It's hard to see this development as a reason to hope for Madeleine. :( And it's still 120 miles away and almost a year later. It may not have anything more to do with Maddie than any other child disappearance in the past year.

Just what I was thinking ThoughtFox, this poor family won't have the luxury of millionaire backup and publicity in order to find their little girl. I wonder how they will cope, they must be going through absolute hell.

As for being connected with Madeleine's disappearance, I doubt it very much.



( just adding) /I was wondering, will the McCann’s offer the family of the missing five year old girl any financial help from the £1,223,629 in Madeleine’s fund?
 
I can't find a picture of this girl or a thread here on WS for her. ??

My Dad just arrived in Madrid, Spain and will be traveling to South Africa and a few other countries - I would like to email him this little girl's picture so he can be on the lookout (he's not in the same area exactly, but it's better to have more eyes on the lookout for her as he travels!!)

If anyone can PM a link me to a picture of Mariluz, I'd appreciate it. TIA.

ETA: Found a video with her picture and I saved it. Here's the link to a picture of Mariluz Cortesa (I don't want to post pictures until I know it's okay with the server problems we've had).
 
The McCanns have contacted the family of this missing girl:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/17/nmadeleine117.xml

Mr Cortes, a 34-year-old former professional footballer turned builder, said: "Kate McCann has been in touch to send her condolences.

"She knows what we're going through and I understand them now too."

A family friend added: "Knowing they have the support of Gerry and Kate has been comforting. They have been touched by the fact someone who is going through her own turmoil can find the strength to think of them in their moment of need."

The pledge of support came after Mr McCann wrote on his blog: "Hearing of the probable abduction of Mari Luz Cortes has brought many awful emotions flooding back. We hope and pray that Mari Luz is quickly found and returned safely to her family."
 
Thanks to summer at PB79 for the translation (http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.co...eral&action=display&thread=1200562040&page=24 post #355)

News about the case of Mari Luz, on the contrary, abound, with Diario de Noticias reporting about the efforts that are being made to search for the child, Correio da Manha reporting extensively on the case and advancing that the Spanish police believe the strongest possibility is that Mari Luz voluntarily entered a car, and was presumably taken by someone she actually knew and apparently trusted. 24Horas dedicates 4 full pages to the case, including an interview with the child's mother, photos of Mari Luz's bedroom, reports about the police's efforts in the investigation, and an article about the owner of the kiosk who sold the crisps to the little girl. None of the Portuguese media are linking the case of Mari Luz with the case of Madeleine McCann.

http://dn.sapo.pt/2008/01/18/internacional/autoridades_pistas_procuram_o_corpo_.html

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=274151&idselect=9&idCanal=9&p=200

http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2743&link=22

http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2743&link=23

http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2743&link=24

http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2743&link=25
 
Thanks to summer at PB79 for the translation (http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.co...eral&action=display&thread=1200562040&page=24 post #355)

News about the case of Mari Luz, on the contrary, abound, with Diario de Noticias reporting about the efforts that are being made to search for the child, Correio da Manha reporting extensively on the case and advancing that the Spanish police believe the strongest possibility is that Mari Luz voluntarily entered a car, and was presumably taken by someone she actually knew and apparently trusted. 24Horas dedicates 4 full pages to the case, including an interview with the child's mother, photos of Mari Luz's bedroom, reports about the police's efforts in the investigation, and an article about the owner of the kiosk who sold the crisps to the little girl. None of the Portuguese media are linking the case of Mari Luz with the case of Madeleine McCann.
Thanks, Colomom! :blowkiss: I keep watching NewsNow for some new articles on this poor little girl, but so far there is nothing new.

However, on Google News, this just popped up:

http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_14671.shtml

The physical search area for the five year old has been extended with the arrival of 50 experts from the Professional Fireman’s Union in Sevilla and other organisations. Local rubbish tips have been at the centre of the searches today, Friday, including the main local treatment plant on the road between La Palma del Condado and Valverde del Camino.
Divers have also been searching in the nearby Tinto river, after searching first in the Odiel.

Mari Luz’s father, Juan José Cortés, speaking outside his home in the Torrejón district of Huelva, on Thursday told the press that he himself had a suspect in mind, although it had nothing to do with the police investigation, he said. He confirmed that Kate McCann, whose daughter Madeleine McCann, went missing on the Portuguese Algarve in May last year, had been in contact to show her support. Police in Andalucía have said they do not believe there is any connection between the two cases.

There's not one mention of some "international pedophile ring," but just the usual suspects one might expect in a missing child case.
 
This is so shocking. I hope they find that poor little girl!
 
There is an interesting synchronicity in these cases. Madeleine is missing from Praia da Luz and the middle name of the missing child from Spain is Luz. Just an odd bit of information!
 
his morning (1/20) in Correio da Manha - an opinion article by Moita Flores:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia...Canal=93&p=200

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com... 41018&page=6 post #80

Maddie and Mari Luz

Mari Luz disappeared from a public area. Maddie and her siblings were abandoned by their parents [...] they were exposed to chance

Every time that a sequence of violent acts occurs, whether homicides, abductions, or terrorist acts, the first exercise that our common sense memory does, is to search for communions and to make analogies that tend to generalistic judgements that puff up one or another solution. When these facts have a strong impact within the media, the level of certainty that is formulated increases even more. It is therefore hardly surprising, that the disappearance of Mari Luz prompted the search for identifications with the Maddie case, leading to the comfortable and opportunistic theory that there are connections between both cases, both being the victims of a sexual predator.

There do not exist. Although close in time, they are absolutely different cases. Beginning with the space where the facts took place. Maddie disappeared from the room where she was sleeping, alongside her siblings, inside the apartment that belonged to her parents, even if only for the duration of their holidays. Mari Luz disappeared from a public space. The time coordinate is also different. The English girl disappeared during the night, the Spanish girl disappeared during the day. The location is also different. Mari Luz disappears in a street of her neighbourhood - and those who know this area in Huelva, know that we are talking about a poor community, of degraded housing or modest construction, which is inhabited by persons with financial difficulties, where the street is used by its inhabitants as a playground. To play on the streets in Torrejon is a socially normal action, there are neighborhood relationships, the bonds of social mutual recognition are evident. It is normal for a mother to send her child shopping. According to the daily behaviour patterns, it cannot be said that the parents abandoned Mari Luz. That space is the community's territory. Maddie and her siblings were abandoned by their parents, in a foreign country, in a quality resort but, due to their short stay, that was strange to them and to their children. They went out to drink while the children were delivered to chance. But within a safe, controlled unit, without space for an abductor to act naturally. The public space is where abductions take place, by excellence. On streets, in shopping areas, on beaches, or when large crowds meet in open air. The private space, the home, is the territory of love, of violence, of tenderness and of death. But this is not where differences end. Mari Luz's parents immediately communicated the case to authorities. The police heard about Maddie long after the English diplomacy and Sky News did. The parents of Mari Luz expose themselves, in their suffering and distress, to the police and to the media. Maddie's parents chose to make emotional appeals but without a coherent explanation about what happened. They brought in a spokesperson to tell the press what it wanted to hear, but themselves, when it was time, refused to talk and left. The organised web never wanted to discuss the case's details. They chose to insult the PJ and the country that gave them shelter.

The truth, the sad truth, is that two children went missing. One, almost certainly, is dead. The other, the authorities still hope to find her alive. I hope they will. Unfortunately, these are not the first cases, and they will not be the last ones. They are cases from our common life. Unfortunately.
 
You are most welcome friends. Moita Flores is an amazingly smart and experienced LE professional. I really do trust his judgement.
:blowkiss:
 
You know what is really sad.... I saw a media link today that is saying the "police" released the new sketch. Just wrong!

Salem

PS - thanks for the article Colomom. I love it when you have Portguese stuff for us to read!!!!! :)
 
Thanks for the link Claycat. I don't understand this part:

"Francisco Moita Flores is also deeply biased:

He claimed on his Portuguese true-crime TV show that the couple or one of their friends sneaked away from a tapas bar to dispose of the child’s body after she was killed in her holiday apartment.
.

What next-a Madeleine McCann comic book?"

Do you know what the author is trying to say or what point he is trying to make. This does not seem to be so far fetched, given what the media has reported regarding discrepancies in the timeline and other witnesses observations.

Maybe the author is just being sarcastic -but it seems to me that he didn't quite complete his train of thought. Oh well.

I had not seen that site before and found it interesting. Thanks again for the link.

Salem
 
You are most welcome friends. Moita Flores is an amazingly smart and experienced LE professional. I really do trust his judgement.
:blowkiss:

Just curious-do you know him personally or just what you've read?
 
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