A number of people were asking about whether the McCanns physically searched for Madeleine and, if so, for how long. The link below is by Paulo Reis of the Gazeta Digital, drawn from several newspapers. It has a wealth of information, set up in a question and answer format, about the first hours after she disappeared.
http://gazetadigitalpraiadaluz.blogspot.com/2007/09/some-advice-to-penny-wark-correspondent.html
This is about the actual search.
The manager of the resort, John Hill said around 60 staff and guests at the complex had searched until 4.30am while local police notified border police, Spanish police and airports.
The McCanns scoured the lanes above the resort, shouting for her in the dark.
A family friend, Jill Renwick, told GMTV that police activity ground to a halt at 3am. But Mr Hill said this was not true, and that police had been searching with dogs overnight and continued to search today. He said: ‘The police have their dogs in and have been conducting sweeps of the beach and rocky areas very close to the village. There is a criminal investigator here in charge of the situation and about 20 officers.'
Portuguese police yesterday sealed off the three-storey block and forensic specialists fingerprinted the ground floor window of the McCanns' apartment. All airports, ports and border posts have been alerted. But despite a massive search throughout the night by police, sniffer dogs and dozens of holidaymakers, there has been no sign of Madeleine.
By late afternoon the hunt for Maddy had intensified with helicopter crews, firemen and maritime search teams involved. A special criminal investigation team from the Policia Judiciria was travelling down from Lisbon. Sky News weather presenter Jo Wheeler said local police had been giving out maps and telling people where to look. She said: ‘It's very well organised.'
About calling in the police, the question was whether the local police were out of their league.
I had a different information. As the first Police officers to arrive at the crime scene were from Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) I called Lieutenant-Colonel Costa Cabral, head of Public Relations at Guarda Nacional Republicana headquarters, in Lisbon (phone number, email address are here). He told me that first call to GNR precinct at Lagos was received at 10.50 pm, May 3, and only after Police oficcers went there and evaluated the situation, CID in POrtimão was called.
Two GNR officers went to Ocean Club (a 10/15 minutes drive, from Lagos), evaluated the situation and than they called CID in Portimão, 25 km from Praia da Luz. They assembled a team and they were at the crime scene between 11h40, 11h50 pm, May 3.
Was vital time lost?
I think that vital time was lost between the moment Kate McCann realized her daughter was missing, around 10h00 pm, and the moment the first call was received at Police precinct, in Lagos: 50 minutes, time enough for a car to drive from Praia da Luz, following the highway A22, close to the Spanish border (a border that doesn’t exist, because since the Shengen Agreement was signed, countries that are members have no border control posts and can not put a road block in a border without asking, before, permission to do that, to the Shengen authority). Who is responsible for that, I'm not sure, yet.
