Hopelijk het laatste Maddy McCann topic, maandag is d-day.

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Interview with Gonçalo Amaral - IOL Portugal Diário

Maddie: the questions that were missing

IOL PortugalDiário spoke with the former PJ inspector, Gonçalo Amaral and asked some questions

This Monday, the Maddie process will no longer be subject to the judicial secrecy, and can be consulted by who requested to do so. IOL PortugalDiário asks the former inspector Gonçalo Amaral some questions. The goal is to try to shed some light on aspects of the investigation, which was questioned early on

In your book, you write that you believe that Maddie died in the apartment, on the 3rd of May. When did you form the conviction that the child was dead?

It was with the dogs’ work. That was when we were most convinced.

But when did you sum “two plus two”?

That is part of the investigation work and the logics of the investigator. He joins things throughout time. There was atypical behaviour from the witnesses right away, which then transforms into indicia.

Then one realizes that people are lying. How can anyone who has the obligation to cooperate with the police, not do so?! All the person wants is to receive information and all that the person says is a lie?!

Then it was necessary to understand why they lied. Were they afraid of the police? Of its reaction? Of the exposure and abandonment of the children? But when we asked, they said no, and insisted that the little girl had been abducted. This immediately caused strangeness and suspicion.

According to your book, the body was preserved and you have already stated that you suspect it was frozen. If it were so, were could it have been hidden?

Any investigator knows that when there is a group of people that is on holidays, foreigners or not, it is necessary to discover what means they had available to, for example, move the body. But the McCanns and their friends, at that point in time, only knew the route between the beach and the resort. To us, taking into account how little they knew the area, it would be normal that if they did anything, they would move towards the beach. Later on there is the Irish family, which guarantees that they saw a man walking towards the beach, carrying a child. It was something that matched our suspicions.

Does that mean that from your point of view, the body may have remained on the beach?

Yes. But how long was it there for? It is unknown. It is true that the area was searched by the dogs. But some people say that the smell of salted water may lead the dogs not to indicate where the body was. There is also the possibility that the body was taken to another location on that very same night. It is materially possible. The body may have been moved three or more times.

In your book, you also mention political and diplomatic pressures. Was the PJ ever contacted by the British government?

There is an intervention from the British government, even though it was somewhat clumsy. Mainly from the present prime minister, Gordon Brown. He spoke with Kate and with the English authorities that were involved in the investigation. And he also spoke with José Sócrates [Portuguese prime minister]. As far as I know, he never spoke directly with the PJ.

But where did the alleged power of the couple, which you have been suggesting, come from?

On the first night, a dossier about the family was requested, which the English authorities never sent. It was said that they were connected to commissions that emitted opinion reports on nuclear issues, but none of that was ever confirmed officially. Connections to political parties were also mentioned.

Did the British police send information about the McCanns and their friends?

No. They never sent the information that we requested. In fact, they did send only once, financial information. They stated that the couple had a mortgage and that there was no knowledge of any credit or debit cards. How didn’t they have any? The registration of the rental car mentions the card numbers. Concerning the other members of the group, the information was also only that.

Maddie: the leads that remained unexplored

The former inspector speaks about what could have been done in the investigation and says that making Murat an arguido was not a mistake

The PJ’s report dismisses the Smiths’ testimony, due to the hour at which they say they saw the person with the child…

It cannot be that way, because nobody knows for sure at what time the things happened. The reconstitution was not made, therefore it is impossible to know for certain. The employees do not state that Gerry McCann was in the restaurant. They only say that people were seating down and getting up from the table. Their testimony [Smith] is very credible. The way how the person walked, the clumsy manner in which the child was held. It is nothing that sounds invented. Is it evidence? Certainly not. It is information that has to be worked further.

When you were removed from the case, they were planning to return to Portugal. But they desisted from the diligence…

The family should have come to Portugal and they didn’t. It was not done on purpose, but a person cannot be left waiting to be heard over five months. That allowed for, according to what I have heard, the Irish family to be contacted and the target of coercion. Several people went there and they were not from the police. He even had to get himself a lawyer to try to get things into order. Before the police arrived to hear them, several persons had tried to speak to them. And they were not the only ones.

In the book “Maddie Truth of the Lie” you mention a polish lead and you say that it is a loose end…

Nobody cares about that. We should have gone there or made a rogatory letter. They (Polish police) misunderstood the goal. They went looking for the child and we asked for an intervention to control them first. The issue was the photographs. The man never let go of the camera. We wanted to know what photographs were on the camera and if maybe there was one of Maddie.

Despite your theory that the girl died on that evening, wouldn’t there be a possibility that this couple “dispatched” the child within a few hours?

That is already speculation. We inspected the apartment where they were staying. Blood was even found inside the apartment and it was not Maddie’s. We cannot forget that when we intervene, they are not in Portugal anymore.

Could you have gone further with this couple?

We could. And if they were here in Portugal we could have done even more. But then the route of the investigation takes us elsewhere.

Was it a mistake to make Murat an arguido?

No, it was not. A mistake would have been if we had not acted in the manner that we did and he would always remain a suspect without being able to defend himself. Now he has even received a compensation. Have you noticed that nobody has requested the instruction of the process? He could have done that.

Did the Joana case contribute to your removal?

It cannot have contributed. The national director knows that the issue are two social psychopaths – considered by the IML [national institute for forensic medicine] – that lie. The issue is my word and the word of a psychopath.

May the noise of the case have had some influence?

When the first news came out I called for the attention of the director in Faro. What I said at that time was: maybe it’s best for the process to leave Portimão, or for me to step aside from the investigation.

Did you consider the possibility of leaving the Maddie case?

I did. And the feedback that I got was that I had full support.

Don’t you repent that you did not go to the location [on the night of the events]?

There are several ways to coordinate. And one of them is over the phone. No, I have no regrets.

Don’t you think that the result might have been different?

It is possible. At least there would have been someone, and I have a good memory, who would remember how they were dressed that evening.

Maddie: the questions from the readers

IOL PortugalDiário allowed for its readers to ask questions from the former PJ inspector Gonçalo Amaral. Among several that were received, here are the ones that were chosen by the redaction

Could the tests have been made at another laboratory, like for example the FBI’s? (question from Michael Williams)

That is another group decision. And it is decided in order to somehow compromise the other side. There was already that “bad posture”, let’s put it that way, from the English tabloids. The idea was for them to be compromised with the results. But yes, it could have been done at another lab, it didn’t even need to go to the United States, there are some very good ones in Europe.

Were the diligences the same in the cases of Joana and Maddie? (question from Luís Nogueiro)

The first diligences were the same.

How do you comment on the statements from the former President Jorge Sampaio? (question from Fernando Moura das Neves)

I think it is a concern. Deep down, he is not against the publication of the book. Maybe what he meant is that it was not necessary to go this far.

Was anything done about the church where the McCanns spent so much time and to which they had the key? (identified reader)

There were never any motives to question the catholic church. There is no indice that points towards the child being there, at least up to the moment when she was transported in the car. Even because there are no freezers there, or cold spots that would allow for the body to be kept at that location.

Was no cadaver odour or other indicia ever found on the father’s clothes? (identified reader)

No. We don’t know what he was wearing on the night of the disappearance. If it was him who was seen carrying the child, those clothes may even not exist anymore. He went to London and he might have washed it. As a matter of fact, we never knew what anyone of the group was wearing on the evening of the facts.

IOL PortugalDiário remembers that the process of the disappearance of Maddie was archived and that Kate and Gerry McCann and Robert Murat, stopped being arguidos on the 21st of July. Maddie’s parents have made it known that they intend to sue Gonçalo Amaral, following the publication of the book “Maddie: Truth of the Lie”. source: IOL PortugalDiário, 03/04.08.2008

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"The McCanns are keen not to give "a running commentary" on their legal team's trawl through the files, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said today. And they are reluctant to respond to questions raised by journalists allowed access to the documents.

Mr Mitchell said: "The Portuguese Attorney General, in his recent statement, made it very clear indeed that there's absolutely no evidence of any wrongdoing by Kate and Gerry in any way, shape or form and journalists should bear that in mind when they examine the police files. "A lot of this is historical detail drafted by officers who failed to find Madeleine and who quite wrongfully were going down inaccurate lines of supposition and assumption. "We will not be commenting on any of this.

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Op maandag 4 augustus 2008 21:59 schreef Ledikant56 het volgende:
Wanneer zal het hele dossier online te bekijken zijn??

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McCanns: British Media Press Releases or Telepathy?

What is interesting is that the British media is running the exact same story - it makes me wonder if a prepared press release about Mr. John Lowe of the FSS service and that specific e-mail was already done to be served and fed for distribution. That or all the British Journalists have telepathy and decided from 20 000 files to pick that specific one and write a very similar in words and content article. Yeah right, the British Journalists are all telepathes!

Telegraph/Express/Daily Mail/Guardian/Herald (and all the others from the Island)

Scientist issued McCann DNA warning

The officer wrote that Mr McCann was told his daughter's DNA was discovered in the boot of the rented Renault Scenic and behind a sofa in the family's holiday apartment. The notes said: "Confronted with the fact that Madeleine's DNA was gathered from behind the sofa and from the boot of the vehicle, and analysed by a British laboratory, he said he could not explain why this would be."

This contradicted the Forensic Science Service (FSS) expert's opinion that the sample found in the car could not be definitively linked to the little girl.

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the 40-year-olds from Rothley, Leicestershire, said: "You have to ask what the police were trying to achieve by over-presenting evidence that they did not have, and clearly could not claim to have." (...)

The files released yesterday include an email written on September 3 2007 by John Lowe, from the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, warning that it was impossible to conclude whether DNA from the Renault Scenic, hired 25 days after Madeleine disappeared, came directly from the missing girl. Lowe told Detective Superintendent Stuart Prior, head of the British side of the investigation, that the results were "too complex for meaningful interpretation or inclusion".

Lowe wrote: "Let's look at the question that is being asked: 'Is there DNA from Madeleine on the swab?' It would be very simple to say 'yes' simply because of the number of components within the result that are also in her reference sample.

"What we need to consider, as scientists, is whether the match is genuine - because Madeleine has deposited DNA as a result of being in the car or whether Madeleine merely appears to match the result by chance."

The components of the missing girl's DNA profile were not unique to her; in fact some were present among FSS scientists, including himself. He wrote: "We cannot answer the question: is the match genuine, or is it a chance match?"

The warning was passed to the Portuguese police the following day. Despite this, the McCanns were identified as suspects. Mitchell said yesterday: "The search for Madeleine goes on. Kate and Gerry ... know there is a possibility that Madeleine could be dead, and could be long dead. However, there is absolutely no evidence that she is dead." (...)

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Madeleine McCann: Reversed Investigation

Talking with Pinto da Costa – Forensic Medicine Expert 27/07/08

Reversed Investigation

In the book ‘The Truth of The Lie’ Gonçalo Amaral, the PJ coordinator who was removed from the ‘Maddie Case’ has no doubts about the death of the girl. Pinto da Costa follows his considerations.

Specialist in Forensic Medicine, Pinto da Costa supports the thesis followed by Gonçalo Amaral, which points to the death of Madeleine McCann. The professor does not understand the reason why the analyses done by the British laboratory are not conclusive and he manifests the conviction that, soon or later, the truth will be known. The biggest problem, according to the President of the Portuguese Section of International Transparency [sic], resided in the incorrect way the investigation was carried out. Pinto da Costa understands that the death hypothesis should have been pursued since the beginning.

Do you believe in the thesis defended by Gonçalo Amaral, according to which Madeleine McCann died accidentally in the night of her disappearance?

It does seem possible that that has taken place based on the circumstances of the cadaver dogs who signalled [death triggers] the existence of a cadaver and, also of blood with the genetic profile of the girl.

The English Laboratory said the analyses are not conclusive...

What the Laboratory concluded was that, in a total of 19 alleles [genetic markers], 15 are present in the sample examined. In Portugal, in order to guarantee the authenticity of progeny [descendants, children], that is, in the paternity tests we use 15 alleles. Therefore, the results obtained by the British Laboratory are extremely significant. Thus, they seem, pertinent in the consideration that the child could have died in the apartment. Another hypothesis is that she could have died outside and then the body was moved inside [the apartment].

Isn’t there, in Portugal, technical capacity to do this kind of analyses?

Yes, they could have been done in Portugal. I believe that either the Scientific Police Laboratory of the Judiciary Police or the various Forensic Medicine Institutes have the conditions to perform them. That did not happen possibly for the reason that the persons at issue were of English nationality.

The explanation given by Gonçalo Amaral, that the corpse was frozen or preserved in cold, for more than 20 days, also seems plausible?

What I believe is that the body was not totally decomposed. There are situations when the cadaver is preserved more or less without adding any substance, like ice, for example. Besides, we should not forget that this is the body of a child and not of an adult, who decays more rapidly.

Do you believe the Truth will be discovered?

Yes, when all entities involved are at a distance. The midwives fight, the truths are discovered. [Portuguese Proverb: "Zangam-se as comadres, sabem-se as verdades."]. The process has so many contradictions that, it is impossible to have one truth.

And what exactly is at the origin of so many contradictions?

The fact that the investigation started incorrectly. It should have started with the exaggeration of the positive and with the assumption that the child was killed. Even because the existence of maltreatment is a reality and in these cases, the number one suspect is the father, not the stepfather, the uncle or any other person. At another side, the scene should have been put immediately in custody to avoid its violation, because the examination of the scene is fundamental. The parents presented the abduction hypothesis, but those who do a criminal investigation have to have their ‘heads cold’ [‘cuca fria’- meaning open and objective mind], as they say in Brazil, and cannot deviate from the essential. The investigation was done in reverse.

Source: Jornal de Notícias, paper edition - 26 July 2008

Note: Professor Pinto da Costa was the Director of the Portuguese Forensic Institute [INML] for several years. by Joana Morais

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"Less clear would be the analyses on the hair that was found in the car boot. The tests that were performed on those did not arrive at the same time as the rest. Until the date when Amaral left, there were no results. The hair samples were requested from the lab, but it “didn’t want to let go” of the samples"

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"on page 183 (chapter 19), a "failure" from the FSS is mentioned: the analyses on the hair samples are missing. Stuart Prior contacts the FSS on the PJ's request. The analyses had not been done yet. The PJ does not only want to know whether the hair belongs to M - above everything else, they want to knwo whether they came from a living or a dead person. The FSS is in no condition to reply to the latter; only to the former. English colleagues who are present at the meeting, raise the possibility of sending the hair to a European lab that is able to clarify the issue: hair from a living or a dead person. The FSS is not prepared to let go of the hair samples. They inform the PJ, via Stuart Prior, that a process of comparison of hair colour would establish whether the hair belonged to M. The next step would be to identify the DNA - which never happened.

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A personal comment

"Among the motives to consider that the couple had no responsibilities in their daughter’s disappearance, the PM points out, in the archiving dispatch, that none of them was in the apartment when the child disappeared."

The above is an indirect quote from the Public Ministry's archiving dispatch that was appended to the process files, a quote taken from an article that was published by Sol, and sourced from Lusa.

I rarely comment on the case on this blog - my posts are mainly dedicated to translations of articles that appear in the Portuguese press, regardless of their contents, because I firmly believe that only by making information generally available, can readers make up their own minds, instead of being shepherded by the media in one or another direction.

There have been many moments, throughout the last 15 months, that have made me feel sad, discouraged, helpless – ultimately impotent to really help in finding a missing child that, for one reason or another, has concentrated our attention and gripped our emotions.

But I honestly cannot remember a moment that even comes close to making me feel as low as I felt yesterday evening, when I read the above mentioned quote.

Never mind that the whole archiving dispatch reads more like a work from a defence lawyer than from a prosecutor.

Never mind that the head prosecutor did not sign the dispatch, leaving the job up to a second in rank.

Never mind that the process is archived with more open questions than answers, and important diligences are dismissed.

What I cannot accept, as a Portuguese citizen, in a case of manifest public interest, is that the Public Ministry holds information that the PJ acknowledges not to have been able to establish, and does not share that information in the process.

The Public Ministry knows the exact time at which Madeleine disappeared.

It also knows where the parents were at that moment.

And finally, it sets one of the most innovative precedents in legal terms, that I had ever heard of: as long as you’re at least 100 metres away from your child, no matter what happens to the minor, it’s not your responsibility.

Brilliant. by astro

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Op dinsdag 5 augustus 2008 20:33 schreef livelink het volgende:
Suko, dank je wel voor je vele bijdrages hier. Madeleine is niet vergeten, mede dankzij jou

Ik hoop dat er snel nieuwe, baandoorbrekende ontwikkelingen zullen zijn die jou uit je lurkstand halen en die Madeleine recht doen.

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AMSTERDAM - Vrijgegeven documenten laten zien dat een klein meisje dat zichzelf ´Maddie´ noemde, is gezien in Amsterdam tijdens de verdwijning van Madeleine McCann. Het meisje zou gezegd hebben dat ze was weggehaald tijdens de vakantie, meldt de Daily mail.
Een 41-jarige Nederlandse winkelmedewerker Ana Stam heeft gezegd met Maddy te hebben gesproken. Het meisje zou in mei vorig jaar samen met een man, een vrouw en twee andere kinderen haar winkel zijn binnengekomen. Stam verklaarde in haar getuigenverklaring tegenover de Nederlandse politie dat de man er niet uitzag als een aardig persoon en waarschijnlijk Portugees sprak. De vrouw sprak Engels en vertelde dat ze een klein circus in Frankrijk hadden.

Het jonge meisje vroeg vervolgens of Stam wist waar haar moeder was. Toen zij daarop antwoorde dat haar moeder achter in de winkel was, zei 'Maddie' dat die vrouw niet haar moeder was, maar een vreemdeling die haar van haar mama had weggenomen. Volgens Stam leek het meisje erg op Madeleine McCann, op de haarkleur na.

Ook werden voor het eerst beelden vrijgegeven van een beveiligingscamera in een pompstation in de buurt van Praia da Luz waar de McCanns op vakantie waren. De foto is enkele uren na de verdwijning genomen.

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Op dinsdag 5 augustus 2008 20:33 schreef livelink het volgende:
Suko, dank je wel voor je vele bijdrages hier. Madeleine is niet vergeten, mede dankzij jou

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Op dinsdag 5 augustus 2008 22:51 schreef paddy het volgende:

[..]

http://www.telegraaf.nl/b(...)sterdam__.html?p=4,2
nog meer linkjes

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Op woensdag 6 augustus 2008 00:18 schreef Loedertje het volgende:

[..]

De houding van het meisje op die camerabeelden is anders, de scheiding in het haar van het kleine meisje op de beelden is niet die van het verdwenen meisje, het meisje is zelfs iets groter en ik begrijp dan ook niet waarom deze beelden opeens in de krant verschijnen als zijnde *dit zou Maddy na de verdwijning kunnen zijn*

Kul-verhaal.

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Op dinsdag 5 augustus 2008 20:33 schreef livelink het volgende:
Suko, dank je wel voor je vele bijdrages hier. Madeleine is niet vergeten, mede dankzij jou

Ik hoop dat er snel nieuwe, baandoorbrekende ontwikkelingen zullen zijn die jou uit je lurkstand halen en die Madeleine recht doen.

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Op dinsdag 5 augustus 2008 21:20 schreef yyentle het volgende:

[..]

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Op dinsdag 5 augustus 2008 23:46 schreef schatje het volgende:

[..]

En Kahaarin natuurlijk ook.

Ik hoop ook op baandoorbrekende artikelen.

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The McCann Case: A “Mystery girl” and Mr. Clarence doubts

“Mystery girl in Maddy hunt” was today's headline of the Evening Standard. “The CCTV picture taken hours after she vanished from Algarve villa. Why did police keep it secret?”, asks the newspaper. The picture was taken on May 4 and PJ was informed of an alleged sighting of Madeleine.

The same day, PJ inspectors J.C. Franco and C. Lucas, went to that gas station (from GALP, a Portuguese company) at A22, a highway that crosses Algarve, from East to West. The two inspectors, according to the report signed by them and included in the DVD files made available to journalists, got the CCTV images and showed Madeleine's picture to the employees of the shop.

The employees confirmed that the girl they saw, a few hours before (11:10 am) was not Madeleine McCann. Images were viewed and analysed by PJ technicians and the result was negative – it was not Madeleine. The two PJ inspectors went also to the gas station on the opposite side of the highway (in the West-East direction), and the result was the same. They did it also at another Galp station, near Loulé, with the same results.

"Just as a curiosity, the Metro refers that these images were seen by the McCann, who also ruled out the possibility of being her daughter. Anyway, the Evening Star even wrote that “it is not clear if the image released today was thoroughly checked by Portuguese officers.” Mr. Clarence Mitchell is quoted by the newspaper: "Was that sighting followed up and ruled out properly? We just don't know."

PJ received a second information, the same day – May 4 – about a blonde girls seen in another shop, at another gas station. This one was a Repsol gas station, at Vale do Paraíso, near Albufeira. PJ Inspector A. Silva went there, got the CCTV images, talked with employees and it was easy to conclude it couldn't be Madeleine. As the PJ inspector wrote in his report (available at the DVD given to journalists) there was no positive identification and the child had very long hair, clearly visible. As hair grows at a rate of around 1 cm every month, Madeleine couldn't have a so long hair, on May 4, he wrote. The Daily Mail published the picture with a caption: “Clues: Another possible sighting contained in the file”... Duarte Levy and Paulo Reis

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AMSTERDAMSE VERMOEDT DAT ZE ONTVOERDE MEISJE ZAG

„Ik hou er serieus rekening mee dat ze het is.” Anna Stam, werkneemster van een Amsterdamse feestwinkel, loopt inmiddels al een jaar rond met de gedachte dat ze oog in oog heeft gestaan met de vermiste peuter Madeleine McCann, ofwel Maddie en haar ontvoerders.
Uit het door de Portugese politie vrijgegeven onderzoeksdossier blijkt dat op aangeven van Stam in mei vorig jaar een uitvoerig onderzoek is gestart naar de vermissing van Maddie door de Amsterdamse politie. Na haar aangifte op 13 juni werden bewakingsbeelden onderzocht, de kassarol bekeken en een compositietekenaar naar Anna gestuurd. Aangezien de opnameapparatuur beelden automatisch wist na een week, was de ontmoeting met het meisje niet meer terug te halen. Op 18 juni is het rapport naar Portugal gestuurd. Uiteindelijk heeft het allemaal niets opgeleverd.
Voor Anna Stam resteert momenteel alleen nog een onbehaaglijk gevoel. „Was het nieuws maar eerder bekend geworden, dan…” vraagt ze zich vertwijfeld af. Tijdens het gesprek toont ze zich weinig enthousiast over alle plotse media-aandacht. Ze hoopte alleen maar dat het vervullen van haar burgerplicht kon helpen. „Ik heb dan ook de politie gebeld toen ik rondliep met mijn verhaal en niet de pers.”
Maddie werd op 3 mei vermist en op 8 mei 2007 bereikte het nieuws de Nederlandse media in volle omvang. Vlak na de verdwijning, nog voor de media over de zaak berichtten, kwam er bij Anna ineens een stel met twee kinderen binnen, met nog een meisje van een jaar of vijf. „Op zich vielen ze niet op, behalve dan dat het meisje iets apart liep van de rest. Het werd wel vreemd toen dat meisje ineens in perfect Engels vroeg of ik haar moeder had gezien”, zegt Stam.


• De nuchtere werkneemster van een Amsterdamse feestwinkel Anna Stam denkt Maddie vorig jaar juni te hebben gezien. Ze was met haar ’ouders’ en nog twee kinderen in de winkel toen ze aan Anna vroeg: „Have you seen my mummy?”


Op de vraag ’Have you seen my mummy?’ antwoordde Anna het meisje dat haar moeder achter in de winkel was, waarop het meisje antwoordde dat dat haar moeder niet was. ’She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy.’ En: ’They took me from my holiday’, had ze Anna ook nog toevertrouwd. „Ik vroeg hoe ze heette, waarop ik Maggy verstond. Toen ik vroeg of het Maggy was, corrigeerde ze me dat het Maddie was.”


Bij de Amsterdamse Anna Stam gingen toen de eerste berichten over de ontvoering van Maddie McCann in de kranten en op televisie verschenen nog niet direct alle alarmbellen rinkelen. „Ik heb er eerst nog een paar weken mee rondgelopen. Het meisje had donkerblond haar en het ging in de pers constant om een blond meisje. Ook viel me het stukje in haar oog niet op (Maddie heeft een opvallend vlekje in haar oog, red.).”
Toch liet de gedachte Anna niet meer los, waarna ze uiteindelijk toch naar de politie stapte. De werkneemster van een van de grootste feestartikelzaken van Europa werd meteen serieus genomen. „Ik ben daar geweest, ze zijn hier gekomen. Er zijn compositietekeningen gemaakt. Het lijkt nu alsof er in Portugal niets mee is gebeurd en ik vind het vooral vervelend dat de ouders nooit mijn verklaringen hebben doorgekregen. Belachelijk.”
Volgens Anna kocht het stel dat het kleine meisje bij zich had voor een ’aanzienlijk’ bedrag aan spullen in de winkel. In haar verklaring bij de politie stelt ze dat het om 237 euro gaat. „Pruiken en maskers. Maar niet het soort waarmee je je kunt vermommen op straat. De pruiken waren heel opzichtig en de maskers een soort halloweenmaskers”, verduidelijkt Anna.
„Ze wilden graag met creditcard betalen en ze drongen nog sterk aan. Ze moesten namelijk weer meteen verder reizen. Ik kreeg dan ook niet de indruk dat ze op vakantie waren in de buurt. Toen ik duidelijk maakte dat we geen creditcard accepteren, kwam de vrouw een dag later alleen terug om cash te betalen.”
De mogelijke ontvoerders spraken onderling Portugees, tegen de kinderen Frans en tegen de medewerkster Engels. Maddie mocht vrij rondlopen in de winkel. „Het viel me wel op dat ze weinig emoties toonde. Normaal zijn kinderen vrolijk en enthousiast in onze winkel. Ik bood haar een ballon aan, maar die wilde ze niet.”


De korte kennismaking met het kleine meisje heeft Anna nooit meer losgelaten. „We spraken er laatst nog over, hoe het toch met haar zou zijn. Ik hoop alleen maar dat de zaak nog wordt opgelost”, en naar lang aarzelen: „Ik denk dat ze nog leeft.”

Hiaten
Clarence Mitchell, de woordvoerder van de Madeleines ouders Gerry en Kate McCann, zegt dat de verklaring van Anna Stam voor hen ook ’nieuw’ is. Hoewel Mitchell haar getuigenis serieus neemt, zijn er wel een paar hiaten. „Zo is het opmerkelijk dat Madeleine zichzelf ’Maddie’ noemde. Dat deed ze nooit. Ze noemde zichzelf altijd Madeleine.”
Wel zegt Mitchell dat de verklaring van Anna Stam ’net zo serieus wordt genomen en nagetrokken als alle andere tips’. „Onze privédetectives reizen op korte termijn naar Amsterdam om haar te spreken.”
Volgens Mitchell heeft de Portugese politie weinig gecommuniceerd met Kate en Gerry over het onderzoek naar de verdwijning van hun dochter. „We kwamen er pas achter dat Madeleine zou zijn gezien in Amsterdam nadat het onderzoeksdossier openbaar is gemaakt. De Portugezen hebben ons in elk geval niets verteld.”

quote:

Op woensdag 6 augustus 2008 23:04 schreef Tmaatje het volgende:
Kahaarin & Suko bedankt voor jullie info; goed becommentarieerd en goed doordacht, ik ben benieuwd wat het dossier nog aan informatie bevat waar de internetgemeenschap iets mee kan, tenslotte heeft die minder last van politieke belangen...

quote:

Irishman says that he saw a man carrying a child on the evening of the disappearance. The PJ dismisses the deposition because the father was at the restaurant. But the employees fail to say who is who in the entries and exits by the group that evening

The McCanns contacted the Irish Smith family, which says they saw Gerry, to a certainty of 60 to 80 percent, carrying a little girl towards the beach, on the evening when Maddie disappeared. But the contact was apparently made with the purpose of drawing a photofit of the alleged abductor, according to what the Irishman told the police in his country.

In the Maddie case process, this contact was reportedly made by Brian Kennedy, the Scottish millionaire who financially helped the McCanns in the search for their daughter. The Irish officer who questions M. Smith, in Dublin, writes in his communication to the Portuguese police that Smith refused to participate in the making of the photofit and that he did not tell the story of what he saw to the McCanns’ friend.

The moment in which Maddie’s parents contact M. Smith is not clear. But the Irish witness only refers it to the authorities when he is heard on the 23rd of January, after seeing the images on television that livened his memory, on the 9th of September: when Gerry leaves the plane in the United Kingdom and turns his head down, M. Smith identifies the gesture as similar to what he saw in Praia da Luz four months earlier.

What woke up Smith’s memory?

Days after this ‘click’, the Irishman told the Leicestershire police about his suspicions; the witness also stated that it might have been the way in which Gerry transported one of the twins that made him feel that the man who he saw near the Ocean Club could have been Maddie’s father.

Smith even clarifies that he discussed that perception with the other members of his family, who also saw the man carrying the child in Praia da Luz, but only his wife had the same feeling. Nevertheless, she did not want to give a deposition.

M. Smith also tells that he was harassed by the media that published false declarations in his name, and that at least six newspapers apologized. The Irish policeman who led the questioning refers that he does not believe that Smith is trying to please the press, given the fact that he is, in his own opinion, an authentic person and known locally as a very decent man.

It is remembered that the alleged abductor was seen by the entire family, and it was the conviction of the three members, who were heard by the PJ on the 26th of May 2007, that the child was Madeleine. The street where the encounter took place is approximately five metres wide.

PJ drops lead?

After M. Smith contacted the British authorities, the Portuguese police is informed about this new perception from the Irishman. On the 27th of September, the PJ contacts the witness and confirms the information, as well as his availability to come to Portugal, once more, to give a new statement. A trip that never happened.

After Gonçalo Amaral left, on the 2nd of October, the PJ requests a new deposition from the witness through the Irish police. This only takes place four months later, at the end of January, and arrives into the PJ’s hands on the 19th of February.

But the Smiths’ witness statement was dismissed by the Portuguese authorities, because it was established that at the time of the sighting, Gerry was at the Tapas restaurant. According to the process, this information was corroborated by the friends of the couple and was not contested by the employees, who are unable to identify who is who and at what time the elements from the group left and returned to the restaurant.

It is also remembered that the Public Ministry recognizes contradictions in the depositions by the friends, and considered that the reconstitution would be a very important diligence, in order to clarify the incoherencies.

Without indicia that the McCann couple committed any crime, the Public Ministry ordered the archiving of the process. On the 21st of July, Kate and Gerry, along with Robert Murat, saw the arguido status lifted. source: IOL Portugal Diário, 06.08.2008 by astro

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The work of the dogs described by their coach Jornal de Notícias Gelezen op mccannfiles.com

07 August 2008 - 00h30m Thanks to 'carilina' for translation]

They were primarily responsible for the turnaround in the process, at a time when the Judicial Police had already left behind the assumption that Madeleine had been abducted. The dog that detects the smell of corpses "Eddie", and the one that detects blood "Keela", were "very excited" when they entered the apartment 5A of the Ocean Club, which was occupied by the couple McCann during the holidays.

Although the images will only be viewed in September, in the dossier of the case you can read the report from Martin Grime, an expert on dogs used in research and an adviser to the FBI, who says he "noticed in the first instance", as soon as they entered the apartment, that the dogs "were very excited", and he as a coach "understands their body language."

He explains that Eddie was the first one to come into action. When he entered the apartment "he caught an odour that he recognises". Martin noted that the animal walked the apartment in an attempt to locate the odor, and that he discovered it in the room behind the sofa. At that time, he began barking. Keela was the second to come into action. "She makes an indication to me only when she has found human blood, only human blood," said the expert, ensuring that "there must be something physical there, so that she can warn me."

In the process, the Prosecutor notes that "any trace, even if invisible to the naked eye, collected using this type of dog, must be subject to expert analysis in an accredited laboratory."

quote:

Afbeelding photofit

Suspects – Portraits by Lance Purser and Derek Flack

His name is Barrington Godfrey Norton, he is a music teacher and at the time resided inside a white van next to Praia da Luz, in the Algarve

The two photofits that are included in the process concerning the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are of the same person, and according to Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator of the case, belong to an individual who was identified as Barrington Godfrey Norton a few days after the witness statements from Derek Flack and Lance Purser.

These two English citizens told the Portuguese police that they had seen a suspicious man near the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine McCann disappeared from. “We identified the person and discarded the information”, Gonçalo Amaral told CM, referring to Flack and Purser.

The first portrait appeared with Derek Flack, aged 64, who described a man of Caucasian race, dark complexion, around 1,75 metres and aged between 25 and 35, according to the deposition that was collected by the Portuguese police. In the same document, it can be read that Derek stated he could not identify the individual if he saw him again. The second portrait originated with Lance Purser, who saw a man in the surroundings of the same location where Derek saw the suspect. The description that was made mentions a Caucasian man, of dark complexion, aged approximately 35 and 1,70 m tall.

Based on these statements, the Portuguese police managed to identify the suspect, and questioned Barrington Norton on the 8th of May 2007. The music professor admitted to having been in the area of the Ocean Club, where he delivered a curriculum and picked up dinner.

English press

‘The Sun’ – ‘Why did the police hide the two portraits?’ is the title of the English paper, which cites the two citizens concerning the testimonies.

‘Daily Mail’ – This newspaper also presents the two portraits, and it can be read that the Portuguese police never revealed them to parents Kate and Gerry.

‘Guardian’ – Apart from the photofits, the newspaper mentions the testimony of a Dutch woman who reportedly spoke to an English child, aged 2 or 3, who supposedly was named Maddie.

Musician – The two photofits picture Barrington Norton, an Englishman who had been in Portugal for five years and slept in his white van. The GNR inspected his vehicle and didn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

...............................................................

Direct speech – Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the process

“Description without value”

Correio da Manhã – Why did you never reveal these two photofits?

Gonçalo Amaral – We didn’t divulge those photos because we cannot go on revealing photofit after photofit. Even more so because we identified the person and it was a musician who was perfectly known in the area. It made no sense.

But were the testimonies by Derek Flack and Lance Purser credible?

There is the testimony from two English persons who reportedly saw a suspect in the surroundings of the Ocean Club. That person was identified by us. The description by one of them ends up being of no value, because at a certain point he says he could not identify him if he saw him.

There is now a witness in Holland who says that she spoke to Maddie in a shop?

I think it is strange that persons spoke to the child and she said her name was Maddie. To us, the parents always said that she did not answer to Maddie, but only to Madeleine. source: Correio da Manhã, 07.08.2008, paper edition

quote:

Op donderdag 7 augustus 2008 11:43 schreef SunChaser het volgende:

[..]

Het is een algemeen bekend psychologisch verschijnsel dat hoe langer het duurt des te meer getuigen er dingen onbewust bijverzinnen. Ze zag Maddy voor 8 mei maar deed op 13 juni pas aangifte. Op 8 mei barstte het mediaspektakel los, had ze 5 weken om zichzelf wijs te maken dat t kind zei dat ze maddy heette en was ontvoerd.

quote:

Op donderdag 7 augustus 2008 12:43 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

Thnx!

Oh en alle registers gaan open, alle verdachtmakingen worden de kast uit getrokken, van Amsterdam naar belgie:

http://news.be.msn.com/bi(...)p-documentid=9149894
[..]

quote:

Why Madeleine is dead - written by Jailhouselawyer

Madeleine Beth McCann died or was killed in Apartment 5A between 6 and 8.30pm on 3May 2007. Madeleine was definitely dead before Kate and Gerry McCann left the apartment and arrived at the Tapas bar at 8.40pm. Whilst the McCanns have stated that an abductor must have taken Madeleine in between one of the checks, this is obviously false. Because, it is obvious that the McCanns had to fit in the so-called abductor in between one of the checks to give the story any kind of plausibility. Having to squeeze the so-called abductor into a tight time frame, a window of opportunity, has given the McCanns a logistical problem.

According to the McCanns, at 9.30pm Matthew Oldfield supposedly offers to check on Madeleine and the twins. However, there is something wrong about this account. Matthew Oldfield states that he did not see Madeleine. What good is a check to see if everything is alright which fails to check on Madeleine? He would be failing in his duty towards the McCanns if the scenario was genuine. Why didn’t he see Madeleine? Obviously, she wasn’t asleep in her bed. There are two factors here. One is that Matthew Oldfield was not prepared to state he saw Madeleine. It would mean he was the last person to see Madeleine alive, and make him a prime suspect when the police arrived, and mean he would be accused of perverting the course of justice if discovered to be lying. The second factor is that if he claimed he saw Madeleine, then it would cast doubt upon Jane Tanner’s alleged sighting of the abductor at 9.15pm.

It was difficult enough for the McCanns to introduce an abductor into the plot. To give this version of events any credibility whatsoever, it was better to have someone within the group “see” the abductor. This could not have been done by someone outside of the group as it would have compromised their security if the witness cracked under police questioning. Therefore Jane Tanner drew the short straw, and claimed to have seen the abductor at 9.15pm. This means that Madeleine was missing before 9.30pm. It also means that Madeleine was missing before 9.15pm. Gerry McCann claims to have seen Madeleine asleep at 9.05pm. If he is to be believed, this means that an abductor only had 10 minutes between 9.05 and 9.15pm to kidnap Madeleine.

What spoils this plan for the McCanns is the unexpected arrival upon the scene of Jeremy Wilkins. So, the abductor sees Gerry McCann, Jeremy Wilkins and Jane Tanner in the street and decides to just pop into Apartment 5A and abduct Madeleine? One of the McCanns favourite words of scorn is ludicrous, which is what we are expected to believe. It was a shock for Gerry McCann to leave the apartment and unexpectedly to bump into Jeremy Wilkins. It would not have been sociable had Gerry McCann just ignored Jeremy Wilkins therefore he had to stop and talk to him for a few minutes. In reality, Gerry McCann did not see Madeleine asleep in her bed at 9.05pm, this was because she was already dead by 8.30pm.

It is unlikely Madeleine died as a result of an overdose or overreaction to a sedative. This is because she would have been in bed appearing to be asleep, and the McCanns would not have noticed until later that night or the next morning. It is more likely that Madeleine was killed between 6 and 8pm. And, that the meeting in the Tapas bar was hastily arranged.

quote:

Dossier Madeleine McCann openbaar
De Portugese autoriteiten hebben het politiedossier over de verdwijning van het Britse meisje Madeleine McCann openbaar gemaakt. Journalisten kunnen een aanvraag doen om de bijna 30.000 pagina's op dvd te laten zetten. Zo'n 30 media hadden om inzage gevraagd.

Het onderzoek naar de verdwijning van het driejarige meisje werd vorige maand stopgezet, omdat geen aanwijzingen konden worden gevonden voor een misdrijf. Madeleine McCann verdween in mei 2007 uit een hotelkamer in de Portugese Algarve. Haar ouders begonnen daarop een internationale campagne om hulp.

quote:

Op woensdag 6 augustus 2008 11:55 schreef kahaarin het volgende:
Hey allemaal!

_*bloos* Dankjulliewel.....

Suko, waar we al bang vooe waren dus, alle sightings worden nu weer uit de kast getrokken en volledig geanalyseerd, Amsterdam nu dus, als dit gesprek echt heeft plaatsgevonden mag die mevrouw Stam zich de ogen uit de kop schamen, wel heel toevallig dat ook zij met naam en toenaam in de pers verschijnt.
Ik dacht dat we de tijd van smoke-screens nu wel hadden gehad.

Paddy bedoelt deze denk ik:

[ afbeelding ]

Dit meisje heeft langer haar en lijkt me groter dan Maddy, die was op moment van verdwijning nog maar bijna 4 jaar oud, dit meisje is wel al 6 denk ik, als je haar vergelijkt met de man is ze te groot voor een kleuter van bijna 4.

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Op vrijdag 8 augustus 2008 00:38 schreef paddy het volgende:

[..]

Kwam een user mee van NWS
Dossier Madeleine McCann openbaar

quote:

Op vrijdag 8 augustus 2008 11:48 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]


[..]

http://www.yorkshirepost.(...)-released.4371461.jp

En ze heeft nu geholpen met een schets van de 'verdachten'.
Ben benieuwd.

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Judge refuses tappings on the McCann couple Correio da Manhã

Investigation - the only fingerprint on the window belongs to Kate

^{Text: Manuela Guerreiro 07 August 2008 Thanks to 'astro' for translation}

The criminal instruction judge did not allow for ambient tapping in the villa in Praia da Luz where the McCann moved into in July last year, a short time after Maddie's disappearance. The Judiciária wanted to listen to the conversations between Kate and Gerry in a search for the possible involvement of Maddie's parents in the disappearance of the child, which took place on the 3rd of May 2007.

The McCanns moved into the Vista do Mar villa, in the Luz Parque area, when they were not arguidos yet. They only left the house on the 9th of September, when they returned to England.

The request from the Judiciária took into account a series of indicia that is mentioned in the process, including the only fingerprint that was found on the Ocean Club apartment's window of the bedroom where Maddie slept, and where she allegedly was taken through. That fingerprint belongs to Kate McCann.

The hand mark – thumb and indicator – may indicate that Kate opened it. The direction and the position of the fingers on the window indicate that it was opened towards the left. This is one more lead that was abandoned on the way, despite the glaring contradiction with Madeleine’s mother’s witness statement.

Kate is the only person who refers that the window was open. As there are no signs of a break-in or of the presence of strangers, the Polícia Judiciária looked for traces of gloves, which weren't found either. The only marking is Kate McCann's hand, given the fact that the window had been cleaned on the day before the child's disappearance by the employee who carried out the cleaning of the apartment.

In the statement that she gave to the Portuguese police right after her daughter's disappearance, Kate clearly refers that "the door to the children's bedroom was completely open, the window was also open, the shutters were up and the curtains were open, while she is certain that she had closed everything."

The fingerprint was registered and photographed by the Polícia Judiciária’s investigators and may indicate that Madeleine McCann's parents simulated the abduction crime.

.................................................

Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the process: "It was a very important means of evidence"

Correio da Manhã – Was it important for the investigation to listen to Kate and Gerry's conversations?

Gonçalo Amaral – It was a very important means of evidence, the last opportunity that we had to find out what they said. Even in order to set some doubts aside. The judge refused and we accepted it.

Why is Kate McCann's fingerprint relevant? Wasn't it supposed to be there?

It is the only fingerprint on the window, when she said herself that she never opened it. As there are no signs of a break-in and no signs of gloves and the window had been cleaned a short time before, it becomes relevant, mainly when they defend the theory that an abductor went through the window.

There is a denunciation in the process concerning the possibility that Maddie was abducted on demand from a Belgian paedophile ring. Did the PJ follow that lead?

Everything was analysed. It was treated in the same manner as all the other denunciations. We investigated.
----------------------------------

The mysterious photos 24horas

Gerry said he made copies with Maddie's image on the night of the crime

^{Text: Luis Maneta 07 August 2008 Thanks to 'carilina' for translation}

The PJ analysed the printers at the Ocean Club and in Praia da Luz and came to the conclusion that the McCanns could never have printed the photos of their daughter there.

A set of 4 photos that the McCanns gave to the GNR on the night of the disppearance is one of the major mysteries in the process that was closed by the MP. Many references are made to these pics in the 17-volume dossier, because the type of photographs and the paper were they are printed – in a size 15.3 cm x 10.3 cm – is not "convenient for transportation" says inspector Tavares de Almeida from the PJ in Portimao, in a request he sent to the Scientific Police Lab to analyze the photos.

Inspector Joan Carlos says it was 'strange' that the family was in posession of those photos because on that night they couldn't have had the possibility to make that type of photos in that size. The PJ always wanted to know who took the photos, where they were taken and why they were taken to the Algarve.

When Kate was made arguida on Sep 7, she was questioned about the ways they were making known the face of Madeleine, just hours after her disappearance, but Kate didn't answer. Some hours later, the same question was asked to Gerry, who said the photos had been taken with a digital camera and printed in the reception of the Ocean Club through the initiative of Russell O'Brien. Gerry was making reference to hundreds of photographs that were being printed in A4 sheets in the printer of the Ocean Club as was confirmed by the manager of the complex, John Hill.

But the photos that are intriguing for the PJ are the others. The set of 4 photos that the McCanns gave to the GNR on the night of the disppearance. Gerry declared that he was not the one that had given the photos to the GNR. But the dossier contains also declarations from Sílvia Baptista, responsible for the Ocean Club who says she saw the father of Madeleine give the photos, on a poster-type paper to one of the officers of the GNR. "They were practically all similar" said Baptista. The PJ made a research of the printers available in Luz, but the sort of paper the photos of Maddie were printed on, could not be found anywhere. Nelson Costa, one of the officers in the GNR who was called on the night of 3 May, was perplexed. He told the PJ he saw several pictures of Maddie, some A4 size and others with the size of a poster, that 'couldn't have been made' in the reception of the Ocean Club.

GNR got the pics

Antonio Duarte, a commander for the GNR in Lagos, got the mysterious photos. Four equal images, in sets of two, printed on photographic paper, 15.3 cm x 10.3 cm. The military declared to the PJ that he got the photos at 2 a.m. on the 4th of May – four hours after the disappearance was reported. Antonio Duarte said he got the photos when he was sitting in a vehicle when trying to get identification data of the McCanns, but that he cannot recall who gave him the photos. He declares he's got 'an idea' that he saw Gerry McCann but that he cannot 'guarantee' that Gerry was the one that gave him the pics. Nonetheless he’s quite sure that the pics "could not have been revealed / printed on the premises of the Ocean Club".

Text under the accompanying picture: The McCanns had 4 copies of this picture, on photographic paper, and this fact intrigued the PJ, because Gerry said that the copies had been made in the Ocean Club, and they were not made there.

quote:

Nanny criticises the McCanns 24horas

^{Text: Carlos Tomas 06 August 2008 Thanks to 'astro' for translation}

Katriona (sic) Baker, a British citizen who worked as a nanny at the tourist resort Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, Algarve, and cared for missing Madeleine McCann for several days, does not spare criticism towards the child’s parents in the statement that she gave to the English authorities.

The nanny said that she only looked after the little girl during the day and remembers that Maddie cried a lot during a boat ride in Praia da Luz and screamed "I'm scared, I'm scared", failing to understand the reasons for the fact.

And she adds: she says that as soon as she heard about the disappearance of the child she ran through all of the places where Maddie usually went when she stayed at the crèche that exists at the Ocean Club; she guarantees that she saw neither Kate nor Gerry that evening, only seeing them again on the following Saturday (Maddie went missing on Thursday). One of the questions that the PJ asked from Kate, and to which there was no answer, was related to the reasons why she stayed at home while the searches were carried out.

quote:

Op vrijdag 8 augustus 2008 13:29 schreef kahaarin het volgende:

[..]

In dit verhaal kun je lezen welke 'sightings' er allemaal in Nederland en Belgie zijn geweest, idd niemand die het oog noemt, Maddy is zowat half Europa door geweest als je dit leest en niemand die de politie heeft gewaarschuwd of moord en brand is gaan roepen op het moment zelf?
[..]

Hier wordt zelfs gesuggereerd dat het om een Nederlands stel gaat.
Dat beeld wat door Katriona van de McCanns wordt geschetst lijkt me wat meer richting de waarheid te gaan dan wat de pers in GB ons wil doen geloven......
[..]

Spin, spin, spin, altijd leuk om woorden in de mond van anderen te leggen.....
[..]

Kijk, dit is allemaal wel leuk en aardig maar zegt natuurlijk niets over wat er later is gebeurd, die nannies hadden het natuurlijk druk met de kinderen en hebben niet als een waakhond de omgeving in de gaten gehouden.
Er is hun niets opgevallen omdat het natuurlijk allemaal zo normaal ging, de kinderen zijn een dagje naar het strand geweest, toch wel weer typisch dat dit zo belicht wordt en er benadrukt is dat er niets aan de hand was.

Wat mij zo opvalt is dat er nadrukkelijk wordt gesproken over een pedo-ring en dat ze op bestelling is geroofd, dit nu na een tip van iemand aan Scotland Yard, waarom nu pas? Waarom is dit niet eerder naar boven gekomen?
[..]

quote:

McCanns paedophile claim I have been waiting patiently for one journalist with a backbone to ask the obvious – the very one thing that has stuck in my mind for many months – yet so far there has been nothing mentioned.

So...

...Taking the latest ‘news’ with regard:

"Intelligence suggests that a paedophile ring in Belgium made an order for a young girl three days before Madeleine McCann was taken.

"Somebody connected to this group saw Maddie, took a photograph of her, and sent it to Belgium.

"The purchaser agreed that the girl was suitable, and Maddie was taken"

This has now of course been announced to have no substance to it, but notice how quick the tabloids jumped on it: “The astonishing revelation supports Kate and Gerry McCann’s theory that their eldest child may have been taken by a child smuggling ring.”

They (and Mr Mitchell for that matter) seem quick to make this connection with Madeleine’s disappearance – why? Simply because Gerry and Kate McCann said that Madeleine was abducted ‘to order by a paedophile gang?’ As simple as that? No questions asked?

Do the newspapers and Mr Mitchell realise what they are implying by making this sort of connection to back the McCanns unsubstantiated claim?

Let us take a look at this:

If the McCanns abduction claim is true then what, exactly, made the McCanns believe a paedophile or paedophile gang was behind Madeleine’s disappearance? So far they have offered no reasonable explanation why they should believe this.

What they have offered:

*The window shutter was tampered with

*Cuddlecat placed on a high shelf out of Madeleine’s reach (even though there is no high shelf)

* Gerry McCann later suggests that he thinks the ‘abductor’ was in the apartment during his apparent last check because the door was slightly ajar.

*(And later) The McCanns stated that they had a feeling they had been watched during the course of their holiday (yet still left the children alone every evening)

All four offered ‘explanations’ merely suggest that Madeleine may have been taken by a person or persons unknown – there’s certainly nothing to suggest or substantiate their claim that Madeleine had been taken to order by a paedophile or paedophile gang.

So why make the suggestion when they can give no evidence to back their claim?

What made the parents of a missing child think along those rather disturbing lines from the beginning?

And how is it that during their ‘grief’ of finding their daughter missing - especially so soon after Madeleine disappeared - could they even contemplate something as horrific as this let alone bring themselves to utter the words in public. Unless, dare I say, they are immune to such subjects.

quote:

Op vrijdag 8 augustus 2008 14:05 schreef SunChaser het volgende:
[ afbeelding ][ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op vrijdag 8 augustus 2008 14:05 schreef SunChaser het volgende:
[ afbeelding ][ afbeelding ]

quote:

SOS Madeleine McCann: Security guard says he saw Madeleine last Monday in Brussels Exclusive. A security guard attached to security at the headquarters of the KBC bank in Brussels, in the urban district of Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, states that last Monday, August 4th, he saw a young blond girl with blue eyes who, according to him, was Madeleine McCann.

The security guard did not fill out his report the same day, but finally informed his superiors that he had informed the police the day before. The witness was interviewed by the Federal Police, who also seized video surveillance images of the outside of the building.

The guard didn't notice the distictive feature like Madeleine's in the child's eye, but gave a clear description of age, height and clothes. According to his report, the little girl was accompanied by a woman of North African origin, aged between 30 and 40, dressed in European style, but wearing a headscarf, which is probably explained by the existence of a large community of Moroccan origin in the area.

According to the witness statement, the little girl was speaking English, because in the middle of a sentence, the witness heard, "I go back." Given the emotion aroused by the case, and the recent information from the British media, speculating about a Belgian paedophile network behind Madeleine's disappearance, the number of people saying they have seen the little girl is in danger of going up, which is meanwhile confirmed by this new witness statement.

In Portugal, a senior PJ officer, contacted by telephone, said he had confidence in the, "independent and effective," investigation by the Belgian authorities, who had already been confronted with other witness statements. Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis Bron

quote:

Photograph of Blood Spatter in McCann Apartment - by 'Himself'

I sometimes pop across to The McCann Gallery (satirical images), especially when I am feeling at odds with the online news – ‘Himself’ has an artistic way of letting off steam and getting his point across ("never a truer word said in jest") ... but this morning I was taken by surprise with a particular image, not satirical, very much serious. My heart sank as realisation hit me.

Amid all the spin currently been spun about paedophile rings and kidnappers in Belgium, this one photo brought things back into perspective.

The photo and article by ‘Himself’ is as follows: Photograph of Blood Spatter in McCann Apartment

Forgive the lurid headline but it is the best way to ensure that once this photo is catalogued by the Google bot it won't disappear out of the public eye, and while I am about it isn't that cuddlecat lying in Madeleine's bed, high shelf anybody?

Poor little mite, my heart bleeds.


Note the removed floor tiles and skirting board.

quote:

Madeleine McCann: ‘blood on the walls’
Madeleine McCann's blood has been found on the walls of the holiday flat where she slept, according to fresh reports in Portugal. Police say attempts were made to clean it off, making it likely that the four-year-old was killed, either by accident or design, in the holiday complex in Praia da Luz.

It follows revelations, 95 days on from her disappearance, that specially-trained British cocker spaniel sniffer dogs had located the smell of a dead body in the Ocean Club apartment - only possible if a cadaver had been left there for at least two hours. According to Portuguese news reports, the police have virtually abandoned the kidnap theory or any hope that she may still be alive. It now seems that the new search this week of the home of Briton Robert Murat, 33, the only official suspect in the case, was designed to eliminate him from the inquiry, say newspapers. Nothing was found and the search ended yesterday.

It is only now, with British police at the forefront of the investigation, that the new evidence has come to light. Portuguese dogs are only trained to look for evidence of life, not blood or dead bodies, because the training chemical used is too expensive for the force.

Searches of beaches have been carried out again with the sniffer dogs, and a new sweep of the McCanns' apartment is being made with ultra-violet light. The blood spots found are awaiting DNA analysis. Police now say that the next two weeks are crucial to the inquiry. Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are still in the Algarve resort and have yet to comment on the latest developments.

quote:

Request to investigate Gerry’s accounts is disproportionate IOL Portugal Diário

^{Cláudia Lima da Costa 08 August 2008 Thanks to 'astro' for translation}

English authorities did not see motives to justify bank investigation of Maddie's father

The Portuguese police requested cooperation from the English authorities to investigate Gerry McCann's bank accounts, within Maddie's disappearance. But this request was found disproportionate by the British authorities, given the fact that it covered a period of six months.

Initially, the authorities requested a clarification from the Portuguese Public Ministry, which better explained the reasons for the request: to identify if there was an unknown motive behind Maddie's disappearance and if eventually there was an individual or individuals who might be responsible for her disappearance.

The English authorities did not accept the clarification from Portugal, and in their reply letter, sent on the 16th of June, they manifest their concern with the motives that led the Portuguese authorities to request information about bank operations over a period of six months, from Maddie's father's Mastercard credit card. The period covered by the request started on the 1st of April, approximately six weeks before the child's disappearance.

Despite the official explanation from the Portuguese authorities, the English police also considered an unofficial explanation that was offered by the investigative team that traveled to England. At that point in time, the Leicestershire police was told that Gerry McCann had been seen drawing money from an automatic cash machine and talking on the phone. The Portuguese police wanted to know whether this action could be related to the disappearance.

Francs Kennah, a senior official at the 'UK Central Authority', clarifies that after pondering over the coercive measures, the cabinet does not see a motive to concede the requested authorisation, considering that the request is not justified and seems disproportionate. The British authorities solicit a new clarification from Portugal, but it is not sent and the process is archived a little over a month later.

quote:

British don't want the disclosure of the identities of referenced for pedophilia, in the Algarve

The British police wishes to maintain confidential the names from a list of British citizens referenced for having pedophile practices, residing in the Algarve, that were identified during the Maddie’s case investigation. This list is part of the disappearing process of Madeleine Mccann whose archiving will be announced next Monday.

The maintenance of this list under confidentiality is one of the pretensions of the English police, under the argument that the divulgation of the identities of those individuals would be an intrusion in the domain of the private life." Een vertaald stukje wat ik had opgeslagen, Bron 19-7-2008

quote:

bestbefore from Germany says:Aug 10, 10:10
Will Mr Brian Kennedy, owner of Sale Sharks and double-glazing entrepreneur, the man who has been funding this shoddy cover-up and paying Clarence Mitchell's salary, now be flying to Belgium to investigate? After all, he flew to Morocco to investigate the Berber-girl sighting. He flew to Portugal to 'interview' Robert Murat. And he was keen to speak to Martin Smith, the man who thought he saw Gerry carrying a child towards the beach on the night of May 3rd.
Mr Kennedy, why are you so involved in this case? What is your connection

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

get em Goncalo from uk says:Aug 10, 09:42
Gerry: The iris is Madeleine's only true distinctive feature. Certainly we thought it was possible that this could potentially hurt her or the abductor might do something to her eye. But in terms of marketing, it was a good ploy.
Gerry: one good thing to come out of all of this is that there is so much in the press, nobody knows what is true, and what isn't.
Gerry: I have no doubt we will be able to sustain a high profile for Madeleines disappearance in the long term.
Gerry It seems like a disaster that we've got this huge donated fund and now we're not allowed to use it for legal costs because we're under suspicion."
Maddie: "I'm afraid, I'm afraid".

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

Get em Goncalo from uk says:Aug 10, 09:22
Gerry: I'm not here to enjoy myself
Kate: Well, it was our holiday too.
Kate: We were all so into each other
Kate: She'll be giving them her tuppenceworth
Gerry: We want a big event to raise awareness that she is still missing, It wouldn’t be a one-year anniversary, it will be sooner than that (June 3, 2007)
Clarence: If she's dead, she's dead, but not by their hands
Gerry: The situation that Madeleine finds herself in.
Maddie: I'm afraid, I'm afraid

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

Eddie Cadaver from uk says:Aug 10, 09:10
Why was Kate considering giving up guardianship of Maddie to a relative?
Why was Maddie heard crying and heard to say "I'm afraid, I'm afraid"
Why did Eddie and Keela find blood and death scent in their apartment and in their hire car 25 days later?
What did Gerry do with the fridge?
Why did Gordon Brown have Goncalo Amaral removed from the investigation?
Why are the PJ being portrayed as bungling fools when it is clear the British government and British media are covering up this crime?
Who is covering up this biggest crime mystery of the century and why?
Why is David Payne not being investigated after he was heard to make sexual remarks about Maddie to Gerry?
Why was Maddie afraid?
I can only hope she's safe from harms way now.
RIP Maddie.
People are seeking justice for you xx

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

Lilly from HULL says:Aug 10, 09:01
I am totaly sick of this whole saga.........why dont the papers here print the truth what about David Payne and his past what about the ward of court what about the Guardainship of Maddy!! the truth will come out in the end someone will talk

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

Joanne from Essex says:Aug 10, 09:01
This is just getting beyond farcical now. None of these reported sightings will ever be confirmed officially because none of them , past, present and future are Madeleine McCann.

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

Lola from London says:Aug 10, 08:33
This whole thing is turning into a complete and utter farce. It's NOT ABOUT MADELEINE ANY MORE. IT'S ALL ABOUT MonEY.
The McCanns suing, Murat suing, Metodo 3 suing, Amaral suing. If only Kate & Gerry and the other Tapas group hadn't left their children alone. All I hope and pray is that little Madeleine is not suffering any more in her short life.

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

Amber from uk says:Aug 10, 08:24
LOOK the camera in the EYE Kate & Gerry and TALK to your daughter!!!! When did you last do that? and wasn't eye contact very good...you could not LOOK in the camera could you? Madeleine is 5 now and IF she is alive she would be dearly missing you....lonely and waiting for your words of promise that you'll do ANYTHING: answer the 48 Q's from PJ, go back and do a reconstruction...whilst you're there hand over medical records, financial records, telephone statements as you want to cooperate Don'T you??

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

paula from liverpool says:Aug 10, 08:02
Its not too late to ditch the lawyers and hangers on and volunteer,together with their holiday companions to go back to Portugal,wearing the same clothes they wore that night and help the -police solve this mystery- no need for requests to the Home Office that mysteriously get turned down -just voluntarily take with them ,phone records ,bank records, medical records. There were nine adults on that holiday in charge of eight children under the age of four they were all responsible for their own and everyone elses child in the group-the lawyer who advised them not to co-operate should be cheap because he is an idiot

quote:

McCanns' Spanish detectives consider sueing the British press ABC.es

^{Published Friday, 08-08-08 a las 20:49 Thanks to 'helena' for translation}

The Spanish detective agency of the McCanns, Método 3, is considering sueing several of the media in the United Kingdom to defend its "reputation and good name" after the publication of information it believes defamatory, according to an official announcement.

In the notice, sent to Efe Agency, the company with headquarters in Barcelona advances that, by proceeding by the legal route, it will arrive at (get) "all the compensation that can be claimed judicially or extra judicially from the British media in the near future" for a foundation for the protection of children.

Método 3 indicates that it has kept silent about "the attacks" from the press until the Portuguese Police closed the case - July 22 - and lifted the suspect status from Kate and Gerry McCann. The McCanns hired Método 3, directed by Francisco Frame, after their three-year-old daughter, Madeleine, disappeared in May 2007 from the apartment where she slept with her siblings in the Portuguese locality of Praia da Luz.

The summary of the case confirmed that there is no conclusive evidence on the disappearance of Madeleine. The family spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, has confirmed to Efe that the Spanish agency continues working for the couple, but its activity has been "very much reduced" due to "internationalising the search and contracting experts in other countries".

Método 3 clarifies in its notice that it never received from the McCanns "the crazy figures" in fees that the press in this country published, and assures that the fees were 60,000 Euros for six months worldwide search for Madeleine, plus expenses, giving a total of 108,306 Euros.

The Spanish agency also criticises the British press for stating that one of its founders "looked like a gangster", and indicates that this person suffers "a degenerative cerebral disease that, obviously, gives the appearance of absent-mindedness".

Método 3 assures that, contrary to what was published in the British press, nobody ever said that Maddie would be home by Christmas, but only expressed "the mere Christian desire" that "Hopefully she will be home by Christmas". Since the beginning of this year, Método 3, that led the search for Madeleine from August of 2007 until last January, has a more reduced role in the investigation of the disappearance of the little girl.

The disclosure, last Tuesday, of the summary of the case in Portugal confirmed that there is no conclusive evidence about the circumstances of the disappearance of the girl, who is considered "probably" dead.

quote:

* Currency note:

108,306 euros = £84,627 or $162,518.

Clarence Mitchell has publicly stated that Madeleine's Fund were paying £50,000 per month to Método 3 - initially contracted on a 6-month contract, subsequently extended at a reduced rate.

By Mr Mitchell's figures, at least £300,000 has been spent on Método 3's services - yet Método 3 claim they have only received £84,627. And that figure includes expenses, which we have been led to believe were being covered by Brian Kennedy.

The substantial difference between the two sums requires a full explanation from Mr Mitchell.

quote:

McCann will not take legal action against Portuguese Government
"Rogério Alves, former Bar Association President, told today that the McCann couple “don't see any reason to sue the Portuguese Government.” Mr. Alves said that Gerry and Kate “were obviously frustrated because they couldn't find what happened to their daughter and who was responsible for it, but they don't infer that (Portuguese) police has done a bad job, or that there is any reason to sue the Portuguese Government.” Bron

quote:

Op vrijdag 8 augustus 2008 14:05 schreef SunChaser het volgende:
[ afbeelding ][ afbeelding ]

quote:

Jon Corner talking about Madeleine (Vanity Fair)

"So beautiful, astonishingly bright, and I’d have to say very charismatic. She would shine out of a crowd. So—God forgive me—maybe that’s part of the problem. That special quality. Some ******* picked up on that."

Jon Corner - Cuddle Cat (Timesonline)

'Gerry paused over Madeleine, who – a typical doctor’s observation, this – was lying almost in "the recovery position" with Cuddle Cat, the toy her godfather, John Corner, had bought her, and her comfort blanket up near her head, and Gerry thought how gorgeous, how lovely-looking she was and how lucky he was.'

Jon Corner (Panorama)

CORNER: Well this is the bizarre thing Richard because the police said to Kate and Gerry: "Yeah, we're going to be coming along, we want to do some forensics." And Kate and Gerry were massively optimistic about this. You've got to remember if your daughter is missing and the police phone you and say: "We want to do some forensics, that's a straw that you hang onto. That's a moment for optimism.

- Just earlier Corner had said this:

CORNER: They took most of their clothing, they were taking even the wet clothes out of the washing machine. I was aware that the cuddlecat was boxed up and we were asked to leave the villa.

- So, the police phoned the McCanns to say they were coming over to do some forensics and the McCanns, it would appear, immediately filled up the washing machine with clothes.

quote:

McCann case: the failed reconstruction

In April 2008, Paulo Rebelo gave a detailed response to the McCanns' friends about their arguments and doubts on the subject of the reconstruction of the events of May3rd. He stated that one of the conditions put forward by the group, that of first of all withdrawing Kate and Gerry's arguidos status - was impossible to accomplish, because only the Prosecutor held the legal power to do it, not the PJ.

On the subject of the reconstruction, the main problem for the McCanns' group of friends was clear: if the PJ believed their statements, then the reconstruction wasn't necessary, or the PJ were trying to obtain something strange with this activity. They wanted to know what the PJ's true intentions were. After several exchanges of emails, going first through Stuart Prior, the Tapas 7 group were not convinced of the usefulness of such a reconstruction.

In the replies that followed, Kate and Gerry's friends placed as a condition, not only the lifting of the McCann couple's arguido status, but also the announcement of a press release by the PJ dispelling the lies published by the Portuguese media, emphasising that there was no suspicion about the seven friends.

As it was impossible to accept or accomplish these conditions, Paulo Rebelo, in an email addressed to Stuart Prior on April 29th, requested that a final decision was taken. Jane and Russel O'Brien were the first to respond, saying yes, but waiting for further advice from their lawyers. Rachel and Matthew sent a similar response, but stressing that they couldn't be in Portugal between May 15th and May 17th.

Diana, Fiona and David Payne also accepted, while waiting for advice from their lawyers. After the PJ's detailed explanations, Jeremy Wilkins was willing to participate, on conditon that the other witnesses were also in Portugal.

The criminal court took the decision to set a new date: 29th and 30th of May 2008. Then Gerald McCann requested a change to this new date, because his lawyer had another meeting planned before the Lisbon court, for May 29th. His request was refused because it was impossible to make a further revision of the date, due to the numbers of people involved.

On May 10th, Rachel and Matthew Oldfield sent an email to Stuart Prior, communicating their final decision to him: they would not be in Portugal to participate in the reconstruction. Russel O'Brien, also on May 10th, told the Superintendent that as he had learned that Jeremy Wilkins, the Oldfields and the Payne family had now decided not to go to Portugal, there was now no need for their presence, because the Prosecutor had said that the reconstruction could not take place unless all the witnesses were present.

On May 23rd, all seven of the McCanns' friends sent a formal reply to the Prosecutor's request for a reconstruction, saying that they would not be attending, after advice from their lawyers. The reconstruction was therefroe cancelled by the Judge for the Court of Criminal Investigation, on May 26th 2008. Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

quote:

The McCann Case: Gerry used two credit cards

According to a briefing note from Inspector Gary Watts of the Leicestershire police to Frances Kennah, Madeleine's father used two MasterCard credit cards. Frances Kennah is head of the British Central Authority, a Home Office department, responsible for cooperation with foreign police forces.

The note, dated May 23rd, confirms the request from the Portuguese authorities, via international rogatory letter, asking for details of the transactions carried out by Gerry McCann using the two MasterCard credit cards.

The PJ also requested telephone records for a period of six months, starting on April 27th 2007, but the Home Office considered the period of time disproportionate and suggested that they could only provide that information for the days before and after Madeleine's disappearance. The note from Inspector Gary Watts reveals that the report about the credit card transactions was not completed, after a conversation between Superintendent Stuart Prior and the recipient of the information, Frances Kennah.

A previous report about the financial situation of the McCann couple and their friends, produced by the Economic Crimes Unit of Leicestershire police, had not found any record of credit cards or loans in Kate and Gerry McCann's name. Duarte Levy & Paulo Reis

quote:

Op zondag 10 augustus 2008 22:09 schreef Tmaatje het volgende:
Suko ; zo'n blaaskaak kun je pas het zwijgen opleggen als hij zijn supporters verliest en dat kunnen hele grote jongens zijn......zolang hij een goed netwerk heeft begin je niks helaas.
Toch verbaast een ding mij in hoge mate; de engelse politie heeft een record in handen wbt niet afgesloten zaken; al 125 jaar is een zaak niet afgesloten, waarom gaat dit dossier al na een jaar op slot?

quote:

"In one sighting, the girl involved said she was 'Maddie' and had been taken from her mother. Yet the McCanns say Madeleine was never known as 'Maddie' to them. It's an abbreviation devised by newspapers so the name will fit headlines.

What would your first instinct be if you saw a girl you were sure was Madeleine? Surely to find a policeman. But none of those spotting her seems to have had time to do this. I am sure the majority of Madeleine-spotters are honest, if mistaken, but the sad reality is that, for some, it's a form of attention-seeking."

quote:

Sightings: Process includes 2550 pages about persons who say they saw the little girl

The detectives that were hired by the McCanns search for the little English girl on Margarita Island, in Venezuela and in Brussels today. The PJ studied over 1500 locations

Reports appear at an almost daily rate in different parts of the world, where little girls that look like Maddie were seen. Today, the detectives that were hired by the McCanns investigate the possibility that the English girl is alive in Belgium or on Margarita Island, in Venezuela. The Polícia Judiciária has already studied over 1500 locations. The information fills 2550 pages, divided into 14 volumes, of the thirty thousand pages of the process. All the sightings that were narrated to the Portuguese authorities failed to reveal any indicium that Maddie is alive.

In Brussels, a bank security worker says he saw a little girl that looked like Madeleine a week ago, accompanied by a Muslim woman from North Africa. John Berckmans, a spokesman for the Belgium police, says the images from the bank’s video surveillance system are being observed, in order to establish the veracity of the allegations. This sighting appears after it was publicized that the Scotland Yard obtained an information “without evidence” that a Belgium paedophile network had placed an ‘order’ on the internet for a girl, three days before the disappearance. Nevertheless, the PJ also followed up on this lead, which ended up revealing no credibility.

In Venezuela, detectives follow another lead that was raised by British citizen Trevor Francis. On the 16th of May, he recognized Maddie in a restaurant, accompanied by two Spanish women. In the process, yet another recent sighting is reported. This time, in Portugal, by an Angolan citizen, who associates Maddie with a Dutch car.

The Portuguese police reveals that Maddie was seen on the same day in places that are over four thousand kilometers apart. The growth in the volume of sightings made it a priority to collect material to identify the DNA profile.

Video of orgies with children has no connection with the case

The British authorities informed the PJ about the existence of a video where a little girl that looked like Maddie was sexually abused in an orgy. The images were reportedly captured in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and would include the presence of Arab sheiks. The information was from Superintendent Stuart Prior and included that the video would be delivered in London in exchange for money. Although the girl in the video resembled Maddie, the video was immediately removed from the process because the recording had been made four months before the disappearance.

Press

‘Sunday Express’ – The newspaper places yet another efit of the possible suspect who abducted Maddie in Praia da Luz, on the front page.

‘Sunday Mirror’ – After Belgium, the newspapers detail a possible sighting in the Caribbean. source: Correio da Manhã, 11.08.2008, paper edition by astro

quote:

10 Agosto, 2008

Dog Detects car of the McCann Couple
Investigation: Traces of blood and smell of the death in the vehicle

One of the dogs used by the PJ signalled Kate and Gerry car among ten vehicles parked in an underground parking triggered by the cadaver odour

The vehicle used by Kate and Gerry McCann, a Renault Scénic, travelled, in a little over a month, between the 27th of May and 3rd of July, 2750 kilometres, at a time when the McCanns were globetrotting. This was one of the leads followed by the investigators of the Maddie case. The PJ tried to clarify who drove the car and which were the routes done by the vehicle where traces [body fluids, DNA] presumed to belong to Madeleine were found.

The vehicle was handed over to the McCanns with 3114 kilometres, on the 27th of May of last year, just a few days before one of the most mediatic travels done by the parents of the disappeared child in Praia da Luz on the 3rd of May of 2007: the audience with the Pope Benedict XVI. On the 3rd of July, the car's kilometer counter registered 5864 kilometres.

TRACES

The vehicle driven by the McCanns turned out to be one of the most important means of proof for the PJ, after traces of the child had been found by the English dogs, namely odour to human cadaver and to blood.

In one of the cino-techniques [Human Remains detection by expert dogs] done on 6th of August by the dog ‘Eddie’, of the English Springer Spaniel race, who detects odour of cadaver, the animal signalled the car of the McCanns between ten vehicles that were in an underground parking. There were traces of blood in the key and at the car boot. The key still had odour to corpse.

Identical traces were found by the animals in the Ocean Club’s apartment, in a flowerbed in the back yard, in two of Kate's clothes and in one of Maddie’s and in the 'plush toy' of the child, which the mother carried everywhere.

In the apartment there were evidences, specifically in the couple’s room (in a corner, near the wardrobe) and in the living room (behind of the sofa, next to the side window of the apartment).

NOTES

ARCHIVED
The investigation to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was archived by the Attorney General of the Republic (PGR) on the 21st of July.

REOPENING
The process can be reopened if new elements of proof appear.

30 THOUSAND PAGES
The process made available to the media on Tuesday was recorded in a DVD. The process has more than 30 thousand pages, which correspond to 47 volumes of investigation. Source: Correio da Manhã 09.08.2008

quote:

Extracts on the Cadaver dogs from the PJ Final Report (click here to read the full report)

pages 35 and 36

(...) Now the question related to the performance of the British dogs will be covered, along with the consequent quality assumed by the parents of MADELEINE, once again with the ability to revisit the description later in the report.

In this way, from pages 1989 and following, one can read the full report by MARK HARRISON, whose specialty is the search for missing people or homicide victims, including catastrophe scenarios. He provided the use of canines, specialized in the detection of vestiges of human blood and human cadaver odor.

This is an inspection technique commonly used in the United Kingdom, frequently with positive results, consisting of the utilization of two especially trained dogs.

One of the dogs is trained to detect cadaver odor and the other to detect vestiges of human blood, with existing knowledge that their prior usage had resulted in significant results, principally in the detection of vestiges, which had then been, later, confirmed in the laboratory.

After a positive joint meeting with the British police, it was decided to use this capability and a large number of objects and locations were examined, with these diligences being recorded in films which are included in the documentation (appendix III).

In some of these locations and objects, the animals exhibited the behaviour of identification and “signaling”, including:

pages 37 and 38 - to follow

1 - Apartment 5A, of the resort ‘Ocean Club’, place from where the child disappeared.

- cadaver odour dog:
*in the couple’s bedroom, in a corner, close to the wardrobe;
*in the living room, behind the sofa, close to the lateral window of the apartment;

- blood dog:
* in the living room, behind the sofa, close to the lateral window of the apartment (exactly as it was signalled by the cadaver odour dog);

2 – Area of the backyard, close to the apartment 5A:

- cadaver odour dog:
* in a flowerbed, commented by the dog handler the lightness of the scent detected;

3 – Apartments where the rest of the elements of the group stayed

* NOTHING was detected by any of the dogs;

4 – House of the MCCANNs at the date of the inspection [second apartment]

* NOTHING at the house, was detected by any of the dogs;

5 - In the area of Vila da Luz

* NOTHING was detected by any of the dogs;

6 – In the clothes and belongings of the Family MCCANN

- cadaver odour dog:
* in two pieces of clothing belonging to KATE HEALY
* in a piece of clothing of the minor MADELEINE
* in the plush toy, possibly belonging to MADELEINE (it was detected cadaver odour, when the plush was inside the residence – at the date occupied by the family)

7 – In the vehicle used by the MCCANN family

- cadaver odour dog:
* signalled the key of the vehicle;

- blood dog:
* signalled the key of the vehicle;
* signalled the interior of the vehicle’s boot;

8 – In the vehicle used by a friend of the family, who stayed in the same resort, matching some of the holiday days.

pages 39 and 40

* NOTHING was detected by either dog;

9. In all the vehicles that were used by arguido ROBERT MURAT and persons that are close to him;

* NOTHING was detected by either dog.

(in a total of ten vehicles, the cadaver odour dog and the blood odour dog only signaled the vehicle that belonged to the MCCANN family, which was rented on the 27th of May)

On the locations and the pieces that were marked and signaled by the blood dog, forensics tests were performed, especially at a reputed British laboratory (Forensic Science Service – check Appendixes I and VII – FSS Final Report) but also, some of them at the reputed National Institute of Forensics Medicine (check Appendix I), whose final results did not corroborate the canine markings, which is to say, cellular material was collected that was not identified as pertaining to anyone specific, and it was not even possible to determine the quality of that material (v.g. whether it could be blood or another type of bodily fluid).

But during a first scientific approach (pages 2617 and following), the possibility of a match between the DNA profile of MADELEINE and some of the collected residues (among which those that existed in the Renault Scenic that had been rented by the McCANN couple were abundant) was raised; a match which, as can be verified in the aforementioned final report from the FSS, failed to be verified, after the execution of long and complex testing.

On pages 2461 and following, the translation of the comments that were made by the dog handler, during the inspection actions, was appended.

Based on the action of the canine team and the aforementioned initial scientific approach, which revealed the possibility of the existence of a cadaver inside the apartment and in the vehicle that was used by the MCCANN family, and in order to allow for GERALD McCANN and KATE HEALY to see their position within the process safeguarded, they were made arguidos, in face of the mere possibility of their involvement with the possible cadaver. During the questioning as arguidos, they denied any responsibility in the disappearance of their daughter.

It may be questioned that KATE HEALY was not immediately made an arguida, but rather inquired, as a witness, and only afterwards, following said inquisition, did she assume that quality.

Therefore, the constitution of KATE HEALY as an arguida was made when she was confronted with concrete elements that might lead to her incrimination, a fact that, within the terms of the penal process law, would officiously force that constitution.(....)

Related:
The dogs’ work as described by their own handler - Jornal de Notícias
7 Aug 2008
The cadaver detection dog “Eddie” and the blood detection dog “Keela” showed themselves as “very excited” when they entered apartment 5A of the Ocean Club, the one that had been occupied by the McCann couple during their holidays...

"Madeleine died in the apartment" - Correio da Manhã
23 Jul 2008
We talk about blood residues because the CSI dog is trained to detect only that bodily fluid. The reports that were used to based the decision on, which were written by experts Mark Harrison and Martin Grime, are clear: the CSI dog was...

English defended the use of the dogs - Correio da Manhã
20 Jul 2008
Mark Harrison, the English police who was designated to help the Polícia Judiciária in the search for Madeleine McCann, wrote a report last summer, in which he defended the usage of the dogs that are experts in the detection of cadaver...

McCanns Case: How can a dog sniff through concrete?
26 Feb 2008
The McCanns previously tried to dismiss the cadaver dogs findings, stating that the Cadaver dogs were manipulated to react to the Renault Scenic therefore implying that the South Yorkshire police special team handling the dogs was...

External and Interesting sources:
Cadaver Dog Handbook (Forensic Training & Tactics) - PDF File
Cadaver dogs are canines, Canis familiaris, which are specially trained to find human decomposition scent and alert their handlers to its location. They are used in a variety of forensic contexts, including search and discovery of human cadavers, body parts, or body fluids....

CSI: DOG SQUAD
At the former children's home at Haut de la Garenne in Jersey, a sensational discovery was made in February; a fragment of what might have been human bone. It was unearthed by a dog trained to detect human remains... by astro

quote:

Op maandag 11 augustus 2008 21:38 schreef Tmaatje het volgende:
Misschien een idee om Harrie de Jong ( de neus) naar Portugal te sturen, de man is gespecialiseerd in het opsporen van doden...want ik geloof er niks van dat Madeleine nog leeft, helaas.

quote:

Translation of Article published in "El Mercurio" Santiago, Chile, Sunday August 10, 2008

Portuguese Gonçalo Amaral, ex-Chief Inspector on the case, insists on his theory of 2007:

"There is strong evidence that Maddie is dead" El Mercurio
^{by Graciela Almendras 10 August 2008 Thanks to 'carmerina32' for translation}
Traces of blood and of a body detected by dogs in the belongings, flat and car occupied by the couple were part of the proof collected during the period of time when Gonçalo Amaral was in charge of the search for Maddie.

Last October, one month after the McCanns were declared suspects, he was removed from the case – "without any explanation" he says – and two weeks ago he published the book "Maddie: The Truth of the Lie", wherein he considers it proved that the British girl died and that her parents are lying.

Who supports your theory that Gerry and Kate McCann are the guilty parties in Madeleine’s disappearance?

In September 2007, the investigation, Portuguese and British police, reached the conclusion that Maddie had died and that the parents were responsible and were involved in the crimes of hiding a body and simulating a kidnapping and potentially the crime of abandonment.

You have said that the child died when she fell from a sofa – why are you so sure of this?

First of all, there is strong evidence that Maddie is dead. When I left the case, the investigation was pointing at the sofa, due to the cadaver odour and blood tracked on the floor behind this piece of furniture.

Which are the clues that indicate that the McCanns simulated a kidnapping?

The thesis of the kidnapping was based upon two issues. The first, the testimony of Kate's friend Jane Tanner, who said she saw a man carrying a child, while none of the other witnesses mentioned this fact.

However, one of the suspects was the man recognized by Tanner, Robert Murat.

I involved him because of his behaviour. Later, Tanner said she recognized him during that night. And also according to statements from other friends in the group holidaying at Praia da Luz.

The second issue…

That Maddie's mother is the only person who says that the window was open. When she calls to the other members of the group, she goes out leaving her twins, exposing them once again, to danger. Further proof is Kate's finger prints that describe the movement when she opened the windows – we know that the window was cleaned the previous day -. However, Kate says she never opened the window. And most importantly, there were no signs of breaking in.

You have been under pressure from the McCann family lawyers.

I felt strong pressure from the British press. I think that nobody has ever seen such a tendentious campaign such as this one, with the sole purpose of denigrating the Portuguese police and myself.

After publishing the book, have you received any threats?

Before publishing it, I received some warnings. Afterwards, these became legal threats. In any case, I am not afraid, because this book presents only data and facts.

This week, the McCann's accused the Judicial Police of having withheld crucial information at the time you were Director, regarding a witness who said she had seen Madeleine last June.

It appears that the McCann family is playing their part defending the thesis of a kidnapping. The Dutch police evaluated this evidence, which proved to be ridiculous. We are aiding the marketing of a kidnapping which, obviously, does not fit within a modern law system.

Do you believe that what happened that night was an accident?

When I left the investigation, all evidence was leading us in that direction.

quote:

Drogheda businessman told police he saw Gerry McCann carrying a child towards the beach the day Maddie disappeared
The Irish Mail on Sunday (no online link, appears in paper edition)

10 August 2008

Father-of-six gave garda a signed statement saying he and his wife were ''60 to 80% sure'' that the man they saw holding the child was Maddie's father. The claim, which was taken seriously by the Portuguese police, was made almost four months after Maddie disappeared on May 3rd this year.

Since then the McCanns have been totally exonerated of any involvement.

Mr. Smith had initally told police he had seen a man carrying a child that night, but that he couldn't identify him because he had not been wearing his glasses. The following September, however, the businessman saw clips of the McCanns returning from their holidays and said the footage of Mr McCann carrying his younger child had instantly reminded him of the mystery man.

''I would be 60 to 80% sure that it was Gerry McCann that I met that night carrying a child," Mr Smith said in his statement. ''It was the way Mr. McCann turned his head down that was similar... It may have been the way he was carrying his child.

''I am basing this on his mannerism, in the way he carried the child off the plane.''

Mr Smiths claim was passed to the Portuguese police who took it as more evidence in support of their mistaken belief that the McCanns had something to do with their daughter's disappearence. Friends of the McCann family said last night that the decision of the Portuguese police to pursue Mr Smith's claims prove that they were determined to pin the blame on Maddie's parents come what may.

One said ''Look at the facts. This man sees an individual carrying a child on the night Madeleine vanished. He waits 13 days to report this to the police, going back to Ireland.

"The McCanns returning to England - It was this image that alerted Mr Smith in the meantime. At this stage he admits he has no idea who the man is, other than a basic description. A further three, almost four months go by before, after seeing him on television, he feels it could be Gerry.

''By now the police have dozens of statements putting Gerry back at the apartment complex at that time. Yet the Portuguese ask a combination of the Leicestershire police and the Garda to re-interview this witness. About what?? ''And why? The truth is that this is part of the victimisation of Gerry and Kate which has gone on from the very beginning by the Portuguese,who were clearly desperate to get something against them."

The extraordinary saga began on the night of May 3rd 2007, as Martin and his wife, Mary, walked back from a local pub in Praia da Luz to their apartment with members of his family. They had decided to return to their apartment within an hour of dining out becasue their son, Peter, was catching an early morning flight the next day.

As they made their way back, they crossed paths with a slim man with a full head of chestnut coloured hair and dressed in beige trousers coming in the opposite direction. It was 9.55 pm and the man was carrying a sleeping little blonde girl of about 4-years of age. The child's head was was resting on the man's left shoulder.

At this stage Maddie had already disappeared but the Smiths were unaware that a child had gone missing from PDL.

It was not until the following morning that a family member living in Ireland told them of Madeleine's idsappearence. Mr Smith returned to Ireland six days after the litle girl went missing and it was another 2 weeks before he travelled back to Portugal to make a statement about what he saw that night.

In the statement to Portuguese police on May 26th, the grandfather -who wears glasses but was not wearing them at the night in question - said he would not be able to identify the man he saw. Significantly though he was able to tell Police that the man was not Robert Murat, as he had met him on a number of previous occasions.

After making his statement, Mr Smtih returned to Drogheda and it was not until four months later that that he made contact with the police again. This weekend, Mr Smith's wfe Mary told the Mail on Sunday her husband had no regrets about coming forward.

He [Martin] doesn't want to talk, said Mrs Smith. He said what he had to say. I was with him [that night]. We saw a man carrying a child and that's all we know. We told them all that and that's it. ''The man he saw had the same stature as Gerry McCann. We felt we had to help. We're happy we did. We reported exactly what we saw.

"We only did what we thought was right for a missing girl and our hearts are breaking for her parents, as it would be if it were one of ours. ''I feel very much for them [the McCanns]. I have six grandchildren of my own and six children of my own. "The poor McCann family must be heartbroken.''