Madeleine McCann, Photofits And Career Criminality
“WE DID SEE MADELEINE,” says the headline on the Daily Express’ front page. And this from the Express: “The world’s greatest newspaper.”
Truth upon truth.
The Express says the spotter is a child therapist. Her age is not given. But the inclusion of her career in dispatches – the Express never tires of reminding readers that Gerry McCann is a cardiologist and his wife Kate a GP – is shorthand for trust.
This woman works with children so it follows that she can recognise Madeleine McCann.
The Express says police in Belgium describe the witness as “trusted”. They add: “She works with children and noticed something unusual. That is why we are taking it seriously.”
Job Done
But the Portuguese police took seriously those other sightings of Madeleine McCann in Malta and Morocco. Were those spotters trained in child therapy or mere “holidaymakers” Back in June the Sun heard from Ray Roberts, a British tourist. It was late at night. He saw a girl with an Arabic-looking man in his 40s and a younger woman. The child appeared to be wearing a black wig. She tripped. “Get up, little girl,” said the man in broken English. “They were strange,” said Roberts, “it just jarred.”
The Star talked of “hundreds of reports of sightings”.
But this new sighting is special says the Express, and not just because of the spotter’s day job: “The Daily Express can reveal that the Dutch man matched an identikit image of one seen ‘hanging around’ Praia da Luz in Portugal at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.”
This would be the image the Portuguese police would not allow the British tabloid press to see? The image produced by the “bungling” Portuguese police?
The paper notes that Briton Alex Murray, 60, recognised the man from the photofit image drawn up by police in Belgium. He spotted the Dutchman in Praia da Luz near the time the four-year-old went missing.
Says the Express: “The utilities worker from Newbridge on Wye, mid Wales, said the man was ‘hanging around’ the Jasmin Cafe – less than half a mile from the apartment where Madeleine was taken.”
A utilities worker, eh? But we won’t know the truth until the results of the “DNA test on ‘Maddy’ milkshake” (Mirror front-page headline) are revealed by a scientist.
Total Recall
The Express says a waiter and waitress have corroborated the child therapist’s report that a couple acting suspiciously accompanied “Madeleine”.
Waitress Jolien Houbrech, 21, is talking to the Mirror. The therapist approaches her. “She asked if I noticed any resemblance between Madeleine and the child,” she Houbrech.
“She said that because of her work as a child therapist she had noticed that their behaviour was not that of normal parents. After she said that, I said maybe she should call it in to the police.”
She adds: “Now I wish I had done more and paid more attention to the couple and maybe tried to hear the girl talking. But at the time I didn’t notice anything suspicious.”
But then what does a waitress know..?
Posted: 4th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (76) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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August 19th, 2007 at 6:54 pm
Its good to see other children are caring and kind, i hope you never change $amsta, I hope she is found safe and unharmed aswell.
August 19th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I am just glad tht pople have found a lead to Madeline’s disappearance. They’ve someone has found traces of her blood in the hotel she was at. But I do think that police all over the world should try a lot harder to find her because more than ever now, people are starting to forget about her but not me. I hope that someone finds her soon and she is perfectly fine. I am only 11 but I have strong opinions too.
August 12th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
sorry sppspsp description and spell errors
August 12th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
A photofit may or may not capture the soul of a person. With an actual photo that would be more likely. A photofit includes the people around interpretation which causes confusion for observers.
A long time ago there was a murderer Leroy Evans, I think his name correct, and I saw him at a petrol inside with a little girl. Just like the child therapist I immediately thought he couldn’t be the child’s father. He looked cold and void and I sense extreme fear of him. The difference is I watched the child and she was so happy that I was convinced she was suppose to be with him. In the end she was suppose to be with him and he did rape and kill her. I didn’t pay careful attention to him other than the initial look at him and interpret cold, void and fear but notice the girl was very happy. For that reason I didn’t have a good idea of his actual discription other than big a few memories of that nature. I believe he was also the man who at a completely different area of town walked up behind without my notice, very untypical, as I was cleaning trash from my car on the passenger side. When I stood up he was right next to me behind me and he reached over and picked up a chain with a padlock showing me the dumpster was locked. It was day and my son was at football practice in sight. I felt he was dangerous but didn’t get a good look, big same, because of feeling in a hurry to respond. I thought I could scream if necessary but instead moved quickly and started walking around the front of the car away from him and back toward the driver side. He said “do you want to —- and I said no thanks and he started walking off and I got in my car and drove away quickly back to the parking area. Without knowing he had pulled behind me in a jeep or some sort. It was obvious by his cold void eyes that he was a very dangerous person. He killed the little girl and went to jail and I think he is dead now too. It has been a long time ago.
Another time in the next city early one morning at the coffee I saw a man walk in toward the coffee where I happened to be and as soon as I looked at him it was the same feeling as I had about the other man FEAR and something about the cold eyes. Never learing whether he was the one who at some point not long after that notice a woman was snatched outside the store, killed and left under a Ferry bridge. I have always been curious he was the same man but never saw a picture of him.
Judging from the photofit I don’t see that element as the same as then but being a photofit maybe leaves the soul of the person to the imagination. Unclear but the photofit, in that respect, comes across with much less of what can be determined by a person in person or possibly with an actual photo. It is hard to know if the person sketching is unclear of the soul of a person to include or in some cases maybe project, unintentionally, but visually.
Hopefully, if someone has Madeleine it would be a person who is not all bad in some way, can be argued. Just a thought how a person out of but in a fairly nearby area abducted a child and sent her home on the bus after a period of time. Not all people are alike, in profile, who are capable of abduction. With so much reporting it is hard to figure much about any of the theories at this time. The news focus now appears to ivolve a different theory. I would rather someone had Madeleine who would not harm her.
August 10th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
hi
im sooooooooooo sorry about madeline
i hav lots of hopes for her to com back and cant wait to hear the dna results.
i feel much sorry for her family and i hope she returns with good health fand fit as normal.
im only 13 but i rote this messqage coz i9 feel for poor little madeline.
and whoever kidnapped her will surely be sariosly punnished by god.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
people only go around blaming others to make themselves feel better,
August 7th, 2007 at 9:46 am
gosh one minute we think madeleine had been sighted then they say she is dead!
can’t wait for the DNA results!
August 6th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
What Molly wrote about and someone asked where
” They are all reporting that Murat’s garden and premises are being searched so thoroughly as a means of eliminating him from the enquiry - that the PJ do not believe him guilty and are attempting to put this angle to bed once and for all.”
I also heard this on the TV from Murats lawyer in an interview while the house was being searched.
Glad to hear the dogs can still find the scent have they searched the area where someone said she was burried i may be negative and i hope im wrong but i dont think that was Maddie in the cafe.
August 6th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
I totally agree that believing everything written in SOL is akin to doing the same with The Sun (although both are capable of getting the odd fact correct from time to time lol)
However, if you care to search across the board in the Portuguese papers today, both Nationals and Algarve locals, as well as online sites for TV stations you will find very similar reports there as well. Yes the Cadaver dogs were taken to conduct searches in various place, amongst them Robert Murat’s house, and that of his Uncle - these searches have now taken place and nothing has been reported to have been found.
It would make sense that, while the dogs were at their disposal, all areas where Madeleine was known to have been or could possibly have been would be checked as well - hence the checking of the apartment. What would not make sense is if they DIDN’T check out the apartment surely?
August 6th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I was talking about local newspapers in the Algarve. Not the likes of SOL which is like using the SUN as a source of fact.
The cadaver dogs were taken to search for a body, or rather to eliminate the possibility of a body / remains buried in Murats garden. This has happened.
http://dogs.about.com/cs/searchandrescue/a/cadaver_dogs.htm
August 6th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
These are British Cadaver and Blood dogs, which have been taken over to Portugal by the specialist British team who flew out last week Moderation - why take them at all if they would not be able to detect scents after this amount of time?
Less than two weeks ago you were suggesting that people look to the Portuguese press for more reliable information than that in the UK papers, and quoting your friends who live in the area. I also have contacts in the area and am merely reporting what they are relaying to me - why the sudden change of stance on your part?
Incidentally, it is also reported that Luminol tests following the ‘pointing’ from the blood dog have been taken and have revealed blood on the walls of the apartment, which had been wiped away. Of course all of this could lead to nothing to do with Madeleine at all - but until it is categorically denied by PJ Officers then I will keep an open mind and follow what is being said and done.
August 6th, 2007 at 10:47 am
But Cadaver Dogs are trained to find human remains via the smell of rotting human flesh. The idea that they could ’sense’ a dead body having been there 100 days ago is laughable. No dog is that well-trained.
The Portugese press is excelling itself.
August 6th, 2007 at 9:36 am
As regards cleaning the apartment - if you have ever seen any factual forensic programmes then you will know that blood and other body fluids are not destroyed by ordinary cleaning agents - there was a case recently in Scotland where DNA was recovered in relation to a murder which had happened 15 years earlier. That has had been cleaned and decorated many times over the intervening period, but the DNA was still there.
Likewise a dog’s nose can detect these scents over and above the smells of cleaning agents … you only have to be a dog owner and to have tried to discourage your pet from soiling in the same place to know that this is the case. It doesn’t matter how often you scrub the area, or what with, the little angels can still smell it and go there again!
August 6th, 2007 at 7:43 am
Just had a little look at Gerry boys blog and you will be pleased to know that he is feeling better, has done a number of interviews, has been keeping up to date on arranging events and has even found time to read his wifes interview in the British presss. There was one other thing I wanted to tell you but……….. Oh yes! He’s a little concerned about that missing girl - whatever her name is.
Does anyone know Max Cliffords number ?
August 6th, 2007 at 7:32 am
The theory about Madeleine having died in the apartment is now showing on certain online news sources as well as the Portuguese media, although in less detail. Nothing in the English press yet, as far as I can see online.
If however a cadaver dog did pinpoint death in the apartment, and a body needs to be dead for a minimum of 2 hours before it starts to emit the odour that these dogs search for, then all sorts of questions start to arise….
If the children were indeed checked ‘regularly’, then wouldn’t someone have noticed that Madeleine was dead? These are Doctors for God’s sake… surely they would have noticed such a thing?
If the McCanns went to dinner at 7.30, as reported, then Jane Tanner’s sighting of the man with a child in a blanket at 9.15 is either not true or cannot have been Madeleine. Also - it makes the later sighting by a local resident, of a man carrying a child towards the beach, possible… this man however knows Robert Murat and swears that it was not him (perhaps the other, as yet un-named suspect?). I think that sighting was at 9.45 though, so that would mean that Madeleine died shortly after 7.30 at the latest.
This is all so wierd
August 6th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Oh yes and I notice there is free speech at Anorak. Keep that in mind.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:46 am
In response to Paul
No, not one man but yes Is there a lack of free press? Notice the use of terms such as “hate campaigns” , etc. There might be more balance in this case by reading Portugal news, while knowing to sort and question both UK and Portugal news. The hate campaign appeared to consist of individual opinion and a petition some people were signing. Is it legal to sign a petition? Is that hate or a right? I noticed something happening around the time of the reported “hate campaign” and now I notice the McCanns are doing a lot of what I read the public complaining, such as picture of them hanging posters, etc. The McCanns have the right to try to change their image just as people should have a right to their opinion. One big question is if public donations were used in an attempt to censor public opinion, such as advice or help by lawyers who are financed by the Madeleine campaign? Can the media change public opinon by only publishing selected opinions? Maybe the public will donate large sums toward a “free speech” campaign? Oh, something to fuss about anyway. I was always on the side of the McCanns but I figure the best interest for most people is to have a more long term concern for free speech.
My concern for the McCanns is to see them reunited with Madeleine, just as I would hope they would feel for me.
August 6th, 2007 at 12:31 am
I really don’t think the portugese police are any further ahead, and are grasping at straws and trying to feed the media something,
Maybe now the British police are over there something might start moving ahead.
flaming roller coaster alright!
August 6th, 2007 at 12:25 am
Yes I read early on in the investigation, another criticism of the Portuguese Police is that they allowed the apartment to be cleaned. Whether this would affect the situation I don’t know, but maybe the British Press are ignoring reports in Portugal because they know it’s purely speculation.
I had thought that the most likely scenario would have been that Madeleine had wandered off, but after talking to someone who has recently returned from the Mark Warner apartments, apparently there would have been a gate for her to negotiate and also the reception area.
If Robert Murat is innocent he has been horribly persecuted, but I can’t see how checking his villa and grounds again would eliminate him. He could have been a cog in the wheel and not physically involved at all. Also, sadly there are far easier targets surely than a little girl on holiday not only with her parents but 6-7 other adults too. The only factor to make this plausible is that she was left each night, but then so were the twins.
Whatever has happened to Madeleine I can’t believe that her parents or anybody in that group would have been involved.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
After all this time surely their is no scent left, I have worked in the Hotel cleaning trade and when someone leaves an apartment it gets the full works bleach disinfectant and if needed carpet shampooing so surely their would be no scent to find.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:42 pm
I think that if the Portugal police and the UK police have all cantered their attention on Murat then he must have something to do with this, why would they give him so much attention.
As they were digging the garden up then they must believe her to be dead.
Also Olivier said something about people going up and confronting the Dutch guy? When did someone go up to them I haven’t heard that I know about the lady going out to call the police. Did this actually happen or is it just hear say?
Seems to be a lot of rumours and no truth in a lot of these stories.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Ohhh after all this is getting like a roller coaster for the past few days. Just as the news about the photofit man is in the paper the police are soon searching Murat’s property and then there are reports about Madeleine murdered in the apartment. So much so fast is too hard to figure. Maybe we should all go back to the beginning too and figure out what is factual or not? How much factual evidence is there on Murat? I can’t answer that and I have read a lot of news.
All I can say for sure at this point is Madeleine disappeared from the apartment in Portugal while her parents were dining. That has been admitted. I am aware of the McCanns, the McCann party, Mr. Wilkins, Murat, Malinka, and a few other people pictured as suspicious. There has been more scrutiny about Murat so as a result more speculation. Murat is a suspect.
So for now other than the photofit guy who was reportedly seen in Belgium with Madeleine, there is Murat and possibly someone or more that he knows? There is now a reported possibility Madeleine was killed in her room which means, due to the sniffer dog theory, Murat and the guy would need to kill her and come back later to dispose of her body.
What is the motivation in theory? A sex ring? Rape by Murat and the other guy and then murder, or ????
A sex ring could mean the guy in Belgium is still in the picture?
Or, due to the reported Tuesday night crying in the apartment could someone other than the planned source, if true, take Madeleine?
There are situations I have read about taking pictures of people involved in illegal activity and then blackmail. Does anyone out of all the known people appear a candidate, including the McCann party? Why a person without a known criminal history, how many of them in the bunch, would cross a line? Should it be easy enough to determine if Murat has a criminal history? How many people who are not considered above suspicion at this time have a criminal history? I haven’t noticed any reports with that information.
With so many conflicting developments the past couple of days it might be best to wait and see what surfaces tomorrow? The rest is up to Anorak.
August 5th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Extract from Sunday Times interview with Kate McCann:-
“They were 20 yards from the villa and checked on the children every half hour, she said.
But when she returned at about 9pm she found Madeleine had gone. She immediately realised she had been abducted.”
er - hold on a minute. The distance to the tapas bar is now 20 yards, according to Kate, and she now says it was 9 p.m. when she found Madeleine missing.
Here’s the link for more of the interview:-
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2199226.ece
Over to you Gerry.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:47 pm
All that I know is what I have reproduced here for you … the same story is in all the mainstream Portuguese press, and is also airing on Portuguese TV news. A contact of mine in the Algarve has been most helpful in posting links and providing the information today.
There is not even a glimmer of this in any of the UK press, nor in the English language press elsewhere (much of which is owned by Murdoch).
I’m not an expert on cadaver dogs, but I would imagine that they would need more than a passing trace from someone’s clothes to catch a scent in an apartment weeks later.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Thanks for the posting Molly but Wikepedia gives the following description for the paper Correio da Manha which you quote from.
Correio da Manhã (lit. Morning Mail) is a major daily Portuguese newspaper (tabloid), published in Lisbon. It is published by the publishing division of the Cofina group.
Yet again more facts???? from a tabloid source. I have watched the BBC, CNN and Reuters and none of them are reporting the details described in the tabloid articles. Are the tabloid papers quicker in reporting the news, more adept at getting the facts than credible sources?Who are the sources that tabloids are paying to get their information from?
There is no media black out in the UK. I don’t think the media in the UK are slanting stories to protect the McCanns. For what purpose would they do this? The SOL article even implicates Gordon Brown, as if somehow even the prime minister wants to protect the McCanns. Sorry but these tabloid papers are not to be trusted.
With the Portuguese secrecy law in place why would the JP be leaking huge amounts of incriminating information to the tabloid press in Portugal, sorry this makes no sense to me what so ever. What makes sense is the tabloid press making up information to sell stories because none of us know anything and we will be kept in the dark until the investigation comes to a conclusion. Until that day I think it is very unwise to speculate who the predator is.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
The Portugese reports say the dog could smell the scent of a ‘dead body’ in the McCanns apartment.
Early on in the investigation, the Portugese Police were criticized for not keeping the crime scene secure by allowing far too many people in to the apartment - could the ’scent’ have come from someone who had been in contact with a corpse?
I hope these reports are wrong and that she is safe somewhere.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
“Second day after Madeleine disappeared parents flew over 2 UK lawyers to consult; soon after Clarence Mitchell, UK media guru, began controlling what is reported and not.”
Alice, is it really possible that one man can control the entire UK media, can gag the press and prevent them publishing information unfavourable to the McCanns? I am beginning to believe that there is control being exercised, and there is very little variance in the media reporting on the case, and hardly any criticism of the McCanns. However, I doubt very much that it is all the work of Clarence Mitchell. Have the media agreed collectively to follow the same line in their reporting, to “support” the McCanns and try to protect them from criticism, and if so, for what reason? What would be their agenda in doing that? Or are they just plain incompetent, and aren’t indulging in any proper investigative journalism? Not just the tabloids, but the broadsheets also all seem to be “toeing the line.”
There are, as ever in this case, far more questions than answers.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Mods and Admin:
Alice, we have done our best to keep a very balanced view from everyone in the disappearance of Madeleine.
In fact the only posters we have stopped have been those who take another users name to ridicule them, and without fail those people have all been those who promote parental negligence.
We have urged throughout for all posters not to accuse anyone of anything, this includes Robert Murat.
However there are those who fully believe the McCann parents are without sin, and equally those who believe Mr Murat to be innocent.
Only time and Justice will solve this, and sadly a little girl is still missing, the true Innocent in all this.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:32 pm
Lisa says - “I find it strange how Murat stands around where he knows he will be seen on camera, like today he was standing there looking all calm and smiling and I found it disrespectful considering they might be looking for a little girls body. He makes me feel very uncomfortable.”
If RM is in fact completely innocent, why shouldn’t he “stand there looking all calm and smiling”? He has said he would welcome the police searching his property five, six, seven times, if they want to, as it would help to prove his innocence. He looked pretty confident and relaxed to me, or as confident and relaxed as anyone can be when having cameras and microphones thrust in their face.
Molly’s post is very thought provoking:-
“However, they are also all reporting that Cadaver Dogs, brought over from England, have responded to the presence of a dead body having been in the McCanns apartment. A body must be dead for between 2 and 4 hours before it emits the smell of death that a cadaver dog will respond to. All papers report that the PJ are centering their investigations back onto the McCann circle.”
The “dead body having been in the apartment” may just be complete speculation, as may also the report that the McCann circle are right back in the centre of the investigation. However, has any of this been reported in the UK press. Please correct me if it has, but I don’t think so. If not, this underlines the point made by Salem earlier, when she complained that the UK media are censoring information.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
The info about the dogs indicating a dead body in the McCann apartment is printed in reputable Portugal news Molly? After so much speculation for so long it is hard to react anymore. Maybe I will be up to the task after getting sleep. I am real tired! At least the news about the photofit man and the faceless woman offered more hope. No doubt, it will be interesting to know what actually happened the night of Madeleine’s abduction. Hopefully there will be a new story here with information.
Samantha, how can any of you, or us over here too for that matter, not worry that there are doctors, such as the recent NHS, who are supposedly into healing at the hospital during the day while at the same time trying to plant bombs after work? I think there are people into healing, healers, and then there are doctors. There is a mentality that you learn to recognize and it has to do with the soul of a person.
Which makes me think about the guy in the photofit, Murat, and all the rest. I hope the good are sorted from the guilty soon.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
This morning in Correio da Manha:
Traces:English dogs find trail
Madeleine possibly killed in the apartment
Judiciaria centers its investigations on the McCanns’ close circle, and tries to eliminate clues that pointed at Robert Murat. Kidnapping theory is beginning to be put aside, after english dogs detected a trail that points to the existence of a corpse in the holiday house
Policia Judiciaria (PJ) believes that Madeleine may have been killed in the Algarve apartment where she spent her holidays with her parents and siblings, in May. The specially trained dogs from the english police, cocker spaniel, that have been sniffing for the trail of the missing child, have detected residues that point to the presence of a corpse on those premises.
Yesterday, after having searched the beach, where the body could have been thrown into the water, authorities centered their attention on Robert Murat’s house, the only arguido in the process.
The same dogs sniffed the entire garden of Casa Liliana again – which was cleaned and cleared of shrubbery by the Civil Protection workers – but they found nothing. They left the area around 8 p.m., having detected no residues of the girl’s presence.
The lead that is now being followed by authorities, which was revealed by ‘Sol’ yesterday and confirmed by CM, complements another piece of data that misled the PJ’s elements at the beginning of the investigation. A sniffer dog used by GNR tracked the child between the apartment where Madeleine was sleeping and another house within the same resort, which led elements from PJ to never dismiss the possibility that the girl was taken by someone who knew her.
The clue that was now detected in the McCanns’ apartment refocuses the investigation on the close circle to the girl’s parents and friends, although it sheds no light on the reasons that led to the child’s death. PJ is being especially careful in this phase, and the names of the main suspects are omitted.
Murat could be innocent
The searches that were done yesterday at Robert Murat’s house may have contributed to render the suspect innocent. Nothing relevant was found at the house of the english translator, who was constituted an arguido at the beginning of the process. This is a possibility that meets the certainty of lawyer Francisco Pagarete, who reaffirmed his client’s innocence to CM yesterday. “We only let GNR stay on the premises so we can avoid the house to be devastated”, he assured, admitting that the diligence continues today and that the purpose of the militaries’ presence is to ensure that no clues are destroyed during the night.
CM could further discover that the investigation met a turnaround over the last few weeks. The arrival of the english dogs and their presence in the holiday apartment has the purpose to confirm that possibility, given the fact that suspicions are now centered on the McCanns’ close circle, the only persons who can explain the alleged death of the child, while still at home.
The kidnapping theory, according to a source with PJ that was contacted by CM, is being increasingly dismissed, as it would only fit a scenario where the child would have been alive. Yesterday’s searches, which were duly ordered by a court, started around 7.30 a.m.
Corpse in the house for over 2 hours
The body only smells like a corpse at least two hours after dead, “until that point it remains warm and transmits a living person’s smell to the dog”, subcomissaire Paulo Brissos, a former second commander of the PSP’s sniffer dog operation team, has guaranteed to CM.
This means that for the english authorities’ cocker spaniel to have marked the death of Madeleine within the apartment where she slept, at the ‘Ocean Club’, the girl had to be dead inside the apartment for “between 2 and 4 hours”.
Paulo Brissos, who was also a military dog trainer at the Air Force, explains that “Portugal does not have dogs that are capable to search for dead people because the chemical susbtance that is used for training, and which simulates a dead body’s odor, is very expensive”.
For example, in the tragdy of the bridge that collapsed at Entre-os-Rios, “we had foreign dogs brought in to search the corpses, not because they were of a different race, but because they were trained to do that”. And they work exclusively on the detection of decomposing bodies, while “in our country, dogs are trained to search, detect and rescue the living”.
“The difference does not reside in the races, and PSP also uses a cocker spaniel, but for drug searches”. And they do this in spite of the fact that labradors have better characteristics. The difference is a chemical product that is only affordable to foreign authorities.
Searches continue today
The PJ’s searches at Robert Murat’s house will continue all day today. Yet, because they have to finish after sunset, the investigators left the residence around 8 p.m., and will return in the early morning. During all day, the cleaning work at Casa Liliana’s surroundings was intensive. The gardeners from Civil Protection clered the entire surrounding area that was practically abandoned, which made the searches more difficult. Apart from cleaning the trees, some trails were made for the dogs to smell clues more easily, but that apparently did not happen.
Possibilities
Voluntary exit
The first possibility the PJ considered was that the child could have left the apartment voluntarily, given the fact that the doors and one of the windows were open. The searches that were done after the disappearance eliminated that possibility.
Kidnapping for sale
Another theory that was admitted by the investigators was that Madeleine might have been taken into a network for illegal adoption. Yet, the fact that there were 2 other children in the house (the twin siblings, who would have been a preferential target due to the fact that they were younger) always led PJ to consider it less probable.
Sexual abuse
The possibility that Maddie was taken to satisfy the impulses of paedophiles was a strong possibility for a long time. This was the scenario that integrated the suspicions on Robert Murat and also the inquiry that the russian Sergei Malinka was subject to.
Expresso 5 August 2007
A body only emits dead-body scent at least 2 hours after it’s dead. “Until then it’s still warm and gives any dog the smell of a living person”, [some cop vouches for this]
This means that if the British Authorities’ cocker spaniel detected Madeleine’s death at the apartment where she slept at the Ocean Club, the girl had been dead at that place “for two to four hours”.
This story is receiving widespread coverage in all Portuguese media - newspapers and TV.
As of this afternoon, the intensive search team have now moved from Robert Murat’s villa and back to the apartment in which the McCanns were staying.
I am fully aware that there is a media blackout in the UK, but how much longer can they keep it in place without looking very stupid indeed. For once the Portuguese press has a story, which given the ’secrecy’ stance of the PJ until now, would seem to be of interest - yet here we receive not a whisper of what is really going on.