Madeleine McCann: The Search And The Story
FROM Paulo Reis in Portugal:
News about the possible death of Madeleine first appeared last Saturday, July 4, when the weekly “Sol” published a story, by Felícia Cabrita and Margarida Davim, saying that there were “strong signs” that Madeleine “is dead”, quoting unidentified police sources.
On Sunday and Monday, several other Portuguese newspapers either quoted “Sol” or followed the same line, giving more details. “Jornal de Notícias” (JN), a leading daily newspaper, wrote that “traces of blood from a dead body, presumably from young Madeleine” were found at the Ocean Resort apartment from where she vanished.
(…)
Weekly “Sol” and other newspapers mentioned that those traces of blood were found by specially trained dogs, brought to Portugal by a British Police team. But the spokesman for Polícia Judiciária told Gazeta Digital, yesterday, August 6, that Portuguese CID “does not confirm news published today by the Portuguese Press”. Chief-Inspector Olegário de Sousa said also that “two specially trained dogs were used, in several searches, in cooperation with British Police.”
(…)
From Saturday to Sunday, a team of Portuguese and British detectives searched the home of Robert Murat. Workers from a gardening company cut trees and bushes in the garden. Later, iron bars were placed in specific areas and dogs were brought in. On Monday afternoon, Police left the house. Minutes after that, Robert Murat, his lawyer Francisco Pagarete and Felícia Cabrita, a journalist from weekly “Sol” left through the front gate.
Murat refused to talk to journalists, but his lawyer explained that searches were taking place with his client full cooperation and Mr. Murat expected that it “may contribute to prove he is innocent and ceases to be involved in this situation” (…)
Posted: 7th, August 2007 | In: Twitterings Comments (36) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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August 16th, 2007 at 6:29 am
Yes there are several inconsistencies in the story. However, i can imagine parents going to such lengths, after all they would want to do something. The investigation seems lacking, many questions unanswered also. Come on forensics a girl live or dead was taken from the apartment; have you checked all the cars, suspects etc. If there are really no traces in the likely places, pick up and follow less likely theories. Everyone is a suspect initially right, Even the McCanns must be reinvestigated.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
I’m horribly sorry for your loss, and I truely mean that.
My opinion of their actions is, It think, in line with yours.
August 8th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
How Maddie came to be is irrelevant, how her whereabouts ceased to be known is the issue.
The blood issue will lead nowhere simply because it is not evidence of a crime. The amount found could have been accidently wiped on the wall following an accident. It was not spatter so was not forcefully sprayed on the wall.
When Maddie tripped on the steps to the plane she merely grazed her knee, and proudly showed the graze to the video camera on the plane. The corresponding scabs would not have been sufficient to have left a great deal of blood if she had picked the scab therefore the blood in the apartment is unlikely to be hers.
Therefore nothing new has or will come from the stories to be found in the latest newspaper reports.
Molly’s post is very interesting. Some of the questions have already been answered in interviews. They are as follows:-
The 22 questions from Moita Flores
- Was the girl asleep or awake when they left home for dinner?
- Were the other children asleep?
They were all asleep - (Kate McCann in TV interview)
- Who was the first adult to make a round?
- And who was second?
- What was the time lapse?
It is unknown what time the McCanns went to the bar therefore the time span between leaving the children and the first known check by Gerry McCann who allegedly checked the children at at 9.10 pm is unknown. Kate checked checked at 10.00 pm when she was found Maddie missing. However, bar staff said no checks were done.
- How many of the children of the other couples were asleep at the same time?
All of the other couples in the group also left their children alone. All other details are irrelevant.
- How much time passed between the knowledge of the disappearance, and the communication to authorities?
The times vary according to the McCanns and the Police.
- Who called the police?
Kate McCann I believe
- Who participated in the first searches?
Friends, complex staff, and strangers from local bars. I have seen nothing that says the McCanns actually assisted in the search.
In addition to your questions I would like to know the following:-
Did either of the McCanns have anything to do with the setting up of the fund?
Why did they hire solicitors before doing so?
When they were refused charity status why were they allowed to set up a compnay when they are not trading and have no customers?
Why have they not spent a penny so far in the pursuit of actually finding Maddie?
What will happen to any excess left in the fund because they have no legal obigation to give it to charity or anyone else. It is company profit and nothing more?
Who owns the company?
Why do they constantly neglect the twins when they go globe trotting?
Are their actions the actions of a couple who have lost a child?
(By this I mean that having lost a child myself I would not let my other children out of my sight, and I would certainly not want to be constantly photographed).
OK you can let rip now
August 8th, 2007 at 6:34 pm
There appears to be so many theories in the news. Considering one theory,it would seem that more could be determined from a bottle than saliva dna, if the correct bottle is analyzed. Also, there should be dna from the Swiss guy found dead. Whether the blood in the apartment is Madeleine’s wouldn’t alone mean she died or was harmed by someone in the apartment?
In a situation of a live person being taken is abduction a dead person in that situation is not abduction but the act of covering up a crime or possibly accident (ex. to avoid neglect charges}. Note, I don’t think the parents did it theory.
Has anyone read the drama story on Daily I think it is? The article suggests a police man, Portugal, is trying to set Mrs. McCann up for killing Madeleine like he supposedly did some other lady. This case really has turned into tabloid heaven. So the writers of the article serious?
A lot of dirty laundry to wash and then I am convinced this case will be solved.
August 8th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
As a Christian I just want to say first that we would never make such a hate filled comment and seemingly just for the sake of it …. although I reserve the right to be royally kissed off when someone else does - and to have what may be a harsh and unpopular opinion on this situation.
Blood and sniffer dogs aside, the parents trouble me and have from the very beginning. Look at every other case of a missing child and a parent’s plea for help that you’ve ever seen, and we’ve all seen a heart crushing amount.
Where is the emotion here?
Team Mc Cann is either trapped in the mammoth depths of the most colossal case of denial yet witnessed by mankind, profoundly emotionally retarded, or …. I don’t want to give the last option and I don’t think I have to.
August 8th, 2007 at 10:29 am
also meant to say that I doubt ‘conscience truth’ is a Catholic. The wording is that of Christian fundamentalism……
August 8th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I’m a Catholic. IVF is allowed providing the remaining eggs are donated.
Now please don’t all jump on me because I’ve outted myself!! I’m moderate in that as well although the church call it lapsed!!!!!
August 8th, 2007 at 10:13 am
I just read that the DNA on the drink does not match Madeleines DNA. I figured it wouldn’t.
August 8th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Well penstar! I might not have put it quite like that but yep! DITTO.
I can’t even be bothered to argue the point with ‘Conscience Truth’ as its so outrageous.
Mods and Admin
Its understood to be RC dogma/doctrine
Would be interested to see other religious views on the subject -
June
August 8th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Conscience truth, fuck off.
August 8th, 2007 at 5:57 am
nao e sangue da madelaine policia portuguesa esta fazendo o que pode deixem de dizer mal da pj
August 8th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Conscience Truth…The Catholic Church teaches to “Go ye forth and multiply”. It doesn’t specify how to get pregnant. If it was their only means of getting pregnant, then they’re doing their “Catholic duty”. The Catholic Church teaches that it’s wrong to use birth control. Also, they might not have thrown away any of their fertilized eggs. They might have stored them for later use (or even have used them to get pregnant for the twins). Regardless, it’s none of our business. It’s between them, and God.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Madeline is an IVF child. The McCanns did a great moral evil here. IVF is evil for 2 reasons. It is an unnatural way to concieve. Further, it sometimes includes throwing away a few fertilised eggs and picking one to implant. Since life begins at conception, throwing away fertilised eggs is murder. The McCanns did great evil by using IVF. They abandoned Catholic moral teaching. Now, they return to Catholicism and Mass for ‘comfort’. They even went to Fatima.
August 7th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
The odds of it being her blood are one in a billion,,,,well at least as high as how many others have stayed in the room for the past many years.
Who hasn’t cut themselves while on vacation, and cleaned it up…Also even when they wash the walls ( as in the housekeeping crew) the blood residue stays there anyway.. so it could have been years ago….this is a complete wild goose chase. Oh well , I am hoping that she will be found soon, and in great health. I am betting on the recent sighting in Belgium I think..
August 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
Today
correio da manha.
Madeleine McCann Case
PJ searches Maddie’s jeep thoroughly
There are at least three hours that are blank in the day of the crime: between 6 and 9 p.m., “nobody saw Madeleine alive except for her parents”. The last step the Policia Judiciaria made, yesterday afternoon, was to collect residues from the jeep that the McCann couple used to travel in the Algarve, and send them to the Scientific Police Lab, a source with the investigation told CM.
The successive depositions made by Kate, Gerry and their friends at PJ in Portimao, during the first few weeks, started losing credibility by the “enourmous lack of accuracy” about the visiting times into the apartments where the children were sleeping. “There are contradictions among the friends’ group, who would be taking turns to check if all was well” with the eight children.
“A lot of things there don’t add up, so we could never establish the exact time that the disappearance happened”, another source with PJ says. But, between 6 and 9 p.m., “there are three blank hours and only the parents saw the child” – all possibilities lie open for the inspectors.
Investigations into the “context of family and proximity to the child” were never set aside and have increased over the last few weeks, as CM said in yesterday’s edition, and the use of dogs that came from England just helped confirm the worst suspicions from the PJ: Maddie actually was killed inside the apartment.
One of the dogs marked the child’s death on location, while the other one, who has different smelling abilities, “detected a blood stain, but the residue is too faint to allow for a DNA collection”, according to the same sources. “At the moment, there are no portuguese suspects”, contrary to what the english press has been circulating, and even Robert Murat is set apart from the crime: he only saw the cars of this relatives and friends being searched for a “final dismissal”.
The english police agents accompanied the PJ into level -4 of the parking garage in Portimao, away from photographers, and watched the collection of residues in the blue jeep that was used by the McCann couple, the vehicle that was rented by Madeleine’s family for their Algarve vacation.
The pressure from english authorities “intensified” after the suspicions on the “british context” were assumed, but “now there is no going back”, an inspector admitted to CM. It was important for PJ to carefully analyse the crossing of phone calls in Praia da Luz, before and after the crime, and “to avoid an international conflict” it was just two weeks ago that the decision was made to ask for help from english dogs that are able to detect the smell of corpses.
The detection of death inside the apartment, done by the dogs, allowed the PJ to assume their suspicions, and again, in the presence of english police, Robert Murat’s house was thoroughly searched, over the weekend. Again nothing was found. “Only the fact that he is an arguido before the law maintains him as a suspect”.
The next 15 days are crucial to the investigation, even because of the results of forensics tests that were performed on the McCanns’ jeep, which should arrive at PJ from labs in Lisbon. The abduction theory has been definitely abandoned and PJ is close to the key to this crime.
(the next part of the article is detailed info about the cars being searched)
English reveal suspect
English press advanced yesterday the thesis there is a second suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who is being watched for weeks by police because of his relation with Robert Murat. This report is in ‘The Sun’, the ‘Daily Express’ and the ‘Daily Mirror’. The suspect would be an alleged accomplice of the kidnapper and matches the description of a man who was seen in Praia da Luz carrying a girl wrapped up in a blanket, on the night that Maddie disappeared. Suspicions are referred that are due to facts in his past, and to movements of the man at the time of the disappearance. The ‘Daily Mirror’ underlines that the suspect may not be involved in the kidnapping, but he may know who was.
Group in regular contact
PJ was never satisfied with the depositions of the parents and the three couples of friends – and Rachel Oldfield, Fiona Payne and Russell O’Brien were called into Portimao for the last time on July 11. “We are very satisfied to help the police investigation and all of us want to do all that we can to help find Madeleine, so she can return to her parents”, Rachel said upon leaving, while she was speaking on everyone’s behalf. CM knows the group was always united and kept regular contacts.
The 22 questions from Moita Flores
- Who was the last person to see Madeleine alive, except the couple?
- Was the girl asleep or awake when they left home for dinner?
- Were the other children asleep?
- How were the round to check the children organized?
- Who was the first adult to make a round?
- And who was second?
- What was the time lapse?
- How many of the children of the other couples were asleep at the same time?
- What was the checking order?
- How much time passed between the last person outside of the couple seeing the girl alive, and the alert to the disappearance?
- How much time passed between the knowledge of the disappearance, and the communication to authorities?
- Who called the police?
- Who participated in the first searches?
- Where did they touch?
- Where did they search?
- Did they have bleach or acid in the house? (acido muriatico)
- Where did they shop?
- When did they buy these hygiene artciles?
- Who knew where they were kept?
- Did any of the friends change his clothes that night?
- Was any of them absent for an hour or more?
- Do they allow their children to talk to a pedo-psychiatrist so they can tell what they saw?
August 7th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=473408&in_page_id=1811&ct=5
Hopefully this will post OK.
August 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
mimi…ive never left my kids alone. Not ever. Ever ever. Never.
I think what the Mccann’s did was reckless. I also dont think that they should be punished for it….they are going to be punished enough for the rest of their lives. I cannot imagine the guilt and the horror that they are going through now. My prayers are with Madeleine.
christina.
August 7th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Seems a lot of people are saying that the blood couldn’t be Madeleine’s, or that there should be more blood if it was hers. There is the possibility that it could be anybodys but tiny droplets usually mean one thing. High-Velocity Impact Spatter: “As a general rule, the higher the energy of the impact, the smaller the drops are. Free-falling blood has a low velocity, leaving large drops. Impact spatters, found in cases of beating or stabbing, are medium-velocity. Additional blows typically knock off blood collecting on clothing, skin, or hair, causing low- and medium-velocity spatters to mark the attacker with backspatter. High-velocity impact patterns appear as a mistlike spray of droplets with a few larger ones mixed in. These are the result of gunshots or explosions.”
As far as no blood dripping on the floor, didn’t a witness say that they saw someone carrying what looked like a small child in a blanket? That might stop any blood from dripping. Also, when a person has died, they don’t bleed as much. The flow slows because there is no heart beating to move the blood around.
I’m still hoping that Maddie is alive and well and that the police will find her soon!
August 7th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
typing too fast I mean MADELEINE (bless her soul)
August 7th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
I think that madeleineds parents are now at a stage where they are running in blinkers.
which I suppose is natural, the news reports are now so conflicting, one screams murder the next screams abduction, one shouts Murat, next we are off to Belguim, I think I would hide away until the police knocked on my door with either Maddie or a body.
August 7th, 2007 at 2:13 pm
Okay, I just read that Mrs. McCann said she is happy with the way the investigation is going? Do you figure she is happy that the reports are indicating murder?
August 7th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
Liz - I totally forgot about the cut on her knee.
Lets hope the DNA tests that where taken from the bottle is Madeleins.
All I hope and pray for is she is found alive.
August 7th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
It may well be maddies blood, but it doesnt mean she is no longer alive, if I recall she arrived in Portugal with a cut on her knee that she got when she boarded the plane, and kids fall and hurt themselves when playing, I always take a first aid kit when I go away. and another thing, it is a holiday apartment with 100’s of folk having stayed there, these dogs are trained to find blood up to 7 years old,
I hope this is just another shot in the dark
August 7th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
This really is a pendulum of emotions, lots of what if’s, one minute our hopes are up as she is sighted, next minute the police are digging up gardens and sending sniffer dogs around portugal - not 100 yds from where she was last seen, I honestly dont know anymore what to think, and I am afraid to say that if that is what the tabloids aim to do, then yes it is a job well done.
I am just waiting for the “breaking news” saying that she has been found alive and well
she certainly did not deserve this
August 7th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Has anyone thought that may be, just maybe the McCanns and Murrat are connected?
Firstly, what mum would go out for a jog the day after their child goes missing??
How about when they came back to England to go to a christening? Even though they where the childs godparents but even still!
Sorry but something (or alot of things) just don’t seem to be adding up.
Does anyone remember the time when a car with 2 adults and a child who looked very frightened turned up at a petrol station in Spain? From what I remember, then man was of forgein speaking and the female was of English speaking but did not look English. If so, could they also be the same people who have been seen at the road side cafe with a child of Madeleins age and simualities?
I really hope that Madelein is found alive.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
if she was abducted, did the abductor have his own cleaning service outside “just in case” there was a spot of blood, how did he / she get through the shutter…..oh maybe they propped it open with their mop and bucket,
come on If and it is a big if, the parents and friends were checking every 30 minutes surely one would have noticed if the cleaners had been in. no no no if it is maddies blood then I am sorry but I think we know who dunit
but then again ………..
August 7th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
i agree, the blood thing is so random, y wud there be tiny small drops when u wud except it 2 be all over the place if young maddie was really murdered in her apartment, i do not blame the mccanns, every parent has left there kids before i dont no y people r pointing fingers! pooor madddie just come homeee!!
August 7th, 2007 at 11:57 am
The whole thing is rife with speculation and guesswork because of those damn secrecy laws that mean people connected with the case cannot speak to the press.
August 7th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Perhaps he may have ’something’ to hide or just not in the gaze of the public, but not to do with Madeleine? People do sometimes get very defensive when under attack, it doesn’t scream guilt, just maybe a plea to get out of his space?
August 7th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Angry……I’m NOT actually blaming anyone - BUT Murrat has something to hide, otherwise why is he lying with changing alibi, asking for alibi, re. contacting the Russian, the very iffy car rental with such urgency etc etc the list is endless - WHY would an innocent man behave like that????
August 7th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Susanne - You appear like many others to want to place the blame on Murat when there is no physical evidence linking him with anything. Like anyone else he is innocent until proven guilty.
It is impossible for a few specks of blood to be linked to a violent crime scene. It would be spatter over a wide area. It is most likely that the blood was the result of a minor accident.
If you want to discect the actions of people, then the McCanns own actions both before and after the abduction leave musch to be desired. Having abondoned the children both before and on the night of the abduction, they then abandon the twins to go globe trotting. Kate McCann went jogging the morning after the abduction. Gerry McCann has a perpetual smile for the cameras and has shown no remorse.
The McCanns also lied to the police.
Please do not persecute an innocent man when blatant negligence led to the abduction yet the McCanns are treated like saints. The only people who are known to have comitted a crime to date are the McCanns.