MADDYWATCH: Madeleine McCann’s Family House
Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS: Front page, plus pages 4 and 5, with logo (“THE HUNT FOR MADELEINE: Day 117”). “MADELEINE: NEW SETBACK OVER CRUCIAL DNA EVIDENCE” announces THE WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER.
It reports that a “devastating blow” has been struck – which turns out to be the news that the DNA tests will not be ready for weeks. The tests are being carried out at the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham, so there is no opportunity to blame the Portuguese authorities on this occasion. The paper has to content itself with the comment that the tests are being delayed by “the nature of the evidence”.
The paper notes that as the McCanns try to come to terms with losing Madeleine “they continually face new accusations”.
It then lists these “vicious smears” and describes each one in detail: “Kate’s guilt”, “Drugging their children”, “Wife-swapping holidays”, “Excessive drinking”, “Children left to cry”, “Killed in the apartment”, “A body in the hire car”, “Emergency call delay”, “Intercepted phone calls and emails”, “Friends under suspicion”, “Forged birth certificate”.
For reasons best known to itself, the paper prints a picture of the McCanns’ home, with a caption noting that it is worth £600,000.
THE STAR: Most of page 9. “DIVIDED IN GRIEF: Pals fear Maddie parents’ rift. “Friends” are apparently “concerned about GP Kate’s crestfallen body language”.
Portuguese newspapers are accusing the police of driving a wedge between the couple to test their individual accounts of what happened on the fateful night. They also claim that a rift has developed over the media campaign.
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Small box, page 2. “Expert warns McCanns of long wait for DNA results” The paper reports on the delays, and says that the McCanns have been advised not to return to Britain until the results are known.
OTHER PAPERS: No Madeleine news today.
Posted: 28th, August 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (386) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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August 29th, 2007 at 12:55 am
Bulloney if you like pictures of swingers, you’re online - it’s just a couple of clicks away. No need to hang out for the mother of a missing 4 year old.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Interesting Spudgun, that to perform the perfect crime one must act alone or be grassed on following interrogation. I assume, then, that you believe that a) the Mccanns and friends are innocent or b) that the tapas 9 have not been thoroughly interviewed. Am I correct?
I honestly do not believe that after 4 months, that the PJ have not asked relevant questions of the involved parties. They operate in secrecy and none of the involved parties is allowed to to comment, so much is unknown and prob will continue to be. With regard to the discrepancies in time and frequency of checking kids, I’ll bet the PJ have nailed them on those issues. It was never in the interests of the tapas 9 to draw attention to their woeful parenting skills. Poss the only situation in this investigation where the secrecy laws actually helped them out.
itsme, I’ve thought about that poss evidence that bodies were detected in car and apartment and concluded that it is best to travel with pine’o'clean.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
was kate mccann really a swinger? cause if she was it is likey that some pictures will hit the light of day if they are ever convicted of a crime
August 28th, 2007 at 11:40 pm
itsme, nobody in their right mind would believe an alien abduction. that is why i used it as an example, cause there has never been any evidence of a abduction by anyone
August 28th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
and most i am wondering why the mccanns are ignoring those facts - or even get upset when being confronted with them….
August 28th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
There have been hurtful and wacky theories but the post by - itsme no.80. - Is a frighteningly accurate theory that is easy to conclude when you put all the leaked information together. It would explain the blood on the wall and the involvement of a friend and car.
I am sure that most of the disinformation leaked is untrue but I don’t think that people are as naive as you think to believe in them all. I also don’t think that anyone is suggesting that the McCanns are evil murderers.
The people I have read on various posts all want a wonderful outcome .
But what makes people believe that some of the stories may be true is the statements from the McCanns and their friends that don’t correspond. It’s Gerry telling us that he’s been told to ‘act’ on TV as an emotionless person (which proves to us how well he can lie), it’s their unwillingness to tell people that it is unacceptable, stupid and selfish to leave small children alone and to warn others not to do it - ever! It’s Gerry’s temper tantrums at suggestions that they or their friends should be suspects even though they were the last people to see the child.
This is what gives the weight to the leaked information.
And if their best friend knew and was without a doubt that she saw Murat carry Madeleine off that night - what the heck made Gerry and Kate ask Murat after the event if they could lend his car to look for her? My husband would have throttled him not asked him for help? It is these little strange things that people notice!
As for educated well respected doctors - education can be bought and respect has to be earned - not how anyone is viewing these Spin Doctors so far.
If Madeleine turns up safe (and I pray to God every day that she will) it will have been delayed by her parents and their friends lack of honesty - that I am certain of - if nothing else!!!
August 28th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
in the timeline i remember that there was first a portugese police statements about having indications from emails and phone calls within the mccann group that madeleine might be dead. after that, or because of that?, british investigators - with a body sniffer dog - were called to the scene.
they stated, having found evidence that madeleine (might) have died in the apartment.
as well did the - 5 million GBP insured - sniffer dog detect traces of a body in the apartment and in a rental car belonging to the group.
what you think ?
- someone else died there, and now noone in the holiday resort did notice or remembers ? …and then the mccanns coincidentally got into exactly this apartment later ?
- how many bodies are moved in rental cars ? …and the mccann-group accidentially rented such one ?
sorry…i am having a hard time with “alien abduction” theories…
August 28th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
An infamous, nameless, criminal once said; ‘If one is to perform the perfect crime, it is essential that one performs it alone, to the exclusion and knowledge of all others’. EVERY major crime in history, every major gangster, hood, armed robber or conspirator was convicted, NOT because of the diligence of the police operation to catch them, but because ONE of the gang members spoke out, turned ‘Supergrass’ or Queens Evidence. From the Krays to the New York Mafia, the crimelords were jailed because someone blagged!! If the McCanns ARE guilty of a crime here, and are so with the complicity and involvement of others in the party, then should ever the occasion arise when the police have to start asking some serious, searching questions, then methinks the truth is sure to evolve. That said, if NONE of the parties have to face serious police interrogation, then perhaps the guilty will evade capture.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
There have been hurtful and wacky theories but the post by - itsme no.80. - Is a frighteningly accurate theory that is easy to conclude when you put all the leaked information together. It would explain the blood on the wall and the involvement of a friend and car.
I am sure that most of the disinformation leaked is untrue but I don’t think that people are as naive as you think to believe in them all. I also don’t think that anyone is suggesting that the McCanns are evil murderers.
The people I have read on various posts all want a wonderful outcome .
But what makes people believe that some of the stories may be true is the statements from the McCanns and their friends that don’t correspond. It’s Gerry telling us that he’s been told to ‘act’ on TV as an emotionless person (which proves to us how well he can lie), it’s their unwillingness to tell people that it is unacceptable, stupid and selfish to leave small children alone and to warn others not to do it - ever! It’s Gerry’s temper tantrums at suggestions that they or their friends should be suspects even though they were the last people to see the child.
This is what gives the weight to the leaked information.
And if their best friend knew and was without a doubt that she saw Murat carry Madeleine off that night - what the heck made Gerry and Kate ask Murat after the event if they could lend his car to look for her? My husband would have throttled him not asked him for help? It is these little strange things that people notice!
As for educated well respected doctors - education can be bought and respect has to be earned - not how anyone is viewing these Spin Doctors so far.
If Madeleine turns up safe (and I pray to God every day that she will) it will have been delayed by her parents and their friends lack of honesty - that I am certain of - if nothing else!!!
August 28th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
johnathon says: Maybe its time to start the theory that Madeleine was abducted by aliens. well, why not.
there is about as much evidence to suggest she was abducted by aliens as there is by a human.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Havent been on for a while….well there’s never anything new is there?
Fascinating to read the posts though which have become more noticably either pro or anti McCann. I have previously posted 7 scenarios that could have happened and only 2 have the McCanns innocent of involvement and only 1 has both the McCanns and friends jointly innocent of involvement.
Now with such a high ratio for their possible involvement isnt it logical to have investigated the whole lot of them to at least eliminate them from the enquiry?
Shouldnt the McCanns and friends have had seach warrants executed on their homes and THEIR computers taken, just like Murat? In the absence of evidence for an abductor dont you investigate the last person(s) who claim to have seen the child???
The McCanns may be innocent of involvement but this appears to be a no brainer for law enforcement. Why has this not been done?
August 28th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
Emmy - post 95
What a load of garbage! Why don’t you and all the other witch hunters go and cast your spells on the Keystone Kops!
August 28th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
Hi Spudgun,
I’m just about to turn in for the night. It certainly appears that the McCanns have made conflicting statements but if they did those were to the PJ and PJ alone, not the press. The press have certainly changed reports as they have gone along. I can believe that peoples recollection changes over time. So the reaility is we don’t really know. Everybody is saying that Tanner is only person to see a man carrying a child. I thought I read a report about another witness seeing a man+child by the church.
I’m happy to speculate on all of this, I just get saddened by the folks that beam in and make unsubstantiated statements as though they were facts.
Maybe its time to start the theory that Madeleine was abducted by aliens
August 28th, 2007 at 10:48 pm
Emmy - post 95 - what a load of garbage! - why don’t you and the other witch hunters go and cast your spells on the Keystone Kops.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:42 pm
Hi Jonathan.
Hate to cross swords with you on this issue of lying again, but, whilst I’m not ready to submit to a lot of this fanciful conjecture just yet, I think we can pretty much state with sufficient unequivocality that PART of the big problem here, and one of the driving forces for a lot of the speculation in the media, is the FACT that indeed, the statements made by the McCanns at the outset not only are self contradictory when compared to later ammendments, but also differ quite wildly, at times, from those of other members of the Tapas 9. Mistakes? False recollections? or lies?
August 28th, 2007 at 10:34 pm
Hear, hear Jonathan (post 96)
August 28th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
Colette,
Yeah I know, and I referred to that, but one appeal? Parents in that kind of situation typically make repeated appeals with every opportunity they have to face the media. And Kate’s appeal is odd,. Where was the anger? Where was the suppressed rage?
August 28th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
It’s just as possible that Maddie became bored and decided to look outside the window for a diversion. Maybe she invited the wrong person into her apartment. Which is why any parent in their right mind would never have left her alone in the first place.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Its fascinating to read people comments on here. Why is that those who believe that Madeleine was abducted and its not an in-house job put forward reasoned posts and are generally prepared to consider other possibilities, whilst when the opposite is true the language is very direct and closed. Take Judith’s comments (91) - which says “The McCanns are definitely liars and it is quite despicable…. “.
What evidence supports this kind of statement?
If I said Judith, you are definitely wrong you might well ask “How do I know?”.
In other words where’s your evidence? Precisely, my dear.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
Yeh Kaydee its true!! He said it himself!! He only said that a few weeks after the they had started to look for maddie… He should have looked for her!! Everyone asks why he would do that..
his response was ” I thought she was in our room because thetwins must have kept her up”
but he didnt bother to check on his daughter… Who in the right mind does that?! Either she was already dead and made some excuse… because if you think about it the mccanns didnt call the police til 10.30pm even though Kate knew she was taken
so they leave at 7 …thats 3 hours for her to be there for it… Gerry could have taken his dead daughter out at 9 10… chucked her in the rental car…!! Gone back for food so that the friends could make a fake ‘’sighting” so he could say he was in the bar then!!
They would have dropped maddie in the sea and be back to call the police at 10.30
.. either that or its a whole scam for money and shes not dead… she will be back in portugal this week!! The kidnapper went up to belgium and come bk down towards spain… why?! noone would be that stupid!! Unless they were going to return her
August 28th, 2007 at 10:20 pm
Clarabell,
For that very reason they would logically have sought to transfer their guilt and much of the public attention onto the abductor(s), but they’ve remained remarkably silent about them. Are they simply very stoic?
August 28th, 2007 at 10:19 pm
itsme (80) Just wondering if you are part of the pj? as your post sounds quite logical as if you know something we dont!!!
August 28th, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Has anyone got the link to the article which states that Gerry Mccann did not see his daughter on his last check and assumed she had toddled off as noted by Judith Chisolm?
August 28th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
I have thought from the beginning that the McCanns were guilty - either that there never was a Madeleine (she was a composite photo) and the whole thing was a money-making scheme, or that she was killed - probably accidentally - by one of the parents. The oddest occurrences were when the “witness” (Jane Tanner I think) saw a man with a child in a blanket near the apartment and didn’t immediately report this back to the McCanns as suspicious and alarming and the check on the children Mr. McCann did at “9.05″ when he went to the apartment (that had an open door - why?) and didn’t see the child in her bed but simply assumed she had toddled off into “our” room. And, he didn’t even bother to look for her!!! What parent would do such a thing? The answer is no parent. So the assumption is that he knew very well what had happened to Madeleine at that time — dead, and/or carried away with his knowledge by someone he (and Jane Tanner) knew. The McCanns are definitely liars and it is quite despicable to not only put on this world roadshow show, use massive police resources and collect well-intentioned money off gullible people but to also try to pin the blame on someone else, anyone, in order to get off the hook themselves.
August 28th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
Hi Jeeves,
To your post (85), here is the link to when KM appealed to an abductor to return her child:
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?tab=av&q=madeleine&edition=i&recipe=all&scope=all&start=13&link=next
(Click on ‘Mother appeals for safe return, 7th May).
It does appear to be the only time - but it is an occasion when they did make an appeal.
I have also joined in speculation about the parents being involved (notably through accident via sedation), that was my very first post here a few weeks ago - but then I realised it’s not fun anymore playing armchair sleuth. I did enjoy it as a ‘practical exercise’ up to a point: trying to work out what might have happened is what the police do too - and nobody would accuse them of being unfair in this way, if they are doing their job. Bit like a board game. And removed from whether one likes or dislikes the MCs.
But lately I have started to feel a bit voyeuristic about it, and I find I do not like myself, and actually - even if it means I have to eat my hat! - I would prefer to think these parents are innocent until proven guilty (as was apparent in some of my other posts), even though I am swayed by very strong arguments the other way. So after this posting, I am going to try and stay away (for good)! Just wanted to say I think Moderation’s posts (the one’s I’ve read recently anyway) are balanced and brave (depends on who else is around!) And Molly thanks for all your translations and balanced comments too. I’ve enjoyed reading them!
Hope Madeleine is found, and the only guilty person turns out to be a nasty stranger whom none of us identify with
August 28th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
But could the something fishy not just be that they are feeling really really guiilty for leaving her alone in the appt? Maybe they lied about the times she was checked on. But maybe that’s the only reason it all seems to fishy… and not because they had any involvement in her actual dissapearance/death
August 28th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
That’s a good point, Clarabell. Personally I don’t even need to be a psychologist to now that something about that is fishy.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
And this thing about “searchnig for a living Madelein” is also very odd. These people are meant to be intelligent professionals. Surely they understoodd that she could either be alive or dead and to search by that criteria alone is illogical. Were they afraid that the police might find a body?
August 28th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
The British police always ask the people who they think has harmed the child to give a plea to the abductor… so that they can assess whether they are guilty through pyschological assessments
August 28th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I have to admit there’s one thing in particular that has always seemed to me to be odd about the behavior of the McCanns. How they dealt with the issue of the supposed abductor. I’ve seen other parents in this sort of situation plead repeatedly on TV for the abductor(s) not to harm their child and return it to them. Other than a press moment at the beginning, when Mrs McCann gave a tearful speech saying “She’s lovely” (which in itself seems odd as that would be the very reason an abductor would have taken her–so who was she addressing herself to? The abductor or the general public?), the McCanns have not addressed a word to the (supposed) abductor. Is it because they know there isn’t one?