Madeleine McCann: DNA Jigsaw, Torture And The Twilight Zone
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE DNA PUTS PARENTS IN FRAME. British experts insist their tests are valid”
Page 7: “DNA tests ‘fill in more pictures of jigsaw’” – A source close to the investigation provides the headline quote. But what has been found is unsaid, and how it involves Kate and Gerry McCann
“New police chief is accused of torture” – Chief inspector Tavares Almeida is to face charges of “beating up a robbery suspect in custody”. The Express says this is a “torture scandal”. The alleged victim – who was accused of being part of a gang that sexually abused children and coerced them into violent muggings - was acquitted
Mr Almeida was dubbed “Kate’s Tormenter”, possibly by the Express today
DAILY MAIL page 8: “New DNA tests ‘put the McCanns back under suspicion’”
The McCanns, both “doctors” are said to be “extremely distressed by the claims”
DAILY MIRROR page 7: “COPS GAVE UP SEARCH THREE MONTHS AGO”
“Investigation in tatters as second detective accused of violence”
THE SUN front page: “McCANNS’ AGONY – MADDIE: NEW DNA LINK TO KATE”
British forensic scientists “are said to believe tests on fresh clues support earlier findings that led to the McCanns being declared suspects”
Page 4: “McCANNS ‘LIVING IN A TWILIGHT WORLD’”
Clarence Michelle says: “We had reports that DNA had proved ‘inconclusive’ and even it had put the McCanns in the clear.”
Reports from whom is not reported
“Now there are reports that the DNA is making them look suspect. There are wholly innocent explanations for any material police may or may not have found. This just goes to show what a twilight zone we are operating in”
The Twilight Zone – wasn’t that the name of the TV show with the sting in the tail?
DAILY STAR front page: “MADDIE: NW DNA DAMNS PARENTS. Brit police find shock evidence”
But they have not been arrested. The McCanns are just suspects. How is this damning?
Pages 8 and 9: “MADDIE: SHOCK NEW DNA CLUE TO PARENTS – Boffins say cops on the right trail”
“Torture rap cop” – Tavares Almeida is 48
DAILY TELEGRAPH page 9: “Portuguese police ‘right to focus on McCanns’”
A British source says “Everything that has emerged indicates that the investigation is focusing where it should”
A British detective says the case is being “done back to front” – the parents should have been looked at first. The mantra is: “Clear the ground from under your feet”
THE INDEPENDENT, THE GUARDIAN and THE TIMES: No Madeleine news today
Posted: 9th, October 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,027) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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November 2nd, 2007 at 5:13 pm
Here is part of a transcript from CNN, Nancy Grace and answers the question of whether DNA CAN BE DETERMINED IF IT IS FROM LIVING OR DEAD PERSON (I apologize if this is a repeat for some of you).
The answeris YES, it can be determined if it is from a dead or living person, in spite of what was said on the recent RTE program …
SNIP
GRACE: What is the police theory? What we know tonight is the mom and the dad, prime suspects in baby Maddy`s death and disappearance, one or the other. Also, we have listened to reports that the body fluid found in the back of the car of that rental car is under the carpet, in the trunk, and there`s an 80 percent to 98 percent chance that it is baby Maddy`s blood. That leaves them with a lot of explaining to do.
Out to Dr. William Morrone, medical examiner and forensic pathologist. Dr. Morrone, they seem to be going on a theory that baby Maddy was sedated to make her go to sleep so they could go out to dinner. OK, let`s think about that for a moment. What would be the bodily fluid 25 days later if they transported a dead body? What would be the bodily fluid?
DR. WILLIAM MORRONE, MEDICAL EXAMINER: There are a number of bodily fluids that could accumulate. When red blood cells compact with platelets and clotting factors, what`s extracted is something called serum. It could be old urine. It could be…
GRACE: Twenty-five days later?
MORRONE: If it`s in the body and the body has been stored, those things, along with other chemical markers, would also give them the idea of decomposition.
GRACE: What do you mean other chemical markers? Break it down, Morrone! What do you mean “other chemical markers”?
MORRONE: I`m going to use two words, and one of these is going to be really familiar to you. One of them is called spermine and one of them is called cadaverine. These are compounds that are only given off in dead bodies. You don`t get these compounds in live children or live adults…
GRACE: Oh, you mean like gas, the body starts emitting gas as it decomposes?
MORRONE: It`s still in a fluid state, but these two molecules called spermine and cadaverine, cadaverine is what`s used to train cadaver dogs. They spray cadaverine on a rag, and they let the dogs sniff it, then they go hide the rag. That`s how you train a cadaver dog.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: … a fluid that the body creates postmortem?
MORRONE: Yes, as part of the decomposition. And if the body fluid and the DNA also contain these, then there is a suspicion that this was decomposition and death, yes.
GRACE: So if the bodily fluid and what contain this?
MORRONE: You would find spermine and cadaverine in urine or other bodily fluids that might be secreted, because it`s like a wine. It matures. And it ferments. And this is what`s produced in fermentation.
Full Transcript is at this address:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0709/10/ng.01.html
October 10th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
In Charge Here: To make clear, I’m in the western part of the USA so our time zone at the moment is seven hours prior to what Anorak says it is. It was only 8 p.m…. I swear I”m not up until 4 a.m. talking about Madeleine!
Right now it’s 8:30 a.m. here
October 10th, 2007 at 2:42 pm
That’s the “great” thing about this. The McCanns just talk their way into more trouble without even realising it.
Transporting rotting meat eh! how convenient. If the McCann’s dont already know, DNA can distinguish human from animal. (yawn) Then again you would think doctors would know this. However, they made the claim it was rotting meat in relation to why the dogs barked. Maybe they forgot about DNA, in which case makes them crap Doctors AND crap criminals. Maybe they got their doctorates online from the university of fantasy in Alabama for $49.99.
I’m totally convinced that this whole caper has been an elaborate distraction all along, and the McCanns are old fashioned liars. If one of them just confessed and was honest, they would be out of jail in a few Years and all would be forgotten. Now, they have upped the ante nobody will forgive them.
Where could you possibly live without people judging you? Suicide City. Oh no, silly me. GOD judges you there according to the McCanns. There’s nowhere to hide now. Heaven or Earth.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
1031
Kitty.
Good theory, in fact their “explanation” for the bodily fluids in their car could be a consealed confession.
They were transporting rotting meat…not chicken wings but M.’s body.
October 10th, 2007 at 10:08 am
989 Maria Says:
Maria – You ought to be a journalist. You seem to have a talent for weaving seemingly unrelated ‘facts’ and coming to rosy conclusions about what it all means. I hope one day this case is solved and is swiftly followed by some kind of public enquiry. From the contradictory rubbish spewed out by the media I can’t help but think that lots of mistakes and deceptions have occurred in many parties assoiciated with this case.
Edit ..
It was also a bit daft to have two men heading the investigation, one an arguido under suspicion of covering up torture of the mother of a missing child and the other charged with beating up a suspect later found not guilty. Just daft, especially the first one.
COMMENT – So are you now suggesting that one was an arguido and the other charged with offences BEFORE they started work on the Madeleine investigation? I had thought these statuses (spelling?) were attributed some time after they commenced working on the Madeleine case? That being the case (happy to be proven wrong), all sorts of questions arise. E.g. How quickly should these officers have been removed from the case? Are these ‘opportunistic’ claims/charges by the other parties? Are any of these accusations being ‘encouraged’?
Edit….. This isn’t about prejudice, it’s about the simple fact that this particular investigation wasn’t conducted professionally. If it had been, we’d know by know whether the McCanns were guilty or whether their story and their desperate campaign to find Madeleine was genuine.
COMMENT – Part of the issue for many is the perception that the search for Madeleine has been anything but “desperate”.
For any police force to suggest that they would allow prime suspects (if they DID suspect them then) to remove a body in a hire car under their very noses, weeks after the event and rebury it somewhere else……..well, doesn’t that say it all?!
COMMENT – Perhaps the simple explanation is that they were NOT Prime Suspects at the time? (Always assuming a body or materials used to store/transport a body were ever in the Renault Scenic. There are now suggestions that other cars may in fact be the forensically interesting ones, allegedly.)
October 10th, 2007 at 9:50 am
987 - The Real Stig Says:
Edit……..isn’t it more a case of who hasn’t had such slurs leveled against them?
6 of the PJ to date, so I am lead to understand by media reports. Edit……
++++++++++++++++
Ah well, if it’s been in the media it MUST be true then!
October 10th, 2007 at 8:10 am
New thread guy’s
October 10th, 2007 at 7:49 am
If the apartment had been sealed until after it had been exhaustively examined there would be no need to eliminate subsequent occupiers of it.
Say what you like, mistakes have been made by the PJ.
Anyway, as I said yesterday - I am making no comments on what I think happened
October 10th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I assume they have to test the fingerprints of the other guests who stayed in the apartment after the Mccanns to eliminate them from inquiries. I am sure they did not do this at the time.
October 10th, 2007 at 6:04 am
There was a penchant for quoting song lyrics here a while ago. I had my iTunes on while reading these updates, and Sarah McLachlan was singing Adia. Some of the words seemed poingnant:
Adia I do believe I failed you
Adia I know I let you down
Don’t you know I tried so hard
To love you in my way
It’s easy let it go…
Adia I’m empty since you left me
Trying to find a way to carry on
I search myself and everyone
To see where we went wrong
’cause there’s no one left to finger
There’s no one here to blame
There’s no one left to talk to, honey
And there ain’t no one to buy our innocence (!!!!!)
’cause we are born innocent
Believe me adia, we are still innocent
It’s easy, we all falter
Does it matter?
Adia I thought that we could make it
But I know I can’t change the way you feel
I leave you with your misery
A friend who won’t betray
I pull you from your tower
I take away your pain
And show you all the beauty you possess
If you’d only let yourself believe that
We are born innocent
Believe me adia, we are still innocent
It’s easy, we all falter, does it matter?
Believe me adia, we are still innocent
’cause we are born innocent
Adia we are still innocent
It’s easy, we all falter … but does it matter?
Words © Sarah McLachlan
October 10th, 2007 at 5:59 am
From The Guardian:
DNA request in Madeleine hunt
Press Association
Wednesday October 10, 2007 4:58 AM
Tourists who stayed at the resort where Madeleine McCann went missing have been asked to provide DNA samples and fingerprints, reports say.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-6984869,00.html
Also of interest are the claims other children were in the room with Madeleine. Check Google news for these. I believe I read only one link per post.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:57 am
1025 - Krissie, you may be right, and this is where PR people and lawyers get it wrong in advising their clients. “No comment,” does sound like an evasion of the truth. If the truth is plain and simple, then tell it. People respect that, which is why they do not respect lawyers and politicians (and a lot - if not most, these days - of politicians come from the ranks of the law industry). If the guys kids were not there, what is wrong with saying, “No”?
October 10th, 2007 at 5:51 am
996 brandonflours - The McCanns’ spokesman Clarence Mitchell added: “If you put seven children together, you’re going to have a far harder time getting them to sleep than three.”
They can’t help shooting themselves in the foot! Not hard to get them to sleep if they’re all drugged. Oh what a tangled web we weave.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:29 am
41 Batman
I hope you were being facetious when you wrote “lazy greasy Portuguese”. There’s another forum where Brit expats gather and the things they say about the Portuguese enrage me.
It is true that the Portuguese are treated badly in England. I have a friend who just returned from working and living in London, and he was shocked at the way he was treated and perceived by the people there. He’s not the only one, either.
Please tell me you weren’t serious.
October 10th, 2007 at 5:14 am
Krissie Says:
October 10th, 2007 at 3:44 am
OK, tomorrow I will post about what is our Final Answer
Go to Sleep Krissie! It’s past your bedtime…
October 10th, 2007 at 3:44 am
OK, tomorrow I will post about what is our Final Answer. We’ll have to keep it to a certain number of words maybe so we can compile a whole document that is a reasonable length.
And I agree with anyone who says the Police are sharper than we think. There’s more than one ace up the sleeve, I suspect, I just don’t know which color and suit. Could be something we do not at all suspect.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:55 am
Krissy — I’ll vote tomorrow, whenever you post the question about our “final answer”.
Kitty — I think you are right that Madeleine’s body is long gone/destroyed. I, too, concluded this when her parents, through others, asserted, “Show us the body.”
Andrew — I, too, think the police (British and Portuguese) are sharper than many realize. i think they have phone calls or emails that will damn the McCanns. Even if such evidence were kept out of the courts, it would eventually be leaked to the media. If people hear tapes of Kate McCann admitting to accidentally killing Madeleine, she may end up wishing she were in prison rather than out free, facing the wrath of the public.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I don’t think Payne’s response to the question about the whereabouts of his children on the night in question was acceptable.
The Tapas 9 have created more than enough mystery surrounding the whereabouts of their children and themselves and it is high time they stopped dithering and started answering straight questions with straight answers.
I said before that he must be very stupid or frightened, but there is a third option - maybe he has watched too many episodes of The Bill.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:35 am
The FSS in birmingham probably have some shocking news for the McCanns. The Police aren’t all fools, and don’t like to be made out as being such. Add that to the phone-taps and emails and it probably doesn’t look good for team McCon. Try talking your way out of all that lot… especially if UK law applies. you can say no comment as much as you like, but when it comes to court you look guilty as sin. Arrest them all, deny them bail and see who starts talking the first. That would be my strategy
October 10th, 2007 at 2:32 am
Uta,
I think you are close to the truth. My opinion is that Madeleine’s death was accidental and resulted from an attack by her mother in response to Madeleine (in Kate’s opinion) being too demanding and jeopardising an evening out which the woman lacked the restraint and grace to forego. Despite not committing the deed personally, GMc, realised that the fall-out of such a revolting crime would ruin his career, social life and (perhaps) political aspirations and quickly donned his professional persona to launch a damage limitation exercise by disposing of his daughter’s body and concocting an abduction story to feed to police, press and public.
The disposal method was probably via the garbage units which I understand are in plentiful supply and emptied regularly, so poor little Madeleine’s body is probably now so deep in landfill that she would be undetectable by the most highly trained cadaverine dogs, hence G & K’s increasingly smug ‘bring it on’ attitude.
Gerry expected his story to be universally accepted, and is now squirming with shame and anger because the PJ is hanging on in there and, for all he knows, could have an ace card to play. According to his ‘plan’, Madeleine’s disappearance should already be fading into history as a tragic unsolved mystery, the PJ should be grovelling in shame at their ineptitude and the British media, under the guidance of Clarrie Clown, should be canonising Kate and himself for their marvellous charitable work on behalf of missing children.
Yet the eyes of the world are still on the McCanns, and it isn’t only the PJ who are not looking kindly.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:16 am
We were voting a couple days ago on which theory we think is right and the vote didn’t quite work right. I think tomorrow we should all stand up and say what we each really believe happened. Not just “Abduction” or “Cover up” but a bit more depth like Ms. Uta has done.
My personal opinion, based on tons of reading and absolutely nothing else in particular other than gut feeling, is that one of the Tapas 9 or another nearby non-T9 (but British) tourist took Madeleine and she is probably dead. I think Kate and Gerry don’t know but strongly suspect what happened. I think they know more than they have said. In other words, none of the above (not stranger abduction, not killed by parents/coverup).
(The scenarios under this could still be many… O’Brien was a pedo or accidentally killed her somehow… some tourist we haven’t seen in the press was following them/knew them… etc).
October 10th, 2007 at 2:15 am
The clock is ticking Gerry, make sure you have your wallet with you and your passport, and dont trip on those steps when you board the plane, and when the bus is driving you from the plane to the terminal building, please keep a smile on your face.
You Lying Sack of Shit
October 10th, 2007 at 2:13 am
Krissie — I think your theory, that Payne’s saying “No comment” may just be how he deals with the crush of the media, is a sound one. Further, if Payne is that sensible and guarded, it may be an indicator that he will not be willing to go down for the sake of any agreement among the Tapas Nine. I find it hard to believe all these people were alright with covering up the death of a child. It seems they all drank alot of booze that night; perhaps one or two of them are unsure what went on, but are too embarressed to admit they were drunk.
I think it is highly unlikely (to put it mildly) that Madeleine was abducted. Even if you accept the McCanns’ version of things, a kidnapper of Madeleine would have had to be nimble, strong, clever, morally depraved, rational, careful, and lucky. Six out of seven, maybe (although I doubt it). All seven? As the Brits would say, not bloody likely.
October 10th, 2007 at 2:09 am
we have to ask ourselves why wouldnt they call an ambulance if it was a genuine accident and they were aware.
We don’t know if any of them are paedophiles. maybe medics would have found signs of abuse. or drugs. It has to be something illegal.
either that or it was an act of rage by someone which resulted in death.
one things for sure, nothing adds up at this stage, and their stories are not consistent and coherent
I expect someone somewhere will be getting arrested pretty soon
October 10th, 2007 at 1:47 am
Uta, honestly, that is a fairly rational assessment, but I don’t know about the “how” of how she died- I am still more inclined to think (if this was NOT an abduction, which I’m not sure) that she died of the overdose. I mean, if Kate saw Madeleine fall and hit her head , or if she came upon the scene soon thereafter, the ONLY response that would be even SLIGHTLY normal would be to IMMEDIATELY call medical personnel of some kind. Even as a GP, she is not trained as a paramedic/emergency technician. So I can’t see how a bonk on the head is a realistic death scenario. I’m inclined to think that IF Madeleine was not abducted, IF she died in the apartment as alleged, it was from an overdose.
I have to admit, I do think it quite likely the McCanns will face charges. WE’ll see. I also still think it is possible they are entirely innocent and know nothing. That leaves the question: What DID Happen to her? Stranger abduction, or something funny with this suspicious O’Brien fellow? No really. He’s suspicious for sure.
October 10th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Spudgun, where are you that it’s “good morning”?
I don’t find it particularly suspicious that Payne had “no comment” regarding where his kids were that night. As a journalist, I can tell you that rather frequently, when someone feels they’ve been dragged through the merde in the newspaper, or feel that the newspapers are dragging everyone involved through the merde, they will say “no comment” if you ask them what the weather is like outside the window. They simply refuse to talk to the media. Period. Payne might be so fed up he’s not interested in saying anything. Or, his lawyer could have told him to say NO COMMENT no matter what the question.
It’s fairly common, really. Doesn’t mean anything.
October 10th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Brandonflours,
Martin MakeitupasIgoalong Evans
October 10th, 2007 at 1:13 am
Here are my opinions. I’d be sincerely interested in Anorak readers’ feedback on them.
– the McCanns did sedate their children every night of vacation
– Madeleine was sedated every night, but the cause of her death was a blow to the head
– Madeleine died in the late afternoon, not the evening
– Madeleine’s mother, Kate McCann, was watching her when she died, but she waited until Gerry came home before calling anybody
– Gerry McCann convinced Kate McCann — he didn’t have to argue to strenuously — to cover up Madeleine’s death, because they’s “lose everything” if the Portuguese charged them with involuntary manslaughter, or even if they didn’t charge them, but the public knew Madeleine had died in their care
– Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner agreed to help the McCanns cover up Madeleine’s death, as did the other couple who had young children on the trip
– the couples did leave all their children in the McCanns’ apartment
– the other children are all too young to realize that Madeleine was not with the group
– Russell O’Brien was stashing Madeleine’s body somewhere during the hour he was supposedly caring for his vomiting child
– When Russell O’Brien returned to the Tapas Bar after “caring for his child”, Kate McCann left to check on the kids (as agreed)
– Kate McCann pretended to find that Madeleine had been “taken”
– the McCanns did NOT “confess” to the Catholic priest, as some have asserted. Rather, the McCanns told the preist the same baloney they’ve told everyone else: that Madeleine was “abducted”
– Gerry McCann asked the priest for keys to the church, ostensibly do they (Gerry and Kate) could seek come peace during breaks in the searchfor Madeleine
– the hapless Catholic priest handed the keys to the McCanns…and got his head handed to him by his bishop, who was removed enough from the situation to see that, even if the McCanns were innocent, giving them the keys was pointless and set a bad precedent
– Jane Tanner lied when, a few days after the “abduciton”, she recalled having seen a man scurrying away with a Madeleinesque child. Tanner lied because she realized her common law husband, Russell O’Brien, looked suspicious to the police.
– Prime Minister Brown sincerely assumed the McCanns were innocent when he intervened and pressured the Portuguese police to “go public” with Jane Tanner’s ficticious abductor.
– the Pope knew almost nothing about the McCanns until shortly before the general audience; before which one of his dopier assistants told him the most senior bishop in England had asked the Pope to say a few kind words to the “suffering” McCanns
– the Pope (and his advisors) realized quickly after the McCann visit that they had been duped and used, and the Vatican removed the McCann nonsense from its website.
– Over the last four months, Kate and Gerry McCann have claimed they believe Madeleine is alive. However, their demeanor and their celebrity worship have belied this belief. They have thrust themselves in the limelight, yet have been bizarrely composed in light of the fatc they supposedly believe their child is being held somewhere.
– Madeleine McCann’s mother is publicly supportive of the McCanns, but she knows the truth and is angry at Kate and Gerry. WHy do I think this? Because Ms. Healey (Kate’s mother) appeared on the Today show two days after the McCanns got back to England and strongly supported her daughter and son-in-law…yet told Matt Lauer she hadn’t yet seen Kate in person since Kate and Gerry had come home. (She also implied she hadn’t spoken live to her. She told Lauer something like, “I understand they’re doing well.”) Why wouldn’t Healey be waiting at her daughter’s house when they returned? England is smaller than the state of New Jersey; under the corcumstances, wasn’t it worth the trip?
– the Portuguese and British police may have engaged in mild bickering, but they generally have been working closely together behind the scenes, deliberately biding their time until their case was strong and the public had wearied of the McCanns.
– At least one of the McCanns will be formally charged before Christmas.
– Russell O’Brien will be charged as an accomplice
– (this is a real stab in the dark): one of the Tapas Nine besides Russell O’Brien and Jane Tanner will give — willingly or unwillingly — the evidence that will lead to Tanner’s cracking and taking a plea, the evidence exchanged for which will lead to the conviction of the McCanns.
October 10th, 2007 at 1:02 am
please all go to bed now
no you go to bed
you go to bed
no you…………..
night at the mc canns
October 10th, 2007 at 1:01 am
k v kicked in nite x
October 10th, 2007 at 1:00 am
Given that it was FIONA Payne who was one of the infamous THREE who confronted Murat at police Headquarters about his ’suspicious’ activities on the night in question, the plot does indeed thicken…………