Madeleine McCann Missing-Praia Da Luz, Portugal 3/05/07 #1

[Sleeks]

'Portuguese police are reported to be concerned about inconsistencies between the statements given by the McCanns and their friends, three other couples and a single woman. The couples are Russell O'Brien and Jane Tanner, both 36, from Exeter, Fiona Payne, 34, and her husband, David, from Leicester, and Rachel Oldfield, 36, and her husband, Matthew, from London.

British and Portuguese police have been monitoring at least one of the friends and a worker connected to the Ocean Club resort, where the group stayed, although police have previously said that nobody in the group was a suspect.'

I have to say this particular part disturbs me quite a bit, however, I would agree with Mrs. Red - it does remind me allot of Natalee.  When you don't know what else to do, do whatever.  Arrest and/or question several people.  But let's not really get to the bottom of this, it just may cost us our jobs.  

[ldstlou]

Hmhm Mommy McCann...... does she knows more???

Mother McCann said Tuesday August 07, 2007
'We Believe Madeleine Is Still Alive'
And she changed her story, 2 days later. To this:
Madeleine McCann's mother was close to tears yesterday as she dismissed suggestions that her daughter was killed in her bedroom on the night that she disappeared from the family's apartment while they vacation in Portugal. 

British Police to Question Madeleine McCann's Parents

MADRID, Spain — Madeleine McCann's mother was close to tears yesterday as she dismissed suggestions that her daughter was killed in her bedroom on the night that she disappeared from the family's apartment while they vacation in Portugal.

Kate McCann and her husband, Gerry, are expected to be interviewed again by detectives after reports that blood was found in their daughter's bedroom and evidence that it had contained a body.

The focus of the police investigation has shifted to the couple and the British friends who were with them in the Praia da Luz resort.

Police sources are reported to have abandoned the theory that Madeleine has been abducted and may still be alive. Officers are now convinced that Madeleine died in her bedroom as a result of "negligence or murder," claimed the Diário de Notícias newspaper. The McCanns, however, insisted that they still believed that Madeleine was alive when she was taken from the apartment 97 days ago.

"Last week when we met with the police they said, 'We are looking for a living child'. And they've said that a lot," Kate McCann said.

The couple refused to discuss reports that a speck of blood had been found by a British cadaver dog in the bedroom where the 4-year-old was sleeping, although Kate McCann was visibly upset when questioned. The blood sample will be sent for DNA analysis to see if it matches the girl or a kidnapper, but it may be too small to carry out the test.

"Kate and I strongly believe Madeleine was alive when she was taken from the apartment. Obviously what we don't know is what happened to her afterwards, who's taken her and what the motive is," Gerry McCann said.

"We're not naive, but on numerous occasions the Portuguese police have said they are looking for Madeleine alive and not Madeleine being murdered. I don't know of any information to have changed that," he added.

The couple are to be shown the photograph of a child snatcher who was in the area of Praia da Luz when their daughter disappeared. Urs Von Aesch, 67, killed himself last week while being hunted after abducting Ylenia Lenhard, a 5-year-old Swiss girl who looks like Madeleine.

Officers in St. Gallen, Switzerland, close to where Ylenia disappeared, have also reopened files on five other girls who disappeared in the area before von Aesch moved to Benimantell, which is near the Spanish coast.

A Swiss citizen, he was jailed in the 1960s after trying to blackmail a businessman by threatening to kidnap his young son. He went on to become a successful businessman before moving to Spain with his Spanish wife in about 1990.

The McCanns will be shown his photograph while they are questioned separately at the headquarters of the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão as part of a review of the entire investigation. They have already been interviewed twice at the headquarters.

A Renault car that had been used by the couple and their friends after Madeleine disappeared is still being investigated by police officers and forensic scientists. Tests have also been carried out on a car belonging to Robert Murat, the only official suspect in the case. The cars of his mother, his girlfriend, her estranged husband and Sergei Malinka, a web designer who had worked for Murat, have also been tested.

Gerry McCann said that he and his wife expected to be treated with the same thoroughness as anyone else in the investigation. "We wouldn't expect it any other way," he said. "The same high levels will be applied to us as would be applied to anybody else, and that's only right and proper."

Madeleine was not seen alive by anyone apart from her parents for almost four hours on the night that she disappeared while sleeping in a room with the McCanns' 2-year-old twins, Amelie and Sean, it was claimed yesterday. She was put to bed at 6 p.m. and Gerry McCann said that he saw her an hour before his wife reported her missing at 10 p.m. Other friends in the group had checked on the apartment but had not entered the bedroom.

Portuguese police are reported to be concerned about inconsistencies between the statements given by the McCanns and their friends, three other couples and a single woman. The couples are Russell O'Brien and Jane Tanner, both 36, from Exeter, Fiona Payne, 34, and her husband, David, from Leicester, and Rachel Oldfield, 36, and her husband, Matthew, from London.

British and Portuguese police have been monitoring at least one of the friends and a worker connected to the Ocean Club resort, where the group stayed, although police have previously said that nobody in the group was a suspect.

A source close to the investigation said that the McCanns and their friends would be interviewed as part a routine review of the investigation being carried out with the help of British police officers. He said that possible traces of blood in Madeleine's ground-floor bedroom could have come from any of the hundreds of people who had stayed in the apartment in recent years.

Experts also cast doubt on claims that a British dog trained to track bodies had detected a scent in the bedroom. The body would have had to be in the room for at least several hours before leaving a detectable trace.

Murat has already been re-interviewed and a search of his home and garden over the weekend using British dogs and sonar equipment failed to reveal any trace of Madeleine. Murat, who previously lived in Hockering, Norfolk, with his wife and young daughter, denies any involvement in the kidnapping.

you have got to be kidding NYC...didn't you learn this lesson thru Natalee and Beth?! If the police bungle the investigation and it begins to cost us money and tourists, what should we do? BLAME THE PARENTS. Gawd, that first sentence made my stomach churn!!!

[pdh3]

So...these parents killed Madeleine,cleaned up the crime scene, and disposed of her body efficiently, since it hasn't been found, and then casually went to dinner with their friends? And no one noticed a thing? Yeah, right.

[bleachedblack]

Missing UK Girl's Dad Sees Probe Shift
LONDON -

The parents of a 4-year-old British girl who disappeared in Portugal said they believed their daughter is still alive but suggested that Portuguese authorities may fear otherwise.

In an interviews broadcast Friday, Madeleine McCann's father said Portuguese investigators appeared to have changed their focus.

"There's definitely been a shift. They haven't said that she's dead - on multiple occasions they (said they) believed they were looking for a missing child - but there's been a shift," Gerry McCann told the British Broadcasting Corp. television.

Recent media reports have said that previously undiscovered traces of blood have been found in the hotel room in Praia da Luz, Portugal, from which Madeleine disappeared while her parents ate in the hotel's restaurant.

British police are reportedly still testing the substance to determine if it is blood, but the find has prompted speculation that the child was murdered in the room. Portuguese police have insisted Madeleine's parents are not suspects.

Gerry McCann said he knew of no evidence to suggest his daughter was dead.

"I want to see the evidence which has caused their shift because it's so important to us as parents that if there is evidence, we need to know about it," he said.

Saturday will mark the 100th day since Madeleine's disappearance in May. The McCanns have mounted a dogged campaign to keep their daughter's name in the news in the run-up to the anniversary.

The McCanns are also helping promote a new section of the video sharing Web site YouTube, launched Friday to help find missing children.

The 'Don't You Forget About Me' channel hosts videos of missing children and is managed by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Washington.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/08/10/ap4008731.html

[NYC_lover]

100 Days: Madeleine 'Might Be Dead'
Updated: 17:36, Saturday August 11, 2007

Portuguese police are considering the possibility that Madeleine McCann might be dead, the chief inspector investigating the case has said.

Sad milestone for family Olegario Sousa has said that new findings have forced them to consider the possibility.

"In the past few days there have been some developments, some clues that have been found that could point to the possible death of the little child," Mr Sousa told the BBC.

He added that police have increased the intensity of their investigation into the possible death of Madeleine - but all lines of inquiry remain open.

Mr Sousa also said Kate and Gerry McCann were not being considered as suspects despite reports in Portuguese papers this week suggesting the contrary.

The news came as Madeleine McCann's parents attended a special church service in Praia da Luz to pray for her on the 100th day since the four-year-old disappeared.

The sad milestone has been marked amid claims of tensions between Portuguese police and the four-year-old's parents.

There has been a distinct hardening in the attitude of detectives towards Gerry and Kate McCann this week, according to one source.

On Monday, Mr McCann met senior officers in the case at the British Consulate in the Algarve for a routine briefing.

When he and his wife next spoke with detectives two days later, the meeting took place at the police station in Portimao and the tone was much more formal, the source said.

There has been no suggestion from the police that the McCanns are now suspects, but the couple are understood to be apprehensive about the change.

It coincided with some Portuguese newspapers claiming detectives are checking if she died in the family holiday flat and even that the McCanns were suspects.

Father Keith Tomlinson, the local priest in the McCanns' home town, said there was "no excuse" for Gerry and Kate to be treated as suspects.

"I take it as an excuse to cover the fact that there has been no success," he told Sky News.

"Your heart goes out to them and the agony they are still suffering. One hundred days is a long time."

Responding to the "very hurtful" newspaper reports, the McCanns said they would not be "bullied" into leaving Portugal by the growing backlash.

They are spending today in Praia da Luz with their two other children in defiance of claims by Robert Murat's lawyer that many of the town's residents want them to leave.

Meanwhile, back in the UK, the 100th day without Madeleine is being marked by a series of events, including prayer services, publicity videos at sporting events.

In Glasgow, a lone piper played a specially written lament dedicated to Madeleine at the opening of the International Pipe band competition.

[klaasend]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1279568,00.html

McCanns' Anger Over Police Interview
Updated: 04:09, Sunday August 12, 2007

Madeleine McCann's parents were not told by Portuguese police that the man leading the hunt for the missing girl would go public with his belief that the youngster was dead, it has emerged.
 
Police insist McCanns are not suspectsA family friend said it was "extraordinary" the police had "not had the decency" to tell the couple they now believed Madeleine could be dead before giving interviews to the media.

Speaking on the 100th day of Madeleine's disappearance from an Algarve hotel, Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa said he believed the four-year-old may not be alive.

The acknowledgement threatens to open up a rift between the McCanns and police.

The senior officer's comments appear to contradict the message that the McCanns, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have been receiving from investigators.

Mrs McCann on Tuesday said police had told her only the previous week that they were "looking for a living child".

But Mr Sousa said new evidence suggesting Madeleine was killed was being investigated with "intensity".

"In these past few days, there have been some developments, and some clues have been found, that could point in a possible death of the little child," he said.

Sniffer dogs last week discovered blood specks on a wall in the McCanns' holiday flat in the resort of Praia da Luz.

The samples have been sent to Britain for DNA tests, which are expected to be returned early this week.

Mr Sousa also said the McCanns and the seven friends with them on holiday when Madeleine disappeared on May 3 were not considered suspects.

That contradicted unconfirmed reports in Portuguese papers last week suggesting they were now under suspicion.

The McCanns yesterday attended a poignant service for Madeleine and other missing children in the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz in Praia da Luz.

Clutching her daughter's favourite soft toy, Mrs McCann made an emotional appeal for people to keep supporting her and her husband through their "journey of hope".

[Observer]

http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?storyID=8144
Phone intercepts ‘confirm Maddy’s death’

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22226920-2,00.html
Article from: The Sunday Telegraph

[Kat_Gram]

Doesn't this sound familiar ?
Of course they have to look at the parents in any case like this. That would have been done first. Sounds to me like the Portugese Police have run out of new things to do and they have now come back to the people who were there. The Portugese Police were and maybe still are under fire for their inept investigation.

[bleachedblack]

Missing Madeleine Rivets Britons as Portuguese Patience Frays
August 15

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=a4nKWktOjruA&refer=uk

[cubbeegirl]

I have to say that I am with y'all on this.... shades of Aruba and Natalee....

[pdh3]

I have to say that I am with y'all on this.... shades of Aruba and Natalee....

ITA as well. It's very unfortunate.

[bleachedblack]

Scientists dispute report over missing British girl

Posted 5 hours 16 minutes ago

Blood samples from a holiday apartment in Portugal where four-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in May do not belong to the missing youngster, a London newspaper reports.

But the claims that the blood probably came instead from a white man "from the north-east European sub-group" were immediately rejected by the British laboratory testing the samples.

"This is an ongoing investigation and we can't make any comment. However, we are surprised at The Times piece," a spokeswoman for the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham in central-west England, told AFP.

A spokesman for the Portuguese police said they had not received any results from scientists and would not say when they were expected.

AFP understands from a source close to the investigation that tests are not finished on a wide range of swabs and other samples, including blood, and that no firm conclusions have been made.

The newspaper, which said its report was based on four pages of technical results, said the blood tests would give fresh hope to Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann that their daughter was still alive.

The Portuguese police spokesman also denied reports in a number of British newspapers that investigators were convinced Madeleine died on the night she was last seen.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa said on Saturday they have not ruled out the possibility that Madeleine may be dead but all lines of inquiry were open.

Madeleine vanished from a bedroom in a holiday flat in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 while her parents were at a nearby restaurant.

http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/16/2007349.htm?section=world

[klaasend]

'Strong Theory' Madeleine Is Dead
Updated: 18:05, Thursday August 16, 2007

One of the most senior police officers in Portugal has said it is a "strong theory" that Madeleine McCann is dead.
 
Madeleine McCannAlipio Ribeiro, national director of the Portuguese judicial police, said forensic test results on blood traces from the holiday flat are due "imminently".

He told Spanish newspaper El Mundo: "Even though it's a strong theory and there is always a possibility, we cannot say that she has died.

"It is the theory that we have to work with."

Speaking about forensic tests, he said the quality of traces of blood found in the Praia da Luz apartment were "not very good" and it was possible they would be inconclusive.

Mr Ribeiro refused to speculate on what would happen if it did turn out to be Madeleine's blood, but said the results would be significant.

He said he was "optimistic" about getting to the bottom of the "very complex" case.

Asked if her parents were suspects, he said: "No. The parents have never been suspects. Never."

Asked if his force had any idea where Madeleine was, he said: "No. We have no idea where Madeleine could be."

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1280211,00.html

[klaasend]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1280398,00.html

Girl In Belgium 'Not Madeleine'
Updated: 15:28, Saturday August 18, 2007

A young Belgian girl thought last month to have been missing British four-year-old Madeleine McCann has been confirmed as the daughter of a Belgian man.
 
Madeleine: Missing since May 3A woman alerted police last month after spotting a girl she believed was Madeleine at a roadside cafe in the eastern Belgian town of Tongeren with a Dutch-speaking man of about 40 and an English-speaking woman of around 25.

But it is reported today that prosecutors have confirmed that, following a DNA test, the girl was not Madeleine, but Sjanneke, the four-year-old daughter of a Belgian man from the town of Hoogstraten.

Madeleine went missing on a family holiday to Portugal on May 3, since when there have been a number of possible sightings from Morocco to Argentina.

None has been confirmed and Portuguese police have said she may be dead.

[pdh3]

This must be a crushing blow to her parents. As much as they probably tried not to hope too much, I'm sure they did anyway.

I am beginning to fear that this beautiful child really is dead. And it looks like the Portuguese police can't find her, and don't really want to.

[Kermit]

This case is too similar to David Westerfield  who kidnapped & murdered 7-year-old Danielle van Dam.

The mother and father went out, left the children alone - the neighbor entered the home and kidnapped the 7 yr old child from her bed, took her in his motor home to the desert and molested her, then killed her and  her body was found by a body of water.

[pdh3]

I thought the Dad was at home, but was stoned, or passed out, and left a door unlocked? I know the Mom was at a bar with friends.
Either way, it is similar.

[pdh3]

I thought the Dad was at home, but was stoned, or passed out, and left a door unlocked? I know the Mom was at a bar with friends.
Either way, it is similar.
[/quote

I was talking about the van Dam's in the post above, just in case there's any confusion....

[Kermit]

I thought the Dad was at home, but was stoned, or passed out, and left a door unlocked? I know the Mom was at a bar with friends.
Either way, it is similar.
[/quote

I was talking about the van Dam's in the post above, just in case there's any confusion....

You might be correct - I thought the dad had come back home and just went upstairs to bed and didn't put on the alarm or something while the mother was at a bar dancing.

[pdh3]

Ahhh....so Dad had been out too? I just remember that he had been smoking pot that night or something and was so stoned he didn't secure the house. I'm not blaming the parents exactly, but why not take extra precautions when we know that there are evil people who will come into childrens' rooms and take them away and do them tremendous harm? Unfortunately, that's the world we live in.