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

[Angiex911dsptchr]

  Froggy.. wel those gruesome teeth and wrinky forehead sure look the same as the sketch.

[Tibrogargan]

Portuguese police 'too hasty' in making McCanns suspects

Article from: Reuters
By Henrique Almeida in Lisbon…..February 03, 2008 11:01pm

·   Too hasty in suspecting McCanns says police chief
·   Hastiness has caused worldwide suspicion
·   Madeleine McCann special

The head of Portugal's police says authorities were hasty in naming the parents of Madeleine McCann suspects in her disappearance, increasing pressure for the British couple to be cleared as suspects in the investigation.

Alipio Ribeiro said in an interview published in Portuguese daily Publico on Sunday that there was "a certain hastiness" in making Kate and Gerry McCann suspects four months after Madeleine vanished from their holiday apartment in the Algarve.  "At the moment, at a distance, and with the experience I have as a magistrate in the public prosecutor's office, maybe a different evaluation should have been made," said Mr Ribeiro. "I have no doubt about that."

Asked whether authorities were hasty in making the British couple suspects in Madeleine's disappearance, Mr Ribeiro replied: "There was a certain hastiness."

His comments prompted an immediate response from the McCanns' spokesman, who urged Portuguese authorities to drop their "arguido" suspect status (a suspect who has not been formally charged) immediately as it was hampering the search for Madeleine.

"In the light of Mr Ribeiro's remarks, we urge the Portuguese judicial authorities to act humanely by removing their arguido status as swiftly as possible," spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.  "Not only does it continue to damage their reputation in the eyes of the world, it is also directly hampering the search for Madeleine," he added in a statement on the official Web site to help find Madeleine www.findmadeleine.com.

Madeleine McCann was left asleep with her younger brother Sean and sister Amelie in the family holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, just days before her fourth birthday.  Her parents say she was abducted from the apartment while they had dinner with friends at a nearby restaurant.

Briton Robert Murat, 33, who lives in the same resort in the tourist region of the Algarve where the blonde-haired girl went missing remains the only other suspect.

Authorities have investigated a number of possible sightings of Madeleine - from Morocco to Argentina - during the 10-month long investigation but have so far produced no concrete results.

Portuguese police chief Mr Ribeiro, whose officers have been criticised for the lengthy investigation, said that while his men continue to do their best to find Madeleine their work has difficult and requires patience. "We have assigned the best men. There is a multi-task team of officers that continues to work on the case, but all this work is a work of patience," he said. "You have to understand that, since the beginning, this case was difficult."

Last year, Portuguese police said it was likely that Madeleine may be dead but Gerry and Kate have repeatedly said they continue to pray for the return of their daughter.
The couple say they are innocent and launched a high-profile campaign which included televised appeals for her return by British soccer star David Beckham and millions of pounds in reward to anyone who finds Madeleine.

"Sean and Amelie turned three today. We hope and pray that they will never have another birthday without Madeleine here," Gerry McCann wrote in his latest blog entry on Friday, day 274 since Madeleine went missing.

- Additional reporting by Carlos Pontes

[Nut44x4]

http://incoldblogger.blogspot.com/

Shelved

Police are ready to send toddler Madeleine McCann's case to the archives. After months of searching for the child, who disappeared from her parent's rented apartment in Portugal, police admit to a lack of evidence to indite any suspects. The little girl's parents, Kate and Gerry McCan, were originally suspects in their daughter's disappearance. However, the couple has maintained that their daughter was abducted and there is no evidence to the contrary. Madeleine's body has still not be found, leading Portugal police to theorize that she might have died accidentally and her body disposed of in the sea. Due to the high profile of the case, including the involvement of several celebrities, including J.K. Rowling, there is little hope that the child is still alive. Police believe that archiving the case will be the best option. A spokesman for the Policia Judiciaria said "If at any time new and important facts come to light, the investigation could be re-opened." Until then, Madeleine McCann's case remains unsolved.

[Nut44x4]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-portugal-missing-girl,0,3104903.story
 

Probe Into Missing UK Girl Near End
By BARRY HATTON | Associated Press Writer
12:10 PM EST, February 13, 2008
LISBON, Portugal - The investigation into the disappearance of a British girl from a southern Portuguese resort last year is nearly over, Portugal's justice minister said Wednesday.

Madeleine McCann vanished May 3 last year -- a few days before her 4th birthday -- from a hotel room during a family vacation in Praia da Luz in Portugal's southern Algarve region.

Last month, Portugal's attorney general granted detectives an extra three months to investigate because of what they said was the complexity of the highly publicized case.

"We are at a stage now where we are approaching the conclusion of the process," Justice Minister Alberto Costa told lawmakers, but said he could provide no details about the investigation.

Costa said it was "premature" to say whether the investigation would find out what happened to the girl. He cited what he said were British statistics showing that around 80 percent of similar cases in Britain remained unresolved.

No one has been charged with her disappearance.

The first formal suspect was Robert Murat, a British man who lives near the hotel in the Algarve. He has denied involvement.

Weeks later, Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, also were named suspects. They say they were not involved in their daughter's disappearance. They returned to Britain in September.

Lawmakers questioned Costa about comments by Portugal's most senior detective, Alipio Ribeiro, who said in a recent radio interview that investigators had shown "a certain haste" in naming the girl's parents as suspects.

Costa said there was no indication Ribeiro broke secrecy laws that prohibit public discussion of ongoing investigations.

"If there was any such sign ... I am sure an inquiry would have been opened, and it hasn't been," Costa said.

But Costa said the numerous leaks in the case, apparently from Portuguese officials, were "worrying."

"It would be good if people could show self-restraint," he said.

[Tibrogargan]

Dutch teen believes she saw Madeleine McCann in France

Article from: The Associated Press…..Agencies…..February 21, 2008 06:02am

A DUTCH teenager believes she saw the missing British child Madeleine McCann alive at a French roadside restaurant last week.

Newspaper De Gelderlander interviewed Melissa Firing, 18, who said she saw McCann at restaurant L'Arche on a highway near the French city of Montpellier on February 15.

McCann has been missing since May 3, 2007 when she disappeared during a family vacation in Praia da Luz in Portugal's Algarve region.

Firing, in Nijmegen, Netherlands, told the paper she was sure the girl she saw was Madeleine because of the way she reacted when she called out her name, and because she was able to look her in the eyes.

An adult man accompanying the child took her and left the restaurant quickly afterward.

French police were reviewing security videotapes of the incident, the paper said.

[bleachedblack]

French police review video of alleged sighting of missing British girl

MONTPELLIER, France - French police were taking another look Thursday at video footage to confirm their belief that a girl spotted at a highway restaurant last week was not missing British girl Madeleine McCann.

A Dutch teen told a Dutch newspaper that she believed she saw McCann alive at a highway restaurant near the southern city of Montpellier on Feb. 15.

But after an initial viewing of video from the restaurant, French police said Wednesday they believed that a young girl who resembled the British girl was not McCann.

The official who confirmed that the video was being looked at again on Thursday spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Dutch newspaper De Gelderlander interviewed Melissa Firing, 18, who said she was sure the girl she saw was McCann because of the way she reacted when she called out her name.

An adult man accompanying the child took her and left the restaurant quickly afterward, Firing told the newspaper.

McCann has been missing since May 3, 2007, when she disappeared during a family vacation in Praia da Luz in Portugal's Algarve region. There have been numerous alleged sightings, but none has turned up the girl.

http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gRlLXsMOgmIPzGijziJHi5l9HFvA

[bleachedblack]

How common is Madeleine's eye defect?

Thursday, 21 February 2008, 15:38 GMT
A girl resembling Madeleine McCann has been spotted in France by a woman who says she had the same eye blemish as the missing girl's. Police have dismissed the sighting, but how common is the defect?

Referred to as the "mark of Madeleine" the blemish on the four-year-old's right eye has played a key part in the campaign to highlight her disappearance, emphasised in posters and videos.

It's was at the centre of the latest possible sighting of her. Dutch student Melissa Fiering says she saw a girl who looked like Madeleine McCann at a service station in the South of France.

She believed it was the youngster, who went missing from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz last May, because she had a dark smudge on her right iris. However, police examining CCTV evidence have determined it was not the missing girl.

It's not the first reported sighting of Madeleine, but a spokesman for the McCann family said it was "more worthy than most" because of the eye defect.

The blemish is called a coloboma of the iris. Its precise incidence is not recorded in the UK, but figures suggest its occurance is about 0.007% per head of population. A 1989 study in China found two cases in a survey of 26,512 children under 12 years of age. That would mean a prevalence of 7.5 per 100,000.

In the UK, cases of coloboma are lumped in with two other congenital eye defects - microphthalmia and anophthalmia - says the Micro and Anophthalmic Children's Society (Macs).

"There are about three to seven babies every 100,000 live births, born with any one of these defects," says a spokeswoman for the society, although "coloboma is more common than the other two conditions."

A coloboma occurs when the eye fails to develop fully while the baby is in the womb. It leaves part of the structure missing, creating a gap.

Keyhole

Colobomas can occur in several parts of the eye - the word itself means an absence or defect of tissue. When a coloboma is in the iris - like Madeleine's - it can give the appearance of a keyhole. In very rare cases a person can get one in each eye.

"They're pretty uncommon," says Iain Anderson, chairman of the Eyecare Trust. "In my patient base of 5,000 just one person has one. It is a significant distinguishing feature in identifying someone."

It's not known why colobomas occur but there appears to be a strong hereditary fact

 Having a coloboma can cause sight problems but it depends on which part of the eye is affected and to what extent, according to Dr Trisha Macnair.

"If the iris is affected, the pupil may be oval or keyhole-shaped rather than round, and central vision may be affected," she says.

While French police have ruled out the latest "sighting" of Madeleine, given the rareness of the eye defect it's perhaps not surprising Ms Fiering believed she had seen the missing girl.

"I looked in her eye because I'd seen on TV that Madeleine's got a defect in her right iris and I saw this girl had it," she told the Daily Mirror. "I could hardly believe my eyes, but I knew for sure it was her."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7256513.stm

[MuffyBee]

Do you know how many sightings there have been of Madeleine?  In how many countries?

[MuffyBee]

   
Updated: 23 February 2008
        
French police says Montpellier girl is not Madeleine

FRENCH POLICE have confirmed that the girl spotted on February 15 near Montpellier in the south of France by a Dutch student is not Madeleine McCann.

The alert was triggered after Melissa Firing told the local police that she was certain to have seen Madeleine in a car at  gas station on the high-way leading to Montpellier.

Tapes from the station’s CCTV system was immediately confiscated for analysis.

The police said the images showed a man and a little girl and that she looked similar to Madeleine McCann. However, after an exhaustive examination, they confirmed the little girl’s identity as not being Madeleine McCann.

Madeleine went missing on May 3 last year from an holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Algarve, where she was staying with her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, and two-year-old twin siblings Sean and Amelie.

Many sightings of her have been reported by many people through out the world since then, all proving fruitless.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann, please contact the McCann helpline on 0034 902 300 213 or the Portuguese Police on 00351 282 405 400.

http://portugalresident.com/portugalresident/showstory.asp?ID=24836

[katrien]

This whole thing contains weird situations. When mother noticed Maddy was gone, her toy was on a high shelve.
So, the kipnapper took of Maddy her toy first, put in on a high shelve and then left with Maddy?

The hotelroom seemed to have been forced from the inside.
Does this mean that the kidnapper went through the window with Maddy?

What happened with the DNA, found in the car the Mac. Cans hired in Portugal?

Wat about the snifferdogs smelling dead bodies on Mrs. Mc. Can?

Do snifferdogs lie?

[klaasend]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,337189,00.html

Divers Find Cord, Sock in Reservoir Search for Missing Toddler Madeleine McCann
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

 
A team of divers has resumed its search of a remote Algarve reservoir in the hunt for missing Madeleine McCann.

So far they have recovered nothing but several lengths of cord, some plastic tape and a single white, cotton sock.

Human rights lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia is funding the private search in the belief that Madeleine's body was thrown into the Barragem do Arade shortly after being killed by an abductor.

He claims he was told of the girl's fate by an underworld contact.

It's the second time the lawyer has paid for divers to explore the reservoir which lies in rolling hills a 20-minute drive from Praia da Luz, the holiday resort from where Madeleine vanished in May last year.

In December - when Portuguese police refused to act on his claims - he paid around £3,000 for a first search.

Madeleine's parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, have dismissed Mr Correia as a self-publicist and believe there is no evidence to suggest there is any link between their daughter and the reservoir.

They don't believe Madeleine is dead and want any search to concentrate on finding her alive.

Mr Correia told Sky News: "The Portuguese authorities refused to carry out the searches themselves, as is their obligation. Any possibility that she may be in the lake should be taken seriously and duly investigated.

"They completely refused to give my tip-off any credibility whatsoever, so I took it upon myself to search."

He said that whatever his divers recover will be handed to the McCanns' private investigators as potential evidence.

Five divers are being helped by two firefighters who specialise in the recovery of bodies.

Their search is complicated enough, but they've also discovered that the bottom of the reservoir has layer of soft mud four metres thick, into which a weighted body would sink and disappear.

Last week, Portuguese police briefed a senior British detective on questions to be put to the seven friends who were dining with the McCanns on the night Madeleine disappeared from the holiday apartment where she was sleeping with her twin brother and sister.

That re-questioning is expected to be carried out in the next few weeks.

[bleachedblack]

Parents Successfully Sue Papers Over Their Implied Role In World Famous Missing Child Case

 March 19, 2008
It is a rare admission and the only real welcome news the parents of a missing girl have heard in months. Two British newspapers have issued formal front page apologies to Kate and Gerry McCann, after implying that they killed their daughter and then tried to cover up the crime.

If the names of the distraught mother and father are familiar, it's because their images and their pleas have been splashed over the media for almost a year. They're the parents of little Madeleine McCann, the 4-year-old who disappeared from her Portugal resort hotel room as the couple ate dinner in a nearby restaurant last May 3rd.

There's been no sign of the child since, despite extensive investigations and allegations by Portuguese police that the girl's blood was found in the trunk of her parent's rented car.

The newspapers involved have all agreed to pay substantial damages to the pair, who only recently returned to Britain to resume their lives, after waiting so long for word that never came.

The Daily Express and the Daily Star both admitted there was no proof of the allegations they published, and that the stories weren't true. "We accept that a number of articles in the newspaper have suggested that the couple caused the death of their missing daughter Madeleine and then covered it up," the Daily Express reads.

"We acknowledge that there is no evidence whatsoever to support this theory and that Kate and Gerry are completely innocent of any involvement in their daughter's disappearance."

The couple is believed to have received about $1 million in damages from the tabloids, which have been carrying the tale of Madeleine's fate non-stop for almost a year. One legal expert calls the admissions 'unprecedented.'

As the case nears its one year anniversary, the McCanns have yet to give up hope that some trace of their daughter will one day be found and that she's possibly still alive and being raised by whoever took her.

There have been a string of reported sightings from Morocco to Spain and France to Malta in the ensuing months, but no credible evidence has ever turned up a single trace of her.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_20763.aspx

[MuffyBee]

Police give Murat computers back

1 hour ago

Portuguese police have returned computers and other possessions they seized from Madeleine McCann "suspect" Robert Murat, he hassaid.

He described the move as a "very positive sign" - but is still waiting to be officially cleared of involvement in the young girl's disappearance.

Mr Murat, 34, lives just yards from the holiday apartment in the Portuguese seaside resort of Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished on May 3 last year.

Detectives took him in for questioning 11 days after the child went missing and made him the first "arguido", or formal suspect, in the case.

They also searched the villa he shares with his mother and seized a number of his possessions, including three computers, clothes and a pair of shoes.

Police returned these items to Mr Murat on Thursday, although they did not give any clues about the progress of their investigation.

The Anglo-Portuguese ex-pat said: "It is a very positive sign - there's no doubt about that whatsoever. Why would they return something if it was in the middle of being investigated in any way, shape or form?

"We are very happy to have the computers back, and I hope I will have my arguido status dropped very shortly."

Mr Murat said he was "considering his options" for taking legal action over allegedly libellous articles printed about him in the wake of the apologies to Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, published by four national newspapers this week.

He strenuously denies any involvement in the missing girl's disappearance, as do fellow arguidos Mr and Mrs McCann.
http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iXWwc-fidEq3vihNZdKFUatwiT4g

------------------------------
Robert Murat doesn't have high powered lawyers, a large defense fund, nor champions such as Richard Branson.  Will anyone be apologizing to him?  Will he receive any kind of settlement?   Just wondering...

[bleachedblack]

Missing girl's parents may have access to police case against them this month

 2008-04-01
LISBON, Portugal (AP) - The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann may be entitled to see the Portuguese police case against them within two weeks, one of their lawyers said Tuesday.
The official secrecy period covering the ongoing police investigation expires April 14 and can be extended only in major cases such as terrorism  and organized crime, Rogerio Alves said.

«If there is no decision on whether to bring charges or drop the case by April 14, in principle ... the suspects are entitled to consult the case file,» Alves said in an interview with The Associated Press.

>>>>the complete article
http://www.pr-inside.com/missing-girl-s-parents-may-have-access-r513965.htm

[Nut44x4]

Missing Madeleine case leaves Portuguese holiday resort deserted
Last updated at 13:17pm on 4th April 2008
 
 Comments (3)

This is the deserted Ocean Club holiday resort almost a year after Madeleine McCann went missing.

The poolside tapas restaurant, where her parents were dining when the three-year-old vanished from their apartment, has been shut.

The pool is practically unused while the neighbouring tennis courts are almost permanently empty. Yesterday afternoon, in spite of clear blue skies, only four people sat beside it.

One employee said: 'Maybe people are a bit scared to come here. They are a bit jittery. I don't think the Madeleine case has helped. It is very quiet here at the moment but maybe that's also because it's the beginning of the season.'

Another employee said: 'I have worked here for three seasons and at the moment this season is so quiet I am wondering if I will last the next three months. This is the quietest I have ever known it at the Ocean Club.'

The tapas restaurant became infamous after Madeleine's disappearance. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were dining there with friends while she slept in their apartment about 100 yards away.

The alarm was raised at 10pm when Mrs McCann left the restaurant to check on her three children and discovered the eldest had gone.

Almost 12 months on, the pool area, including the restaurant which has reopened as a snack bar, closes at 6pm or earlier. Mark Warner, the tour operator which co-owns the Ocean Club, admitted today that bookings were down.

But a company spokesman denied the existence of a 'Madeleine effect' on tourism.

He said: 'Business is lower than it was at this time last year but Mark Warner believes that is down to Easter coming early. This it true across the whole industry. We expect business to improve as the season moves on.'

He said the tapas bar had been shut during an 'overhaul' of catering across the Ocean Club.

Another restaurant is open at a separate part of the resort complex, which is spread across Praia da Luz.

Holidaymakers staying at the Ocean Club now receive three separate printed sheets warning about security and safety.

One headed: 'Security and Safety Alert' states: 'Please may we repeat to all parents that children under the age of 12 must be accompanied and supervised at all times.'

Another states: 'We ask guests for their own security to always close windows (or security shutters) whenever they leave their accommodation, even if it is only for a few minutes.'

The McCanns had shut the rear patio doors to their apartment but left them unlocked as they sat down to eat. They believe their daughter was abducted by a man who entered through the doors and left by a window.

Mark Warner said security guidance was issued regularly and not in response to Madeleine's disappearance.

The spokesman said: 'The McCanns would have received similar safety guidelines. Praia da Luz is probably the safest place on the planet over the last year because there have been a lot of police down there.'

Today the town appears very quiet with almost all posters appealing for help in finding Madeleine, which used to appear in shop and apartment windows and car windscreens, now removed.

One faded photograph of the little girl appears on the noticeboard beside the Catholic church where Mrs McCann would pray regularly when she was still in Praia da Luz.

The couple left in September after being made official police suspects. They deny any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.

The beach in Praia da Luz remains almost empty. Holidaymaker John Trcek, 53, from Sheffield, who has visited the town five times in 18 months, said: 'This is the quietest I have ever known it. I am trying to buy an apartment at the moment and the guy I am buying it from thinks it's the "Maddy effect".

One tour company told me they had had cancellations because of what happened.' But Miguel Domingues, who runs the Azure Seas gift shop on the seafront, was bullish.

He said: 'This is the beginning of the season. Everything will be very good for this year.

'The tour operators tell me they have been selling very well in the Algarve. What happened last year is not an issue.

'When people go to New York, they visit the site of the Twin Towers. Now people come here to visit where Madeleine went missing. It is morbid tourism.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=557009&in_page_id=1770

cute pix of Maddie on the site

[Tibrogargan]

“Mummy why didn't you come…?”- Madeleine

04/11/2008

"While we were having breakfast, Maddie said 'Mummy why didn't you come when we were crying last night,'" Kate McCann told police in a statement broadcast by a Spanish TV channel.

Madeleine McCann asked her parents why they did not come into her room when the children were crying the night before she disappeared, leaked statements to Portuguese police have revealed.

On Friday, the McCanns denounced the leaks to a Spanish television station, saying they amounted to a smear campaign. They also called for an official investigation into how the leaks came about despite strict Portuguese secrecy laws.

In her leaked statement to police, Kate McCann told detectives her daughter had asked why they didn't come and stop her and her twin brother and sister from crying.

Kate McCann and her husband Gerry had left them in the room at their holiday resort in Praia da Luz the night before the four-year-old went missing on May 3 last year.

McCann, 40, revealed her daughter's plaintive question had prompted the pair to watch their children more closely.

"While we were having breakfast, Maddie said 'Mummy why didn't you come when we were crying last night,'" she told police in a statement broadcast by Telecinco TV.

"Gerry and I spoke for a couple of minutes and agreed to keep a closer watch over the children."

The family's official spokesman called on Friday for an investigation into how the statements were made public.

Clarence Mitchell called the leaks outrageous and illegal. "These statements show the truth of what Kate and Gerry said on the night and for that, in one sense, we are grateful to the leaker but they didn't do it for that motive -- they did it to smear Gerry and Kate and it hasn't worked," he told Sky News.

"They feel exasperated and angry and they are upset that their good work, the coverage of which is important to keep a campaign like that alive, (is being undermined)"

"They feel this was a very cack-handed, amateurish attempt and I am afraid the timing of it is so blatantly connected to the European parliament and I hope people as disinterested observers will see the sort of ridiculous game we are up against here."

On Thursday, the couple urged the European parliament to press for the implementation of a cross-border alert system for abducted children, similar to that used in the United States.

http://www.eitb24.com/noticia/en/B24_94239

[Tibrogargan]

'Why did you leave Maddie alone?'

Article from: The Daily Telegraph......May 01, 2008 02:22am

MADELEINE McCann's grandmother yesterday criticised her daughter's fateful decision to leave the youngster and her brother and sister alone in their bedroom.
"Why did they think it was OK to do this?" asked Susan Healy, 62.

She revealed that her first words to the couple in the frantic phone call informing her of Madeleine's disappearance were: "Where were you?"

And she said she could understand public anger at the couple for going to dinner while their children slept unattended in an unlocked apartment more than 50m away.

She said she wanted to "shake" Kate and her husband Gerry for the decision, which has now haunted them for a year and which could still be used by Portuguese police to support a charge of child negligence.

The grandmother revealed Madeleine still appeared to Mrs McCann in "visions".

The family is marking the first anniversary of Madeleine's abduction - which takes place on Saturday - with a media offensive.

In a documentary screened in the UK yesterday Kate McCann, 40, breaks down as she tells how she has "persecuted" herself for leaving the children alone.

The couple allowed cameras to follow them on a series of trips linked to their Find Madeleine campaign, and to film inside their house where the twins Sean and Amelie, now three, played happily.

They have also struck a year-long deal with the celebrity magazine Hello!, which has agreed to run a story every week in support of their campaign.

Mrs Healy relived the moment Mr McCann, 39, called her on May 3 and said he thought Madeleine had been abducted from her bed.

She said her first question was simply: "Where were you?"

She said: "I can read articles that say Kate and Gerry should never have left their children and I can accept that.

"You find yourself over and over again in your head thinking, 'Why did they think it would be all right? Why did they think, all of them, it was OK to do this?"'

Mrs Healy and her husband Brian, 68, of Allerton, Liverpool, flew out to Praia da Luz the day after the phone call and said they found Mrs McCann "absolutely wailing" with distress.

A year later, the GP wept again during filming for the TV documentary in which she and her consultant cardiologist husband speak about virtually every aspect of their daughter's disappearance, their emotional ordeal and their attempts to find her.

[MuffyBee]

Kerm, I just watched that show and was thinking the same as you... some people just don't get it and it was totally 'over their heads' . . .

That show is a documentary, and most likely there was a producer or an assistant watching their van for them. I watch that show all the time, and I don't think they'd leave their kids totally unattended. They are really good parents IMHO.

I was going through this thread and saw this post.  The McCann's did leave their children totally unattended, and have admitted it themselves.  Madeleine was aged 3 and the twins aged 2.  Very sad.

[BTgirl]

Madeleine McCann

 The family of a girl who vanished just seven miles from the Portuguese resort where Madeleine McCann disappeared is convinced that the cases are connected.

On the day of Madeleine's fifth birthday, Joana Cipriano's relatives have urged detectives to investigate links between the two disappearances, saying there are too many disturbing similarities for the evidence to be ignored.

Joana, 8, was sent to buy some groceries from a village store near her home in Figueira, Portugal, at about 8 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2004.

She bought a can of tuna and some milk from the Ofelia store, and was last seen by a neighbor walking back near the village church, some 200 yards from her home.

Joana never returned and, like the McCanns, her mother Leonor mounted a campaign to find her. Like them, she and her brother Joao became suspects.

More at the link below:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1315666,00.html

[Bearlyhere]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,359702,00.html

Report: Parents of Madeleine McCann Investigated for Neglect
Thursday, May 29, 2008

The parents of Madeleine McCann are being investigated for possibly neglecting their daughter on the night she disappeared from their Portuguese vacation apartment, it has been revealed.

The first published court ruling on the Madeleine case confirms that the police inquiry covers homicide, abandonment, concealment of a corpse and abduction.

The reference to “abandonment” suggests that Portuguese detectives are investigating if there is evidence that Kate and Gerry McCann were negligent in leaving their daughter alone on the night she was reported missing. The charge carries a maximum 10-year jail sentence.

The McCanns, both doctors, have strenuously denied negligence and said they were just 50 yards away when their daughter was taken.

The court ruling also reveals that the public prosecutor wants access to the content of text, audio and video messages from 10 cell phones believed to belong to Kate and Gerry McCann and seven of their British friends.

Investigators are particularly interested in the content of 18 text messages allegedly sent from an unidentified number to Gerry McCann between May 2 and 4, 2007. They also want details of all calls made between members of the group between 8 p.m. on May 3 and noon the following day.

Madeleine was reported missing at 10 p.m. on May 3 from her bedroom at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz. Her parents and their friends had been dining at a restaurant while Madeleine and her twin 18-month-old siblings were asleep.

More from the Times of London
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4022991.ece