The Madeleine McCann Missing Thread

Do you think Madeleine McCann died in the family's holiday apartment?

  • Yes

    Votes: 116 60.7%

  • No

    Votes: 75 39.3%
  • Total voters
    191
UK Police Identify 38 People in new Probe

British police said Thursday they were opening their own investigation into the 2007 disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal and had identified 38 "persons of interest" across Europe.

A two-year review of the original Portuguese investigation, which is officially closed, had resulted in some "genuinely new lines of inquiry", said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood of Scotland Yard police headquarters.

"We have identified 38 persons of interest from a number of European countries. Twelve of those people are UK nationals who we believe were in Portugal at the time Madeleine disappeared," he said.

These people are not necessarily all potential suspects, and none of them are thought to be known to Gerry and Kate McCann, who have never given up the search for their daughter.

Police said they believed that Madeleine, who was only three when she vanished from the family's holiday flat in Praia da Luz on Portugal's south coast in May 2007, may still be alive.

Since 2011, Redwood's team has gathered more than 30,000 documents, visited Portugal 16 times, carried out new witness interviews and generated new theories.

"We continue to believe that there is a possibility that Madeleine is alive," he said.

The McCanns, who were at dinner nearby when their daughter disappeared, launched a global publicity campaign to find her and her picture was circulated around the world.

Their spokesman welcomed the new police investigation.

"They see it as a huge step forward in establishing what happened and hope that it will lead to bringing to justice whoever was responsible for Madeleine's abduction," he said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /sdv
Date : 04 Jul 2013 15:47
 
Maddie’s mom in court for libel trial

Kate McCann wept in court on Thursday as friends described her “utter despair” in the days after her daughter Madeleine disappeared.

Mrs McCann, 45, brushed away tears as her family’s torment was played out on the first day of a libel trial against the Portuguese policeman who led the botched hunt for Madeleine.

Accusations by former detective Goncalo Amaral that McCann and her husband Gerry faked Madeleine’s abduction and then tried to make money from it engulfed the couple in a “massive tidal wave of lies”, their friends told the court.

Mrs McCann told friends she was “devastated” by his book, in which he claimed Madeleine, then three, died in an accident in her family’s Algarve holiday apartment and the couple staged her disappearance to cover up their negligence - accusations the McCanns vehemently deny.

The couple, from Rothley, Leicestershire, launched £1 million libel proceedings against Amaral, who was sacked as the head of the investigation after he launched an outspoken attack on British police.

Their friend Susan Hubbard, the wife of an Anglican minister who counselled the McCanns after Madeleine’s disappearance from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz, said: “The thought that most people in Portugal thought Madeleine was dead was devastating for both Kate and Gerry - and the thought that was added, that they had something to do with it.”

Mrs McCann, a GP, cried as the court heard she was unable to eat and constantly wept in the days after Madeleine’s disappearance on May 3, 2007. But Hubbard, 46, said Mrs McCann’s despair turned to “anger and surprise” after the couple were named as arguidos - or suspects - by the Portuguese police.

Amaral’s book, The Truth Of The Lie, was published three days after the Portuguese authorities formally closed the investigation in 2008 and cleared the couple as suspects. The McCanns lawyer, Isabel Duarte, said it also contained claims that the family’s “Find Madeleine” fund could be fraudulent.

The fund raised £2 million in public donations and was used to pay for the search for Madeleine to continue after the Portuguese case was closed. A private detective who worked for the fund said he received abuse instead of information after Amaral’s book soured public opinion against the McCanns.

Another friend, documentary-maker Emma Loach, the daughter of film director Ken Loach, said the book contained a “massive tidal wave of lies”.

She added: “If people believe Madeleine is dead they won’t look for her, and if people believe Kate and Gerry were involved they won’t help them.

“Imagine the public believing that you covered up your child’s death and then sought to make money out of it. They feel shame, humiliation and anguish.”

Amaral’s book sold around 120 000 copies before it was withdrawn when the McCanns won an injunction against him.

Mrs McCann attended the hearing at Lisbon’s civil court alone as her husband, a heart surgeon, remained in Britain to work and look after Madeleine’s brother and sister, eight-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.

Speaking after the hearing, Mrs McCann said: “I am here today for Madeleine and, I strongly hope, for justice.

“I’m here to stop the damage that has been caused and is still being caused in the search for our daughter, and to stop the suffering that has been caused to our family by the theories of Goncalo Amaral.”

The case continues. - Daily Mail
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/maddie-s-mom-in-court-for-libel-trial-1.1577140?utm_medium=[%27facebook%27]&utm_source=dlvr.it#.UjLm1j8j65I
 
Police Probe Phone Data in New Lead

UPDATE

British police said Friday that analysis of mobile phone data from thousands of people who were in a Portuguese resort when British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007 could provide a new lead.

A major appeal based on "substantive" new information will be broadcast on a BBC television programme on October 14.

Police are analysing data from phones belonging to people who were in Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished in May 2007 and they are investigating 41 potential suspects, although no arrests have been made.

"The mobile phone data is a substantial amount of data," said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who is leading the inquiry, but he added that much of it was "unattributable".

"Putting this with layers and layers of other information, we are carrying out a targeted attack on the information. It is like pulling back the layers of an onion," he said.

Redwood admitted officers had so far been unable to match a "large number" of mobile numbers to the users of the phones. He said the task was complicated by the fact that many of the phones operated on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann have never abandoned their campaign to find Madeleine, who was just about to turn four when she disappeared as she slept in the family's holiday apartment on May 3, 2007. Her parents were dining with friends in a nearby restaurant at the time.

Portuguese authorities closed their investigation in 2008. But London's Metropolitan Police spent two years reviewing the evidence and announced in July that they were launching an investigation into Madeleine's disappearance.

British police are working with senior detectives from Faro, in the Algarve.

Redwood said the phone records contain information about which phone numbers were dialled and when calls were made.

"We can see what the phone is doing, but we can't see the text messages," said the detective. "It shows a timeline of the call data."

Scotland Yard said the phone records were "looked at" during the initial Portuguese police investigation, but not in detail.

Asked by reporters if the information could provide a breakthrough in the investigation, Redwood said: "It could do."

The investigation is however being hampered by the lack of CCTV footage.

In July, detectives said there were 38 "persons of interest" from five different countries -- Portugal, Britain and three others that were not named.

Police said the number had now gone up to 41, of whom 15 were British nationals, but no arrests have been made.

Madeleine's parents say they refuse to believe she is dead.


Source : Sapa-AFP /pk
Date : 04 Oct 2013 11:05
 
Garyvdh said:
UPDATE

....
....

Madeleine's parents say they refuse to believe she is dead.
Click to expand...

As a parent, I can understand that they would choose to hold on to that hope (because the alternative is unbearable), but they are professional, intelligent people and reading statistics and reading a zillion other cases would surely tell them that the chances are very, very slim that she is still alive.
 
Garyvdh said:
Fresh leads....
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/13/world/europe/uk-madeleine-mccann-new-appeal/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Click to expand...

Her disappearance is set to get renewed attention Monday when investigators make another appeal to the public on BBC's "Crimewatch," releasing two computer-generated sketches of a man spotted around the resort town of Praia da Luz on the day then-3-year-old Madeleine went missing. The sketches are based on descriptions from two separate witnesses.
Click to expand...

I wonder why this is only released now, 6 years later??? Did the witnesses only come forward now? If yes, surely their memories would be severely impaired.

The man is described as white, between 20 and 40 years old, with short brown hair and a medium build.
Click to expand...

There is a huge difference between a 20 yr old and a 40 yr old; people would not know who to look out for!
 
blunomore said:
I wonder why this is only released now, 6 years later??? Did the witnesses only come forward now? If yes, surely their memories would be severely impaired.



There is a huge difference between a 20 yr old and a 40 yr old; people would not know who to look out for!
Click to expand...



They probably had the identikit back then but only have a reason to pursue it now.
 
This case is going absolutely nowhere. They're not going to find Maddie and meanwhile her parents are going to continue growing rich off milking her disappearance.
 
Zewp said:
This case is going absolutely nowhere. They're not going to find Maddie and meanwhile her parents are going to continue growing rich off milking her disappearance.
Click to expand...

um, I know they have SPENT millions on the search and on legal fees, but can you please explain how they are making money out of this?
Where is your proof of this?
 
Sorry, just me running my mouth again. I seem to have misunderstood how the fund was set up. Forget I said anything.

Regardless, I don't believe they're innocent in the whole ordeal. This whole thing has all the trademarks of being staged, but to what end I don't know. I find Amaral's version of events a lot more plausible than that of the McCann's.

But I guess we'll never know for sure. Whoever did the crime has done a remarkably good job of hiding it so far and I don't see that changing unless someone actually steps up and confesses. I mean, now they're looking for a guy aged between 20 and 40 years with one of the vaguest descriptions ever. They're grasping at straws now.
 
Last edited:
saturnz said:
well fortunately for us you are not a judge
Click to expand...

And I'm not claiming to be. I'm merely giving my opinion. I have no issue with being proven wrong and would actually prefer if I were, considering that it would be pretty horrible if the McCann's did murder/accidentally kill their child and are just covering it up.

Is the point of a forum not to be able to express an opinion?
 
Of course there is the possibility that they may be involved, maybe the truth will come out one day.
But right now there is so little evidence either way.

People who kill their own family members usually slip up in some way, and some DNA evidence is usually found to link them to a murder.
But so far there has been none of that here. It's like the little girl just disappeared.
And she is the one that I really feel for in the midst of all of this.
I would never leave my young kids alone like that in a foreign country.
So yes, I do blame the parents somewhat.
 
There is not the smallest bit of evidence that suggests the McCann's had anything to do with the death / disappearance of their daughter.

As such there is nothing to cover up.
 
daveza said:
There is not the smallest bit of evidence that suggests the McCann's had anything to do with the death / disappearance of their daughter.

As such there is nothing to cover up.
Click to expand...

No evidence found != impossible.

Claiming there's nothing to cover up because no evidence has been found is rather silly. The point of covering up evidence is for nobody to find it. It might just mean they did a stellar job of it. But I'll leave it at that. There's no use arguing 'what ifs' and 'maybes', and I'm not really in the mood for a protracted debate about things nobody can prove anyway.
 
Last edited:
daveza said:
There is not the smallest bit of evidence that suggests the McCann's had anything to do with the death / disappearance of their daughter.
Click to expand...

What about the cadaver / sniffer dogs? I have to say, the press published so many sensational claims that I found it hard to keep track of what was real evidence and what were just headlines to sell papers. Was it ever OFFICIALLY confirmed that the dogs did pick up a scent in the car / flat?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X