'Suspect/Sighting of the Day': A list of known suspects in the Madeleine McCann case

Another thread to compliment 'Rogue of the Day'.

Anyone can post a picture of a suspect with a description or press release etc.

Let's see how many we can find, from eggman right up to present day Operation Grange suspects. Let's see how the Police have been spending all those millions of pounds on chasing anyone other than those Eddie and Keela alerted to.

I'll start with Jane Tanner's 'eggman':

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Madeleine suspect picture 'like an egg with hair' [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
 
Wednesday, 09 May, 2007

2:36:47 PM

 
A computer-generated image which police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann refuse to release to the public was described today as "an egg with hair".

Plain-clothes detectives have been touring the Algarve village of Praia da Luz in Portugal after Madeleine's disappearance six days ago asking shopkeepers and locals if they recognise the potential suspect.

Although the image has been shown to individuals, police have refused to release it to the public because of an information black-out on the investigation, citing strict Portuguese laws.

The investigative Policia Judiciaria (PJ) has been criticised over its handling of the case, in part because of the lack of information.

One of those shown the image was Simon Russell, 40, a half-English, half-Portuguese man who runs a video store and internet café in the resort town.

He said today that a group of four or five plain-clothes police came into his shop on Saturday afternoon and asked him if he had seen anything suspicious.

After asking him if he had seen anyone accessing suspicious websites, they took him into a back room away from the customers and discreetly slipped out the crude image asking him if he recognised the person.

He said: "They just showed me this outline which apparently gave me the impression that it had high cheekbones and a long face but other than that, no eyes, no nose, no mouth, so I call it an egg, it was an egg with hair."

He went on: "I have heard that other people who have been interviewed have said that there were clothes involved. The police never asked me about anything to do with clothing.

"All I got was an impression of a head with hair with a side parting.

"I smiled when they showed it to me. What else could anyone do?"

He went on to say that the image was not even recognisable as an e-fit.

"It didn't look like it had been drawn, it didn't look like a photograph, it looked like something that had been created maybe on a computer – but there were no features.

"It was completely different from anything I have seen in the newspapers - there were no features, there were no ears."

There were claims today that the PJ had even held back from showing the image to Portugal's main police force, the PSP.

A PSP source told the Diario de Noticias newspaper that the PJ had failed to disclose the image to the other force until Monday – four days after Madeleine's disappearance.

The source told the newspaper that he felt it was extremely counterproductive to have that portrait and not to pass it to other police forces or even publish it more widely.

"It is time to set aside petty pride and rivalry between police forces," he is quoted as saying.

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Eggman later morphed into tannerman carrying a child

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A spokesman for Portuguese police said Antonio Toscano, 36, was interviewed by police for two hours yesterday but added that they were "cautious" about treating the information as a new lead.

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Mr Toscano had told the media he believed a man known as The Frenchman, who he said was involved in a Europe-wide paedophile network, was linked to Madeleine's disappearance.

He claimed The Frenchman was overheard saying he was travelling to the Algarve before Madeleine went missing from her room in the resort of Praia da Luz on May 3 while her parents, Gerry and Kate, were eating in a restaurant 100 yards away.

Police confirmed Mr Toscano originally contacted them several weeks ago but gave few details. He has described himself as an "investigator" who specialises in missing person cases.

A spokeswoman for the McCann family would not comment on Mr Toscano's claims but said Madeleine's parents were urging anyone with information to come forward.

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The woman detectives are hunting in the search for Madeleine McCann asked a British tourist if he was about to deliver her 'new daughter'.

The woman, who had an Australian accent, spoke to a British businessman in Spain just three days after the youngster disappeared.

She had been acting in an 'agitated' manner outside a bar in Barcelona and, when approached, asked the man: 'Are you here to deliver my new daughter?', a source close to the investigation said last night.

The tourist, who was chaperoning his brother on a stag party, was too shocked to reply and the woman repeated the question twice more. A second member of the party also spoke to the woman before she left.

It is believed that the woman mistook the witness for a man she had arranged to meet.

Investigators yesterday issued an urgent appeal for information about the woman, described as a 'glamorous and well turned out' Victoria Beckham lookalike.

Dave Edgar, the retired detective hired by Kate and Gerry McCann to lead a private inquiry, said it was very possible the youngster was smuggled into Barcelona by yacht from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz where she disappeared in May 2007.

Yesterday he revealed an image of the woman, thought to be Australian, at a press conference in London, appealing for help in finding her.

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Madeleine McCann 'fraud' couple arrested at hideout in Portugal

Danilo Chemello and Aurora Pereira Vaz were first held in southern Spain in 2007, after they allegedly tried to swindle Gerry and Kate McCann by attempting to pocket a £2.5million reward for information on Madeleine’s whereabouts.

They were quizzed two months after she went missing, but the case never went to trial.

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MELISSA FIERING (18 ) Year 2007

Melissa Fiering, a student, claims she saw Madeleine McCann in a cafe on 15th February. She described the dark-skinned male to sketch artist Emre Altin, 28, exclusively for the The Daily Mirror. Speaking at her home in Nijmegen, Holland the travel and tourism student said of the police-style e-fit: "This is definitely an accurate likeness of the man I saw. I'd recognise him straight away if the police found him." Melissa said the person she saw in Montpellier, southern France, was about 6ft, in his late 30s, possibly Algerian, with slightly receding hair and a distinctive sharp jaw line. He wore a black leather jacket and "looked quite rough". French police viewed the CCTV videos and concluded that the child was not Madeleine.

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FBI psychics turn up face of Maddy 'killer'

A DRAWING of a man two FBI psychics say snatched Madeleine McCann has been produced by an American TV programme.

By Mark Parker

PUBLISHED:  00:00, Sun, Oct 19, 2008

Now investigators working for Kate and Gerry McCann say they want to see the so-called evidence revealed in the programme, which was screened last week in the US.

The drawing is of a man aged between 36 and 42 with thick dark brown or black hair and stubble. It has now been handed over to police in Portugal.

It was produced by two psychic criminal profilers who work closely with the FBI in America.

A spokesman for the McCanns said that although they were deeply sceptical of information from psychics, they want their private investigators to examine the information which was broadcast.

“If they have given their files to the police in Portugal they should also pass them on to our investigators,” said Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns spokesman, who gave a brief interview to the programme makers.

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'Creepy man' reportedly seen by Paul Gordon and Gail Cooper, a week before the McCanns arrived, which resulted in the infamous 'George Harrison' sketch and the 'police-style' press conference in London.

Portuguese police dismissed the sketch as having "no credibility" and officers accused the McCanns of diverting attention away from themselves. Carlos Anjos, president of the Judicial Police Inspectors Union, said: "All sense has been completely lost."

Another police source said the picture was based on information "without any consistency", which shows a man who could be one of "hundreds of people" and is "another diversionary manoeuvre".

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Paedophile Raymond Hewlett 'admits he saw Madeleine McCann twice' before she disappeared

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Madeleine McCann investigators plotted to spy on family of dead paedophile suspected in disappearance

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Hewlett allegedly wrote a deadbed confession but his son, Wayne, burned the letter because it 'unnerved him so much'.

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Information from PDL residents regarding sighting of suspicious individual

Following up information already filed with respect to "The Ocean Club" and Mr Lance. P whose parents occupy apartment 7 of Block 2 (Garden), who spoke of having seen an individual several times in tha area and described his physical appearance.
He confirmed several times that the man was thin, brown skinned, about 35 years old, about 1,70m tall, with dark short hair. While not having seen the clothing clearly, the man was not a "ragamuffin". He last saw the man about two weeks ago.
In Praia da Luz, the man was always seen near the pharmacy in Rua Helena do Nascimento Baptista, but he saw him at least twice and, from memory, between 11h00 and 12h00 on the main access road into Praia da Luz which leads to Rua Direita.
The man was always seen to be alone, and the witness does not know if he was Portuguese or a foreigner. To him, the man's behaviour was always strange although he could not be specific as to why he felt that.
Trying to find the man officers walked the streets of the areas described by the witness, without success.
Mr. Lance P. drove to the DIC Portimao where he made a formal statement and helped create the "e-fit" no 19/2007, attached.
Inspector

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Madeleine detectives 'hunting Portuguese drifter who is the spitting image of new kidnap suspect'

By VANESSA ALLEN

Last updated at 08:30 28 January 2008

A Portuguese drifter who strongly resembles Madeleine McCann's suspected kidnapper has been spotted at an Algarve resort.

Joaquim Agostinho was seen in Altura last week after two British tourists complained they had been followed by a prowler who looked "identical" to a sketch of the alleged kidnapper.

They said the prowler had also targeted children.

The sketch, drawn by an FBI-trained forensic artist, was commissioned by Kate and Gerry McCann.

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MAIL-ORDER MADDIE 'WAS SNATCHED BY CRIME LORD'

Star 25-10-09

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Madeleine McCann was a “mail-order child” snatched by an Algerian mafia boss, the British Daily Star Sunday newspaper reported on October 25.According to new claims, police are hunting for a North African crime lord who allegedly bragged to British associates that he had snatched Madeleine in a 100,000 sterling pound kidnap plot.  The Algerian, who went by the names of Younis and Tariq, is said to be known to the police in Portugal.  The suspect reportedly told his British associates that he had taken children from parts of Europe and sold them to rich families in Morocco.  He said that Madeleine had been taken away by a ferry. Meanwhile, the Civil Court of Lisbon ordered that all profits former police inspector Gonçalo Amaral made from his book about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann must be seized.The book, The Truth of the Lie, was an account of the former police detective’s beliefs that Madeleine was dead and questioned Kate and Gerry’s account. After initially working on the case, he was later removed after he criticised British authorities. The McCanns were successful in having the book banned from further publication and sales.


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The McCanns’ new detectives, ex-police officers Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, reveal that they have discovered 3 witnesses – ‘hidden’ in the PJ files – who saw a man acting suspiciously outside the McCanns’ apartment.
 
A sketch of one of the suspects is splashed across the covers of the UK press and immediately dubbed a variety of names, from ‘Scarface’ to ‘Pimpleman’ to ‘Mr Spotty’.

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Belgian authorities are conducting DNA tests on a bottle and a straw after a possible sighting of missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann last weekend.

A woman called police in the eastern town of Tongeren near the Dutch border on Saturday after seeing a couple with a small girl at a roadside cafe.
“She has considerable dealings with children and she was convinced the girl was Madeleine,” a prosecution spokeswoman said. “There is a bottle and straw that the girl probably drank from and we are testing them.”
The couple were described as a Dutch-speaking man of about 40 and a English-speaking woman of around 25. Tongeren legal authorities have drawn up photo-fit pictures of the pair.
The results of the DNA test should be known next week.
Madeleine went missing on a family holiday to Portugal on May 3, since when there have been dozens of possible sightings.

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The drawings, published in the Daily Mirror, were created with the help of Anna Stam. The shop assistant from Amsterdam spoke to a little girl called "Maddy" who said she had been taken from her mother while on holiday

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Witness Testimony Derek Flack 06/05/2007 Portimao
 
He Comes to the case as a witness following the events on the morning or early afternoon of 2nd or 3rd May (last Wednesday or Thursday) which might have a bearing on the present investigation.
--- As he does not write of speak Portuguese he is assisted by an interpreter, G.L.C. de Jesus, at the request of the PJ.
--- Relating to the events of the present investigation he states that he owns a holiday home on Rua do Ramalhete in Praia da Luz where he spends extended holiday periods in our country together with his long-time common-law partner of 36 years, C.M.Dale.
--- They both arrived in our country on the early morning of 29 April 2007 having stayed at the above residence.
--- Subsequently, on the late morning or early afternoon of either 2nd or 3rd May, not being certain which, the deponent and his partner were out walking in the vicinity of their home.
--- Asked, he does not recall the exact route taken but they went up from their home to Rua Dr. Agostinho da Silva then down Rua Dr. Francsico Gentil Martins where the "Ocean Club Gardens" is situated.
--- At that time as they passed the residential block he noticed a light commercial vehicle, (in all respects the same as an Opel Corsa Van), white in colour but dirty, with only one side window in the 'hanging' [sliding panel?] door, but not knowing the exact make, model or other identifying characteristics - including the number plate.
--- Everything considered he judged it to be an old model.
--- When going down the [Rua Martins] he passed an individual standing on his left at the beginning of a path and at the entrance of a small car park opposite the reception of the resort.
--- At the point they passed the individual the deponent had seen him face-on because he [the man] was facing the opposite direction to which he [the deponent] was walking, and appearing to be watching attentively movements [occurring] adjacent to the parked vehicle.
--- Asked, the deponent said that he noticed the above because he had a high instinct for vigilance [observation, watchfulness] due to his participation where he lived in England in a neighbourhood-watch in which suspicious persons or movements were watched for and detected to maintain order, unlike his partner who detected nothing of such incidents.
--- Hence, he was aware that the man's attention was fixed on the area in question [adjacent to the the van] in such a way that he [the man] was unaware of the deponent's presence.
--- Urged to describe the man, the deponent said he was Caucasian, dark-skinned, medium stature, 1,70 to 1,75m tall, about 25 to 35 years old.
--- Adding that the man had dark and thick hair but with no noticeable fringe [at the front].
--- Regarding [the man's] apparel he adds that he didn't observe this in detail, judging that [the man] wore a plain T-shirt, possibly yellow.
--- The deponent wished to clarify that he was convinced that the man was not one of the many tourists who frequented that area, considering his features and physical appearance.
--- Asked, [the deponent] said that, initially, he had associated the man with the van because [the man] had looked deliberately [intently?] at the area around it.
--- Notwithstanding [the above], having learned of the disappearance of MBM on 3 May from inside one of the resort residences mentioned above, he linked the two and that was the reason he came forward to the police.
--- Asked to justify [elaborate further] he said that the van was situated close to the gateway on the side of the building [which gateway] led to to the veranda of the apartment in question [apartment 5A].
--- Hence, one could conclude that the man was monitoring the movements next to that gate and, possibly, of the interior of the apartment.
--- For the rest, he adds that after having reflected specifically on the incidents he concluded that it was the man's deliberate focus [fixation] on the area in which the events that gave rise to the investigation occurred.
--- Urged to reveal details about the area around the van, the deponent could not be certain if the vehicle was directly next to, slightly above or slightly below, the gateway.
--- However, he was certain that it was a very short distance from, and directly in the path of the gate.
--- Asked, aside from what he reported above, he did not recall having seen the man before in that vicinity or any other place, nor caught the slightest glimpse of him since the crime that victimised the minor Madeleine.
--- The deponent is not sure if he would recognise him again in the event that they should meet.
--- Based on the above description image likeness [e-fit] [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]/2007 is attached.
--- Finally, having been asked, he states that he intends to return to England next Saturday, 12 May 2007.

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Police question British gardener over Madeleine's disappearance

British gardener has been questioned by police over Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Detectives spoke to Dan Groom, 30, after an email tip-off claimed that he was spotted lurking in an alleyway near the family's holiday apartment on the day she vanished.

The anonymous message claimed that the British expat looked similar to a man seen carrying a child away from the apartment on May 3. Police questioned Mr Groom, of Horsham, West Sussex, on Thursday, but said he had not been made a suspect.

Mr Groom, who lives on the outskirts of Praia da Luz, said he had not been to the Ocean Club complex since March 30. He claimed he was the victim of a smear campaign and that he was innocent.

Police are checking his claims that the email may have been sent maliciously.

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Jailed: Charles O'Neill, left, and William Lauchlan have now been quetioned over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

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Maddie Police quiz convicted murderers as Kate McCann gives chilling account of moment she found daughter missing

Two convicted paedophiles have been questioned by British police over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Charles O’Neill, 48, and William Lauchlan, 34, were jailed last year over sex attacks on children and the murder of a mother who had threatened to expose them.

The Mail on Sunday has learned they were interviewed in prison by detectives after inquiries revealed they were touring Spain, and possibly Portugal, on false passports when Madeleine vanished in May 2007.

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Arguido: Mr Jones has been made a formal suspect - 'arguido' - and may be recalled to Portugal if police take the case futher

A British business executive has appeared in a Portuguese court after being accused of taking photos of children on a beach.

Parents had been alarmed when they saw 48-year-old grandfather Rhys Jones - who works for international clothing retailer Peacocks - arrive at an Algarve holiday resort alone and start taking pictures of boys in their swimwear.

When the parents complained, a row developed, police were called, and father-of-two Mr Jones was arrested.

The beach is 50 miles from where Madeleine McCann disappeared from her parents’ apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007.
It is understood that 80 pictures of boys aged eight to 15 were found on the camera.

But Mr Jones has told the Daily Mail that while he had been ‘absolutely stupid’, he had an innocent excuse - he was impressed by the youngsters’ swimwear, wanted his firm to copy it, and was taking photos as research.

The businessman, who was holidaying in a hotel in Vilamoura with his wife Ann and his 14-year-old son, spoke before appearing in an Algarve court on Friday afternoon.

The keen amateur sportsman, who runs an under-14s football team and is chairman of the Welsh Club Cricket Conference, has worked for Peacocks for 30 years and is international operations and development controller.

Last Thursday he was on the beach at Vilamoura when he said he realised young male holidaymakers were wearing swimwear unlike that stocked by Peacocks.

On the spur of the moment, he said, he began photographing boys playing in the sand, with the aim of showing them to colleagues to suggest they stocked similar trunks, particularly for sales in Peacocks stores in Cyprus and Malta.

Police were called after parents objected. Mr Jones said: ‘I was absolutely stupid. When parents approached me I realised what an idiot I’d been. ‘I can fully understand the parents’ reaction.I’ve been bloody stupid. My wife keeps telling me I’m an idiot – she’s right, I was.

‘But I didn’t try to sneak any pictures, I did it all openly.’ Mr Jones said he is worried about his job at Peacocks, which is based close to his home in Cardiff.

Portuguese police commander Marques Ferreira said: ‘A 48-yearold Englishman was seen photographing children on the beach at Marinotel in Vilamoura and was arrested by the Maritime Police.

‘We were able to verify the existence of many photographs of children aged between eight and 15.’

A police source said witnesses said, ‘The man pointed his camera several times at children who were playing in the sand by the water’.

Mr Jones has been named an ‘arguido’, or formal suspect, and appeared in a court on Friday with a local lawyer to answer initial questions, but is understood to have been allowed to return home with his wife and son at the weekend.

He will be recalled to Portugal if the court decides to take the case further.

Taking photographs of children without their parents’ permission is a crime in Portugal.

Mr Jones was on Saturday due to play cricket in his position as captain of the Lisvane Second XI in Cardiff and is due to go on a cricket tour of Berkshire today.

One of his friends said last night: ‘He has been one of the stalwarts of the cricket club for many years, joining as a teenager just after its foundation in the late 70s.

‘I can’t believe he has ended up in a Portuguese court. He’s a straightforward guy with a great sense of humour.’

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I wish I'd snatched Maddie

A shamed civil servant who has admitted a string of child sex offences boasted that he wished he had snatched missing child Madeleine McCann.

Self-confessed “paedo” and child porn addict Barry Shaw told cops he wanted to murder, torture and rape babies.

South Belfast man Shaw, 30, also admitted during police interviews that he had made sickening sexual comments about missing child Madeleine, who vanished from her holiday apartment in Portugal in May 2007.

Details about the accountant's perverted fantasises emerged during a bail hearing at Belfast Magistrates' Court last week.

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Franz Norman Volker:

Maddie: Outlaw from Portuguese prison may be the abductor who the witness confused with Gerry McCann,

Intelligent fugitive

"The Portuguese police, via Interpol, keep active in their pursuit of the recapture of Franz," concluded the same source believing that the national authorities "are doing everything possible to find and arrest the fugitive," whilst acknowledging that it was, "not an easy job given the intelligence of Franz to outwit his pursuers".

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TORTURE gang leader Steven Johnson had his daughter’s clothes seized by police — after fearing they could belong to missing Madeleine McCann.

The monster — caged for 25 years for the savage attack on James Ross — was quizzed by cops investigating the little girl’s disappearance following his arrest in Portugal.

The dramatic details can now be revealed after Johnson was jailed for the sickening torture attack on abduction victim James, 28, from Wick, Caithness.

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A BRIT arrested over an alleged holiday child abduction attempt probed by Madeleine McCann cops is a father of two.

Married James Lawlor, 62 — also known as John — was held at his North West London home on Wednesday night.

Police had launched an appeal after a little girl’s dad said he stopped a man taking her from a mall in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote.

They received a tip-off after releasing a picture of the suspect taken by the three-year-old’s dad, of Milton Keynes, Bucks.

Landscape gardener Lawlor lives in Harrow with his wife and has two daughters.

A woman answering the door last night declined to comment.

A neighbour said: “We are all shocked. He seemed a very nice man.”

Officers confirmed a 62- year-old held in Harrow was still being quizzed last night on suspicion of attempted kidnap.

Met Police probing Maddie’s disappearance in Portugal in 2007 are working with Thames Valley cops on the Lanzarote case.

The dad who confronted the man in January last year later saw him at a beach.

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Was Maddie snatched by monster who killed this little lookalike? That's the dramatic new lead uncovered by British detectives so why are the Portuguese refusing to investigate?

Have you seen me? asks the little girl in the poster. The youngster is Madeleine McCann; not the Madeleine we all remember, but Madeleine as she might look today as a ten-year-old.
Her once-blonde hair is darker, the button nose has gone, along with those babyish chubby cheeks, and while the distinctive black ‘flash’ in her right eye — where her pupil runs into the iris — is still visible, it is not nearly so distinctive.
Behind this latest digitally created picture of Madeleine, now being circulated on the Continent, is renewed hope: that one day Madeleine’s parents will find out what happened to her, and so end perhaps the most enduring and haunting mystery of modern times.

That hope, if truth be told, had been all but extinguished, such were the shortcomings of the original Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance on the Algarve a few days short of her fourth birthday in May 2007.
Only now, with the intervention of an elite team of detectives from Scotland Yard which has been carrying out a review of the case on David Cameron’s orders, has evidence been properly accessed and analysed. It may be six years late, but at least this basic groundwork is finally being tackled.

The 30-strong squad working on the inquiry — codenamed Operation Grange — has identified 20 potential suspects, among them several Britons, as the Mail reported last week.
But who are they? 
One of the 20, the Mail has learned, was a notorious paedophile who kidnapped and murdered a five-year-old girl in his native Switzerland less than three months after Madeleine vanished from the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz.

Urs Hans von Aesch, 67, shot himself dead after poisoning and sexually abusing Ylenia Lenhard. 
Like Madeleine, Ylenia was blonde and blue-eyed. At the time Madeleine vanished, von Aesch was living in Spain, but he had visited the Algarve in the past and was known to have friends there.
Interpol twice contacted the Portuguese authorities about von Aesch, but information supplied by the Swiss about possible links with Madeleine was not followed up because senior officers in the Policia Judiciaria — the Portuguese CID — were wrongly convinced that Madeleine’s parents were implicated in their daughter’s disappearance.
The ‘very urgent’ messages from Interpol are there, in black and white, printed in publicly available documents in Portugal.
Unlike the Policia Judiciaria, however, detectives from Operation Grange did rigorously pursue this line of inquiry. Last year, they flew to Switzerland to probe von Aesch’s movements. He is still believed to be a ‘person of interest’.
Two other convicted child abusers — including one believed to be from Britain — who were on the Algarve at the relevant time, are also understood to be on the Scotland Yard ‘list’, together with a number of hotel workers and lorry drivers.
Detectives are now ‘actively’ examining mobile phone traffic in the Praia da Luz area on the day Madeleine was last seen.

Although the Policia Judiciaria had this information at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance, they did not find out who the phones were registered to, even though ‘cell-site’ analysis is now a crucial investigative tool and the catalyst for solving countless crimes.
Had standard police procedures been followed back in 2007, it is conceivable that you would not be reading this article now, for the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance may have been solved.
Nevertheless, Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are said to be encouraged both by the progress of Operation Grange, and recent events in the U.S., where three women who had been missing for a decade were found alive and well in Cleveland, Ohio.

Kate and Gerry, both doctors,  still refer to Madeleine in the present tense.
‘She lives in the village of Rothley in Leicester with her mummy and daddy and little brother and sister, Sean and Amelie,’ is how they introduce her on the ‘Find Madeleine’ website.
‘Madeleine is a very happy little girl with an outgoing personality’ . . . like most girls her age, she likes dolls and dresses (and anything pink and sparkly).’
Madeleine was wearing pink pyjamas, with an Eeyore motif, on the night she was taken from apartment 5a on the ground floor of the Waterside Gardens at the Ocean Club complex.
Her parents were at a tapas bar with friends a few hundred yards away, taking it in turns to return to the flat every 30 minutes to check on the children.
It was Kate who made the final, fateful check at around 10pm. She found the twins were asleep inside but Madeleine’s bed was empty, a moment Kate would later relive in her book, Madeleine.
‘My heart lurched,’ she wrote, ‘as I saw now that, behind them, the window was wide open and the shutters on  the outside raised all the way up.  Nausea, terror, disbelief, fear, icy fear. Dear God, no! Please, No!’
Experts will tell you that what happens in the immediate aftermath of a child going missing — the so-called golden hour — is critical. Yet Portuguese police took four days to even issue a description of Madeleine.

They failed to ‘lock down’ the resort or set up road blocks because they assumed she had just wandered off. The apartment itself was not taped off until 10am the following morning, by which time dozens of people had traipsed through the ‘crime scene’.
Ash from policemen’s cigarettes would later be found among contaminated forensic samples from the flat. Not all the staff and guests at the Ocean Club were traced and interviewed. Those who were interviewed were not always properly eliminated.
And a photofit picture of an early ‘suspect’ consisted of nothing more than the sketch of a face with hair parted on one side but with no actual eyes, nose or mouth.
The catalogue of mistakes and official complacency is almost endless and culminated in a shameful shadow of suspicion over Kate and Gerry McCann, who were treated as suspects themselves until their ‘arguido’ (suspect) status was removed in 2008, the same year as the inquiry into Madeleine’s disappearance was formally suspended.
There were, declared the Portuguese police, simply no more leads to pursue.
Within months of Operation Grange being set up in 2011 — after Mr Cameron received a direct appeal for help from the McCanns — dozens of fresh leads had been identified. 
The only British involvement in the case before this was that of Leicestershire police, the McCanns’ local force, who were responsible for collating all the investigation work carried out on behalf of their Portuguese counterparts, such as interviewing British witnesses.

All this evidence was later made available to officers from Operation Grange, drawn from the Met’s highly skilled Homicide and Serious Crime Command.
Two detectives first visited Praia du Luz in October 2011 and spoke ‘informally’ to staff at the Ocean Club. Colleagues are understood to have returned there up to ten times over the past two years.
Of particular interest were the numerous holiday flats, some of which were sub-let at the time the McCanns were staying at the resort. They have spoken to residents on the phone in recent months as well as emailing them questions.
‘When I spoke to the police they were asking about other crimes happening in the area at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance,’ said expat Christie Jones, who works  for her family’s villa management company.
Two private detectives employed by the McCanns, Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley, have also been interviewed.
‘They [detectives from Operation Grange] came to see me late last year about specific people who were of interest to them,’ said Mr Cowley, a retired detective sergeant, who lives in Holywell, North Wales.
One of those people, of course — according to a source close to Operation Grange — is the aforementioned Urs Hans von Aesch.
His exact whereabouts when Madeleine was abducted on May 3, 2007 are unclear. He was living near Alicante in Spain with his wife, but border records show that, driving a white van, von Aesch re-entered Switzerland on July 10.

Less than a month later, he used this vehicle to abduct Ylenia as she left her local swimming pool in Appenzell. The day after she vanished, von Aesch was discovered in woodland with self-inflicted  gunshot wounds to the head.
Ylenia’s bicycle helmet, rucksack and a scooter were found nearby. All of the items contained von Aesch’s DNA. Shortly afterwards, the remains of Ylenia were found in a shallow grave in nearby Oberbueren, a 20-minute drive from the spot where she was abducted. 
At von Aesch’s home in Spain,  police seized diaries — in English — revealing his dark sexual fantasies about children and computer discs containing evidence that he had frequently visited child sex websites and forums on the internet.
Swiss police officers were immediately struck by the physical similarities between Ylenia and Madeleine, who had both gone missing within weeks of each other. They alerted Interpol which, in turn, contacted the Portuguese authorities about its suspicions on August 17.
When it did not get a response, it contacted them again on September 3. Again, there was no response, we were informed by sources  in Interpol.
We now know why.
Just four days later, on September 7, Kate and Gerry McCann were named as arguidos in the Portuguese investigation. On September 11, police submitted a summary of their case against them to prosecutors.

In his report, Chief Inspector Tavares da Almeida concluded — without a shred of hard evidence — that Madeleine had died in the flat, her parents had hid the body, then faked an abduction and got their friends to lie to the police.
‘Kate McCann and Gerald McCann are involved in the concealment of the cadaver of their daughter Madeleine McCann,’ he wrote.
Could a police officer have made a more catastrophic misjudgement?
Meanwhile, Ylenia Lenhard’s heartbroken mother Charlotte believes her daughter was not  von Aesch’s only victim.
‘I am convinced that my little girl was not the only one,’ she told the Mail. ‘I simply cannot believe that a man, at the age of 67, suddenly chooses to become a killer. It was in him all the time and I am certain he has struck before.’
Indeed, after von Aesch’s death, Swiss police re-opened inquiries into the disappearance of five girls who disappeared from the area in the Eighties, before he moved  to Spain.
These include five-year-old Sarah Oberson, whose neat features and bobbed-hair are also reminiscent of Madeleine McCann, and who went missing in September 1985 when cycling to her grandmother’s house 50 meters away; doe-eyed seven-year-old Loredana Mancini, who vanished in April 1983 and was found dead in September of the same year: and eight-year-old Rebecca Bieri, who disappeared in March 1982 and was found dead five months later.
The police were unable to prove links between von Aesch and the missing girls.
Under Portuguese law, a case can be reopened only if there is  new evidence.
Yet the senior Scotland Yard detective who oversaw the two-year-review of the evidence before he retired says it is ‘perfectly probable’ that information that could identify the suspect responsible for Madeleine McCann’s disappearance was already in the  Portuguese files.
‘Of course, there is a possibility she is still alive,’ said former Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell. ‘But the key is to investigate the case and, dead or alive, we should be able to try to discern what happened.’
It is the very least Kate and Gerry McCann, indeed any parent of a missing child, deserves.
Additional reporting: Neil Sears in Praia du Luz


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Madeleine McCann detectives examine man's pictures after Sunday People probe

Officers are scouring ­dozens of images from the camera of businessman Wojciech Krokowski, from Poland.
They are focusing on those he took while in Praia da Luz around the time Madeleine went missing – on May 3, 2007.
Krokowski’s flat was searched after the three-year-old vanished. Portuguese cops later ruled him out.
The images British ­detectives are looking at is in a batch of hundreds handed over to us by the Pole during an interview.
Among them is a ­picture of Mr Krokowski, 52, taken in Portugal in May 2007.
It bears a resemblance to the image of a man walking with a sleeping child – an ­artist’s impression of the ­kidnap which was released in September 2007.
The picture was publicised widely in the hope it would jog ­memories about Madeleine.
But British police agreed the picture was not Mr Krokowski.
Mr Krokowski told our ­investigators he liked taking pictures of ­children while he was on trips abroad.
He said he was amazed he had not been contacted since ­police reopened the case in 2011. The Pole insisted: “ I am ready to speak to them any time they want.”
Mr Krokowski said he ­wanted to ­remove a shadow that has been hanging over him since he ­became the ­subject of an international manhunt over Madeleine.
It is the latest twist in the long-running saga in which British police have vowed to leave no stone unturned to solve the mystery of what ­happened to Madeleine.
The extensive Scotland Yard review, which began in 2011, has so far cost more than £10million, with an extra £2million set for next year.
Mr Krokowski and his wife Anetta, 50, stayed in the Solimar apartments in Burgau just two miles from Praia da Luz between Saturday April 28 April and Saturday May 5 in 2007.
Madeleine was snatched from her apartment while her doctor parents Kate, now 47, and Gerry, 46, dined nearby with friends.
We tracked Mr Krokowski to his office in the Polish ­capital. He admitted he enjoys taking pictures of ­children on holiday but ­that it was for ­artistic purposes. In his first-ever newspaper interview he said: “I take ­photos of old people, young people, landscapes and I have a lot of pictures from places like Thailand, Greece, Portugal, France, with kids on them.
“But I never thought about kids as a sexual object. Nothing like this, never, never never. I am a simple man with normal sexual orientations.”

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THERE was an international scramble to identify a Swedish girl who bore a resemblance to the missing McCann child.

Face-mapping technology proved that her facial features matched the missing tot’s, and she was also said to speak perfect English.

She was spotted at a car show in 2009 with a couple who apparently refused to be photographed.

The man was said to be Swedish, while the woman did not speak. It matched with theories that Maddie had been smuggled out of Portugal on a Swedish yacht, snatched to order by a childless Swedish couple.