A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
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A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
by Guest 22.08.22 1:07
A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
This summary obviously cannot cover every single point raised in the book but it covers most of the main points
By Cláudia
27 July 2008
1 - Gonçalo Amaral starts by thanking family and friends, anonymous citizens who supported him and also cybernauts and bloggers who 'defended the cause of truth and justice'.
2 - Very strange Mr Alipio Ribeiro's remark that making the McCanns arguidos was a hasty decision because he knew all along and agreed with the decision at the time.
3 - The British police agreed with the PJ that Madeleine had died in apartment 5A and that there was a body that needed to be found. Later things seemed to change.
4 - Making them arguidos was inevitable due to the non-incrimination principle. Certain questions could not be asked if they weren't arguidos. Even for their own protection.
5 - Unusual, priviliged treatment for the couple is stressed.
6 - The British police were working very closely with the PJ. They were in a room just next to the 'crisis room' the PJ worked in and were aware of everything that was going on.
7 - The McCanns' routine is described. Madeleine, Sean and Amelie spend most of their time in the creche.
8 - On the 1st of May, Madeleine cries for an hour and 15 minutes, between 10:30 and 11:45pm - and cries for daddy. She only stops when her parents get back home.
9 - The next morning Madeleine questions her parents about not being there while she cried all that time.
10 - When the first police officers arrived at the scene several people were inside the apartment. Gonçalo Amaral says that mistakes were made because the scene should have been recorded (pictures or footage) with the people who were there so important aspects like the way those people were dressed was recorded. The twins were sleeping and did not wake up with the commotion. And the bed sheets on the twins' cots were not there. First 72 hours are extremely important in these cases.
11 - Contradiction regarding the checking times. Some say every 30 minutes, others say every 15 minutes. Gonçalo Amaral calls Glen Power for info on the whole group. Their history could be essential for the case.
12 - Inspector Chief Tavares de Almeida forgets his holiday because of the case. All Portuguese forces were now aware of the crime as well as Interpol. Searches start. The apartment had been contaminated by friends of the couple, employees from the resort, GNR officers and their dogs and other unknown people. Was the contamination out of ignorance or was it on purpose?
13 - Early in the morning, the searches continue. A crime scene team from Lisbon is on the way and the PJ starts to formally interview hundreds of people. The PJ asks British police for help regarding any British tourist present in the Algarve who may have a criminal record. Footage from hotels, banks, supermarkets, gas stations and highways are checked. Spain is alerted to pay attention to departures to Morocco. The harbours of Tarifa and Algeciras are checked through CCTV footage. Marinas in the Algarve are checked as well as their records of arrivals and departures.
14 - The PJ checks all photos and footage from the Tapas 9. Clues could be found there. However, there are no photos or footage at night which might have been useful to help understand what happened that evening. Sexual offenders are checked to make sure they weren't around PDL at the time and the criminal history of PDL is also investigated. No signs of a break in, unlike the McCanns and Sky News reported. The PM (Public Ministry) is informed of the situation. In the document the case is treated like a "Kidnapping?". Mr Amaral said the document is in the files and that as early as the 4th of May there were questions, which explains the question mark after 'kidnapping'.
15 - All possibilities were on the table. The abduction theory was good for the investigation, according to Mr Amaral because it allowed more means, manpower and tools to work with. It wasn't in the best interest of the investigation that the parents and friends were aware that they could be possible suspects. 12 hours after the disappearance a diplomat arrives in Portimao. He was not happy and he was heard to say that the PJ 'wasn't doing anything'.
16 - Info from the British police is late, unlike what normally happens in other cases. No information on the couple, the friends or the children. It was important to be sure that Madeleine was their biological daughter. British Ambassador arrives. All this diplomacy is not normal according to Mr Amaral. 'Who are this couple?'. 'Who are these friends?'.
17 - The searches go on. A helicopter is used and the OC employees are questioned. It's a battle against time because the following day /the 5th of May) is the day some of the potential witnesses are due to return to the UK. The press, Portuguese and British are already in PDL. Why was the press called in so quickly, apparently before the police?
18 - The apartment is checked for finger and hand prints, hair, fibres, blood and other biological evidence. Mistakes were made and Amaral underlines the person on the outside without a full suit on. No signs of break in and no prints of other people other than the ones who were supposed to have been at the apartment. No glove marks found either. A hand-print is found and also fingerprints on the window from where Madeleine was taken according to her parents. The hand-print belonged to one of the first GNR officers who arrived at the scene.
19 - The roadworks being done in the streets of PDL were checked by workmen, police officers and sniffer dogs. The Tapas are formally questioned in Portimão (it's still the morning of the 4th of May). First contradictions are detected. Jane Tanner 'saw' the abductor. Gerry and Jeremy were very close and did not see Jane or the abductor. The need for translation doesn't help because there is more time to think about what people should say. Kate and Gerry have no doubt that it is a kidnapping. Contradictions regarding the door and the window and shutters. (Open, closed, locked, unlocked, etc.)
Checks:
21h05: Gerry - all is well with the children.
21h10/21h15: Jane Tanner - Sees alleged abductor carrying a child.
21h30: Mathew Oldfield - enter the apartment but not the bedroom and only sees the twins.
22h00: Kate - finds Madeleine missing.
20 - If the window was open why didn't Oldfield see it if at the time Jane Tanner had already seen the 'abductor'? Matthew says the door was slightly open. Kate states the door was completely open.
21 - Kate mentions the 'abductor' mentioned by Jane but describes him in a completely different way. Jane said the man had light trousers and hair the lenghth of his neck. Kate says the abductor was wearing jeans and had long hair.
22 - The description evolved. Now the abductor was 1.78 m tall, was wearing light trousers and a dark shirt and was carrying a child who seemed to be wearing pyjamas.
23 - Jane's decription evolves again: it is now a dark skinned man, 35-40, thin, around 1.70m, very thick and dark hair neck length, linen trousers beige or gold, Duffy' type jacket but not as thick, classic black shoes, was rushing and was carrying a child in a strange way. By the way the man was dressed, Jane said he didn't look like a tourist. The child was apparently sleeping and she only saw the legs. The child had no shoes on. Cotton pyjamas, light colour, possibly white or pink and maybe flowers on it. Jane said she would recognise the man from behind and by the way he walked.
24 - Jane said she didn't know what Madeleine was supposed to be wearing which surprised the police because 14 hours had passed and Gerry and Kate must have mentioned it, especially because Madeleine's description and clothes had been given to police officers, locals and tourists who were looking for the missing child.
25 - There is footage of a girl looking like Madeline in one gas station. The parents are informed and Kate is asked to return to Portimão to see if it is Madeleine or not. Instead of being full of hope, Kate looks bored for being forced to return to Portimão and seems angry at the speed of the police car which startled police officers.
26 - First press release on the case. Special authorisation has to be requested. Lots of info starts to arrive, especially info from 'psychics' and people who say they had visions and dreams about Madeleine. Although they aren't credible, they are checked everytime it's possible. Several sketches of Madeleine with different hair cuts and colour are done.
27 - On the 4th of May the PJ stays in PDL past 10:00pm because they want to observe the lighting conditions and other details. The police find it surprising that Jane was able to see all those details because it was already quite dark and the visibility is not good. Where did the 'abductor' take Madeline? Was there a car? If there was, why wouldn't anyone see it if the car had to be driven towards the centre of PDL? The beach was the most likely destination to anyone who would not wish to be seen. Gerry stated he entered the apartment using the main entance and using his key. Why? If the back entrance was a lot closer and it was apparently unlocked? Kate and Gerry say the aductor did not enter the apartment from the back entrance because they could see it from the Tapas bar and would have spotted him. That is a lie. And this lie is most likely intended to state that Madeleine and her twin brother and sister were safe and that there was no neglect. They were obviously not safe or Madeleine wouldn't be missing.
28 - Another strange aspect: The abductor enters through the door and leaves through the window carrying a child? Why not using the door again? It would be easier and it wouldn't be so suspicious. The police officers discuss their suspicions in the 'crisis' room. The pressure due to the media frenzy starts to kick in.
29 - Several statements about people acting in a strange way are checked. Some can be discarded but at least one cannot be fully investigated because in the meanwhile those people returned to their countries of origin. However, in that case it was possible to identify the flight and no sign of Madeleine. A gipsy camping site is also checked as well as more than 400 apartments and houses in PDL.
30 - The possibility of searching the Tapas groups apartments is discussed. The interest is to locate Madeleine's clothes, the ones which she was wearing that day to check them for evidence of violence, for instance. However, at this stage it is considered that treating the Tapas as suspects might not be good for the investigation. Mr Amaral considers this, at present, a mistake. But there was too much pressure to investigate the abduction scenario.
31 - It seemed like it was forbidden to suspect the Tapas 7 or the parents. Diplomacy was always around. Publicly the case is treated as a kidnapping to avoid media speculation, although all possibilities are being investigated by the police and many question arise. The media frenzy gets bigger and bigger. The PJ has difficulties dealing with that. At the same time the preoccupation of the McCanns in dealing with the press is noticed.
32 - The PJ keeps an eye on their public appearances. All info is being checked and the PJ starts working on the mobile phones info. No communications which arouse questions are detected, apart from Robert Murat who will later be made an arguido. The PJ check Kate and Gerry's phone records. Kate did not make any phone calls between the 27th April and the 4th of May which arouses suspicions. And hasn't received any between 11:22 on the 2nd of May and 23:17 of the 3rd. Gerry's phone has no record of calls before the 4th at 00:15. But there is a record on Kate's phone of a phone call from her husband on the 3rd May at 23:17. The same record doesn't exist on Gerry's phone. So the records were deleted. Why?
33 - An unconfirmed piece of news arrives at the PJ. Apparently the British secret services had, after the (whatever) crime, tapped the Tapas phones. If that was true the info was never sent to the PJ which also thought about tapping them but who feared the reaction if it was found out and also the refusal of the judge because at the time there wasn't strong reasons to do it.
34 - A bit of the life of the McCanns is described. Kate had a tiring life. Three children to take care of. Madeleine apparently wasn't an easy child. At the time of the holiday Kate was probably exhausted and had mentioned that before leaving for PDL she had a bad feeling/ an omen.
35 - The police found it strange that the children spent so much time in the créche but after interviewing the nannies they were told it was not a general rule but it was quite common with holidaymakers.
36 - Madeleine was at the créche the day she disappeared until 5:30pm. That was the last time anyone outside the group saw her. Madeleine was apparently very close to her dad and revealed an extreme love for her twin brother and sister.
37 - During July and one of Gerry's visits to England, a British Police officer visited him at home. On the fridge there was a piece of paper with some of Madeleine's problems written on it. Madeleine apparently had problems sleeping and used to get up at night quite often. It is mentioned that Madeleine's grandfather admitted that the children were given something to help them sleep. Mr Amaral says this can explain why the twins did not wake up and that it also may have been the basis of Madeleine's tragic faith.
38 - Madeleine's health records were really important and were asked for with insistence. However, they were not sent. Historically, in these types of siuations, apparently the UK is not very cooperative. And the secrecy between doctors and patients was also a setback. Her eye detail may be related to other health problems but without medical records it was not able to confirm this.
39 - The 7th of May. Leicester police officers start to arrive. Later, Scotland Yard also cooperated. Several leads are pursued, 'suspects' found but discarded. Lots of Madeleine sightings. Lots of checking regarding Madeleine sighting. The Morocco saga starts. Mr Amaral talks about the photo of the little girl in Morocco who supposedly looked like Madeleine. Mr Amaral was informed and diligencies to confirm it were done. But Mr Amaral said that he stated it wasn't Madeleine.
40 - The McCanns were at the time of the Morocco sighting already arguidos and both the British and the Portuguese police agreed that Madeleine was dead. However, something strange happened. The British police had shown the McCanns the photo before informing the PJ about its existence. Apparently a British police officer showed them the photo, asked them if it was Madeleine and the McCanns answered: 'It could be'. Gonçalo Amaral was surprised that they weren't sure. After all it was their daughter. We all know how this ended. The child and her mother were identified and it wasn't Madeleine.
41 - 23rd of May: according to Mr Amaral the McCanns contacted Gordon Brown on that day and the PJ knew for sure that now this would be a political case, not a police one.
42 - A man, apparently British who has an Asian background, spotted in a photo with Murat and also in a photo where Gerry is in a park with the children is investigated. Info is collected and the British police check him out and get an identification. He is discarded as not having anything to do with Madeleine and as being in the park with his own daughter and then helping in the searches like hundreds of other tourists. The photo of the man reached the British press. Mr Amaral says he has no idea how it got to the UK papers and why it was published.
43 - One of the tourists told the PJ that he had heard Gerry McCann speaking on the phone and saying that there are paedophile rings operating in Portugal and that they took Madeleine. Mr Amaral says it's fantastic that after some hours the father of a missing child knows what happened to her with such certainty.
44 - It was thought to do the reconstruction in May but that wasn't possible. The number of tourists, the number of journalists and the fact that the air space had to be closed (because of helicopters from the media) and the fact that it would make the public suspect the McCanns were being treated as suspects prevented it.
45 - Mr Amaral thinks that the reconstruction should have been made even one year after and even with the parents only, who were the ones who couldn't refuse to come. He believes it would be helpful.
46 - A Dutch guy contacts the McCanns saying he wants money in exchange for Madeleine/info about Madeleine's whereabouts. The police get involved (PJ, Leicester Police and Scotland Yard). The e-mail exchange continues. The guy wants two million and 500 thousand in advance. All are stressed. All but Gerry who was enjoying a lollipop, reading trivialities on the internet and discussing rugby and football with a British police officer, which surprised the Portuguese and the British police. The guy was arrested and only wanted money. He confessed he knew nothing about Madeleine.
To explain Gerry's cold ways a British officer usually commented with his Portuguese counterparts: "Don't forget the guy starts cutting people in half after breakfast."
47 - Several police officers from several police forces arrive as well as specialists in different areas and profilers. On the 14th of May Kate felt very offended with the liaison officers because they asked her where her daughter was. The McCann couple would not tolerate those questions and doubts. Those liaison officers' job was to make a bridge between the parents and the PJ and support the parents in any way they needed, However, it didn't last a week. After those questions the McCanns decided they did not need them anymore. No one could doubt those parents, let alone officers from their own country, writes Mr Amaral.
48 - A Portuguese PJ officer leaves for the UK to help Leicester police triage info. Three Leicester police officers have a meeting in Portimão with Luís Neves, Guilhermino Encarnação and Gonçalo Amaral. The PJ is informed about the 'incident' between the McCanns and the liason officer(s). As time went by the PJ realised that the theory most pursued in Portugal (Madeleine's death) was not known by everyone in Leicester. A 'rookie' British police officer arrived in the Algarve and was wearing the 'Look for Madeleine' wristband. Portuguese PJ's commented that soon he would not be wearing it anymore, which happened as soon as he came into contact with the files.
49 - Mr Amaral gets a phone call from his scared wife. Somebody had killed one of the family dogs, a Shitzu who had a serious head injury. Mr Amaral went home but was in a hurry because he needed to go back to work and didn't want his children to see the dog like that. He decided that he should bury the dog but the ground was too hard. So he decided to take the dog and put it in the trash bin. While doing so he couldn't help think how easy it was for someone to dispose of a dead body. Amaral's wife asks him to leave the investigation because she is scared. Mr Amaral tells his wife she is not being rational and that there are no reasons to be worried.
50 - Murat's story. His villa drew attention because it was very close to the crime scene and because apparently the abductor was seen walking in that direction. Amaral decides to check and is surprised when a colleague tells him that Murat offered to translate at the scene if it was necessary, since he spoke both English and Portuguese. The police had to resort to volunteers due to the amount of tourists and employees (hundreds) that had to be spoken to, even if informally in the beginning. The PJ starts to check him out, especially after the British journalist's suspicion. The PJ decide that it will be better if they keep him close and continue to use him as a volunteer translator. Murat seems interested in everything regarding the investigation. He is said to consult internet sites of a sexual nature, but no more details are known. British profilers start working on him and seem interested.
51 - Murat is watched. The rental of a car is investigated and the villa and cars are searched. Jane Tanner incriminates Murat. No signs of Madeleine. Murat's clothes and other objects are collected to be analysed.
52 - Murat made an arguido, declines lawyer. Answers all questions. The question of the phone calls between Murat, Malinka and Michaela is investigated. Apparently the three met on the 2nd May because of the internet site.
53 - Several suspicions arise regarding Murat, Michaela, Malinka and Luís António. They are all investigated. No signs of Madeleine anywhere. After a pseudo friend of Murat from teenage times incriminates him for bestiality and other stange behaviours British profilers say that there's a 90% chance that Murat is Madeleine's abductor. The 'pseudo friend' apparently has a long criminal record and the PJ was not very convinced by his statement.
54 - Suddenly, on the 16th May, some friends of the McCanns remember seeing Murat on the scene that night close to the apartment. GNR officers said that they only saw him the next morning when he offered to translate. Rachel, Fiona, Russel and Murat are put face to face. The Tapas say Murat was there. Murat says they're lying. The Tapas say that they will come back to Portugal if needed.
55 - The Smiths see a man carrying a child wearing pink or white pyjamas and no shoes. The child has got medium/long blonde hair. The man is between 30-35, is thin but fit and wears light trousers. Mr Smith contacts the Irish Police and tells them about that. He states the man is not Murat but the girl was most likely Madeleine.
56 - The Payne incident, regarding sexual gestures, is described. The statement was given to the British police 13 days after Madeleine went missing but was only sent to the PJ by the end of October after Amaral left.
Payne's visit to apartment 5A on the 3rd of May: Gerry said Payne stayed 30 minutes, Kate said it was 30 seconds. The reasons for the visit and number of visitors also have different versions. Yvone, with experience in children matters, gets to talk to the McCanns and asks several questions which annoy Kate who believes the police should be asking the questions not Yvone. Kate also says that a couple took her child and cries a lot. The McCanns refuse Yvone's help after contradicting themselves more.
57 - The room seems too tidied up and too cold. Everything in the right place. No signs of an abductor who would have needed to use something to get out of the window. No footprints anywhere, nothing. Suspicions of an intentional modification of the crime scene. According to Kate, Cudle Cat was close to the pillow when she found Madeleine missing. The bed sheets of the twins' cots were not there.
58 - The Tapas wrote two lists which are on the files with the times of the checking until the alarm was raised. Inconsistencies in those two lists also. As soon as the alarm is raised, everyone rushed and entered the apartment but Dianne Webster stays for some minutes.
59 - The two different lists prove that the checking timelines were discussed. In order to escape the neglect accusations, the checking times were so close that they made the abduction virtually impossible. Mathew was supposed to have twice passed close to the window through which Madeleine had already been taken and yet fails to see the window wide open, although his mission was to check if everything was ok with the kids.
60 - Both police forces discuss the huge amount of inconsistencies.
61 - Jane also never mentioned the window completely opened.
62 - How could Kate leave the twins alone again with a window supposedly open with an abductor close by?
In the beginning of June, Kate starts taking about the possibility of Madeleine's death and about contacts made by psychics who claimed they knew where Madeleine's body was. Mr Amaral said that it almost seemed like Kate could soon say where Madeleine's body was even if in an indirect way.
63 - The McCanns ask for Mr Krugel, the South African body-finder to come to PDL. Both police forces thought the idea was a bit ridiculous but didn't want to be accused of not doing everything. The couple would now admit that Madeleine could be dead unlike what they were publicly, and still are, claiming. The area where Krugel said Madeleine's body would be had already been searched by GNR and their dogs but it was searched again. Nothing was found.
64 - Amaral describes a case he investigated where a 3-year old was beaten to death by her father. He describes what a police officer but also a father feels in such a situation and discusses the possible motive, generally speaking, which may lead people to hide a body.
65 - Amaral also underlines the difficulty in investigating cases of missing people and cases with no body. The British specialist dogs are suggested and they come to PDL. As we all know, they detect death scent and blood.
66 - Mark Harrison analyses the whole file, visits PDL on foot and in an helicopter and writes a report in which he states that Madeleine is most likely dead and her body most likely hidden in PDL. He also praises the PJ for all the work and efforts to try and find Madeleine alive but thinks it is now time to do different searches, the searches needed to find a body.
67 - It was now time to investigate parents and friends in a more serious manner. The impressive record of Eddie and Keela is described.
68 - The dogs are taken to apartment 5A and, as we know, detect death scent and blood, Around 10:00 pm Gerry is seen by the investigators driving around. Nothing was detected by the dogs in any of the other apartments. The history of apartment 5A was checked because another person could have died there before. No one did which was sadly revealing. The death scent dog was taken to the field. Nothing was found. The police were now sure the biggest mistake was not to tap the Tapas' phones and not to follow them closely. A judge refuses the request for the phones to be tapped. The villa where the McCanns were now staying was searched by the dogs. The dog detects death scent on Cuddle Cat.
69 - Nothing is found in Murat's villa. But the garden is so badly dug that it is found the house was built on the top of an ancient roman village. The cars are checked. The dog only reacts on the car hired by the McCanns. After Amaral left the investigation, he came to know that a witness, a Portuguese woman, stated that in the days before the cars were checked the trunk of the car was left open which family explained was because of soiled nappies and beef fluid that was spilled in the car after they went shopping once.
70 - Mr Amaral tells us that the decision to send the blood and hair to FSS in the UK was because it was a renowned laboratory and because if they were analysed in Portugal or elsewhere, the PJ feared some would say the results had been messed with to incriminate the arguidos in case the results were clear. The most likely possibility is that Madeleine apparently died near the sofa.
71 - Mr Amaral said that the assessment of the house showed two different realities. Kate seemed in mourning. Several pictures from Madeleine, rosaries, saints and a bible marked on Samuel's Book, Chapter 12, about the death of a child. Gerry's 'part' of the space was colder. Gerry seemed to have been reading The Interpretation of Crime from Jed Rubenfeld, Spirit Messenger by Gordon Smith and Will to Live by Lance Armstrong. Besides that, there were also several CEOP books which are only for police work, which startled Mark Harrison.
72 - The first results start to arrive. The blood found in the car has a 50% match with Gerry coming, most likely, from an offspring. Then, one of the samples comes back as a weak match to Madeleine, in spite of all the markers in the sample being a match, many markers were missing. The second sample, however, had a 15 out of 19 marker match to Madeleine's DNA profile. Another preliminary report is sent that contradicts the first findings. For example, regarding the trunk sample there is, this time, no mention about the 15 components of Madeleine's DNA profile, like they never existed. Stuart Prior then calls FSS asking if they thought the Portuguese were idiots. He was heard saying that in the UK he had arrested people for less.
73 - As for the hair, apparently nothing came of it. The PJ wanted to know if they came from a living person or a dead one. FSS said they could not answer that question. British officers suggested sending the hairs to other labs in Europe but FSS apparently didn't want to lose/ give the hairs back.
The only fingerprints found on the window belonged to Kate. Because of the position of the hand it's more than likely that they got there when Kate opened that window, whenever that happened.
74 - The time of the questioning of the McCanns is close and Stuart Prior seems nervous. The PJ also wished to re-question the whole group. Very little info on the McCanns arrives regarding their financial situation. According to UK authorities the McCanns have no credit card or ATM cards. However, the flights had been paid with credit cards so the PJ knew they had them.
75 - Mr Amaral says that if the McCanns were in any way responsible for what happened to Madeleine then the fund would be a fraud. As the fund was set up in England it would have to be investigated by the British police.
76 - The McCanns were informed about the re-questioning and that they would be made arguidos, even for their own protection. Kate replied asking what would her parents and the press think and say.
77 - Kate's re-questioning was interrupted from 8pm till 10pm for all involved to rest and have dinner. As soon as she is made an arguida, Kate shuts up. Gerry is made an arguido, answers his questions and denies any involvment. The McCanns go back to England and when they arrive and go down the plane's steps Mr Smith in Ireland regonises Gerry as the man he had seen carrying a child on that night. He contacts the police but when his return to Portugal is being taken care of Mr Amaral is removed from the investigation. Afterwards, the next person in charge of the case decides that Mr Smith can be interviewed in his country through a rogatory letter. (This never happened).
78 - Mr Amaral discusses the fact that he was removed from the case. Portual seemed to have succumbed to the pressure. The information on the McCanns and other Tapas never arrived. Amaral says that both police forces agreed on the path the investigation took but that after the McCanns left all British police officers left too. So, were they here to help with the invstigation or were they here because of the McCanns. Find the body and prove we did it is also mentioned as well as the McCanns need to discredit the dogs.
Along the way Mr Amaral neighbour's house is broken into and some documents are stolen. The hasty answer to the journalist, which was used to remove him from the case is also mentioned. Amaral says that he knew immediately it had been a mistake but that he never knew how serious it would be because his words were greatly exagerated. Amaral is removed on his birthday and later he knows that Gordon Brown apparently called Stuart Prior to ask him if the man in charge of the investigation had really been removed.
79 - May 2008. Amaral shares a meal with his colleague Tavares Rodrigues. The Madeleine case comes up and both comment on the fact that their case is all on the files and nothing can change that.
CONCLUSIONS:
- Madeleine McCanns died in aprtment 5A on May the 3rd 2007.
- There was a simulation/fake of an abduction.
- Kate and Gerry are suspects in the involvement of the disposal of their daughter's body.
- Madeleine's death may have been caused by a tragic accident.
- There is evidence of negligence regarding the guard and security of the children.
Then, Amaral says they did the best they could and worked hard to find out the truth. The truth which is the only thing that really matters in a universe which makes the truth of the lie more and more common.
This summary obviously cannot cover every single point raised in the book but it covers most of the main points
By Cláudia
27 July 2008
1 - Gonçalo Amaral starts by thanking family and friends, anonymous citizens who supported him and also cybernauts and bloggers who 'defended the cause of truth and justice'.
2 - Very strange Mr Alipio Ribeiro's remark that making the McCanns arguidos was a hasty decision because he knew all along and agreed with the decision at the time.
3 - The British police agreed with the PJ that Madeleine had died in apartment 5A and that there was a body that needed to be found. Later things seemed to change.
4 - Making them arguidos was inevitable due to the non-incrimination principle. Certain questions could not be asked if they weren't arguidos. Even for their own protection.
5 - Unusual, priviliged treatment for the couple is stressed.
6 - The British police were working very closely with the PJ. They were in a room just next to the 'crisis room' the PJ worked in and were aware of everything that was going on.
7 - The McCanns' routine is described. Madeleine, Sean and Amelie spend most of their time in the creche.
8 - On the 1st of May, Madeleine cries for an hour and 15 minutes, between 10:30 and 11:45pm - and cries for daddy. She only stops when her parents get back home.
9 - The next morning Madeleine questions her parents about not being there while she cried all that time.
10 - When the first police officers arrived at the scene several people were inside the apartment. Gonçalo Amaral says that mistakes were made because the scene should have been recorded (pictures or footage) with the people who were there so important aspects like the way those people were dressed was recorded. The twins were sleeping and did not wake up with the commotion. And the bed sheets on the twins' cots were not there. First 72 hours are extremely important in these cases.
11 - Contradiction regarding the checking times. Some say every 30 minutes, others say every 15 minutes. Gonçalo Amaral calls Glen Power for info on the whole group. Their history could be essential for the case.
12 - Inspector Chief Tavares de Almeida forgets his holiday because of the case. All Portuguese forces were now aware of the crime as well as Interpol. Searches start. The apartment had been contaminated by friends of the couple, employees from the resort, GNR officers and their dogs and other unknown people. Was the contamination out of ignorance or was it on purpose?
13 - Early in the morning, the searches continue. A crime scene team from Lisbon is on the way and the PJ starts to formally interview hundreds of people. The PJ asks British police for help regarding any British tourist present in the Algarve who may have a criminal record. Footage from hotels, banks, supermarkets, gas stations and highways are checked. Spain is alerted to pay attention to departures to Morocco. The harbours of Tarifa and Algeciras are checked through CCTV footage. Marinas in the Algarve are checked as well as their records of arrivals and departures.
14 - The PJ checks all photos and footage from the Tapas 9. Clues could be found there. However, there are no photos or footage at night which might have been useful to help understand what happened that evening. Sexual offenders are checked to make sure they weren't around PDL at the time and the criminal history of PDL is also investigated. No signs of a break in, unlike the McCanns and Sky News reported. The PM (Public Ministry) is informed of the situation. In the document the case is treated like a "Kidnapping?". Mr Amaral said the document is in the files and that as early as the 4th of May there were questions, which explains the question mark after 'kidnapping'.
15 - All possibilities were on the table. The abduction theory was good for the investigation, according to Mr Amaral because it allowed more means, manpower and tools to work with. It wasn't in the best interest of the investigation that the parents and friends were aware that they could be possible suspects. 12 hours after the disappearance a diplomat arrives in Portimao. He was not happy and he was heard to say that the PJ 'wasn't doing anything'.
16 - Info from the British police is late, unlike what normally happens in other cases. No information on the couple, the friends or the children. It was important to be sure that Madeleine was their biological daughter. British Ambassador arrives. All this diplomacy is not normal according to Mr Amaral. 'Who are this couple?'. 'Who are these friends?'.
17 - The searches go on. A helicopter is used and the OC employees are questioned. It's a battle against time because the following day /the 5th of May) is the day some of the potential witnesses are due to return to the UK. The press, Portuguese and British are already in PDL. Why was the press called in so quickly, apparently before the police?
18 - The apartment is checked for finger and hand prints, hair, fibres, blood and other biological evidence. Mistakes were made and Amaral underlines the person on the outside without a full suit on. No signs of break in and no prints of other people other than the ones who were supposed to have been at the apartment. No glove marks found either. A hand-print is found and also fingerprints on the window from where Madeleine was taken according to her parents. The hand-print belonged to one of the first GNR officers who arrived at the scene.
19 - The roadworks being done in the streets of PDL were checked by workmen, police officers and sniffer dogs. The Tapas are formally questioned in Portimão (it's still the morning of the 4th of May). First contradictions are detected. Jane Tanner 'saw' the abductor. Gerry and Jeremy were very close and did not see Jane or the abductor. The need for translation doesn't help because there is more time to think about what people should say. Kate and Gerry have no doubt that it is a kidnapping. Contradictions regarding the door and the window and shutters. (Open, closed, locked, unlocked, etc.)
Checks:
21h05: Gerry - all is well with the children.
21h10/21h15: Jane Tanner - Sees alleged abductor carrying a child.
21h30: Mathew Oldfield - enter the apartment but not the bedroom and only sees the twins.
22h00: Kate - finds Madeleine missing.
20 - If the window was open why didn't Oldfield see it if at the time Jane Tanner had already seen the 'abductor'? Matthew says the door was slightly open. Kate states the door was completely open.
21 - Kate mentions the 'abductor' mentioned by Jane but describes him in a completely different way. Jane said the man had light trousers and hair the lenghth of his neck. Kate says the abductor was wearing jeans and had long hair.
22 - The description evolved. Now the abductor was 1.78 m tall, was wearing light trousers and a dark shirt and was carrying a child who seemed to be wearing pyjamas.
23 - Jane's decription evolves again: it is now a dark skinned man, 35-40, thin, around 1.70m, very thick and dark hair neck length, linen trousers beige or gold, Duffy' type jacket but not as thick, classic black shoes, was rushing and was carrying a child in a strange way. By the way the man was dressed, Jane said he didn't look like a tourist. The child was apparently sleeping and she only saw the legs. The child had no shoes on. Cotton pyjamas, light colour, possibly white or pink and maybe flowers on it. Jane said she would recognise the man from behind and by the way he walked.
24 - Jane said she didn't know what Madeleine was supposed to be wearing which surprised the police because 14 hours had passed and Gerry and Kate must have mentioned it, especially because Madeleine's description and clothes had been given to police officers, locals and tourists who were looking for the missing child.
25 - There is footage of a girl looking like Madeline in one gas station. The parents are informed and Kate is asked to return to Portimão to see if it is Madeleine or not. Instead of being full of hope, Kate looks bored for being forced to return to Portimão and seems angry at the speed of the police car which startled police officers.
26 - First press release on the case. Special authorisation has to be requested. Lots of info starts to arrive, especially info from 'psychics' and people who say they had visions and dreams about Madeleine. Although they aren't credible, they are checked everytime it's possible. Several sketches of Madeleine with different hair cuts and colour are done.
27 - On the 4th of May the PJ stays in PDL past 10:00pm because they want to observe the lighting conditions and other details. The police find it surprising that Jane was able to see all those details because it was already quite dark and the visibility is not good. Where did the 'abductor' take Madeline? Was there a car? If there was, why wouldn't anyone see it if the car had to be driven towards the centre of PDL? The beach was the most likely destination to anyone who would not wish to be seen. Gerry stated he entered the apartment using the main entance and using his key. Why? If the back entrance was a lot closer and it was apparently unlocked? Kate and Gerry say the aductor did not enter the apartment from the back entrance because they could see it from the Tapas bar and would have spotted him. That is a lie. And this lie is most likely intended to state that Madeleine and her twin brother and sister were safe and that there was no neglect. They were obviously not safe or Madeleine wouldn't be missing.
28 - Another strange aspect: The abductor enters through the door and leaves through the window carrying a child? Why not using the door again? It would be easier and it wouldn't be so suspicious. The police officers discuss their suspicions in the 'crisis' room. The pressure due to the media frenzy starts to kick in.
29 - Several statements about people acting in a strange way are checked. Some can be discarded but at least one cannot be fully investigated because in the meanwhile those people returned to their countries of origin. However, in that case it was possible to identify the flight and no sign of Madeleine. A gipsy camping site is also checked as well as more than 400 apartments and houses in PDL.
30 - The possibility of searching the Tapas groups apartments is discussed. The interest is to locate Madeleine's clothes, the ones which she was wearing that day to check them for evidence of violence, for instance. However, at this stage it is considered that treating the Tapas as suspects might not be good for the investigation. Mr Amaral considers this, at present, a mistake. But there was too much pressure to investigate the abduction scenario.
31 - It seemed like it was forbidden to suspect the Tapas 7 or the parents. Diplomacy was always around. Publicly the case is treated as a kidnapping to avoid media speculation, although all possibilities are being investigated by the police and many question arise. The media frenzy gets bigger and bigger. The PJ has difficulties dealing with that. At the same time the preoccupation of the McCanns in dealing with the press is noticed.
32 - The PJ keeps an eye on their public appearances. All info is being checked and the PJ starts working on the mobile phones info. No communications which arouse questions are detected, apart from Robert Murat who will later be made an arguido. The PJ check Kate and Gerry's phone records. Kate did not make any phone calls between the 27th April and the 4th of May which arouses suspicions. And hasn't received any between 11:22 on the 2nd of May and 23:17 of the 3rd. Gerry's phone has no record of calls before the 4th at 00:15. But there is a record on Kate's phone of a phone call from her husband on the 3rd May at 23:17. The same record doesn't exist on Gerry's phone. So the records were deleted. Why?
33 - An unconfirmed piece of news arrives at the PJ. Apparently the British secret services had, after the (whatever) crime, tapped the Tapas phones. If that was true the info was never sent to the PJ which also thought about tapping them but who feared the reaction if it was found out and also the refusal of the judge because at the time there wasn't strong reasons to do it.
34 - A bit of the life of the McCanns is described. Kate had a tiring life. Three children to take care of. Madeleine apparently wasn't an easy child. At the time of the holiday Kate was probably exhausted and had mentioned that before leaving for PDL she had a bad feeling/ an omen.
35 - The police found it strange that the children spent so much time in the créche but after interviewing the nannies they were told it was not a general rule but it was quite common with holidaymakers.
36 - Madeleine was at the créche the day she disappeared until 5:30pm. That was the last time anyone outside the group saw her. Madeleine was apparently very close to her dad and revealed an extreme love for her twin brother and sister.
37 - During July and one of Gerry's visits to England, a British Police officer visited him at home. On the fridge there was a piece of paper with some of Madeleine's problems written on it. Madeleine apparently had problems sleeping and used to get up at night quite often. It is mentioned that Madeleine's grandfather admitted that the children were given something to help them sleep. Mr Amaral says this can explain why the twins did not wake up and that it also may have been the basis of Madeleine's tragic faith.
38 - Madeleine's health records were really important and were asked for with insistence. However, they were not sent. Historically, in these types of siuations, apparently the UK is not very cooperative. And the secrecy between doctors and patients was also a setback. Her eye detail may be related to other health problems but without medical records it was not able to confirm this.
39 - The 7th of May. Leicester police officers start to arrive. Later, Scotland Yard also cooperated. Several leads are pursued, 'suspects' found but discarded. Lots of Madeleine sightings. Lots of checking regarding Madeleine sighting. The Morocco saga starts. Mr Amaral talks about the photo of the little girl in Morocco who supposedly looked like Madeleine. Mr Amaral was informed and diligencies to confirm it were done. But Mr Amaral said that he stated it wasn't Madeleine.
40 - The McCanns were at the time of the Morocco sighting already arguidos and both the British and the Portuguese police agreed that Madeleine was dead. However, something strange happened. The British police had shown the McCanns the photo before informing the PJ about its existence. Apparently a British police officer showed them the photo, asked them if it was Madeleine and the McCanns answered: 'It could be'. Gonçalo Amaral was surprised that they weren't sure. After all it was their daughter. We all know how this ended. The child and her mother were identified and it wasn't Madeleine.
41 - 23rd of May: according to Mr Amaral the McCanns contacted Gordon Brown on that day and the PJ knew for sure that now this would be a political case, not a police one.
42 - A man, apparently British who has an Asian background, spotted in a photo with Murat and also in a photo where Gerry is in a park with the children is investigated. Info is collected and the British police check him out and get an identification. He is discarded as not having anything to do with Madeleine and as being in the park with his own daughter and then helping in the searches like hundreds of other tourists. The photo of the man reached the British press. Mr Amaral says he has no idea how it got to the UK papers and why it was published.
43 - One of the tourists told the PJ that he had heard Gerry McCann speaking on the phone and saying that there are paedophile rings operating in Portugal and that they took Madeleine. Mr Amaral says it's fantastic that after some hours the father of a missing child knows what happened to her with such certainty.
44 - It was thought to do the reconstruction in May but that wasn't possible. The number of tourists, the number of journalists and the fact that the air space had to be closed (because of helicopters from the media) and the fact that it would make the public suspect the McCanns were being treated as suspects prevented it.
45 - Mr Amaral thinks that the reconstruction should have been made even one year after and even with the parents only, who were the ones who couldn't refuse to come. He believes it would be helpful.
46 - A Dutch guy contacts the McCanns saying he wants money in exchange for Madeleine/info about Madeleine's whereabouts. The police get involved (PJ, Leicester Police and Scotland Yard). The e-mail exchange continues. The guy wants two million and 500 thousand in advance. All are stressed. All but Gerry who was enjoying a lollipop, reading trivialities on the internet and discussing rugby and football with a British police officer, which surprised the Portuguese and the British police. The guy was arrested and only wanted money. He confessed he knew nothing about Madeleine.
To explain Gerry's cold ways a British officer usually commented with his Portuguese counterparts: "Don't forget the guy starts cutting people in half after breakfast."
47 - Several police officers from several police forces arrive as well as specialists in different areas and profilers. On the 14th of May Kate felt very offended with the liaison officers because they asked her where her daughter was. The McCann couple would not tolerate those questions and doubts. Those liaison officers' job was to make a bridge between the parents and the PJ and support the parents in any way they needed, However, it didn't last a week. After those questions the McCanns decided they did not need them anymore. No one could doubt those parents, let alone officers from their own country, writes Mr Amaral.
48 - A Portuguese PJ officer leaves for the UK to help Leicester police triage info. Three Leicester police officers have a meeting in Portimão with Luís Neves, Guilhermino Encarnação and Gonçalo Amaral. The PJ is informed about the 'incident' between the McCanns and the liason officer(s). As time went by the PJ realised that the theory most pursued in Portugal (Madeleine's death) was not known by everyone in Leicester. A 'rookie' British police officer arrived in the Algarve and was wearing the 'Look for Madeleine' wristband. Portuguese PJ's commented that soon he would not be wearing it anymore, which happened as soon as he came into contact with the files.
49 - Mr Amaral gets a phone call from his scared wife. Somebody had killed one of the family dogs, a Shitzu who had a serious head injury. Mr Amaral went home but was in a hurry because he needed to go back to work and didn't want his children to see the dog like that. He decided that he should bury the dog but the ground was too hard. So he decided to take the dog and put it in the trash bin. While doing so he couldn't help think how easy it was for someone to dispose of a dead body. Amaral's wife asks him to leave the investigation because she is scared. Mr Amaral tells his wife she is not being rational and that there are no reasons to be worried.
50 - Murat's story. His villa drew attention because it was very close to the crime scene and because apparently the abductor was seen walking in that direction. Amaral decides to check and is surprised when a colleague tells him that Murat offered to translate at the scene if it was necessary, since he spoke both English and Portuguese. The police had to resort to volunteers due to the amount of tourists and employees (hundreds) that had to be spoken to, even if informally in the beginning. The PJ starts to check him out, especially after the British journalist's suspicion. The PJ decide that it will be better if they keep him close and continue to use him as a volunteer translator. Murat seems interested in everything regarding the investigation. He is said to consult internet sites of a sexual nature, but no more details are known. British profilers start working on him and seem interested.
51 - Murat is watched. The rental of a car is investigated and the villa and cars are searched. Jane Tanner incriminates Murat. No signs of Madeleine. Murat's clothes and other objects are collected to be analysed.
52 - Murat made an arguido, declines lawyer. Answers all questions. The question of the phone calls between Murat, Malinka and Michaela is investigated. Apparently the three met on the 2nd May because of the internet site.
53 - Several suspicions arise regarding Murat, Michaela, Malinka and Luís António. They are all investigated. No signs of Madeleine anywhere. After a pseudo friend of Murat from teenage times incriminates him for bestiality and other stange behaviours British profilers say that there's a 90% chance that Murat is Madeleine's abductor. The 'pseudo friend' apparently has a long criminal record and the PJ was not very convinced by his statement.
54 - Suddenly, on the 16th May, some friends of the McCanns remember seeing Murat on the scene that night close to the apartment. GNR officers said that they only saw him the next morning when he offered to translate. Rachel, Fiona, Russel and Murat are put face to face. The Tapas say Murat was there. Murat says they're lying. The Tapas say that they will come back to Portugal if needed.
55 - The Smiths see a man carrying a child wearing pink or white pyjamas and no shoes. The child has got medium/long blonde hair. The man is between 30-35, is thin but fit and wears light trousers. Mr Smith contacts the Irish Police and tells them about that. He states the man is not Murat but the girl was most likely Madeleine.
56 - The Payne incident, regarding sexual gestures, is described. The statement was given to the British police 13 days after Madeleine went missing but was only sent to the PJ by the end of October after Amaral left.
Payne's visit to apartment 5A on the 3rd of May: Gerry said Payne stayed 30 minutes, Kate said it was 30 seconds. The reasons for the visit and number of visitors also have different versions. Yvone, with experience in children matters, gets to talk to the McCanns and asks several questions which annoy Kate who believes the police should be asking the questions not Yvone. Kate also says that a couple took her child and cries a lot. The McCanns refuse Yvone's help after contradicting themselves more.
57 - The room seems too tidied up and too cold. Everything in the right place. No signs of an abductor who would have needed to use something to get out of the window. No footprints anywhere, nothing. Suspicions of an intentional modification of the crime scene. According to Kate, Cudle Cat was close to the pillow when she found Madeleine missing. The bed sheets of the twins' cots were not there.
58 - The Tapas wrote two lists which are on the files with the times of the checking until the alarm was raised. Inconsistencies in those two lists also. As soon as the alarm is raised, everyone rushed and entered the apartment but Dianne Webster stays for some minutes.
59 - The two different lists prove that the checking timelines were discussed. In order to escape the neglect accusations, the checking times were so close that they made the abduction virtually impossible. Mathew was supposed to have twice passed close to the window through which Madeleine had already been taken and yet fails to see the window wide open, although his mission was to check if everything was ok with the kids.
60 - Both police forces discuss the huge amount of inconsistencies.
61 - Jane also never mentioned the window completely opened.
62 - How could Kate leave the twins alone again with a window supposedly open with an abductor close by?
In the beginning of June, Kate starts taking about the possibility of Madeleine's death and about contacts made by psychics who claimed they knew where Madeleine's body was. Mr Amaral said that it almost seemed like Kate could soon say where Madeleine's body was even if in an indirect way.
63 - The McCanns ask for Mr Krugel, the South African body-finder to come to PDL. Both police forces thought the idea was a bit ridiculous but didn't want to be accused of not doing everything. The couple would now admit that Madeleine could be dead unlike what they were publicly, and still are, claiming. The area where Krugel said Madeleine's body would be had already been searched by GNR and their dogs but it was searched again. Nothing was found.
64 - Amaral describes a case he investigated where a 3-year old was beaten to death by her father. He describes what a police officer but also a father feels in such a situation and discusses the possible motive, generally speaking, which may lead people to hide a body.
65 - Amaral also underlines the difficulty in investigating cases of missing people and cases with no body. The British specialist dogs are suggested and they come to PDL. As we all know, they detect death scent and blood.
66 - Mark Harrison analyses the whole file, visits PDL on foot and in an helicopter and writes a report in which he states that Madeleine is most likely dead and her body most likely hidden in PDL. He also praises the PJ for all the work and efforts to try and find Madeleine alive but thinks it is now time to do different searches, the searches needed to find a body.
67 - It was now time to investigate parents and friends in a more serious manner. The impressive record of Eddie and Keela is described.
68 - The dogs are taken to apartment 5A and, as we know, detect death scent and blood, Around 10:00 pm Gerry is seen by the investigators driving around. Nothing was detected by the dogs in any of the other apartments. The history of apartment 5A was checked because another person could have died there before. No one did which was sadly revealing. The death scent dog was taken to the field. Nothing was found. The police were now sure the biggest mistake was not to tap the Tapas' phones and not to follow them closely. A judge refuses the request for the phones to be tapped. The villa where the McCanns were now staying was searched by the dogs. The dog detects death scent on Cuddle Cat.
69 - Nothing is found in Murat's villa. But the garden is so badly dug that it is found the house was built on the top of an ancient roman village. The cars are checked. The dog only reacts on the car hired by the McCanns. After Amaral left the investigation, he came to know that a witness, a Portuguese woman, stated that in the days before the cars were checked the trunk of the car was left open which family explained was because of soiled nappies and beef fluid that was spilled in the car after they went shopping once.
70 - Mr Amaral tells us that the decision to send the blood and hair to FSS in the UK was because it was a renowned laboratory and because if they were analysed in Portugal or elsewhere, the PJ feared some would say the results had been messed with to incriminate the arguidos in case the results were clear. The most likely possibility is that Madeleine apparently died near the sofa.
71 - Mr Amaral said that the assessment of the house showed two different realities. Kate seemed in mourning. Several pictures from Madeleine, rosaries, saints and a bible marked on Samuel's Book, Chapter 12, about the death of a child. Gerry's 'part' of the space was colder. Gerry seemed to have been reading The Interpretation of Crime from Jed Rubenfeld, Spirit Messenger by Gordon Smith and Will to Live by Lance Armstrong. Besides that, there were also several CEOP books which are only for police work, which startled Mark Harrison.
72 - The first results start to arrive. The blood found in the car has a 50% match with Gerry coming, most likely, from an offspring. Then, one of the samples comes back as a weak match to Madeleine, in spite of all the markers in the sample being a match, many markers were missing. The second sample, however, had a 15 out of 19 marker match to Madeleine's DNA profile. Another preliminary report is sent that contradicts the first findings. For example, regarding the trunk sample there is, this time, no mention about the 15 components of Madeleine's DNA profile, like they never existed. Stuart Prior then calls FSS asking if they thought the Portuguese were idiots. He was heard saying that in the UK he had arrested people for less.
73 - As for the hair, apparently nothing came of it. The PJ wanted to know if they came from a living person or a dead one. FSS said they could not answer that question. British officers suggested sending the hairs to other labs in Europe but FSS apparently didn't want to lose/ give the hairs back.
The only fingerprints found on the window belonged to Kate. Because of the position of the hand it's more than likely that they got there when Kate opened that window, whenever that happened.
74 - The time of the questioning of the McCanns is close and Stuart Prior seems nervous. The PJ also wished to re-question the whole group. Very little info on the McCanns arrives regarding their financial situation. According to UK authorities the McCanns have no credit card or ATM cards. However, the flights had been paid with credit cards so the PJ knew they had them.
75 - Mr Amaral says that if the McCanns were in any way responsible for what happened to Madeleine then the fund would be a fraud. As the fund was set up in England it would have to be investigated by the British police.
76 - The McCanns were informed about the re-questioning and that they would be made arguidos, even for their own protection. Kate replied asking what would her parents and the press think and say.
77 - Kate's re-questioning was interrupted from 8pm till 10pm for all involved to rest and have dinner. As soon as she is made an arguida, Kate shuts up. Gerry is made an arguido, answers his questions and denies any involvment. The McCanns go back to England and when they arrive and go down the plane's steps Mr Smith in Ireland regonises Gerry as the man he had seen carrying a child on that night. He contacts the police but when his return to Portugal is being taken care of Mr Amaral is removed from the investigation. Afterwards, the next person in charge of the case decides that Mr Smith can be interviewed in his country through a rogatory letter. (This never happened).
78 - Mr Amaral discusses the fact that he was removed from the case. Portual seemed to have succumbed to the pressure. The information on the McCanns and other Tapas never arrived. Amaral says that both police forces agreed on the path the investigation took but that after the McCanns left all British police officers left too. So, were they here to help with the invstigation or were they here because of the McCanns. Find the body and prove we did it is also mentioned as well as the McCanns need to discredit the dogs.
Along the way Mr Amaral neighbour's house is broken into and some documents are stolen. The hasty answer to the journalist, which was used to remove him from the case is also mentioned. Amaral says that he knew immediately it had been a mistake but that he never knew how serious it would be because his words were greatly exagerated. Amaral is removed on his birthday and later he knows that Gordon Brown apparently called Stuart Prior to ask him if the man in charge of the investigation had really been removed.
79 - May 2008. Amaral shares a meal with his colleague Tavares Rodrigues. The Madeleine case comes up and both comment on the fact that their case is all on the files and nothing can change that.
CONCLUSIONS:
- Madeleine McCanns died in aprtment 5A on May the 3rd 2007.
- There was a simulation/fake of an abduction.
- Kate and Gerry are suspects in the involvement of the disposal of their daughter's body.
- Madeleine's death may have been caused by a tragic accident.
- There is evidence of negligence regarding the guard and security of the children.
Then, Amaral says they did the best they could and worked hard to find out the truth. The truth which is the only thing that really matters in a universe which makes the truth of the lie more and more common.
Guest- Guest
Re: A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
by Guest 22.08.22 1:09
Chapter 2 - The holidays of Madeleine Beth McCann
31 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- arrival at the Ocean Club on Saturday, April 28
- distribution of the families in the apartments:
apt 5A - Kate Healy (39) and Gerry McCann (39) with Madeleine (3), Sean and Amelie (both 2)
apt 5B (next to apt 5A) - Matthew Oldfield (38) and Rachael Mampilly (37) with Grace (19m)
apt 5D (like 5A & 5B, also on ground floor) - Russell O'Brien (37) and Jane Tanner (36) with Ella (3) and Evie (1)
apt 5H (on first floor) - David (41) and Fiona Payne (35) with Lilly (2) and Scarlett (1), and Dianne Webster (63)
- the group dines at the 'Millennium' restaurant, which is far away and the children have to be carried, so the parents study an alternative
- daily routine for the McCann family:
at around 9 am - children go to creche
at around 12.30 - parents pick up the children for lunch
at around 2.30 pm - children back into creche
at around 5.30 pm - children picked up from creche
at around 8.30 pm - parents meet for dinner at Tapas, children stay alone in the apartments, sleeping
- Tuesday, May 1: Madeleine cries inside the apartment from 10.30 to 11.45 p.m., stopping only when the parents return home
- Wednesday, May 2: Madeleine asks her parents why they didn't come when she cried. Normal routine continues: kids in creche at 9am; from 15h30-16h30, Madeleine goes to the beach with the OC kids. Parents leave at 8-8h30 for dinner.
- Thursday, May 3: Kate picks the three children up at the creche at 5.30 p.m. and heads for the apartment
Note: from page 30, "The Ocean Club . . . does not have video surveillance systems, nor private security."
Chapter 3 - News about a disappearance. The first 72 hours., 16 August 2008
News about a disappearance. The first 72 hours.
16 August 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- Gonçalo Amaral is informed about the case around midnight of the night of the 3rd. (Before he gets home he confirms that the police have already alerted the Faro Airport police authorities as well as those at the Guadiana River on the Spanish border.)
- the response team that is on duty is informed, goes to Luz to take care of the situation, photographs the scene, but fails to take pictures of what they really saw, for example there are no persons on the photos but the place was full of people
- the twins' cots are empty on the photos, without bedsheets or covers - nothing at all except for the bare cots - but the officers report that the twins were sleeping in the cots
- police procedures should be revised, as there are no guidelines
- the children were alone in the apt being checked every 30, or every 15, minutes depending on the different versions of the group
- Kate's mother gave the alarm, immediately assuming an abduction.
===
From page 39:
It is urgent to know who this couple is, as well as their friends, what do they do, what problems do they have in the UK, have they ever mistreated their children, has a neighbour, family, friend or anyone else noted any inappropriate behaviour? What is their profession? Full time? Has anyone suffered depression? Is the marriage relationship healthy? Are they involved in any serious litigation? Does anyone hold a grudge against them? Why?...
These questions were delivered to the UK-Portuguese police liaison [on 4 May] who Gonçalo Amaral has worked with for years, Glen Power, asking him to forward the request, which the team considered "essential to the investigation" and waited for the response.
====
4 May
=====
- at 9 a.m Gonçalo Amaral arrives at the CID in Portimão and meets with Chief Inspector Tavares de ALmeida (it's supposed to be the first day of his holidays) to check on what has already been done and what needs to be done next; interpol already contacted, all Portuguese police forces are alerted; initial searches by locals and GNR done that night, to be continued/enlarged
- apartment to be fully inspected, even though the arriving officers said the apartment was full of people when they arrived and most likely contaminated
- it must be considered if the contamination was conscious or an accident
- searches include garbage bins and sewers; parents/friends must be formally interviewed (these first are almost always the most important), employees, nannies, other tourists; must ask English authorities if any of those guests have any criminal background; CCTV collected from all hotels, farmacies, markets, banks, gas stations, etc.
- Spanish border police are asked to watch ports to Morocco, Tarifa, Algeciras, via their CCTV; maritime police to collect any Algarve port data and do coastline searches
- crisis room is set up
- photos from the group and other tourists are necessary. the group deliver them but they have no photos, unfortunately, of that night; at least, none were delivered by the McCanns nor their friends
- apartment has NO signs of a break in, as opposed to what the parents say and what "Sky News" reports
- still all break-ins in the area are reviewed, as ridiculous as it would be for a robber to take a child with them
- report must be filed with the Public Ministry... but what to call it? decision is made to record as an "Abduction??" with two question marks to indicate that there are doubts about this theory. (you can see this first form with the "??" in the process files)
- Gonçalo Amaral reads the "first arrival" report. All hypotheses are open: woke and wandered, accident/eventual death/hidden cadaver, bodily injuries resulting in death, negligent or intentional homicide, vingenace, kidnap for eventual ransom, sexual pedator, robber who came to steal but was surprised by the child...
- the abduction theory permits the widest investigation and means otherwise unable to justify, including bringing in teams from outside the Algarve, and all possible means are important in the first 72 hours. in peace and silence, the team can advance with a efficient and effective investigation avoiding suspicions on the family/friends while still collecting all necessary evidence to determine what happened
- 10am, 12 hours after the disappearance, the British Consul from Portimão arrives. PJ tell him all that is going on. He is not satisfied and is heard talking on the phone saying the "PJ are doing nothing. " Strange!
- And the information about the friends/family requested so urgently from the UK still hasn't arrived...
- one urgent question is whether or not Madeleine was the biological child of the McCanns, if not, this could be an abduction by the biological parents
- the urgent request still has not received a response from the UK... but here comes the Ambassador, from Lisbon [3 hr drive]. This is not normal. Who is this couple? Who are these friends? We don't need diplomats, we need detailed responses to our questions, given urgently to the English-Portuguese liaison, Glen Power
- the searches continue, a helicoptor arrives, time is of the essence, highlighted by the fact that most of these witnesses are tourists who will return home on Saturday/tomorrow
- also concerns arise about Madeleine's parents and friends and their plans to return home; there is no way to legally oblige them to stay
- mid-morning, the Sub-National PJ Director arrives from Faro; he and Gonçalo Amaral go to the Ocean Club... to find all the journalists.
- Madeleine's disappearance has been presented by the friends in a much more coherent fashion to the media than to the police. (why?)
- Gonçalo Amaral and team are horrified to see one of the technicians collecting evidence without appropriate gear
- still, no signs of a break-in, no vestiges of an abductor, no finger prints from anyone outside the group, not even glove prints (from a possible abductor). there was a print found from one of the police, again, an error on their part
- collecting witness statements, team learns of a British man suspected of child abuse who is connected to a pub approx 150M from the Ocean Club. In 2005, he was investigated and fled Portugal. But the pub is closed and the suspect has not been seen in the area. (later, the British confirm rumours that this man is in Iraq.)
- road works: the night of 3 May the open road works were searched by GNR and dogs; they were re-inspected during the daylight of 4 May; the supervisor was spoken to and nothing unusual was discovered
TAPAS STATEMENTS AND FIRST INCONSISTENCIES (4 May)
- best to separate everyone and take all statements at once, important to question everyone, in case Madeleine's abduction were a mistake and one of the other children were the true target
- logistically, all can't be heard at once; someone has to stay with the children
- the morning of 4 May, only Gerry, Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield are interviewed... and inconsistencies already arise (Jane sees possible abductor; Gerry doesn't see abductor though he's there at the same time with Jeremiah); the rest of the group is interviewed the afternoon of 4 May, giving too much time for the others to learn the questions/answers of the first.
- translation slows things down, giving too much time to think
- the parents insist upon abduction and force this, and only this, idea
- Gerry says he left the front door locked and the apartment was secure; Kate says she entered via the back door. She confirms that the bedroom window was wide upon and the blinds up.
The checking was defined as follows:
21h05 - Gerry McCann checks, all is fine with the children
21h10/21h15- Jane Tanner sees alleged abductor carrying child
21h30 - Matthew Oldfield, enters apartment 5A but not the bedroom, sees only the twins
22h00 - Kate raises alarm, Madeleine missing
- BUT if the window was wide open when Matthew Oldfield checked, how did he not notice?
- Matthew Oldfield says the bedroom door was half open, Kate says it was wide open
- Unexpectedly, other inconsistencies arise: Kate, when she talks about the person who allegedly took Madeleine, she refers to info that Jane has provided. Yet Kate describes someone completely different than Jane's person. (Jane = light trousers and shoulder length hair; Kate = long hair and jeans)
- Jane makes herself completely available and testifies several times
- to the police, Gerry says Jane told him, about midnight 4 May, that she saw an unknown individual, 30-40 yo, light trousers, dark hair, going up the street
- the GNR affirms that the parents immediately raised the abduction theory because Jane saw this man carrying a child; the GNR statements have this description: man, light trousers, 1,78m, dark shirt and carrying a child that appeared to be wearing pyjamas. Nothing else about the child, the pyjamas nor the man.
- by 11:30, 4 May, Jane gives another description, more detailed: a dark skinned man, 35-40yo, thin, 1,7m, dark, thick shoulderlength hair, linen pants of beige or gold color, a "Duffy" type jacket though not as thick, with classic black shoes: walking quickly and carrying a child laying across his two arms in front of his chest; by his dress, he didn't look like a tourist and didn't seem like a tourist because he was so bundled up. The child appeared to be sleeping, though she only saw the legs, the feet were bare and the pyjamas looked like cotton, a light color, maybe white or pink, with a design, perhaps, though she wasn't sure, perhaps with flowers.
- Jane says she would recognize the man from the back and by the way he walked. (later we'll understand the importance of this statement!)
- Jane's testimony surprised everyone. she says she didn't know what Madeleine was wearing. How could she not? 14 hrs had passed since the disappearance and Jane's version had been heard by many. Gerald even mentioned her testimony. But Jane says she only talked to Gerald without giving details, and only after she had talked to the police.
- but Kate had immediately, on the night of 3 May, given a description of what Madeleine was wearing. How could Jane, the next day, not know this when she talked to the police? Everyone that night, who helped in the searches, was looking for a 3-4yo girl, barefoot, dressed in PJs with a top and light-colored bottoms, with a pink animal design. it's very surprising that Jane says she didn't have this information when she spoke to the police the next day, especially as she was making herself the most important witness in this phase of the investigation
FIRST SIGHTING/KATE'S REACTION
- still 4 May, the parents are returning to Luz when a video is located at a gas station on the road from Lagos to Spain. A girl who looks like Madeleine is shown with two adults.. We ask the McCanns to return to Portimão, the afternoon is ending, we want to see if they can identify the girl in the video.
- Kate shows herself to be a bit irritated at being required to return to the police station and upset at the speed reached by the police car that was taking them back to Portimão. We were surprised that she showed no hope that her daughter might be recovered. (the video was not of Madeleine)
MORE POLICE
- more police arrive from Lisbon; though not requested by Gonçalo Amaral, they are a big help. management is raised up a level within the police department. the efficacy of this is questioned later, and no reason is given for this move.
FIRST MEDIA COMMUNICATION
- 4 May afternoon, authorization is requested to hold a press conference, in order to request information that might lead to Madeleine's recovery.
- 5 May, press release is done, Madeleine's photo released, along with contact info. Given the possibility of someone trying to alter her appearance, different hair lengths and styles are shown. Most responses are from psychics or people who dream about or have visions of Maddie. All are reviewed.
TANNER'S TESTIMONY WEAKENS
- 20h00-22h00, 4 May, Gonçalo Amaral/team in Praia da Luz. It is obvious that there is very poor visibility in the area where Jane saw this possible abductor, undoubtedly making her detailed description difficult.
- Other witnesses say that on 3 May, in that area, at 21h58, there was no one around.
- The investigative teams continue to review Jane's statement: something doesn't make sense. Why would someone walk towards the most open area, even though there was not enough lighting to allow Jane to see anything in detail? A planned abduction would mean studying the area, the people. A car would have been parked away from the streetlights, in the opposite direction that Jane saw her abductor walking. Did she see someone going the opposite direction? If the abductor was using a car, he would have had to have driven through the center of Luz, passing in front of the parent's restaurant.... all options are reviewed. It's decided that the beach is the easiest place to reach for anyone who didn't have a car and did not know the area well.
- in the few bars, restaurants and cafés open at that time, no one saw anything unusual on the night of 3 May. (most closed at 21h00)
CRISIS ROOM/GROUP STATEMENTS IN DOUBT
- all options remain open; opinions are divided, everything is open to discussion
- unanimous fact amongst the group: the back sliding door of 5A was closed but unlocked
- Gerry: Says he entered by the front door with the key (why walk the long way around?), sees Madeleine for the last time. All the windows are closed. He says he could see the back door from the restaurant and that no one came in through it that night.
- Kate: Enters at 22h00. Sees open window, raised blinds and curtains waving. (hard to believe, as the blinds don't open from the outside and Kate says the window was always closed).
- Both refuse to believe someone entered the back door because they could see it and no one could have entered without their detecting it. (it was then verified that they could NOT see the back door, given the hedge and the fact that they were sitting with their backs to their apartment)
- all of this -- everything closed, the children regularly checked, and this visual watching of the apartment's back door -- had the objective to prove the children were safe. nonetheless, it's obvious that Madeleine was not safe. If she had been, she wouldn't have disappeared.
- "too weird the idea to enter through a door and exit through the window with a four year old..." " knowing someone would arrive at any moment..." "these people are hiding something..." "some secret known and hidden by all... ?" "but these are doctors..." and so ends the first day
SATURDAY, 5 MAY (day 2)
- an apartment for the police is filled with officer napping on couches, on the floor, shared beds.
- in Luz, statements are still being collected from employees, nannies, residents and tourists
- in Sagres, a tourist was taking photos of children, including a blond, blue-eyed 4yo whose father snapped a photo of this man, who tried to grab her, as well as his car. the father wore dark glasses but said the "photographer" was not dressed like a tourist, had dark brown hair covering his neck, creme trousers, classic shoes, out of place on the beach... we are reminded of Jane's statement.
- the rental agency IDs the car in the photo and the driver, a Polish man, approx 40 yo, with his wife, arriving in Portugal on 28 April, via Berlin to Faro, stayed in a rented apartment in Budens, near Praia da Luz. They left Portugal on the 7am flight, 5 May. Interpol and the German police act quickly. They talk to passengers on the flight but no one saw a child like Madeleine. The Polish man takes a train to Poland. No one checks his photos. The lead dies here... though he certainly doesn't have anything to do with this case, the lead was incomplete.
- information comes in: white vans, strange people on the beach, a group of gypsies, etc. all are tracked, all lead to nothing. more than 400 homes are searched.
- McCanns and twins are in the Payne's apartment. we talk about going to the apartment to collect Madeleine's clothes, especially those she was wearing the afternoon of 3 May when taken from the creche, to see if there is any sign of violence. The British Ambassador is already meeting with the investigators. The decision is to NOT request Madeleine's clothes, to avoid a media rush, it is "premature" to consider the parents suspects.
- Suddenly the parents and firends must be treated with diplomacy, we are not allowed to question their behaviour. The strategy is that all theories are open. Somehow Jane's statement gains weight such that the first press communication is that this is considered an abduction. The media demands were enormous, something had to be said.
HANDLING THE PRESS/ McCANN'S SPOKESPEOPLE
- PJ requested a spokesperson right away...
- We think the investigators should remove themselves from the media. However, the PJ should have people who analyse the news, in this case watching what the parents and friends were saying. But that didn't happen and we felt the lack of that resource.
- media explosion, never before had Portugal seen such a media preoccupation by the parent's of a missing child
- fact: there was an immediate and ever growing preoccupation by the McCanns with the management of media communications. An analysis of the images of the couple, and in their many TV interviews, one sees that this image management is a priority
CELLPHONE USAGE
- all lines of investigation continue open, still locating known paedophiles in the Algarve, resident or tourists. Witness statements arrive and are analysed, especially those of Ocean Club employees and telephone records that were provided.
- very obvious that telephone records for 3 May are required. the 5A apartment coordinates are defined and details of all calls received/sent from local antenas are requested. (movements can be tracked with cellphones)
- on 4 May, the parents authorised the police to look at their cellphones to check for calls made and received:
Kate's phone: no calls made from 27April to 4 May; she received no calls from 11h22 on 2 May until 23h17 on 3 May
Gerry's phone: nothing prior to 00h15 on 4 May
However, inside Kate's phone there is a record of a call received from Gerry at 11h17, 3 May. But no record of the call on Gerry's phone. It had been erased.
It was later verified that the first calls began about an hour after Kate raised the alarm, which could be very understandable given the searching that was being done.
23h00, 5 May - 3h00, 6 May
====================
- meeting of entire investigative team. some are upset with the PJ press release, others with the presence of the UK Ambassador (does he attend to all cases of British children? Why this one? Only the UK can respond to question)
- suggestion made to wiretap and follow the parents and friends: the statements don't work, the window story doesn't make sense and Jane's statement is ever weaker... they could be removed from suspicion this way and it should be done in case of a ransom request... but a judicial authorisation is required
- mid-meeting Gonçalo Amaral receives notice, still unknown whether or not it was true, that the British Secret Service had begun wiretapping the McCanns and friends. If true, the results were never delivered to the PJ.
SUNDAY, 6 MAY (day 3)
- The day begins poorly: Polish police misunderstood the request and merely questioned the "photographer" and ascertained he did not have Madeleine. They did not look at his photos. (could be a lost lead for a paedophile ring... ) nonetheless, CCTV images are found of the couple in a mall in Lisbon [3 hours north] and shown around Praia da Luz. Nothing. The rental car has already been re-rented but the litter removed from it is found and searched. Nothing. The apartment is thoroughly examined. Nothing connects to Madeleine.
- information about strange behaviours and strange people near the Ocean Club continue to flow into the crisis room...
31 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- arrival at the Ocean Club on Saturday, April 28
- distribution of the families in the apartments:
apt 5A - Kate Healy (39) and Gerry McCann (39) with Madeleine (3), Sean and Amelie (both 2)
apt 5B (next to apt 5A) - Matthew Oldfield (38) and Rachael Mampilly (37) with Grace (19m)
apt 5D (like 5A & 5B, also on ground floor) - Russell O'Brien (37) and Jane Tanner (36) with Ella (3) and Evie (1)
apt 5H (on first floor) - David (41) and Fiona Payne (35) with Lilly (2) and Scarlett (1), and Dianne Webster (63)
- the group dines at the 'Millennium' restaurant, which is far away and the children have to be carried, so the parents study an alternative
- daily routine for the McCann family:
at around 9 am - children go to creche
at around 12.30 - parents pick up the children for lunch
at around 2.30 pm - children back into creche
at around 5.30 pm - children picked up from creche
at around 8.30 pm - parents meet for dinner at Tapas, children stay alone in the apartments, sleeping
- Tuesday, May 1: Madeleine cries inside the apartment from 10.30 to 11.45 p.m., stopping only when the parents return home
- Wednesday, May 2: Madeleine asks her parents why they didn't come when she cried. Normal routine continues: kids in creche at 9am; from 15h30-16h30, Madeleine goes to the beach with the OC kids. Parents leave at 8-8h30 for dinner.
- Thursday, May 3: Kate picks the three children up at the creche at 5.30 p.m. and heads for the apartment
Note: from page 30, "The Ocean Club . . . does not have video surveillance systems, nor private security."
Chapter 3 - News about a disappearance. The first 72 hours., 16 August 2008
News about a disappearance. The first 72 hours.
16 August 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- Gonçalo Amaral is informed about the case around midnight of the night of the 3rd. (Before he gets home he confirms that the police have already alerted the Faro Airport police authorities as well as those at the Guadiana River on the Spanish border.)
- the response team that is on duty is informed, goes to Luz to take care of the situation, photographs the scene, but fails to take pictures of what they really saw, for example there are no persons on the photos but the place was full of people
- the twins' cots are empty on the photos, without bedsheets or covers - nothing at all except for the bare cots - but the officers report that the twins were sleeping in the cots
- police procedures should be revised, as there are no guidelines
- the children were alone in the apt being checked every 30, or every 15, minutes depending on the different versions of the group
- Kate's mother gave the alarm, immediately assuming an abduction.
===
From page 39:
It is urgent to know who this couple is, as well as their friends, what do they do, what problems do they have in the UK, have they ever mistreated their children, has a neighbour, family, friend or anyone else noted any inappropriate behaviour? What is their profession? Full time? Has anyone suffered depression? Is the marriage relationship healthy? Are they involved in any serious litigation? Does anyone hold a grudge against them? Why?...
These questions were delivered to the UK-Portuguese police liaison [on 4 May] who Gonçalo Amaral has worked with for years, Glen Power, asking him to forward the request, which the team considered "essential to the investigation" and waited for the response.
====
4 May
=====
- at 9 a.m Gonçalo Amaral arrives at the CID in Portimão and meets with Chief Inspector Tavares de ALmeida (it's supposed to be the first day of his holidays) to check on what has already been done and what needs to be done next; interpol already contacted, all Portuguese police forces are alerted; initial searches by locals and GNR done that night, to be continued/enlarged
- apartment to be fully inspected, even though the arriving officers said the apartment was full of people when they arrived and most likely contaminated
- it must be considered if the contamination was conscious or an accident
- searches include garbage bins and sewers; parents/friends must be formally interviewed (these first are almost always the most important), employees, nannies, other tourists; must ask English authorities if any of those guests have any criminal background; CCTV collected from all hotels, farmacies, markets, banks, gas stations, etc.
- Spanish border police are asked to watch ports to Morocco, Tarifa, Algeciras, via their CCTV; maritime police to collect any Algarve port data and do coastline searches
- crisis room is set up
- photos from the group and other tourists are necessary. the group deliver them but they have no photos, unfortunately, of that night; at least, none were delivered by the McCanns nor their friends
- apartment has NO signs of a break in, as opposed to what the parents say and what "Sky News" reports
- still all break-ins in the area are reviewed, as ridiculous as it would be for a robber to take a child with them
- report must be filed with the Public Ministry... but what to call it? decision is made to record as an "Abduction??" with two question marks to indicate that there are doubts about this theory. (you can see this first form with the "??" in the process files)
- Gonçalo Amaral reads the "first arrival" report. All hypotheses are open: woke and wandered, accident/eventual death/hidden cadaver, bodily injuries resulting in death, negligent or intentional homicide, vingenace, kidnap for eventual ransom, sexual pedator, robber who came to steal but was surprised by the child...
- the abduction theory permits the widest investigation and means otherwise unable to justify, including bringing in teams from outside the Algarve, and all possible means are important in the first 72 hours. in peace and silence, the team can advance with a efficient and effective investigation avoiding suspicions on the family/friends while still collecting all necessary evidence to determine what happened
- 10am, 12 hours after the disappearance, the British Consul from Portimão arrives. PJ tell him all that is going on. He is not satisfied and is heard talking on the phone saying the "PJ are doing nothing. " Strange!
- And the information about the friends/family requested so urgently from the UK still hasn't arrived...
- one urgent question is whether or not Madeleine was the biological child of the McCanns, if not, this could be an abduction by the biological parents
- the urgent request still has not received a response from the UK... but here comes the Ambassador, from Lisbon [3 hr drive]. This is not normal. Who is this couple? Who are these friends? We don't need diplomats, we need detailed responses to our questions, given urgently to the English-Portuguese liaison, Glen Power
- the searches continue, a helicoptor arrives, time is of the essence, highlighted by the fact that most of these witnesses are tourists who will return home on Saturday/tomorrow
- also concerns arise about Madeleine's parents and friends and their plans to return home; there is no way to legally oblige them to stay
- mid-morning, the Sub-National PJ Director arrives from Faro; he and Gonçalo Amaral go to the Ocean Club... to find all the journalists.
- Madeleine's disappearance has been presented by the friends in a much more coherent fashion to the media than to the police. (why?)
- Gonçalo Amaral and team are horrified to see one of the technicians collecting evidence without appropriate gear
- still, no signs of a break-in, no vestiges of an abductor, no finger prints from anyone outside the group, not even glove prints (from a possible abductor). there was a print found from one of the police, again, an error on their part
- collecting witness statements, team learns of a British man suspected of child abuse who is connected to a pub approx 150M from the Ocean Club. In 2005, he was investigated and fled Portugal. But the pub is closed and the suspect has not been seen in the area. (later, the British confirm rumours that this man is in Iraq.)
- road works: the night of 3 May the open road works were searched by GNR and dogs; they were re-inspected during the daylight of 4 May; the supervisor was spoken to and nothing unusual was discovered
TAPAS STATEMENTS AND FIRST INCONSISTENCIES (4 May)
- best to separate everyone and take all statements at once, important to question everyone, in case Madeleine's abduction were a mistake and one of the other children were the true target
- logistically, all can't be heard at once; someone has to stay with the children
- the morning of 4 May, only Gerry, Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield are interviewed... and inconsistencies already arise (Jane sees possible abductor; Gerry doesn't see abductor though he's there at the same time with Jeremiah); the rest of the group is interviewed the afternoon of 4 May, giving too much time for the others to learn the questions/answers of the first.
- translation slows things down, giving too much time to think
- the parents insist upon abduction and force this, and only this, idea
- Gerry says he left the front door locked and the apartment was secure; Kate says she entered via the back door. She confirms that the bedroom window was wide upon and the blinds up.
The checking was defined as follows:
21h05 - Gerry McCann checks, all is fine with the children
21h10/21h15- Jane Tanner sees alleged abductor carrying child
21h30 - Matthew Oldfield, enters apartment 5A but not the bedroom, sees only the twins
22h00 - Kate raises alarm, Madeleine missing
- BUT if the window was wide open when Matthew Oldfield checked, how did he not notice?
- Matthew Oldfield says the bedroom door was half open, Kate says it was wide open
- Unexpectedly, other inconsistencies arise: Kate, when she talks about the person who allegedly took Madeleine, she refers to info that Jane has provided. Yet Kate describes someone completely different than Jane's person. (Jane = light trousers and shoulder length hair; Kate = long hair and jeans)
- Jane makes herself completely available and testifies several times
- to the police, Gerry says Jane told him, about midnight 4 May, that she saw an unknown individual, 30-40 yo, light trousers, dark hair, going up the street
- the GNR affirms that the parents immediately raised the abduction theory because Jane saw this man carrying a child; the GNR statements have this description: man, light trousers, 1,78m, dark shirt and carrying a child that appeared to be wearing pyjamas. Nothing else about the child, the pyjamas nor the man.
- by 11:30, 4 May, Jane gives another description, more detailed: a dark skinned man, 35-40yo, thin, 1,7m, dark, thick shoulderlength hair, linen pants of beige or gold color, a "Duffy" type jacket though not as thick, with classic black shoes: walking quickly and carrying a child laying across his two arms in front of his chest; by his dress, he didn't look like a tourist and didn't seem like a tourist because he was so bundled up. The child appeared to be sleeping, though she only saw the legs, the feet were bare and the pyjamas looked like cotton, a light color, maybe white or pink, with a design, perhaps, though she wasn't sure, perhaps with flowers.
- Jane says she would recognize the man from the back and by the way he walked. (later we'll understand the importance of this statement!)
- Jane's testimony surprised everyone. she says she didn't know what Madeleine was wearing. How could she not? 14 hrs had passed since the disappearance and Jane's version had been heard by many. Gerald even mentioned her testimony. But Jane says she only talked to Gerald without giving details, and only after she had talked to the police.
- but Kate had immediately, on the night of 3 May, given a description of what Madeleine was wearing. How could Jane, the next day, not know this when she talked to the police? Everyone that night, who helped in the searches, was looking for a 3-4yo girl, barefoot, dressed in PJs with a top and light-colored bottoms, with a pink animal design. it's very surprising that Jane says she didn't have this information when she spoke to the police the next day, especially as she was making herself the most important witness in this phase of the investigation
FIRST SIGHTING/KATE'S REACTION
- still 4 May, the parents are returning to Luz when a video is located at a gas station on the road from Lagos to Spain. A girl who looks like Madeleine is shown with two adults.. We ask the McCanns to return to Portimão, the afternoon is ending, we want to see if they can identify the girl in the video.
- Kate shows herself to be a bit irritated at being required to return to the police station and upset at the speed reached by the police car that was taking them back to Portimão. We were surprised that she showed no hope that her daughter might be recovered. (the video was not of Madeleine)
MORE POLICE
- more police arrive from Lisbon; though not requested by Gonçalo Amaral, they are a big help. management is raised up a level within the police department. the efficacy of this is questioned later, and no reason is given for this move.
FIRST MEDIA COMMUNICATION
- 4 May afternoon, authorization is requested to hold a press conference, in order to request information that might lead to Madeleine's recovery.
- 5 May, press release is done, Madeleine's photo released, along with contact info. Given the possibility of someone trying to alter her appearance, different hair lengths and styles are shown. Most responses are from psychics or people who dream about or have visions of Maddie. All are reviewed.
TANNER'S TESTIMONY WEAKENS
- 20h00-22h00, 4 May, Gonçalo Amaral/team in Praia da Luz. It is obvious that there is very poor visibility in the area where Jane saw this possible abductor, undoubtedly making her detailed description difficult.
- Other witnesses say that on 3 May, in that area, at 21h58, there was no one around.
- The investigative teams continue to review Jane's statement: something doesn't make sense. Why would someone walk towards the most open area, even though there was not enough lighting to allow Jane to see anything in detail? A planned abduction would mean studying the area, the people. A car would have been parked away from the streetlights, in the opposite direction that Jane saw her abductor walking. Did she see someone going the opposite direction? If the abductor was using a car, he would have had to have driven through the center of Luz, passing in front of the parent's restaurant.... all options are reviewed. It's decided that the beach is the easiest place to reach for anyone who didn't have a car and did not know the area well.
- in the few bars, restaurants and cafés open at that time, no one saw anything unusual on the night of 3 May. (most closed at 21h00)
CRISIS ROOM/GROUP STATEMENTS IN DOUBT
- all options remain open; opinions are divided, everything is open to discussion
- unanimous fact amongst the group: the back sliding door of 5A was closed but unlocked
- Gerry: Says he entered by the front door with the key (why walk the long way around?), sees Madeleine for the last time. All the windows are closed. He says he could see the back door from the restaurant and that no one came in through it that night.
- Kate: Enters at 22h00. Sees open window, raised blinds and curtains waving. (hard to believe, as the blinds don't open from the outside and Kate says the window was always closed).
- Both refuse to believe someone entered the back door because they could see it and no one could have entered without their detecting it. (it was then verified that they could NOT see the back door, given the hedge and the fact that they were sitting with their backs to their apartment)
- all of this -- everything closed, the children regularly checked, and this visual watching of the apartment's back door -- had the objective to prove the children were safe. nonetheless, it's obvious that Madeleine was not safe. If she had been, she wouldn't have disappeared.
- "too weird the idea to enter through a door and exit through the window with a four year old..." " knowing someone would arrive at any moment..." "these people are hiding something..." "some secret known and hidden by all... ?" "but these are doctors..." and so ends the first day
SATURDAY, 5 MAY (day 2)
- an apartment for the police is filled with officer napping on couches, on the floor, shared beds.
- in Luz, statements are still being collected from employees, nannies, residents and tourists
- in Sagres, a tourist was taking photos of children, including a blond, blue-eyed 4yo whose father snapped a photo of this man, who tried to grab her, as well as his car. the father wore dark glasses but said the "photographer" was not dressed like a tourist, had dark brown hair covering his neck, creme trousers, classic shoes, out of place on the beach... we are reminded of Jane's statement.
- the rental agency IDs the car in the photo and the driver, a Polish man, approx 40 yo, with his wife, arriving in Portugal on 28 April, via Berlin to Faro, stayed in a rented apartment in Budens, near Praia da Luz. They left Portugal on the 7am flight, 5 May. Interpol and the German police act quickly. They talk to passengers on the flight but no one saw a child like Madeleine. The Polish man takes a train to Poland. No one checks his photos. The lead dies here... though he certainly doesn't have anything to do with this case, the lead was incomplete.
- information comes in: white vans, strange people on the beach, a group of gypsies, etc. all are tracked, all lead to nothing. more than 400 homes are searched.
- McCanns and twins are in the Payne's apartment. we talk about going to the apartment to collect Madeleine's clothes, especially those she was wearing the afternoon of 3 May when taken from the creche, to see if there is any sign of violence. The British Ambassador is already meeting with the investigators. The decision is to NOT request Madeleine's clothes, to avoid a media rush, it is "premature" to consider the parents suspects.
- Suddenly the parents and firends must be treated with diplomacy, we are not allowed to question their behaviour. The strategy is that all theories are open. Somehow Jane's statement gains weight such that the first press communication is that this is considered an abduction. The media demands were enormous, something had to be said.
HANDLING THE PRESS/ McCANN'S SPOKESPEOPLE
- PJ requested a spokesperson right away...
- We think the investigators should remove themselves from the media. However, the PJ should have people who analyse the news, in this case watching what the parents and friends were saying. But that didn't happen and we felt the lack of that resource.
- media explosion, never before had Portugal seen such a media preoccupation by the parent's of a missing child
- fact: there was an immediate and ever growing preoccupation by the McCanns with the management of media communications. An analysis of the images of the couple, and in their many TV interviews, one sees that this image management is a priority
CELLPHONE USAGE
- all lines of investigation continue open, still locating known paedophiles in the Algarve, resident or tourists. Witness statements arrive and are analysed, especially those of Ocean Club employees and telephone records that were provided.
- very obvious that telephone records for 3 May are required. the 5A apartment coordinates are defined and details of all calls received/sent from local antenas are requested. (movements can be tracked with cellphones)
- on 4 May, the parents authorised the police to look at their cellphones to check for calls made and received:
Kate's phone: no calls made from 27April to 4 May; she received no calls from 11h22 on 2 May until 23h17 on 3 May
Gerry's phone: nothing prior to 00h15 on 4 May
However, inside Kate's phone there is a record of a call received from Gerry at 11h17, 3 May. But no record of the call on Gerry's phone. It had been erased.
It was later verified that the first calls began about an hour after Kate raised the alarm, which could be very understandable given the searching that was being done.
23h00, 5 May - 3h00, 6 May
====================
- meeting of entire investigative team. some are upset with the PJ press release, others with the presence of the UK Ambassador (does he attend to all cases of British children? Why this one? Only the UK can respond to question)
- suggestion made to wiretap and follow the parents and friends: the statements don't work, the window story doesn't make sense and Jane's statement is ever weaker... they could be removed from suspicion this way and it should be done in case of a ransom request... but a judicial authorisation is required
- mid-meeting Gonçalo Amaral receives notice, still unknown whether or not it was true, that the British Secret Service had begun wiretapping the McCanns and friends. If true, the results were never delivered to the PJ.
SUNDAY, 6 MAY (day 3)
- The day begins poorly: Polish police misunderstood the request and merely questioned the "photographer" and ascertained he did not have Madeleine. They did not look at his photos. (could be a lost lead for a paedophile ring... ) nonetheless, CCTV images are found of the couple in a mall in Lisbon [3 hours north] and shown around Praia da Luz. Nothing. The rental car has already been re-rented but the litter removed from it is found and searched. Nothing. The apartment is thoroughly examined. Nothing connects to Madeleine.
- information about strange behaviours and strange people near the Ocean Club continue to flow into the crisis room...
Guest- Guest
Re: A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
by Guest 22.08.22 1:10
Chapter 8 - A man carrying a child on the way to the beach - pages 111-114
30 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- The Smith family, from Ireland, is in Luz for holidays, staying at their own holiday apartment; four adults and 5 children: the father (retired, 58) his wife, his son (23 yr old) and daughter-in-law and their two children (ie, Mr Smith's grandchildren), his daughter (12), two additional grandchildren, 10 and 4, of another daughter back in Ireland.
- approx 21h55, they are returning from "Kelly's Bar", heading north, all spread out along the street
- they pass a man walking down the middle of the street, carrying a child, with the head against his left shoulder and the arms hanging down alongside the body, in light colored or pink pyjamas, bare feet, pale skin typical of British and blond, shoulder-length hair; the girl is about 3-4 years old, about 1 meter tall.
- The man is not dressed like a tourist; he's wearing cream or beige trousers, classic cut, of linen or cotton. He is white, 30-35 yrs, 1.70-1.80 meters tall, averagel build, physically fit, short, brown hair, with a face that looks tanned.
- Images of Robert Murat begin to circulate around the world
- Back in Ireland, the Smiths watch the news and learn of Jane's statement and the suspicions falling upon Murat.
- The father contacts the Irish police. He tells his story. The man he saw was NOT Murat. He knows Murat and it was not him.
- The father is almost certain that the girl he saw was Madeleine.
- The Smiths are secretly brought back to Portugal. On Saturday, 26 May, in Portimão, Smith and his two children are interviewed.
- Their testimony is credible, but given the lack of light in the area, they can't identify the man who was carrying the child.
- The described the way he walked and carried her; this image is strongly fixed in their memory.
Chapter 21 - An Irish family in shock - pages 197-199
- Sept 2007, McCanns return to UK
- Gerry exits the plane, carrying his son against his left shoulder, the child's arms down along his sides, down the stairs and across the tarmack Gerry walks
- The Smith family see this recording on the news at 22h00 and are hit hard: they know this person, this way of carrying a child and of walking. It is Gerry McCann, they believe with a high degree of certainty, that they saw on 3 May at about 22h00, carrying a 4 yr old girl who appeared to be deeply asleep
- The father contacts the police to communicate this new information. He says he has not slept since 9 Sept and is very upset. It's as if he re-lived the night he saw the man carrying the child. Seeing Gerry walk and carry the child, awoke something in his head...
- Still not completely convinced, he watches the news again on ITV and also on Sky.
- No, there are no doubts. Gerry McCann looks just like the same person he saw carrying the child on May 3.
- Smith, upset and worried about what he saw and has concluded, needs the investigators to contact him.
- In late September, the Portuguese police receive this information from Smith. This appears to be a piece of the puzzle.
- Now Jane Tanner's insistence at seeing the abductor go the other direction makes sense, removing attentions from the way Gerry walked, in the direction of the beach. The man carrying a child didn't walk east towards Murat's house, but west in the direction of the Smiths.
- This puzzle piece allows the investigators to reconstruct what happened on that cold night of 3 May. The puzzle is almost complete.
- We make the decision to bring the Smiths back to Portugal. They will be heard, and in legal and procedural terms, will give their identification using televised images, since a personal identification [of Gerry] is out of the question.
- A reconstitution of that night, with the Smiths, is seriously considered.
- But the Smiths don't return to Portugal.
- The Portuguese police changed their minds after GA leaves the team; they decide to use the international request mechanism [letters rogatory]
- This leads to absurd delays
- In the meantime, rumours abound that strangers to the investigation have found about about this witness and his family and, supposedly, have tried to talk to Smith, though their intentions in doing so are unknown.
Chapter 9 - Mallorca, September 2005, 31 July 2008
Chapter 9 - Mallorca, September 2005 - pages 115-117
31 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- Sept 2005, Madeleine (2.5yrs), the twins (a few months old) and Kate/Gerry go to Mallorca for holidays. With them are David and Fiona PAYNE and daughter (Fiona is pregnant with 2nd child); also S&T with two boys, 1- and 3 yo; and SG & KG with their daughter, E (1.5 yrs). KG is also pregnant.
- the trip was organised by David Payne and the group stayed in one big rented house
- SG went to university with Kate and met Gerry around 1998, in Liverpool. After that, SG and KG became close friends with the McCanns, meeting regularly, spending weekends together and maintaining phone contact
- On the 3rd or 4th night in Mallorca, after dinner, eating and drinking, seated around a patio table, KG sees something that makes her concerned about her daughter and the welfare of the other children
- She is seated between Gerry and David, when she hears David ask if she, perhaps referring to Madeleine, does "this", then starts sucking one of his fingers, pulling it in and out of his mouth, insinuating a phallic object, while at the same time making circles around his nipple with the fingers of his other hand, in a provocative and sexual way
- when KG looks at Gerry and David, stupidified, there is a nervous silence. They then continued talking as if nothing had happened
- This provoked serious concerns in KG about Payne's relationship with children
- On another occasion, KG saw David again make the same gestures, this time talking about his own daughter
- On that holiday, it was the fathers who gave the children their baths, but KG never again let Payne near her daughter
- After these holidays, KG only saw the Payne's once, and hasn't talked to them since then
- In the last two years, the relationship between SG and KG and the McCanns cooled, reduced to social contacts, meeting only at birthday parties for the children
- The above was written from a deposition given by SG and KG to British police on 16 May 2007, just 13 days after Madeleine disappeared. This info was important and pertinent to the investigation but it was not given to the Portuguese police.
- In mid July, rumours started among the investigative team, that something like that had happened, but details and identities were unknown
- These rumours pointed to an identical situation that had happened in Greece. However, PJ have no knowledge of any witness proof of this.
- PJ requested clarification from the UK police, but nothing was confirmed at that time
- Only after GA's exit, perhaps in late Oct, was KG's deposition sent to PJ
- What reason did the UK police have to hide that deposition for six months? Knowing that Payne organised the trip to Mallorca and that he had questionable behaviour assigned to him as regards children, that he was also the same to organise the Portugal trip, being part of the Ocean Club group, and the first family friend to be seen at Kate's side after the disappearance and, at the time of KG's deposition, he was STILL in Portugal, and could have been confronted with these statements?
- this deposition seems to indicate a certain strange behaviour and deserved further investigation. Is this a pertinent profile? Could this profile be related to what happened on the night of 3 May?
- The credibility of the two depositions of SG and KG can't be easily questioned, as both are doctors and members of the same circle of friends [as the Tapas9]
Chapter 10 - Rethinking the facts, 31 July 2008
Chapter 10 - Rethinking the facts - pages 118-121
31 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
3 May, 18h30, Paraíso restaurante esplanade, 600m from OClub
=============================================
- The entire group, minus the five McCanns and Dianne Webster, are sitting at a table at the restaurant
- None of the children appear to be sick; those that can walk are running up and down the esplanade
- At 18h13, the men leave the table and head to the resort, leaving the women and children
- 15 minutes later, the women/kids follow
- A few minutes later, David Payne is with Gerry, who is playing tennis and David asks about Kate. She is in the apt with the kids.
- David Payne goes immediately to the apt. What did he do there? How long did he stay? Did he see the children? Play with them? How were they?
- The first version, according to Gerry, is that David stayed at the apt for 30 minutes.
- Kate, in a second version, says David was there 30 seconds.
- As for what he went there to do, there are several versions: we only know that Kate needed something or he was going to help take the kids to the play area.
- But even here the versions do not even minimally coincide: David says he saw Madeleine and the twins and defined the moment as a vision of three immaculate angels. David is, therefore, the last person, besides the parents, to see Madeleine, as far as we know.
- HOWEVER, according to Fiona Payne, Gerry was not playing tennis. He was at home with Kate. And David and Fiona went TOGETHER to 5A to see Kate and Gerry.
- What is the truth?
- According to the videos collected from Paraíso, Fiona left the restaurant 15 minutes after David did.
- What could, or would, be hidden in such easily contradictory stories?
4 MAY, 7h00, the village of Sargaçal, near Luz
=================================
- YM, 52 years old, British manager of Social Services, Protection of Minors, with 28 yrs of experience in the area of children at risk, is on holiday in the Algarve. Sees Luz/Madeleine news on the TV. Decides to go help.
- 9:30am-ish, with the help of police at the scene, she finds Madeleine's parents. They are with someone introduced as a "close friend" of the family.
- The parents are very upset, but only the mother is crying intensely.
- YM begins to ask questions; how often were they checking (response: once an hour), is Gerry the biological father of Madeleine (to eliminate the possibility of abduction by bio father).
- Kate becomes unnerved by the questions. They should come from the police. According to Kate, there should have been a lot more police there trying to find her daughter who had been taken "by a couple."
- YM, thinking the McCanns were doubting her qualifications, produced her official documents emitted by the police and the British government.
- Gerry shows the documents to the close friend, who says the docs are authentic. But this does not make them supportive of the help offered by YM.
- So YM tries a desperate move: she tries to separate Kate from the other two, inviting her to another place to clarify this story of the "couple" that according to Kate had taken her child.
- Kate reacts agressively and refuses to leave her two companions.
- YM is concerned about Kate's agitation, and verifies that Kate hasn't received any medical support, which she is needing.
- At 10am, Kate told YM that Madeleine had been missing for 13 hours. (That would mean the disappearance was at 9pm and not 10pm.)
This information is important, given that other differing versions of events would also be provided by the McCanns and their friends.
- YM, before the "close friend" rejoined them and told YM that the McCanns didn't want to talk to her anymore, took the time to alert the McCanns to the fact that they should be careful with the media, advising them to remain silent.
- YM, from the moment she met the McCanns and the friend, thought his face seemed familiar. She thought she knew him from work, perhaps having been involved in some case that passed through her hands, in the area of protection of minors.
- Later YM would identify this close friend as David Payne, the organiser of the holiday, and the one who was also independently pointed out to the British police (by SG and KG), for his questionable behaviour during the Mallorca holiday.
- With the English police, the Portuguese investigators tried to find out if David Payne had any judicial or police reports, but nothing was found in his records.
- The only information known is that David Payne is a close friend of Gerry McCann, since university.
Chapter 11 - Analysing a crime scene. Apartment 5A, 30 August 2008
Chapter 11 - Analysing a crime scene. Apartment 5A
30 August 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- Routine meetings between the investigators include the presence and the participation of English colleagues from Leicestershire, as well as José Freitas, a senior official from Scotland Yard, who is a British citizen, a descendant of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira
- This particular meeting is dedicated to analyse the photographic report that was made inside apartment 5A on the evening of the facts
- The first thing that jumps out is the 'tidiness' of the bedroom where Madeleine and her twin siblings were supposedly asleep. No signs of an abductor in the access to the bedroom window
- Windowsill is 91 cms above the floor, a bed is placed against the wall, with signs of someone who slept in it. A wicker chair stands against the far wall. No markings of shoes on the chair, or on the bed
- Conclusion: the window was not used for anything, or there were 2 abductors, one on the inside and one on the outside
- Bedroom window is protected by a shutter on the outside. On the inside, an opaque curtain that reaches until the top of the windowsill, and two side curtains, that reach until the floor, with embraces. All the curtains are pulled towards the window centre, not covering it entirely
- The embrace on the right hand side lies on the floor, between the bed's feet and the wicker chair, which is pushed against the curtain on the right. the embrace on the left side is hanging from the wall bracket, the left curtain is ruffled, making it look like someone pulled it closed in a hurry
- None of the curtain's embraces is in its normal position, suspended on the wall
- Kate says that when Madeleine was noticed missing, the curtains were completely closed, i.e. they would have been closed by the parents and the eventual abductor would have positioned them in that manner, in order to facilitate his passage through the window
- The embraces could only have landed in the position in which they were found, when the curtains were pulled shut. Other possibility: the curtains were open and were taken out of that position after the disappearance. An abductor would not have wasted time with that; this action is more consistent with an intentional change of a crime scene
- Other indicia pointing towards the change of the crime scene would surface
- The bed sheets and the position of the soft toy raised suspicions. The bed looks like nobody slept there, the soft toy is positioned symmetrically to the pillow, the pink blanket is almost folded. Father confirmed that the blanket and the soft toy were in that position when he went to check his daughter
- The two cots stand in the middle of the bedroom, making the movements of an adult rather difficult
- No bed sheets in the cots, only the mattresses; twins were taken out with sheets and everything, only woke up when they were taken into another apartment
- Analysis of photographs of the living room: the sofa beneath one of the side windows is not in position, and the curtains of the window are pulled shut but rolled up and distorted
- The father would end up giving an explanation for the sofa's position. The sofa was normally not pushed against the wall, but he pushed it against the wall because the children used to throw toys into the space behind the sofa while playing
- Sofa may have played crucial role in the accident theory. If sofa was not pushed against the wall, Madeleine could have tried to access the window and fell between the sofa and the wall
- A digital camera is visible on the living room table, the investigators remark that they need the photos from that camera; they want to know what happened during the dinner, who sat where, what was eaten, what was drunk, who was close, what they were wearing, every detail
- The father dropped to his knees in front of the GNR officers when they arrived, made no sense as he is always under control - possibly to contaminate his trousers?
- In the couple's bedroom, two beds are pushed together, a wide empty space between them and the wardrobe. one of the beds is made: nobody slept there
- Empty space was apparently for one of the cots
- Possible conclusions: the couple used to sleep in their bedroom with the twins, and Madeleine in the other bedroom; the children started sleeping all together in the other bedroom at some point; the spare bed in the children's bedroom had been slept in; only one person slept in the couple's bedroom; did the mother stop sleeping with the father and started sleeping with the children?
- not one single medicine was found, only a box of band-aids
30 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- The Smith family, from Ireland, is in Luz for holidays, staying at their own holiday apartment; four adults and 5 children: the father (retired, 58) his wife, his son (23 yr old) and daughter-in-law and their two children (ie, Mr Smith's grandchildren), his daughter (12), two additional grandchildren, 10 and 4, of another daughter back in Ireland.
- approx 21h55, they are returning from "Kelly's Bar", heading north, all spread out along the street
- they pass a man walking down the middle of the street, carrying a child, with the head against his left shoulder and the arms hanging down alongside the body, in light colored or pink pyjamas, bare feet, pale skin typical of British and blond, shoulder-length hair; the girl is about 3-4 years old, about 1 meter tall.
- The man is not dressed like a tourist; he's wearing cream or beige trousers, classic cut, of linen or cotton. He is white, 30-35 yrs, 1.70-1.80 meters tall, averagel build, physically fit, short, brown hair, with a face that looks tanned.
- Images of Robert Murat begin to circulate around the world
- Back in Ireland, the Smiths watch the news and learn of Jane's statement and the suspicions falling upon Murat.
- The father contacts the Irish police. He tells his story. The man he saw was NOT Murat. He knows Murat and it was not him.
- The father is almost certain that the girl he saw was Madeleine.
- The Smiths are secretly brought back to Portugal. On Saturday, 26 May, in Portimão, Smith and his two children are interviewed.
- Their testimony is credible, but given the lack of light in the area, they can't identify the man who was carrying the child.
- The described the way he walked and carried her; this image is strongly fixed in their memory.
Chapter 21 - An Irish family in shock - pages 197-199
- Sept 2007, McCanns return to UK
- Gerry exits the plane, carrying his son against his left shoulder, the child's arms down along his sides, down the stairs and across the tarmack Gerry walks
- The Smith family see this recording on the news at 22h00 and are hit hard: they know this person, this way of carrying a child and of walking. It is Gerry McCann, they believe with a high degree of certainty, that they saw on 3 May at about 22h00, carrying a 4 yr old girl who appeared to be deeply asleep
- The father contacts the police to communicate this new information. He says he has not slept since 9 Sept and is very upset. It's as if he re-lived the night he saw the man carrying the child. Seeing Gerry walk and carry the child, awoke something in his head...
- Still not completely convinced, he watches the news again on ITV and also on Sky.
- No, there are no doubts. Gerry McCann looks just like the same person he saw carrying the child on May 3.
- Smith, upset and worried about what he saw and has concluded, needs the investigators to contact him.
- In late September, the Portuguese police receive this information from Smith. This appears to be a piece of the puzzle.
- Now Jane Tanner's insistence at seeing the abductor go the other direction makes sense, removing attentions from the way Gerry walked, in the direction of the beach. The man carrying a child didn't walk east towards Murat's house, but west in the direction of the Smiths.
- This puzzle piece allows the investigators to reconstruct what happened on that cold night of 3 May. The puzzle is almost complete.
- We make the decision to bring the Smiths back to Portugal. They will be heard, and in legal and procedural terms, will give their identification using televised images, since a personal identification [of Gerry] is out of the question.
- A reconstitution of that night, with the Smiths, is seriously considered.
- But the Smiths don't return to Portugal.
- The Portuguese police changed their minds after GA leaves the team; they decide to use the international request mechanism [letters rogatory]
- This leads to absurd delays
- In the meantime, rumours abound that strangers to the investigation have found about about this witness and his family and, supposedly, have tried to talk to Smith, though their intentions in doing so are unknown.
Chapter 9 - Mallorca, September 2005, 31 July 2008
Chapter 9 - Mallorca, September 2005 - pages 115-117
31 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- Sept 2005, Madeleine (2.5yrs), the twins (a few months old) and Kate/Gerry go to Mallorca for holidays. With them are David and Fiona PAYNE and daughter (Fiona is pregnant with 2nd child); also S&T with two boys, 1- and 3 yo; and SG & KG with their daughter, E (1.5 yrs). KG is also pregnant.
- the trip was organised by David Payne and the group stayed in one big rented house
- SG went to university with Kate and met Gerry around 1998, in Liverpool. After that, SG and KG became close friends with the McCanns, meeting regularly, spending weekends together and maintaining phone contact
- On the 3rd or 4th night in Mallorca, after dinner, eating and drinking, seated around a patio table, KG sees something that makes her concerned about her daughter and the welfare of the other children
- She is seated between Gerry and David, when she hears David ask if she, perhaps referring to Madeleine, does "this", then starts sucking one of his fingers, pulling it in and out of his mouth, insinuating a phallic object, while at the same time making circles around his nipple with the fingers of his other hand, in a provocative and sexual way
- when KG looks at Gerry and David, stupidified, there is a nervous silence. They then continued talking as if nothing had happened
- This provoked serious concerns in KG about Payne's relationship with children
- On another occasion, KG saw David again make the same gestures, this time talking about his own daughter
- On that holiday, it was the fathers who gave the children their baths, but KG never again let Payne near her daughter
- After these holidays, KG only saw the Payne's once, and hasn't talked to them since then
- In the last two years, the relationship between SG and KG and the McCanns cooled, reduced to social contacts, meeting only at birthday parties for the children
- The above was written from a deposition given by SG and KG to British police on 16 May 2007, just 13 days after Madeleine disappeared. This info was important and pertinent to the investigation but it was not given to the Portuguese police.
- In mid July, rumours started among the investigative team, that something like that had happened, but details and identities were unknown
- These rumours pointed to an identical situation that had happened in Greece. However, PJ have no knowledge of any witness proof of this.
- PJ requested clarification from the UK police, but nothing was confirmed at that time
- Only after GA's exit, perhaps in late Oct, was KG's deposition sent to PJ
- What reason did the UK police have to hide that deposition for six months? Knowing that Payne organised the trip to Mallorca and that he had questionable behaviour assigned to him as regards children, that he was also the same to organise the Portugal trip, being part of the Ocean Club group, and the first family friend to be seen at Kate's side after the disappearance and, at the time of KG's deposition, he was STILL in Portugal, and could have been confronted with these statements?
- this deposition seems to indicate a certain strange behaviour and deserved further investigation. Is this a pertinent profile? Could this profile be related to what happened on the night of 3 May?
- The credibility of the two depositions of SG and KG can't be easily questioned, as both are doctors and members of the same circle of friends [as the Tapas9]
Chapter 10 - Rethinking the facts, 31 July 2008
Chapter 10 - Rethinking the facts - pages 118-121
31 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
3 May, 18h30, Paraíso restaurante esplanade, 600m from OClub
=============================================
- The entire group, minus the five McCanns and Dianne Webster, are sitting at a table at the restaurant
- None of the children appear to be sick; those that can walk are running up and down the esplanade
- At 18h13, the men leave the table and head to the resort, leaving the women and children
- 15 minutes later, the women/kids follow
- A few minutes later, David Payne is with Gerry, who is playing tennis and David asks about Kate. She is in the apt with the kids.
- David Payne goes immediately to the apt. What did he do there? How long did he stay? Did he see the children? Play with them? How were they?
- The first version, according to Gerry, is that David stayed at the apt for 30 minutes.
- Kate, in a second version, says David was there 30 seconds.
- As for what he went there to do, there are several versions: we only know that Kate needed something or he was going to help take the kids to the play area.
- But even here the versions do not even minimally coincide: David says he saw Madeleine and the twins and defined the moment as a vision of three immaculate angels. David is, therefore, the last person, besides the parents, to see Madeleine, as far as we know.
- HOWEVER, according to Fiona Payne, Gerry was not playing tennis. He was at home with Kate. And David and Fiona went TOGETHER to 5A to see Kate and Gerry.
- What is the truth?
- According to the videos collected from Paraíso, Fiona left the restaurant 15 minutes after David did.
- What could, or would, be hidden in such easily contradictory stories?
4 MAY, 7h00, the village of Sargaçal, near Luz
=================================
- YM, 52 years old, British manager of Social Services, Protection of Minors, with 28 yrs of experience in the area of children at risk, is on holiday in the Algarve. Sees Luz/Madeleine news on the TV. Decides to go help.
- 9:30am-ish, with the help of police at the scene, she finds Madeleine's parents. They are with someone introduced as a "close friend" of the family.
- The parents are very upset, but only the mother is crying intensely.
- YM begins to ask questions; how often were they checking (response: once an hour), is Gerry the biological father of Madeleine (to eliminate the possibility of abduction by bio father).
- Kate becomes unnerved by the questions. They should come from the police. According to Kate, there should have been a lot more police there trying to find her daughter who had been taken "by a couple."
- YM, thinking the McCanns were doubting her qualifications, produced her official documents emitted by the police and the British government.
- Gerry shows the documents to the close friend, who says the docs are authentic. But this does not make them supportive of the help offered by YM.
- So YM tries a desperate move: she tries to separate Kate from the other two, inviting her to another place to clarify this story of the "couple" that according to Kate had taken her child.
- Kate reacts agressively and refuses to leave her two companions.
- YM is concerned about Kate's agitation, and verifies that Kate hasn't received any medical support, which she is needing.
- At 10am, Kate told YM that Madeleine had been missing for 13 hours. (That would mean the disappearance was at 9pm and not 10pm.)
This information is important, given that other differing versions of events would also be provided by the McCanns and their friends.
- YM, before the "close friend" rejoined them and told YM that the McCanns didn't want to talk to her anymore, took the time to alert the McCanns to the fact that they should be careful with the media, advising them to remain silent.
- YM, from the moment she met the McCanns and the friend, thought his face seemed familiar. She thought she knew him from work, perhaps having been involved in some case that passed through her hands, in the area of protection of minors.
- Later YM would identify this close friend as David Payne, the organiser of the holiday, and the one who was also independently pointed out to the British police (by SG and KG), for his questionable behaviour during the Mallorca holiday.
- With the English police, the Portuguese investigators tried to find out if David Payne had any judicial or police reports, but nothing was found in his records.
- The only information known is that David Payne is a close friend of Gerry McCann, since university.
Chapter 11 - Analysing a crime scene. Apartment 5A, 30 August 2008
Chapter 11 - Analysing a crime scene. Apartment 5A
30 August 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- Routine meetings between the investigators include the presence and the participation of English colleagues from Leicestershire, as well as José Freitas, a senior official from Scotland Yard, who is a British citizen, a descendant of Portuguese immigrants from Madeira
- This particular meeting is dedicated to analyse the photographic report that was made inside apartment 5A on the evening of the facts
- The first thing that jumps out is the 'tidiness' of the bedroom where Madeleine and her twin siblings were supposedly asleep. No signs of an abductor in the access to the bedroom window
- Windowsill is 91 cms above the floor, a bed is placed against the wall, with signs of someone who slept in it. A wicker chair stands against the far wall. No markings of shoes on the chair, or on the bed
- Conclusion: the window was not used for anything, or there were 2 abductors, one on the inside and one on the outside
- Bedroom window is protected by a shutter on the outside. On the inside, an opaque curtain that reaches until the top of the windowsill, and two side curtains, that reach until the floor, with embraces. All the curtains are pulled towards the window centre, not covering it entirely
- The embrace on the right hand side lies on the floor, between the bed's feet and the wicker chair, which is pushed against the curtain on the right. the embrace on the left side is hanging from the wall bracket, the left curtain is ruffled, making it look like someone pulled it closed in a hurry
- None of the curtain's embraces is in its normal position, suspended on the wall
- Kate says that when Madeleine was noticed missing, the curtains were completely closed, i.e. they would have been closed by the parents and the eventual abductor would have positioned them in that manner, in order to facilitate his passage through the window
- The embraces could only have landed in the position in which they were found, when the curtains were pulled shut. Other possibility: the curtains were open and were taken out of that position after the disappearance. An abductor would not have wasted time with that; this action is more consistent with an intentional change of a crime scene
- Other indicia pointing towards the change of the crime scene would surface
- The bed sheets and the position of the soft toy raised suspicions. The bed looks like nobody slept there, the soft toy is positioned symmetrically to the pillow, the pink blanket is almost folded. Father confirmed that the blanket and the soft toy were in that position when he went to check his daughter
- The two cots stand in the middle of the bedroom, making the movements of an adult rather difficult
- No bed sheets in the cots, only the mattresses; twins were taken out with sheets and everything, only woke up when they were taken into another apartment
- Analysis of photographs of the living room: the sofa beneath one of the side windows is not in position, and the curtains of the window are pulled shut but rolled up and distorted
- The father would end up giving an explanation for the sofa's position. The sofa was normally not pushed against the wall, but he pushed it against the wall because the children used to throw toys into the space behind the sofa while playing
- Sofa may have played crucial role in the accident theory. If sofa was not pushed against the wall, Madeleine could have tried to access the window and fell between the sofa and the wall
- A digital camera is visible on the living room table, the investigators remark that they need the photos from that camera; they want to know what happened during the dinner, who sat where, what was eaten, what was drunk, who was close, what they were wearing, every detail
- The father dropped to his knees in front of the GNR officers when they arrived, made no sense as he is always under control - possibly to contaminate his trousers?
- In the couple's bedroom, two beds are pushed together, a wide empty space between them and the wardrobe. one of the beds is made: nobody slept there
- Empty space was apparently for one of the cots
- Possible conclusions: the couple used to sleep in their bedroom with the twins, and Madeleine in the other bedroom; the children started sleeping all together in the other bedroom at some point; the spare bed in the children's bedroom had been slept in; only one person slept in the couple's bedroom; did the mother stop sleeping with the father and started sleeping with the children?
- not one single medicine was found, only a box of band-aids
Guest- Guest
Re: A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
by Guest 22.08.22 1:13
Chapter 16 - Second signs of death: the intervention of the investigators
29 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- First days after disappearance, dogs from GNR searched without finding anything of note
- UK police suggested bringing in UK dogs, but GNR didn't think it was necessary at that time
- After Krugel's visit [and the McCann's suggestions that Madeleine was dead], the Brits began to really emphasise the amazing qualities of the South Yorkshire dogs... which "worked miracles"
- It's July, all the abduction research has proven negative
- A letter is sent to UK requesting their top forensic investigators
- A few days later, Mark Harrison arrives, with dozens of international criminal investigations under his belt working with the best police forces throughout the world, his work is the analysis of these types of cases, giving advice and helping plan strategies and determine the resources necessary. He began work immediately, always in the company of the PJ, Leicester police and Scotland Yard.
- Harrison has full access to absolutely everything, reviews testimonies, movements, etc. A helicopter flys him over Luz, then goes on foot. Streets are measured, distances between buildings, routes on foot and by car considered... meteorological factors, geological and maritime research... even the best anthropologist in Portugal gave an opinion about the most probable state of any mortal remains that might be found.... a study of the carrion-eating wild animals in the area... reviewed all the searches "brilliantly organised" by the regional GNR officers.
- After a full week of work, Mark presents his report: most plausible scenario is that Madeleine is dead, her body hidden near Praia da Luz. He highlights the extensive work done in by the Portuguese authorities to find a living Madeleine... however, in his opinion, it was time to take on new searches with the possibility that Madeleine is dead and her cadaver hidden nearby.
- Data from Harrison for children under the age of 5 who had disappeared in the UK since 1960, 1528 cases: in 82% of the cases, the child's parents were the predominate aggressors; in 96%, some kind of relationship existed between the child and the agressor. In only 4%, the aggressor was unknown to the child.
- In this "very unsubtle way", Harrison points out that the solution to this case could very will be hidden in the small circle of people closest to Madeleine. That is, we are now going to consider more seriously investigating the parents and friends.
- Finally, Harrision specifically recommends bringing in Eddie and Keela.
- Gonçalo Amaral says statistics are fine, but the change in investigation is owed as much to the exhaustion of the abduction theory and the necessity to re-start at the beginning.
- To show off/sell the dogs, Harrison shows a video of them in action to those managing the investigation, which was impressive.
- Harrison suggests taking the dogs to all the apartments (McCanns and friends) and Murat's home; also having the dogs examine all cars to see if a cadaver was transported in any of them. A detailed plan is created.
- At the same time, a piece of equipment from America which identifies people based upon their particular scent was requested. However, it arrived late (requested late and then held up in customs) and was never used... especially because the dogs obtained such "concrete and positive results."
===== THE ENGLISH TEAM =====
- 30 July 2007, Dogs and their handler, Martin Grimes arrives.
- Eddie, looks for mortal remains. ALSO trained to find just the smell of a cadaver, when no actual remains are present to be collected, given that the odor attaches itself to permeable materials, like clothes and car upholstery.
- Keela looks for/finds human blood in amounts so very small that they often can be found by no other technical means.
- Method: first Eddie searches for cadaver odor; if found, Keela tries to find a reason, that is, vestiges of human blood. If they both alert, this indicates that blood was spilt and a cadaver was there. Which could be interpreted as if the death happened in that spot.
- Impressive CV: Eddie and Keela have been used more than 200 cases around the world, including with the FBI; approved "with distinction" in test realised at the "Body Farm", FBI/USA, the only place in the world authorised to use human cadavers for training.
- Used in these famous cases: Attracta Harron (N Irland), Amanda Edward, Charlotte Pinkney (British/Eddie detected a spot where the cadaver had only "momentarily" been laid), Haut de la Garenne...
- Every year the dogs and Martin Grime undergo testing. These two dogs, as a team, are unique in all the world.
===== EXAMS IN THE OCEAN CLUB APT =====
- Evening of 3 August, Portuguese and UK investigators begin at Ocean Club, Apt 5A
- Martin leads in Eddie and tells him to sit at the front door, so that he can remove the leash. Contrary to expectations of this wonder dog-detective, Eddie ignored the command and ran immediately to the interior of the apt, where he ran "devilishly" from the living room to the parent's bedroom. Grimes says worriedly that something has made Eddie nervous and he calls Eddie again so that he can give orders to indicate where to start searching. An investigator is video taping. Some minutes later, Eddie focuses on the floor of the couple's bedroom, next to the wardrobe and gives the alert for cadaver odor, in a strident bark
- Why here, in the couple's room? More goosebumps to follow: Eddie gives another strident bark next to the living room wall, behind the blue sofa, under the window.
- Apt 5A begins to give up its mystery.
- On that night, before 10pm, the investigators see Gerald McCann near the apartment, driving alone in the rented Renault with the face of one "who has few friends."
- If the cadaver (EVRD) dog alerts, then the blood (CSI) dog is brought in. They are trained to find ONLY human blood, even in areas thoroughly cleaned with chemicals or bleaches. Sometimes they find blood vestiges so small that they can't be collected, and the surrounding materials themselves have to be transported to the lab. This happened with Keela.
- Keela is brought in and she marks blood in the same place as Eddie marked the cadaver smell... she stopped, immobile, with her nose pointed at the precise location of the smell. The tiles on the floor.
- Outside, Eddie gives two more alerts of cadaver smell, on the varanda of the couple's bedroom and also in a garden situation directly below it. Here, the bark is weaker, like a "could be", with some doubt, like a human shrugging their shoulders.
- Going now to the other apts, the investigators are nervous. Who knows what will come next? But to the amazement of all, after very careful exams of all the other apts, Eddie exhibits complete disinterest. Martin decides to not use Keela, since Eddie found no cadaver smell.
- There are signs of death in Apartment 5A. It's necessary to confirm that, prior to 3 May, no one had died there. The OC has no records of anything like that, nor the fire department, nor the paramedics, nor the prior apt owners knew of any death in the apt.
- It is concluded, therefore, that the cadaver odor could only come from one person: Madeleine Beth McCann
===== EDDIE SEARCHES AROUND VILA DA LUZ =====
- The search area includes Krugel's "cadaver area". Harrison had created an iron tool for puncturing the soil to allow smells to exit.
- The British team, with PJ and GNR takes a fine tooth comb to Luz, any and everywhere a body might have been hidden or momentarily deposited... buildings, abandoned/in construction, ruins, waterways, entrances to sewers, beach, vegetation around the village, including the volcanic rock "Rocha Negra". No signs from Eddie anywhere else around Praia da Luz.
===== EXAMS IN THE INTERIOR OF McCANN'S HOME [second villa] =====
- When preparing to go to the McCann's villa with the dogs, everyone knew this was the moment to either take up a technical and legal instrument which could assign responsiblity, or fully remove from suspicion, Madeleine's parents in her disappearance.
- We knew, then, that we had failed when we decided to not wiretap and follow the friends and McCanns from the beginning of the investigation.
- The Public Ministry (MP) created the proper search documents. At the same time, they asked for authorisation to wiretap the villa and car at that time. The MP agreed, as it's been used in other cases. 24 anxious hours later the sitting Judge, covering for someone on holiday, denied the MP's agreement. No time to re-request, the last chance to know what the McCanns said away from the press microphones was gone, just as the couple prepared to leave the country.
- The search was planned in great detail.
- The villa is on Rua das Flores, 27, rented at the beginning of the summer with money donated to the Find Madeleine Fund.
- 2 August, 6pm-ish, the inspectors knocked on the door. Kate and Gerry were giving the twins a bath in the exterior pool. Surprisingly, they both reacted well to the search warrant and in a forthright and open way gave unlimited access to the investigators.
- Eddie started, going directly to the living room where on top of a chair was cuddlecat, which now had a little green ribbon and rosary around its neck. Again, Eddie showed his 7 years of experience dedicated to forensic crime scene work and, with a determined and affirmative bark, indicated that CuddleCat had been in contact with a cadaver.
- Using cardboard boxes, all the clothes in the house were taken to a specially prepared area to be placed on the ground for the dogs.
- At 23h20 all the clothes are spread out. Again, Eddie marks a strong cadaver odor on Kate's clothes: slacks in black/white check and a sleeveless white blouse. He barks frenetically.
- Keela finds no blood vestiges.
===== EXAMS AT MURAT'S HOME =====
- 4 and 5 August. Ground "aired" and opened. Over two days of thorough searching, no signs from Eddie at Muart's home.
===== EXAMS ON VEHICLES =====
- 6 August, underground parking garage
- 10 vehicles examined which were used by Murat, Michaela, Malinka, Luís António, McCanns and one by Russell O'Brien
- 10 metres between cars to avoid contamination of smells between them
- Martin tells Eddie to start on exteriors, with all doors/windows tightly closed: intense sniffing of wheels, underneath, door jams, edges of boot. 1, 2, 3 cars. Nothing.
- 4th car. Eddie significantly alters his behaviour. Visibly more excited, he doesn't immediately approach the car as he did with the others. He raises his head and, with his nose in the air, sniffs incessantly around the car indicating that he is trying to find the source of that well-known odor and which he has been finding for years, which he had detected in the area and knows he is now going to find. Martin's voice commands him back to searching the car itself. Eddied provides yet another surprise in the case, barking strongly as he alerts to the existence of cadaver odor in the car rented by the McCanns.
- Precisely, Eddie alerts to:
---- the lower part of the driver's door
---- in the boot, where the dog was biting and barking, indicating the odour was coming from inside the car
The car was taken apart by forensic experts and around dawn, Keela finds vestiges of blood where Eddie signalled: the key and the luggage compartment
- As with the apartments, Eddie was uninterested in the other cars, not hesitating nor displaying behaviour similiar to the other vehicles, making his actions quite clear and precise.
- Gonçalo Amaral says he had already been removed from the team when he learned that one of the McCann's neighbors (at the second villa), a Portuguese jurist, says that in the nights leading up to the dog exams, the McCanns frequently left the baggage door open.
- One of Gerry's brother-in-laws later affirmed they used the car to transport garbage and that, once, some blood from beef spilled in the luggage area, thereby justifying the "strange" odor.
- One of Kate's aunts said that the car had unpleasant smells that she assumed came from the baby's diapers.
These justifications don't stand up to the English dogs. These dogs are exclusively trained to alert to human blood and cadaver odours. The hygiene habits of the users of this car do not even appear credible for the civilized people making up this group, which make the statements of these two, in the very least, bizarre.
===== COLLECTING THE VESTIGES =====
- Upon detection, we begin the collection and remit of the evidence to a forensic lab
- 2 early questions: how to collect and where to send. Someone from the Portuguese Police Lab came to do the collection. In a joint meeting between British and Portuguese forensic experts, it was decided to not try to do tests locally. Instead tiles were very carefully removed, monitoring all with photographs, and taken to FSS for Low Copy Number tests, the lab where they can identify DNA from microscopic blood samples.
- To safeguard the samples, the technician who removed the tiles also hand-carried them to the FSS.
- 7 August, taken to the FSS were:
---- tiles from behind the sofa and under the window
---- blood from the car key
---- hairs found in the luggage area
---- blood from the lining from the right side of the luggage area
- Gonçalo Amaral speaks of "blood" when other reports say "bodily fluids" because Keela only alerts to human blood.
[Acknowledgement Nigel Moore of mccannfiles.com]
29 July 2008
Thanks to 'blackberry' for translation
- First days after disappearance, dogs from GNR searched without finding anything of note
- UK police suggested bringing in UK dogs, but GNR didn't think it was necessary at that time
- After Krugel's visit [and the McCann's suggestions that Madeleine was dead], the Brits began to really emphasise the amazing qualities of the South Yorkshire dogs... which "worked miracles"
- It's July, all the abduction research has proven negative
- A letter is sent to UK requesting their top forensic investigators
- A few days later, Mark Harrison arrives, with dozens of international criminal investigations under his belt working with the best police forces throughout the world, his work is the analysis of these types of cases, giving advice and helping plan strategies and determine the resources necessary. He began work immediately, always in the company of the PJ, Leicester police and Scotland Yard.
- Harrison has full access to absolutely everything, reviews testimonies, movements, etc. A helicopter flys him over Luz, then goes on foot. Streets are measured, distances between buildings, routes on foot and by car considered... meteorological factors, geological and maritime research... even the best anthropologist in Portugal gave an opinion about the most probable state of any mortal remains that might be found.... a study of the carrion-eating wild animals in the area... reviewed all the searches "brilliantly organised" by the regional GNR officers.
- After a full week of work, Mark presents his report: most plausible scenario is that Madeleine is dead, her body hidden near Praia da Luz. He highlights the extensive work done in by the Portuguese authorities to find a living Madeleine... however, in his opinion, it was time to take on new searches with the possibility that Madeleine is dead and her cadaver hidden nearby.
- Data from Harrison for children under the age of 5 who had disappeared in the UK since 1960, 1528 cases: in 82% of the cases, the child's parents were the predominate aggressors; in 96%, some kind of relationship existed between the child and the agressor. In only 4%, the aggressor was unknown to the child.
- In this "very unsubtle way", Harrison points out that the solution to this case could very will be hidden in the small circle of people closest to Madeleine. That is, we are now going to consider more seriously investigating the parents and friends.
- Finally, Harrision specifically recommends bringing in Eddie and Keela.
- Gonçalo Amaral says statistics are fine, but the change in investigation is owed as much to the exhaustion of the abduction theory and the necessity to re-start at the beginning.
- To show off/sell the dogs, Harrison shows a video of them in action to those managing the investigation, which was impressive.
- Harrison suggests taking the dogs to all the apartments (McCanns and friends) and Murat's home; also having the dogs examine all cars to see if a cadaver was transported in any of them. A detailed plan is created.
- At the same time, a piece of equipment from America which identifies people based upon their particular scent was requested. However, it arrived late (requested late and then held up in customs) and was never used... especially because the dogs obtained such "concrete and positive results."
===== THE ENGLISH TEAM =====
- 30 July 2007, Dogs and their handler, Martin Grimes arrives.
- Eddie, looks for mortal remains. ALSO trained to find just the smell of a cadaver, when no actual remains are present to be collected, given that the odor attaches itself to permeable materials, like clothes and car upholstery.
- Keela looks for/finds human blood in amounts so very small that they often can be found by no other technical means.
- Method: first Eddie searches for cadaver odor; if found, Keela tries to find a reason, that is, vestiges of human blood. If they both alert, this indicates that blood was spilt and a cadaver was there. Which could be interpreted as if the death happened in that spot.
- Impressive CV: Eddie and Keela have been used more than 200 cases around the world, including with the FBI; approved "with distinction" in test realised at the "Body Farm", FBI/USA, the only place in the world authorised to use human cadavers for training.
- Used in these famous cases: Attracta Harron (N Irland), Amanda Edward, Charlotte Pinkney (British/Eddie detected a spot where the cadaver had only "momentarily" been laid), Haut de la Garenne...
- Every year the dogs and Martin Grime undergo testing. These two dogs, as a team, are unique in all the world.
===== EXAMS IN THE OCEAN CLUB APT =====
- Evening of 3 August, Portuguese and UK investigators begin at Ocean Club, Apt 5A
- Martin leads in Eddie and tells him to sit at the front door, so that he can remove the leash. Contrary to expectations of this wonder dog-detective, Eddie ignored the command and ran immediately to the interior of the apt, where he ran "devilishly" from the living room to the parent's bedroom. Grimes says worriedly that something has made Eddie nervous and he calls Eddie again so that he can give orders to indicate where to start searching. An investigator is video taping. Some minutes later, Eddie focuses on the floor of the couple's bedroom, next to the wardrobe and gives the alert for cadaver odor, in a strident bark
- Why here, in the couple's room? More goosebumps to follow: Eddie gives another strident bark next to the living room wall, behind the blue sofa, under the window.
- Apt 5A begins to give up its mystery.
- On that night, before 10pm, the investigators see Gerald McCann near the apartment, driving alone in the rented Renault with the face of one "who has few friends."
- If the cadaver (EVRD) dog alerts, then the blood (CSI) dog is brought in. They are trained to find ONLY human blood, even in areas thoroughly cleaned with chemicals or bleaches. Sometimes they find blood vestiges so small that they can't be collected, and the surrounding materials themselves have to be transported to the lab. This happened with Keela.
- Keela is brought in and she marks blood in the same place as Eddie marked the cadaver smell... she stopped, immobile, with her nose pointed at the precise location of the smell. The tiles on the floor.
- Outside, Eddie gives two more alerts of cadaver smell, on the varanda of the couple's bedroom and also in a garden situation directly below it. Here, the bark is weaker, like a "could be", with some doubt, like a human shrugging their shoulders.
- Going now to the other apts, the investigators are nervous. Who knows what will come next? But to the amazement of all, after very careful exams of all the other apts, Eddie exhibits complete disinterest. Martin decides to not use Keela, since Eddie found no cadaver smell.
- There are signs of death in Apartment 5A. It's necessary to confirm that, prior to 3 May, no one had died there. The OC has no records of anything like that, nor the fire department, nor the paramedics, nor the prior apt owners knew of any death in the apt.
- It is concluded, therefore, that the cadaver odor could only come from one person: Madeleine Beth McCann
===== EDDIE SEARCHES AROUND VILA DA LUZ =====
- The search area includes Krugel's "cadaver area". Harrison had created an iron tool for puncturing the soil to allow smells to exit.
- The British team, with PJ and GNR takes a fine tooth comb to Luz, any and everywhere a body might have been hidden or momentarily deposited... buildings, abandoned/in construction, ruins, waterways, entrances to sewers, beach, vegetation around the village, including the volcanic rock "Rocha Negra". No signs from Eddie anywhere else around Praia da Luz.
===== EXAMS IN THE INTERIOR OF McCANN'S HOME [second villa] =====
- When preparing to go to the McCann's villa with the dogs, everyone knew this was the moment to either take up a technical and legal instrument which could assign responsiblity, or fully remove from suspicion, Madeleine's parents in her disappearance.
- We knew, then, that we had failed when we decided to not wiretap and follow the friends and McCanns from the beginning of the investigation.
- The Public Ministry (MP) created the proper search documents. At the same time, they asked for authorisation to wiretap the villa and car at that time. The MP agreed, as it's been used in other cases. 24 anxious hours later the sitting Judge, covering for someone on holiday, denied the MP's agreement. No time to re-request, the last chance to know what the McCanns said away from the press microphones was gone, just as the couple prepared to leave the country.
- The search was planned in great detail.
- The villa is on Rua das Flores, 27, rented at the beginning of the summer with money donated to the Find Madeleine Fund.
- 2 August, 6pm-ish, the inspectors knocked on the door. Kate and Gerry were giving the twins a bath in the exterior pool. Surprisingly, they both reacted well to the search warrant and in a forthright and open way gave unlimited access to the investigators.
- Eddie started, going directly to the living room where on top of a chair was cuddlecat, which now had a little green ribbon and rosary around its neck. Again, Eddie showed his 7 years of experience dedicated to forensic crime scene work and, with a determined and affirmative bark, indicated that CuddleCat had been in contact with a cadaver.
- Using cardboard boxes, all the clothes in the house were taken to a specially prepared area to be placed on the ground for the dogs.
- At 23h20 all the clothes are spread out. Again, Eddie marks a strong cadaver odor on Kate's clothes: slacks in black/white check and a sleeveless white blouse. He barks frenetically.
- Keela finds no blood vestiges.
===== EXAMS AT MURAT'S HOME =====
- 4 and 5 August. Ground "aired" and opened. Over two days of thorough searching, no signs from Eddie at Muart's home.
===== EXAMS ON VEHICLES =====
- 6 August, underground parking garage
- 10 vehicles examined which were used by Murat, Michaela, Malinka, Luís António, McCanns and one by Russell O'Brien
- 10 metres between cars to avoid contamination of smells between them
- Martin tells Eddie to start on exteriors, with all doors/windows tightly closed: intense sniffing of wheels, underneath, door jams, edges of boot. 1, 2, 3 cars. Nothing.
- 4th car. Eddie significantly alters his behaviour. Visibly more excited, he doesn't immediately approach the car as he did with the others. He raises his head and, with his nose in the air, sniffs incessantly around the car indicating that he is trying to find the source of that well-known odor and which he has been finding for years, which he had detected in the area and knows he is now going to find. Martin's voice commands him back to searching the car itself. Eddied provides yet another surprise in the case, barking strongly as he alerts to the existence of cadaver odor in the car rented by the McCanns.
- Precisely, Eddie alerts to:
---- the lower part of the driver's door
---- in the boot, where the dog was biting and barking, indicating the odour was coming from inside the car
The car was taken apart by forensic experts and around dawn, Keela finds vestiges of blood where Eddie signalled: the key and the luggage compartment
- As with the apartments, Eddie was uninterested in the other cars, not hesitating nor displaying behaviour similiar to the other vehicles, making his actions quite clear and precise.
- Gonçalo Amaral says he had already been removed from the team when he learned that one of the McCann's neighbors (at the second villa), a Portuguese jurist, says that in the nights leading up to the dog exams, the McCanns frequently left the baggage door open.
- One of Gerry's brother-in-laws later affirmed they used the car to transport garbage and that, once, some blood from beef spilled in the luggage area, thereby justifying the "strange" odor.
- One of Kate's aunts said that the car had unpleasant smells that she assumed came from the baby's diapers.
These justifications don't stand up to the English dogs. These dogs are exclusively trained to alert to human blood and cadaver odours. The hygiene habits of the users of this car do not even appear credible for the civilized people making up this group, which make the statements of these two, in the very least, bizarre.
===== COLLECTING THE VESTIGES =====
- Upon detection, we begin the collection and remit of the evidence to a forensic lab
- 2 early questions: how to collect and where to send. Someone from the Portuguese Police Lab came to do the collection. In a joint meeting between British and Portuguese forensic experts, it was decided to not try to do tests locally. Instead tiles were very carefully removed, monitoring all with photographs, and taken to FSS for Low Copy Number tests, the lab where they can identify DNA from microscopic blood samples.
- To safeguard the samples, the technician who removed the tiles also hand-carried them to the FSS.
- 7 August, taken to the FSS were:
---- tiles from behind the sofa and under the window
---- blood from the car key
---- hairs found in the luggage area
---- blood from the lining from the right side of the luggage area
- Gonçalo Amaral speaks of "blood" when other reports say "bodily fluids" because Keela only alerts to human blood.
[Acknowledgement Nigel Moore of mccannfiles.com]
Guest- Guest
Re: A summary of key points from 'The Truth of the Lie', 27 July 2008
by Guest 27.09.22 16:49
Chapter 3: Announcement of a disappearance: The first seventy-two hours
On this evening, May 3rd 2007, I decide to dine at the Carvi Brasserie, in the centre of Portimão, before going home. I have been living for a year in this town, where I lead the Department of Criminal Investigation of the police judiciaire. In 1982, when I was 23 and I had just taken up this career, I had already gone there. There, I had made the acquaintance of someone who was to become my friend, Manuel João. Former local official and sporty, a charismatic person. He always lent a hand to members of the police judiciaire who went to the town for the purposes of an investigation. As an elected local official, he originated the creation of a police judiciaire department in Portimão. Thus, that evening, while savouring fruits de mer, we discuss the problems of Portuguese society.
It is midnight when I receive the news about the disappearance of a little four-year-old English girl. The police officer on call was informed about it by the National Guard of The Republic (GNR) At the time of her disappearance, the little girl was supposed to have been sleeping in an apartment while her parents were dining a hundred metres away. An inspector is sent to the scene immediately to establish the initial facts. A forensic expert assigned to security of the premises will join him. All precautions are taken to preserve possible clues and elements of evidence. I demand to be informed very regularly and, before going home, I call on the police on duty to check that all urgent measures are underway. The head of the Guard has already alerted the police authorities at Faro airport and the control post set up on the Guadiana* bridge.
(*The river on the frontier between Portugal and Spain.)
THE REPORTS LEAVE A LOT TO BE DESIRED
The examination of the premises by the investigator and the representative of the forensic police just after the announcement of the disappearance turns out to be quite unproductive. A concise report, where their observations are written up, is accompanied by numerous photographs taken inside and outside apartment 5A - which don't give an account of, according to us, everything they could have observed. This error is explained by the absence of procedures in case of a child's disappearance, notably concerning the actions to be taken when examining the scene.
Lots of people were already in place; however, nobody appeared in the photos. We don't know, for example, how they were dressed. Such observations can turn out to be important later on. The report mentions that the twins were asleep in their bed, but there is no proof to confirm it; on the contrary, in the photographs, you can see empty cots, where only the mattresses remain - the sheets and blankets having been removed. Why have their beds been stripped? If the sheets had not been removed, traces of their presence could have been found there.
That evening, on arriving home, I see Inès, my younger daughter, who is sleeping close to my wife, Sofia. In silence, in the dim light of the bedroom, I sit on the edge of the bed. Outside, far from her mother's warmth, a child of the same age is lost. Sofia wakes up and asks me what is happening. I tell her about Madeleine's disappearance and instinctively, she holds our daughter tightly in her arms and makes room for me.
I make lots of phone calls and send a text message to the director of the Faro Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC): child, English, aged 4, disappeared from a Praia da Luz hotel. It's sufficient. Reading the message, he will understand the gravity of the situation. Three years before, we had dealt with a similar case, a few kilometres from Praia da Luz. We had not been informed at the time of that disappearance, and we are convinced that if the investigation could have been started immediately we would have been able to discover some physical evidence. The police response is fundamental. The first 72 hours are essential.
FIRST INTERROGATIONS AND REQUESTS TO THE BRITISH POLICE FOR INFORMATION
Friday May 4th
This morning I am worried; something isn't right in the account of the events: the little girl allegedly disappeared at 10pm while she was sleeping close to her brother and her sister. They were alone in the apartment because their parents were dining with friends. A system of checks had been put in place by the adults. Every 30 minutes according to some - every quarter of an hour according to others -, someone went to have a look at the children. It is Madeleine's mother who realised she was gone and is immediately talking about abduction.
We need information about the parents and their friends, to know who they are, what they do, if they have problems in their country, if the children were victims of abuse, if the family, neighbours, friends could have noticed any suspicious behaviour, what are their jobs, if they work full-time, etc. Is any member of their family depressed or suffered from depression in the past? Do the couple maintain good relationships? Are they implicated in serious litigation? Do they have enemies? For what reason? So, I telephone Glen Powers, the English liaison officer in Portugal, inform him of events and request that he relay our requests for reports. We consider these to be of the greatest importance and await sensitive responses to guide our investigation.
While I am on the phone and my daughters are sleeping, Sofia makes breakfast for me. She is quiet and regards me with a questioning look, as if she suspects that from today, she won't see much of me. It's not the first time this has happened: she knew that I wouldn't count my time in a case like this.
THE ORGANISATION OF THE INVESTIGATION
Since dawn, chief inspector Tavares de Almeida has been getting down to the job at the Department of Criminal Investigation in Portimão. He is following through with the first measures taken within the context of the investigation. At this time, he should have been going on holiday, but faced with the gravity of the case, he has decided to put it off until later. Neither the director of the Faro police judiciaire nor myself are going to have the time take our holidays anytime soon.
The disappearance of a child must be flagged up as widely as possible, on the national as well as on the international level. All Portguese police are already on alert, as well as Interpol. During the night, the National Guard, supported by the civilian population, has started to organise searches. They will be continued and widened tomorrow.
The search and examination of the scene were carried out in difficult conditions: when they arrived, the police were met with a large number of people coming and going - family, friends, resort employees, including dogs and members of the National Guard. The contamination of the premises risks bringing serious prejudice, as a consequence, to the investigation. We must ask ourselves if that contamination has been deliberate or not - it can make the search for clues particularly complicated. The Lisbon scenes of crime technicians come as reinforcements to start the examination of the residence, which is from now on empty.
On arrival at the Portimão Department of Criminal Investigation, I call in chief inspector Tavares de Almeida to take stock of the situation and take the measures that are necessary in the immediate future. After the searches undertaken in the surrounding area - dustbins, containers, sewers -, it is necessary to proceed with the interrogation of certain potential witnesses. The parents and their friends will be heard quickly. The first statements are of prime importance: memories are still vivid and crucial details could thus be obtained, which would risk being lost later. The witness statements of the restaurant employees, those from the day centre and the playgroup where Madeleine and the twins spent their day are also all important. The search for witnesses will be widened to all the tourists present, whose names must be submitted to the parents and friends. Perhaps they will recognise someone....The English police are involved: they are being asked to cross-check that list with their files in order to pick out individuals known to their services.
All of the video recordings from the tourist complex - hotels, banks, pharmacies, supermarkets and service stations -, including those from the CCTV cameras of two motorways - one leading to Lagos and one linking Lagos and Spain -, will be viewed. The Spanish customs service has been asked to increase vigilance at the two ports maintaining links with Morocco,Tarifa and Algeciras. The Algarvian coast, very popular with sailing enthusiasts, is bordered by a large number of marinas. Pleasure boats from every province berth here. Situated 120 nautical miles from the African continent, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, it is the most accessible coast for entering the continent of Europe. It attracts many yachtsmen, who appreciate the beauty of its beaches and its inlets, but it also attracts all sorts of traffickers.
- Make contact with the marinas and the maritime police; we must have access to video recordings as well as the registers of boats entering and leaving in the last few days.
- I am going to contact them and make sure they have started the sea searches.
In anticipation of the volume of information we are going to have to deal with, we decide to fit out a room dedicated to the investigation, our crisis unit.
THE INFORMATION SOUGHT IS SOMETIMES UNOBTAINABLE
We need reliable information. Apart from all the searches already undertaken, we must also examine the photos and films taken by the McCann family and their friends. From amongst the onlookers, these images could help to identify a suspicious-looking individual or someone whose attitude might be suspicious. Trivialised since the general use of computers, photography is a source of information which the investigators know not to neglect: each holiday-maker takes, in general, hundreds of photos. The McCanns and their friends who were in Vila da Luz make all of theirs available to the investigators, but none of those dating from the evening of the disappearance help us to understand what happened.
NO SIGN OF A BREAK-IN
At this stage of the investigation, the hypotheses are numerous, and each one must be considered. It is necessary to locate and identify all the paedophiles who live in or who have passed through the Algarve, in order to check that they were not in the proximity of Vila da Luz on the days preceding the disappearance.
The idea of a robbery gone wrong is not to be ruled out either. During the holidays, burglaries are not rare, and the police are not always informed, because hotels avoid spreading this kind of information. Even if the examination of apartment 5A reveals no trace of a break-in - contrary to what the parents insist and that Sky announced - we have to take stock of the petty crimes committed in the seaside resort and at the tourist complex. We are counting on the management of the hotel so that no incident of this nature remains hidden. Even if we don't have much belief in the scenario of a burglar who enters the apartment for a burglary and leaves it with the child, dead or alive, this hypothesis, as ridiculous as it may be, must not be neglected.
FIRST MORNING OF THE INVESTIGATION;
AN ABDUCTION?
Still May 4th
When drawing up the report of the first observations, which must be forwarded to the district Judiciary Court of Lagos, we are undecided about the legal denomination of the events. Finally, we opt for "abduction??," adding two question marks after the word to express our uncertainty. The decision was not taken lightly. That decision preserves the interests of the various opposing parties, those of the parents, those of the child, not to say those of the investigation itself.
The report by the team who conducted the analyses of the apartment records all observations carried out and statements gathered. It sets out the list of people present and potential witnesses. It also includes fingerprints taken as well as photographic documentation.
On reading this report, which was given to me on the morning of May 4th, I understand that there is no evidence sufficiently convincing to tip the investigation in one direction rather than another. There are many possible leads: voluntary disappearance - the child could have wakened and not seeing her parents, gone off to look for them; accidental death and concealing of a body; physical abuse causing death; murder by negligence or premeditated; an act of vengeance; taken hostage followed by a ransom demand; abducted by a paedophile; kidnap or murder committed by a burglar.
The hypothesis of abduction widens and complicates the investigations; it allows the mobilisation of means and resources that would have been difficult to obtain otherwise, such as the arrival of reinforcements, absolutely indispensable faced with the magnitude of the task, notably in the course of the first 72 hours. In a more calm climate, we could have got down to the search for evidence more effectively, allowing us to understand how that child disappeared, without worrying that suspicion might fall on the friends of the family.
THE VISITS BY THE CONSUL AND THE AMBASSADOR; INFORMATION IS TAKING A LONG TIME TO COME FROM GREAT BRITAIN
At ten in the morning, twelve hours after the disappearance, the British Consul to Portimão goes to the Department of Criminal Investigation. We inform him of the actions taken up to then and the next stages being considered. He doesn't seem satisfied. Someone hears him on the telephone saying that the police judiciaire are doing nothing. Now, that's strange! Why that untruth? What objective does he have in mind? Giving another dimension to the case? Perhaps, I don't know a thing about it, but this is not the time for conjecture; we have to concentrate on our work, of finding the little girl.
We're not getting any response from Great Britain. We've had no reports on the subject of the couple, their children and their friends, which doesn't help us to tighten up the investigation. We would like, for example, to know if Madeleine was adopted by the couple, which would allow us to eliminate the hypothesis of parental abduction. If the information is not reaching us, it's obviously reaching the British Ambassador. We are astonished by this prompt mobilisation of the English authorities. So, who are the McCanns? Who are their friends? We don't need diplomatic intervention: what we would like, is answers to the questions sent to the British police authorities by Glen Power.
THE SEARCHES CONTINUE; THE ASTONISHING INVASION BY THE PRESS
The searches on the ground continue, with the help of a helicopter from Disaster Management. Interviews of holiday-makers and the resort's employees multiply. We're worried, aware that it's a race against the clock: tomorrow, many tourists will be leaving the resort. As for the McCanns and their friends, who should also be leaving on this date, we are totally unaware of their plans. For the needs of the investigation, it is imperative that they stay put, but we have no legal means of preventing their departure. During the morning, the deputy director of the Faro police judiciaire joins us. Until the end of September, his life will be split between Faro and Portimão, where he will travel to every day. He asks how the searches are going and decides to go to Vila da Luz to check for himself the operations that have been set up. I go with him. When we arrive, we find that the media, Portuguese as well as English, are present en masse. It seems that the McCanns' friends have reported Maddie's disappearance to the press before informing the police about it. Another point which we must clarify.
TECHNICAL FAULTS
Inside the apartment, police forensic specialists proceed to lift finger and palmar prints, a job that is preferably carried out during daylight hours. Others look for traces of blood, samples of fibres and hair. We notice with dismay that one of the technicians, who is working on the outside of the McCann children's bedroom window is not using the regulation suit, thus risking contaminating possible clues. These images of negligence start to circulate world-wide; this isn't, however, the usual behaviour of police judiciaire technicians.
It's obvious that no one has broken in and the lock has not been forced. No prints are lifted that are likely to belong to an unknown person, nor the slightest trace of gloves which could have been worn by a hypothetical abductor. In the middle of this desert of clues, two prints are perfectly easily found: the very distinct mark of a palm print on the balcony window at the rear of the apartment, and a clearly visible one of fingers on the window pane of Madeleine's bedroom. The excellent quality of the palm print seemed suspicious to us. Later, analyses confirm our suspicions: it belonged to one of the officers who were present the previous night.
In Portugal, no protocol exists for coordinating the work of the different police services in the event of the worrying disappearance of a child, perhaps because until now this type of case has been rare. We have been fighting for several years for the creation of just such a resource. However, we don't have to invent anything: it would be sufficient to adapt the protocols already existent in other countries more used to cases of this type - Great Britain, for example.
A SUSPECT WHO, VERY QUICKLY ISN'T; THE SEARCHES CONTINUE
While we continue to gather statements from resort employees, we are informed of the presence in the region of an individual suspected of abusing children. Of British nationality, he would frequent a pub situated 150 metres from Madeleine's apartment. In 2005, sought by the police in his own country, he fled abroad and the English authorities had then lost track of him. But we discover that the pub in question doesn't exist any more, and that the information that the man is in the area has no basis in fact. His step-father, contacted by the police, states that he is currently in Iraq, information later confirmed by the British police.
In the main street of Vila da Luz, there are open trenches because of improvement works. They leave the waste water mains exposed. On the night of May 3rd searches were conducted there, with the help of sniffer dogs from the National Guard of The Republic. (GNR) We'd like to proceed with another inspection, but the site foreman assures us that access to the mains is closed during the night and the workmen noticed nothing abnormal when starting work the next morning.
STATEMENTS FROM THE PARENTS AND FRIENDS; FIRST INCONSISTENCIES
Still May 4th
Madeleine's parents and friends of the family go to the Department of Criminal Investigation to be interviewed. Their statements should help us to better understand the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance. Each must be questioned at the same time, but separately, in order to avoid "contamination," of the witness statements - which happens often when witnesses have the opportunity to exchange information. Sometimes an important detail is held in the memory, but can be lost after a conversation with another witness. This is the usual procedure. In this way, we can establish relevant cross checks, confirm or invalidate certain assertions. But that was not possible today, certain adults having stayed at the resort to look after the children.
We have to retrace their comings and goings very precisely as well as those of the children. What they did during the holiday, where they went...In possession of this information, we will attempt afterwards to collect photos and films taken by holiday-makers who were in the same places: we will succeed perhaps in pinpointing a detail that could be of significance. These same tourists might quite simply help us to better understand the way in which the group of friends was working.
The personality of the victim and of the parents has significance. We have to find out if they were threatened in the past, if they have enemies. We must consider the possibility of a mistake: the target may not have been Madeleine but another child of the group of friends. Therefore, they too must give answers to similar questions.
None of the adults possessing a vehicle, they never go very far and in general stay within the confines of the resort. Their knowledge of the surrounding area is limited and we assume that they limit themselves to the roads linking the beach and their apartments.
During the morning, only Madeleine's father, Matthew Oldfield and Jane Tanner are interviewed. However, already contradictions and improbabilities are appearing from one to another of the statements, notably concerning access to the apartment.
An example: during the course of the evening, Jane encountered Gerald McCann and Jeremiah busy chatting in the street. At that time, Gerald was coming back from his apartment, where he had gone to make sure the children were sound asleep - which he confirmed in his statement. Jane asserts that she noticed a suspicious individual carrying a child in his arms - probably Madeleine, according to her - immediately after having passed the two men. Gerald and Jeremiah should also have seen her, but that was not the case.
The mother of the missing little girl, Kate Healy, and all the other members of the group, David Payne and his wife Fiona, Rachael Mampilly, Russell O'Brien and Diane Webster, are heard later. They might already be aware of the questions put to their friends and of their responses. In that case, there won't be the element of surprise. The presence of an interpreter doesn't make the interviews any easier either. The witnesses benefit from the translation time to prepare their responses.
Madeleine's parents are insisting on the theory of abduction. They want to convince us of it at all costs. Gerald stresses that the front door was locked; Kate states that she entered the apartment through the rear sliding doors, which weren't locked, and that the window was wide open with the shutters raised.
This theory does not hold water, which will be observed during other interviews. The only witness statement corroborating that assertion is Jane Tanner's.
From now on it's important to shed light on the contradictions raised in these first witness statements.
Here is the chronological sequence of visits to the apartment:
- 21.05: Gerald McCann (the children are fine);
- 21.10/21.15: Jane Tanner (states having observed the alleged abductor with a child in his arms);
- 21.30: Matthew Oldfield: (goes into the apartment, but doesn't go into the bedroom. He only sees the twins);
- 22.00: Kate Healy (goes into the apartment, and finds that Madeleine has disappeared).
If, as Kate states, the window was open when she went into the apartment, how come Matthew didn't notice? At the time when the latter went in, Jane had already seen the alleged abductor with the child. So, logically, if the crime had already been committed, the window should have been open.
Matthew says that the bedroom door was half open, Kate that it was wide open. It can be concluded that Madeleine was already no longer in the room - which Matthew should have noticed, if the other witness statements are to be believed.
Another inconsistency - unexpected - appears. When Kate refers to the individual who allegedly abducted her child, she has no information other than that given to her by Jane, since she, herself, did not see him. But, the description she gives of him differs from that of Jane Tanner. The latter - extremely sure of herself, and who will be interviewed on several occasions - portrays a man dressed in light-coloured trousers, with hair down to his collar. Kate refers to long hair and jeans.
Gerald tells the police that Jane described to him - after midnight, during the night of May 3rd to May 4th - this stranger she allegedly saw going up the road; his hair was brown, he was between 30 and 40 years old and he was wearing light-coloured trousers. The first police officers to arrive on the premises are convinced that the parents put forward the hypothesis of abduction because Jane had talked about this man with the child. In their report, Jane's description is as follows: it was an individual dressed in light-coloured trousers and a dark shirt, he was 1.78m tall and was carrying a child, probably in pyjamas. She does not describe the pyjamas and doesn't mention any other detail.
Later, during the course of the morning of May 4th, the father gives the same brief description and refers back to Jane for additional details. The latter appears at the offices of the police judiciaire in Portimão at 11.30am. This time, the description is very precise: the individual, aged between 35 and 40, was thin and 1.70m tall; his hair was dark brown, falling over his collar; he was wearing cream or beige trousers, probably linen, a sort of anorak - but not very thick - and black shoes, classic in style. He was walking hurriedly, with a child in his arms. He was warmly dressed, the reason she thought he was not a tourist. The child appeared to be asleep - she only saw the legs -, had bare feet and was dressed in pyjamas, which were obviously cotton, light-coloured, probably white or pale pink, with a pattern - flowers maybe, but she isn't certain. Concerning the man, she states that she would recognise him from the back by his particular way of walking. The importance of this statement will be seen later.
Hardly fourteen hours have gone by since the child's disappearance and already Jane's version is known by many people. The father even referred to it during his statement, as can be seen above. Jane insists that she spoke solely to Gerald about this individual and then without going into details. It is only later that she related it all to the police.
Again, we notice an inconsistency. She was not aware, she says, of how Madeleine was dressed, which seems unlikely: on the night of the disappearance, Kate immediately gave a precise description of the clothes the little girl was wearing when she was put to bed.
Everybody knew they were looking for a little girl of nearly four, bare feet, dressed in light-coloured pyjamas on which there was a pink animal design. This description was relayed to all those who mobilised to find the child. How come Jane Tanner took no notice, she who, at that time, was the main witness in the case?
FIRST EYE WITNESS STATEMENTS; KATE HEALY'S SURPRISING REACTION
Madeleine's parents are already back in Vila da Luz when we receive photos taken on an area of the motorway: you can make out the figure of a little girl, who looks like Madeleine, accompanied by a couple. These images come from a CCTV camera on the motorway linking Lagos to the Spanish border. The McCanns are asked to come to Portimão in order to proceed to an identification. It's the end of the day. Kate Healy seems annoyed at coming back and made uncomfortable by the speed of the police car taking her. We are somewhat astonished by her reaction, as if she was not expecting to get her daughter back. The identification turns out negative.
POLICE REINFORCEMENTS
A team from the Central Crime Fighting Directorate (DCCB) arrives from Lisbon, accompanied by their director. I wasn't informed of this decision, but I agree with it. The reinforcements are welcomed, because we must get on very quickly. The experience of these police officers in the field of abductions and the taking of hostages is a plus for the investigation and the ways they operate are largely superior to ours. In addition, their experts are the most qualified of the police judiciaire. From now on, two deputy national directors, assisted by the coordinator of the Portimão Department of Criminal Investigation, will direct the investigations. A few months later, chief inspector Tavares de Almeida was to share one of his convictions with me: if we had remained solely responsible for the investigation, we would have advanced more quickly.
In reality, I don't know. I don't think we can rewrite history with "if." At that time the directorate of the police judiciaire had decided on it, and we had favourably welcomed the arrival of that team. It was about doing our best with these new participants and taking advantage of their ways of working. The motivations behind that decision, whatever they are don't interest us in the slightest.
MISSING PERSONS POSTER IS ISSUED
In the afternoon, we ask the Public Minister for authorisation to issue a missing persons poster to the press. It is published on May 5th, accompanied by a photo of the child and telephone numbers. We, thus, hope to obtain new information. We are going to be inundated with witness statements of every kind: people who are persuaded that they can help us thanks to their psychic powers; others who have dreamed about Madeleine and believe they know where she is, and yet others who think they have seen her here or there...A great number of reports come to us, that we have to analyse and check out: none must be neglected, even if most of them, on the face of it, seem absurd. In the hypothesis of an abduction, we might imagine that the abductor has tried to modify the child's appearance to more easily pass unnoticed. So, we create portraits of the little girl, modifying the colour and style of her hair.
THE WEAKNESSES IN JANE'S WITNESS STATEMENT
Friday May 4th, at 8pm, we criss-cross Praia da Luz to take note of the activity in the village at dinner time and to check the street lighting. We stay there until 10pm while the forensic team from the police laboratory get on with their investigation.
Certainly, today there are people who wouldn't normally have been here: police officers and journalists. But, even so, it is noticeable that there is very little movement. The place where the abductor happened to be is dimly lit: how did Jane manage to describe him so accurately? Witnesses confirm that the streets were also deserted yesterday.
Why did the potential abductor choose to walk around like that, in the open, running the risk - in spite of the darkness - of being recognised by a passer-by? If he had planned the abduction, he would have taken the time to study, not only the habits of the family, but also the topography of the place. If he wasn't from the village, he would probably have come by car, and he would have sought to conceal it in a dark corner. But the darkest area is situated in exactly the opposite direction to that indicated by Jane Tanner. Did she actually see that man going towards the east? Wouldn't he rather be going towards the west? Leaving by car, he would inevitably have had to go towards the centre of the village, in which case, he would have to go either past the entrance to the restaurant where Madeleine's parents were dining, or by the main road that leads to EN125*
(*The road running west out of the village towards Sagres and east towards Lagos.)
We walk around Vila da Luz, covering all the roads, trying to imagine the options that presented themselves to the abductor. Without a car, and not knowing the place, the safest approach to the village is the beach. In the few bars, restaurants and cafés open at this time of year, no one noticed anything at all strange during the evening of May 3rd, no suspicious behaviour, nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the establishments had closed at around 9pm.
DISCUSSION IN THE CRISIS ROOM
The crisis unit has been operating for several hours now, on the top floor of the building. Basing ourselves on the details gathered in the course of this first day, we are trying to understand the sequence of events. The original hypotheses are still valid: voluntary disappearance, abduction or death. Divergent opinions and heated discussions fire with enthusiasm. But we always finish by returning to an objective analysis of the facts to refocus the discussions.
We are opening the window to let the fresh air expel the smoke from countless cigarettes smoked during the meeting when, suddenly, someone poses a question that shouts out to all of us:
- Tell me then, what is this story about the raised shutters in the bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping - or not sleeping?
We have in mind the statements from Gerald McCann and Kate Healy.
When Gerald saw his daughter for the last time, at around 9.05pm, she was sleeping in the bedroom with the twins. He entered his apartment by the front door, using his key. No windows were open, but he cannot say if they were locked. On the other hand - everybody is in agreement in saying -, the patio door at the rear wasn't locked.
Then, at 10pm, Madeleine's mother goes in her turn into the bedroom, she sees the open window, the raised shutters and the curtains waving in the breeze. This scenario is highly improbable, since the shutters cannot be operated from the outside. Normally, that window is never opened, she says, but she can't say either if it was locked. This vagueness perhaps serves the interests of the witnesses, but arouses the suspicions of the investigators.
Finally, we were able to conclude with certainty that the only opening that wasn't locked was the patio door at the rear of the building, opening onto the area with the swimming pools and the Tapas restaurant, where the parents were dining.
You ask yourself why Gerald went into his apartment through the front door while the one at the back is closer to the restaurant and doesn't need a key. The parents insist that it was visible from the restaurant and that no one could have walked in without being noticed.
But that's false, as we were easily able to verify. At night, with the surrounding vegetation and the opaque plastic tarpaulin that protects the dining room of the restaurant, visibility is nil: anybody could have got into theMcCanns' apartment without being noticed, particularly as most of the guests had their back to the apartment.
We understand their insistence. The parents need to affirm that the children were sleeping in complete safety, and they were looking out for their well-being. But, whatever the arguments, one thing is indisputable: Madeleine was not safe.
- Strange, all the same, this burglar who enters by the door and goes out through the window with a four-year-old child in his arms. It would have been easier to go back out by the same door.
- In fact, something isn't right.
- Someone is hiding something...
- You could say they were sharing a secret.
Little by little, clearly because of tiredness, everyone starts speaking at once, words are confused. But, gradually, calm is restored, and the information gathered so far allows us to put forward several hypotheses.
- It's hard to understand how a potential abductor would have had the audacity to enter an apartment and abduct the child, knowing that the parents could burst in at any moment.
- Either or: either the man was informed about the habits of the family, and in that case we would have to also suspect employees of the restaurant, or else he hung around in the vicinity for a while to study the lie of the land.
- Only, if he had studied the lie of the land, he would have taken one and the same door for entering and leaving.
- The parents say that the bedroom window was open and the front door was closed at the time they became aware of the disappearance.
- And if they are not telling the truth?
- Put yourself in their place: you are on holiday in a strange place which you don't know; you leave three children under 4 to sleep alone; one of them disappears while you and your wife are quietly dining at the restaurant. You would take on the blame? You wouldn't be afraid of the reaction from the local authorities?
- OK, but if, in one way or another, the parents had something to do with the disappearance? They would inevitably have to invent a story, so logically, lie.
- That's not right, is it? Don't forget you are dealing with well-educated people, nearly all doctors, the child's father is a surgeon. What a ridiculous idea!
- Right, if I understand you properly, you mean that family dramas are the reserve of the simple-minded and the underprivileged...
- We must not put aside any hypothesis, even if it doesn't really grab us, cuts in one of our colleagues, who was listening to our exchanges.
-OK, but for the moment, we must not raise suspicions. They are totally unfounded in the current state of the investigation.
- Apparently, it's the examination of the window that might provide us with an answer. And the fingerprints?
- In the process of being identified.
- Are there copies of the front door key?
- Yes, of course, they are used by employees responsible for cleaning and maintenance and kept in a safe.
- Everybody has to be interviewed.
- Yes. And have the English responded to our requests for reports? We have more and more need of them.
- No, not yet, they are efficiently waiting to collect all the details before sending us a complete file.
- Well, I hope they won't leave us waiting much longer, Every hour counts.
Obviously, we don't end up with any conclusion that night, ....Dawn is breaking already when we finish: the next stages have been decided upon and teams set up. Thus ends the first day of the investigation. Journalists are lurking around the offices of the police judiciaire and in the streets of Vila da Luz. News of the disappearance has spread like wildfire. The eyes of the world are riveted on the Algarve. Little by little the pressure mounts and we have the feeling that our lives will never be the same.
Saturday May 5th
The accommodation we are occupying in the town centre rapidly becomes overcrowded: we need more sheets and blankets. Beds are allocated; some investigators have to sleep on sofas, others on the floor. Astonishingly, in this place, however jam-packed, total silence reigns. We all need to rest. Our dreams are disturbed, our worries are multiplying. Thirty-four hours after Madeleine's disappearance, we tackle our second day of the investigation. In this apartment of temporary refuge, it's the morning bustle; we mustn't lie around. In spite of the lack of sleep, no one shows any sign of fatigue: on the contrary, we are all in a hurry to getting back to work and impatiently wait our turn outside the bathroom.
Before going out, we check that there are no journalists in the area. In spite of their pugnacity, they were never able to find our hiding place. A stop for breakfast, and the day begins. Destination DIC (Department of Criminal Investigation.)
POLISH LEAD IN SAGRES
Hundreds of statements continue to be gathered in Vila da Luz. All the people of the area are interviewed: resort employees, tourists, play leaders from the crèches, residents. Most of them will be of no use to us, but none must be neglected.
From information from Sagres, we learn that an individual has been surprised on Mareta beach taking photos of several children and in particular of a little girl aged 4, blonde with blue eyes, who looks like Madeleine. It was the little girl's father who noticed him. This 40 year-old man, wearing glasses, tells the investigators that the photographer tried to kidnap his daughter in the afternoon of April 26th in Sagres.
He allegedly then fled in a hired car with a woman in the passenger seat. The stranger did not look like a tourist; brown hair down to his collar, wearing cream-coloured trousers and jacket and shoes of a classic style. This report reminds us of the individual encountered by Jane Tanner in the streets of Vila da Luz on the evening of Madeleine's disappearance.
Thanks to the father's composure, he managed to take a photograph of the vehicle. It's not very clear and does not allow us to make out the number plate, but we succeed, nonetheless, in finding the car. The car hire firm provides us with the identity of the driver. He is a forty-year-old Polish man, who is traveling with his wife. They arrived in Portugal on April 28th, from Berlin. At Faro airport, they hired a car and put up in an apartment in Budens, near Praia da Luz. Unfortunately, on May 5th, at 7am, they had already left, taking with them their camera and all the photos from their holiday. We ask the German police, through Interpol, to monitor them as soon as they arrive in Berlin. All the passengers are questioned, but no one has seen a child looking like Madeleine. In Berlin, the couple take the train to return to Poland. Thus, the Polish trail comes to an end. We would like to have seen their photos...but that proved impossible.
A lead is only valuable in as far as it is followed to the end, which was not the case with this one. We will realise that we shouldn't have ruled it out so quickly, and that it is still a topic of interest.
MORE LEADS, STILL NO RESULTS
Other individuals were seen lurking around the apartment, acting suspiciously, shortly before the events. On May 2nd or 3rd, according to an English tourist, an individual in shabby clothing was staring fixedly in the direction of the apartment. He went off in a white van. Other witness statements go in the same direction. For each, we set in motion the research procedures which sometimes include the development of an Identikit picture.
On the outskirts of Lagos, in the direction of Aljezur, there is a Gypsy encampment. Of course, traveling people are no longer thought of as child-stealers. Nevertheless, it is important to make sure they have nothing to do with the case before they hit the road again. As soon as they are informed of our searches, they collaborate voluntarily and let the agents do their work and conduct a search of their tents and their cars. No one has seen little Madeleine in the area.
Throughout the day, numerous apartments are visited in the resort and neighbouring areas: the investigators search more than 400, without result.
QUALMS ABOUT INVESTIGATING THE McCANNS; THE THEORY OF ABDUCTION GAINS GROUND.
Someone puts forward the hypothesis according to which Madeleine would have died in her apartment, and that a member of the group would have removed her. It's a possibility, but nothing so far, no evidence, happens to support that theory.
The McCanns are put up with David Payne. We want to search the accommodation of the family friends to try to pick up Madeleine's clothes, especially those she was wearing on May 3rd at 5.35pm when she returned from the day centre with her mother and the twins. Evidently, this initiative is not widely supported. The British ambassador meets with the team directing the investigation. The political and the diplomatic seem to want to prevent us from freely doing our work.
- I'm sure this check is necessary.
- The clothes? Are you mad? if I understand you properly, you want to go into the apartment to take clothes to have them analysed?
- Yes. What's the problem? It's a perfectly normal procedure in cases like this.
- Of course, but with this media hype...I don't think I have ever in my life seen so many journalists....And I didn't come down in the last shower.
THE PJ'S DIFFICULTIES IN COMMUNICATING WITH THE MEDIA; THE PRO McCANN PRESS OFFICE.
From the start of the investigation, we ask for the presence of a press attaché to accompany us and take on communicating with the media. The Justice Minister fulfills this request. Very quickly, however, this decision is contested. The reaction of the press itself is feared and public opinion, which might interpret that presence with direct intervention in the investigation by the minister....Finally, the person retained is an investigator, who is not working on the case, speaks English and has some experience in this field. With hindsight, it can be said that it wasn't a good decision. In fact, after the reading of our first press release and the parents' press conferences, the press let fly.
We were convinced that the people directly involved in the investigation should remain distanced from the media whirlwind. We needed help: the police judiciaire would have to engage staff to dissect published articles, focusing on the analysis of press statements from the parents and their friends.But that didn't happen. The media circus was in full swing: all the time, new articles, live TV, a growing number of journalists running around the streets of Vila da Luz.
It didn't seem normal to us either that a couple whose child has just disappeared engages press attachés to deal with their relations with the media. It is not a question here of minimising the role of the means of communication and ignoring that a subject like this stirs up a lot of curiosity, but that constant preoccupation with the management of their communication by the parents, appeared to us, to say the least, astonishing.
TELEPHONE CALLS ON THE NIGHT OF THE DISAPPEARANCE.
The tracking of Portuguese and foreign paedophiles - the majority English - residing in the region or simply on holiday, continues to be checked. In spite of the kilometres covered, the interviews and the searches carried out, there is nothing concrete that leads us to suspect any of them.
The investigators continue to deal with the information collected. They look into all the statements, in particular those of the Ocean Club employees, and go through the lists of telephone calls that have been made available to them.
We must also check all communication via mobile phones during the night of May 3rd. It is possible that the abductor had used a mobile. We locate the relay antennae of various operators covering the sector in order to obtain the summary of calls and messages made or received that transited their antennae. Finally, the only suspicious communications are those involving Robert Murat, a person who is central to this case, who will later be placed under investigation.
The walls of the crisis unit are little by little covered in analytical charts, time-series charts, sketches, plans, task lists, photos and other important elements with, at the centre, the photo of Madeleine, to always remind us of the object of our mission.
LOG OF CALLS ON GERRY McCANN'S MOBILE PHONE DELETED
Between 11pm and 3 in the morning, all members of the investigation team meet in the crisis unit; in the same smoke filled atmosphere, we take stock of the situation. Some don't agree with the police judiciaire's press release and think that the information should not have been disclosed, even by way of official press releases. Others think it's possible to interpret the visit by the British ambassador as a form of British government intervention, which may not be impartial. Is it usual for them to get involved with cases of this kind or is it specific to this case, and why? Only they hold the answer.
Until now, the results have hardly been conclusive. New means - in all other investigations, they would already have been put in place - must be deployed.
- Why not monitor and tap the phones of the parents and friends? Their statements are far from convincing. The story about the window is unsound, and Jane's witness statement is not convincing either.
- In that way new details could be obtained.
- We have already discussed it. That would be ideal...Only, we have to get the judge to give us authorisation with the scant details we have at our disposal. And if the parents get wind of it, we risk having the sky fall on our heads.
- In a kidnapping case with a ransom demand, that procedure would be normal, at least for the monitoring of the parents' phone calls.
- That's for certain, but in our case, that comes back to practically accusing them. Further, we don't even know if there's been a crime.
- Yes, I am well aware, but I insist. This would allow them to be ruled out.
The questions raised are relevant. Telephone taps would also allow unfounded suspicions to be destroyed. In our legal system, that procedure is only used with the sole purpose of gathering evidence. At this stage of the investigation, it's very tricky for us to express our doubts as to the sincerity of the parents and their friends.
On May 4th, the parents authorise us to check the phone calls logged on their mobile.
- Here's a copy of the summary of calls.
- I only have that of the couple. We have yet to receive the summary from BTS
- OK, what have we got?
- Do you see what I see?
- Yes, I think so: between April 27th and May 4th, Kate did not make any calls. Hum...
- None either, between 11.22am and 11.17pm on the night of the disappearance.
- Kate mustn't like making telephone calls...
- For Gerald, there's nothing before May 4th at exactly 12.15am
- What does that mean? They never made phone calls then?
- Wait, there's something here. Look at the number at the top of the list.
- Yes, so?
- On her telephone, her husbands' number is logged: she called him on May 3rd at 11.17pm, but on Gerald's, nothing, no trace of that call!
- How can that be explained?
- It's simple as anything: the list of calls has been deleted.
- Always the same old question: why?
Summing up: the first phone calls were exchanged one hour after the disappearance. It could be imagined that in that lapse of time, they were busy looking for their daughter. Nevertheless, it's astonishing that they didn't need to speak to each other at such a difficult time.
Later I learn that the English secret service had already placed the couple under telephone surveillance. If that's true, the Portuguese police were never informed.
(* Base Transceiver Station of mobile phone operators)
THE POLISH TRAIL LEADS TO AN IMPASSE
Sunday May 6th
Meeting room. Seventy-two hours have gone by since the disappearance. We are going through a difficult time: in spite of the searches carried out on the ground and the considerable means deployed, we haven't found Madeleine. The day gets off to a difficult start with bad news from Poland. From all accounts, the police badly interpreted our request for collaboration; all they did was approach the couple and verify that Madeleine was not with them, but didn't seize either their photographic equipment or the photos taken during their holiday. Another lead that remains pending. Perhaps it would have led to the discovery of a paedophile ring.
We are seeking to piece together the couple's itinerary, to find out if anyone noticed them in the vicinity of Praia da Luz, to establish any relationship between them and Maddie's disappearance. We circulate a photo - which we obtained thanks to a surveillance camera in a Lisbon shopping mall - amongst holiday-makers, clients and employees of Praia da Luz restaurants. Fruitlessly. Nobody saw them.
On the other hand, employees of the restaurant they usually went to, in the Burgau-Budens area, remember them: the woman was usually in a bad mood, and both wore clothes totally inappropriate to the place and the time of year. The forensic police won't be able to investigate their hire vehicle, which we managed to locate, because it has already been rented out again. All that's left to us is to find the bin in which the cleaning team dumped the rubbish left in the vehicle. Analyses of the rubbish reveals nothing. Fortunately, no one else has yet occupied the apartment the couple stayed in - it's low season. We go ahead with a thorough search, looking for evidence of a child's presence: shoe prints, fingerprints or footprints. Nothing. We then gather various hair samples - doubtless coming from adults - and notice drops of blood on a kitchen unit. Nothing conclusive. It's probably from an everyday domestic accident.
In the course of a meeting, I ask the director what follow-up to bring to this case, now that the person who took the photos knows he is being sought. The director gives a common sense response.
- It's unfortunate, of course. However, they were never seen in Praia da Luz, much less close to the apartment....The father of the little girl in Sagres was wearing spectacles and we aren't 100% sure of the accuracy of his description.
- Yes, but he took photos of the car. Yet again, it could quite well belong to someone else, but...
- If, in the course of the investigation, there are update details on this lead, we will request a rogatory letter and we will go to Poland to interview them and conduct a search of their apartment.
We doubt that a rogatory letter would be of any use to us. The way this lead was handled makes us think not, but we can't hold it against the Polish police, who collaborated as well as they could.
We refocus our efforts on other leads. Information on more individuals behaving suspiciously continues to flood in.
IN THE REAL WORLD
"The child, [..........] shall, wherever possible, grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security;"
United Nations Declaration of The Rights of The Child, 1959
Original translation by AnnaEsse
Posted by Jill Havern - CMOMM
https://goncaloamaraltruthofthelie.blogspot.com/2009/06/chapter-3.html
On this evening, May 3rd 2007, I decide to dine at the Carvi Brasserie, in the centre of Portimão, before going home. I have been living for a year in this town, where I lead the Department of Criminal Investigation of the police judiciaire. In 1982, when I was 23 and I had just taken up this career, I had already gone there. There, I had made the acquaintance of someone who was to become my friend, Manuel João. Former local official and sporty, a charismatic person. He always lent a hand to members of the police judiciaire who went to the town for the purposes of an investigation. As an elected local official, he originated the creation of a police judiciaire department in Portimão. Thus, that evening, while savouring fruits de mer, we discuss the problems of Portuguese society.
It is midnight when I receive the news about the disappearance of a little four-year-old English girl. The police officer on call was informed about it by the National Guard of The Republic (GNR) At the time of her disappearance, the little girl was supposed to have been sleeping in an apartment while her parents were dining a hundred metres away. An inspector is sent to the scene immediately to establish the initial facts. A forensic expert assigned to security of the premises will join him. All precautions are taken to preserve possible clues and elements of evidence. I demand to be informed very regularly and, before going home, I call on the police on duty to check that all urgent measures are underway. The head of the Guard has already alerted the police authorities at Faro airport and the control post set up on the Guadiana* bridge.
(*The river on the frontier between Portugal and Spain.)
THE REPORTS LEAVE A LOT TO BE DESIRED
The examination of the premises by the investigator and the representative of the forensic police just after the announcement of the disappearance turns out to be quite unproductive. A concise report, where their observations are written up, is accompanied by numerous photographs taken inside and outside apartment 5A - which don't give an account of, according to us, everything they could have observed. This error is explained by the absence of procedures in case of a child's disappearance, notably concerning the actions to be taken when examining the scene.
Lots of people were already in place; however, nobody appeared in the photos. We don't know, for example, how they were dressed. Such observations can turn out to be important later on. The report mentions that the twins were asleep in their bed, but there is no proof to confirm it; on the contrary, in the photographs, you can see empty cots, where only the mattresses remain - the sheets and blankets having been removed. Why have their beds been stripped? If the sheets had not been removed, traces of their presence could have been found there.
That evening, on arriving home, I see Inès, my younger daughter, who is sleeping close to my wife, Sofia. In silence, in the dim light of the bedroom, I sit on the edge of the bed. Outside, far from her mother's warmth, a child of the same age is lost. Sofia wakes up and asks me what is happening. I tell her about Madeleine's disappearance and instinctively, she holds our daughter tightly in her arms and makes room for me.
I make lots of phone calls and send a text message to the director of the Faro Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC): child, English, aged 4, disappeared from a Praia da Luz hotel. It's sufficient. Reading the message, he will understand the gravity of the situation. Three years before, we had dealt with a similar case, a few kilometres from Praia da Luz. We had not been informed at the time of that disappearance, and we are convinced that if the investigation could have been started immediately we would have been able to discover some physical evidence. The police response is fundamental. The first 72 hours are essential.
FIRST INTERROGATIONS AND REQUESTS TO THE BRITISH POLICE FOR INFORMATION
Friday May 4th
This morning I am worried; something isn't right in the account of the events: the little girl allegedly disappeared at 10pm while she was sleeping close to her brother and her sister. They were alone in the apartment because their parents were dining with friends. A system of checks had been put in place by the adults. Every 30 minutes according to some - every quarter of an hour according to others -, someone went to have a look at the children. It is Madeleine's mother who realised she was gone and is immediately talking about abduction.
We need information about the parents and their friends, to know who they are, what they do, if they have problems in their country, if the children were victims of abuse, if the family, neighbours, friends could have noticed any suspicious behaviour, what are their jobs, if they work full-time, etc. Is any member of their family depressed or suffered from depression in the past? Do the couple maintain good relationships? Are they implicated in serious litigation? Do they have enemies? For what reason? So, I telephone Glen Powers, the English liaison officer in Portugal, inform him of events and request that he relay our requests for reports. We consider these to be of the greatest importance and await sensitive responses to guide our investigation.
While I am on the phone and my daughters are sleeping, Sofia makes breakfast for me. She is quiet and regards me with a questioning look, as if she suspects that from today, she won't see much of me. It's not the first time this has happened: she knew that I wouldn't count my time in a case like this.
THE ORGANISATION OF THE INVESTIGATION
Since dawn, chief inspector Tavares de Almeida has been getting down to the job at the Department of Criminal Investigation in Portimão. He is following through with the first measures taken within the context of the investigation. At this time, he should have been going on holiday, but faced with the gravity of the case, he has decided to put it off until later. Neither the director of the Faro police judiciaire nor myself are going to have the time take our holidays anytime soon.
The disappearance of a child must be flagged up as widely as possible, on the national as well as on the international level. All Portguese police are already on alert, as well as Interpol. During the night, the National Guard, supported by the civilian population, has started to organise searches. They will be continued and widened tomorrow.
The search and examination of the scene were carried out in difficult conditions: when they arrived, the police were met with a large number of people coming and going - family, friends, resort employees, including dogs and members of the National Guard. The contamination of the premises risks bringing serious prejudice, as a consequence, to the investigation. We must ask ourselves if that contamination has been deliberate or not - it can make the search for clues particularly complicated. The Lisbon scenes of crime technicians come as reinforcements to start the examination of the residence, which is from now on empty.
On arrival at the Portimão Department of Criminal Investigation, I call in chief inspector Tavares de Almeida to take stock of the situation and take the measures that are necessary in the immediate future. After the searches undertaken in the surrounding area - dustbins, containers, sewers -, it is necessary to proceed with the interrogation of certain potential witnesses. The parents and their friends will be heard quickly. The first statements are of prime importance: memories are still vivid and crucial details could thus be obtained, which would risk being lost later. The witness statements of the restaurant employees, those from the day centre and the playgroup where Madeleine and the twins spent their day are also all important. The search for witnesses will be widened to all the tourists present, whose names must be submitted to the parents and friends. Perhaps they will recognise someone....The English police are involved: they are being asked to cross-check that list with their files in order to pick out individuals known to their services.
All of the video recordings from the tourist complex - hotels, banks, pharmacies, supermarkets and service stations -, including those from the CCTV cameras of two motorways - one leading to Lagos and one linking Lagos and Spain -, will be viewed. The Spanish customs service has been asked to increase vigilance at the two ports maintaining links with Morocco,Tarifa and Algeciras. The Algarvian coast, very popular with sailing enthusiasts, is bordered by a large number of marinas. Pleasure boats from every province berth here. Situated 120 nautical miles from the African continent, between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, it is the most accessible coast for entering the continent of Europe. It attracts many yachtsmen, who appreciate the beauty of its beaches and its inlets, but it also attracts all sorts of traffickers.
- Make contact with the marinas and the maritime police; we must have access to video recordings as well as the registers of boats entering and leaving in the last few days.
- I am going to contact them and make sure they have started the sea searches.
In anticipation of the volume of information we are going to have to deal with, we decide to fit out a room dedicated to the investigation, our crisis unit.
THE INFORMATION SOUGHT IS SOMETIMES UNOBTAINABLE
We need reliable information. Apart from all the searches already undertaken, we must also examine the photos and films taken by the McCann family and their friends. From amongst the onlookers, these images could help to identify a suspicious-looking individual or someone whose attitude might be suspicious. Trivialised since the general use of computers, photography is a source of information which the investigators know not to neglect: each holiday-maker takes, in general, hundreds of photos. The McCanns and their friends who were in Vila da Luz make all of theirs available to the investigators, but none of those dating from the evening of the disappearance help us to understand what happened.
NO SIGN OF A BREAK-IN
At this stage of the investigation, the hypotheses are numerous, and each one must be considered. It is necessary to locate and identify all the paedophiles who live in or who have passed through the Algarve, in order to check that they were not in the proximity of Vila da Luz on the days preceding the disappearance.
The idea of a robbery gone wrong is not to be ruled out either. During the holidays, burglaries are not rare, and the police are not always informed, because hotels avoid spreading this kind of information. Even if the examination of apartment 5A reveals no trace of a break-in - contrary to what the parents insist and that Sky announced - we have to take stock of the petty crimes committed in the seaside resort and at the tourist complex. We are counting on the management of the hotel so that no incident of this nature remains hidden. Even if we don't have much belief in the scenario of a burglar who enters the apartment for a burglary and leaves it with the child, dead or alive, this hypothesis, as ridiculous as it may be, must not be neglected.
FIRST MORNING OF THE INVESTIGATION;
AN ABDUCTION?
Still May 4th
When drawing up the report of the first observations, which must be forwarded to the district Judiciary Court of Lagos, we are undecided about the legal denomination of the events. Finally, we opt for "abduction??," adding two question marks after the word to express our uncertainty. The decision was not taken lightly. That decision preserves the interests of the various opposing parties, those of the parents, those of the child, not to say those of the investigation itself.
The report by the team who conducted the analyses of the apartment records all observations carried out and statements gathered. It sets out the list of people present and potential witnesses. It also includes fingerprints taken as well as photographic documentation.
On reading this report, which was given to me on the morning of May 4th, I understand that there is no evidence sufficiently convincing to tip the investigation in one direction rather than another. There are many possible leads: voluntary disappearance - the child could have wakened and not seeing her parents, gone off to look for them; accidental death and concealing of a body; physical abuse causing death; murder by negligence or premeditated; an act of vengeance; taken hostage followed by a ransom demand; abducted by a paedophile; kidnap or murder committed by a burglar.
The hypothesis of abduction widens and complicates the investigations; it allows the mobilisation of means and resources that would have been difficult to obtain otherwise, such as the arrival of reinforcements, absolutely indispensable faced with the magnitude of the task, notably in the course of the first 72 hours. In a more calm climate, we could have got down to the search for evidence more effectively, allowing us to understand how that child disappeared, without worrying that suspicion might fall on the friends of the family.
THE VISITS BY THE CONSUL AND THE AMBASSADOR; INFORMATION IS TAKING A LONG TIME TO COME FROM GREAT BRITAIN
At ten in the morning, twelve hours after the disappearance, the British Consul to Portimão goes to the Department of Criminal Investigation. We inform him of the actions taken up to then and the next stages being considered. He doesn't seem satisfied. Someone hears him on the telephone saying that the police judiciaire are doing nothing. Now, that's strange! Why that untruth? What objective does he have in mind? Giving another dimension to the case? Perhaps, I don't know a thing about it, but this is not the time for conjecture; we have to concentrate on our work, of finding the little girl.
We're not getting any response from Great Britain. We've had no reports on the subject of the couple, their children and their friends, which doesn't help us to tighten up the investigation. We would like, for example, to know if Madeleine was adopted by the couple, which would allow us to eliminate the hypothesis of parental abduction. If the information is not reaching us, it's obviously reaching the British Ambassador. We are astonished by this prompt mobilisation of the English authorities. So, who are the McCanns? Who are their friends? We don't need diplomatic intervention: what we would like, is answers to the questions sent to the British police authorities by Glen Power.
THE SEARCHES CONTINUE; THE ASTONISHING INVASION BY THE PRESS
The searches on the ground continue, with the help of a helicopter from Disaster Management. Interviews of holiday-makers and the resort's employees multiply. We're worried, aware that it's a race against the clock: tomorrow, many tourists will be leaving the resort. As for the McCanns and their friends, who should also be leaving on this date, we are totally unaware of their plans. For the needs of the investigation, it is imperative that they stay put, but we have no legal means of preventing their departure. During the morning, the deputy director of the Faro police judiciaire joins us. Until the end of September, his life will be split between Faro and Portimão, where he will travel to every day. He asks how the searches are going and decides to go to Vila da Luz to check for himself the operations that have been set up. I go with him. When we arrive, we find that the media, Portuguese as well as English, are present en masse. It seems that the McCanns' friends have reported Maddie's disappearance to the press before informing the police about it. Another point which we must clarify.
TECHNICAL FAULTS
Inside the apartment, police forensic specialists proceed to lift finger and palmar prints, a job that is preferably carried out during daylight hours. Others look for traces of blood, samples of fibres and hair. We notice with dismay that one of the technicians, who is working on the outside of the McCann children's bedroom window is not using the regulation suit, thus risking contaminating possible clues. These images of negligence start to circulate world-wide; this isn't, however, the usual behaviour of police judiciaire technicians.
It's obvious that no one has broken in and the lock has not been forced. No prints are lifted that are likely to belong to an unknown person, nor the slightest trace of gloves which could have been worn by a hypothetical abductor. In the middle of this desert of clues, two prints are perfectly easily found: the very distinct mark of a palm print on the balcony window at the rear of the apartment, and a clearly visible one of fingers on the window pane of Madeleine's bedroom. The excellent quality of the palm print seemed suspicious to us. Later, analyses confirm our suspicions: it belonged to one of the officers who were present the previous night.
In Portugal, no protocol exists for coordinating the work of the different police services in the event of the worrying disappearance of a child, perhaps because until now this type of case has been rare. We have been fighting for several years for the creation of just such a resource. However, we don't have to invent anything: it would be sufficient to adapt the protocols already existent in other countries more used to cases of this type - Great Britain, for example.
A SUSPECT WHO, VERY QUICKLY ISN'T; THE SEARCHES CONTINUE
While we continue to gather statements from resort employees, we are informed of the presence in the region of an individual suspected of abusing children. Of British nationality, he would frequent a pub situated 150 metres from Madeleine's apartment. In 2005, sought by the police in his own country, he fled abroad and the English authorities had then lost track of him. But we discover that the pub in question doesn't exist any more, and that the information that the man is in the area has no basis in fact. His step-father, contacted by the police, states that he is currently in Iraq, information later confirmed by the British police.
In the main street of Vila da Luz, there are open trenches because of improvement works. They leave the waste water mains exposed. On the night of May 3rd searches were conducted there, with the help of sniffer dogs from the National Guard of The Republic. (GNR) We'd like to proceed with another inspection, but the site foreman assures us that access to the mains is closed during the night and the workmen noticed nothing abnormal when starting work the next morning.
STATEMENTS FROM THE PARENTS AND FRIENDS; FIRST INCONSISTENCIES
Still May 4th
Madeleine's parents and friends of the family go to the Department of Criminal Investigation to be interviewed. Their statements should help us to better understand the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance. Each must be questioned at the same time, but separately, in order to avoid "contamination," of the witness statements - which happens often when witnesses have the opportunity to exchange information. Sometimes an important detail is held in the memory, but can be lost after a conversation with another witness. This is the usual procedure. In this way, we can establish relevant cross checks, confirm or invalidate certain assertions. But that was not possible today, certain adults having stayed at the resort to look after the children.
We have to retrace their comings and goings very precisely as well as those of the children. What they did during the holiday, where they went...In possession of this information, we will attempt afterwards to collect photos and films taken by holiday-makers who were in the same places: we will succeed perhaps in pinpointing a detail that could be of significance. These same tourists might quite simply help us to better understand the way in which the group of friends was working.
The personality of the victim and of the parents has significance. We have to find out if they were threatened in the past, if they have enemies. We must consider the possibility of a mistake: the target may not have been Madeleine but another child of the group of friends. Therefore, they too must give answers to similar questions.
None of the adults possessing a vehicle, they never go very far and in general stay within the confines of the resort. Their knowledge of the surrounding area is limited and we assume that they limit themselves to the roads linking the beach and their apartments.
During the morning, only Madeleine's father, Matthew Oldfield and Jane Tanner are interviewed. However, already contradictions and improbabilities are appearing from one to another of the statements, notably concerning access to the apartment.
An example: during the course of the evening, Jane encountered Gerald McCann and Jeremiah busy chatting in the street. At that time, Gerald was coming back from his apartment, where he had gone to make sure the children were sound asleep - which he confirmed in his statement. Jane asserts that she noticed a suspicious individual carrying a child in his arms - probably Madeleine, according to her - immediately after having passed the two men. Gerald and Jeremiah should also have seen her, but that was not the case.
The mother of the missing little girl, Kate Healy, and all the other members of the group, David Payne and his wife Fiona, Rachael Mampilly, Russell O'Brien and Diane Webster, are heard later. They might already be aware of the questions put to their friends and of their responses. In that case, there won't be the element of surprise. The presence of an interpreter doesn't make the interviews any easier either. The witnesses benefit from the translation time to prepare their responses.
Madeleine's parents are insisting on the theory of abduction. They want to convince us of it at all costs. Gerald stresses that the front door was locked; Kate states that she entered the apartment through the rear sliding doors, which weren't locked, and that the window was wide open with the shutters raised.
This theory does not hold water, which will be observed during other interviews. The only witness statement corroborating that assertion is Jane Tanner's.
From now on it's important to shed light on the contradictions raised in these first witness statements.
Here is the chronological sequence of visits to the apartment:
- 21.05: Gerald McCann (the children are fine);
- 21.10/21.15: Jane Tanner (states having observed the alleged abductor with a child in his arms);
- 21.30: Matthew Oldfield: (goes into the apartment, but doesn't go into the bedroom. He only sees the twins);
- 22.00: Kate Healy (goes into the apartment, and finds that Madeleine has disappeared).
If, as Kate states, the window was open when she went into the apartment, how come Matthew didn't notice? At the time when the latter went in, Jane had already seen the alleged abductor with the child. So, logically, if the crime had already been committed, the window should have been open.
Matthew says that the bedroom door was half open, Kate that it was wide open. It can be concluded that Madeleine was already no longer in the room - which Matthew should have noticed, if the other witness statements are to be believed.
Another inconsistency - unexpected - appears. When Kate refers to the individual who allegedly abducted her child, she has no information other than that given to her by Jane, since she, herself, did not see him. But, the description she gives of him differs from that of Jane Tanner. The latter - extremely sure of herself, and who will be interviewed on several occasions - portrays a man dressed in light-coloured trousers, with hair down to his collar. Kate refers to long hair and jeans.
Gerald tells the police that Jane described to him - after midnight, during the night of May 3rd to May 4th - this stranger she allegedly saw going up the road; his hair was brown, he was between 30 and 40 years old and he was wearing light-coloured trousers. The first police officers to arrive on the premises are convinced that the parents put forward the hypothesis of abduction because Jane had talked about this man with the child. In their report, Jane's description is as follows: it was an individual dressed in light-coloured trousers and a dark shirt, he was 1.78m tall and was carrying a child, probably in pyjamas. She does not describe the pyjamas and doesn't mention any other detail.
Later, during the course of the morning of May 4th, the father gives the same brief description and refers back to Jane for additional details. The latter appears at the offices of the police judiciaire in Portimão at 11.30am. This time, the description is very precise: the individual, aged between 35 and 40, was thin and 1.70m tall; his hair was dark brown, falling over his collar; he was wearing cream or beige trousers, probably linen, a sort of anorak - but not very thick - and black shoes, classic in style. He was walking hurriedly, with a child in his arms. He was warmly dressed, the reason she thought he was not a tourist. The child appeared to be asleep - she only saw the legs -, had bare feet and was dressed in pyjamas, which were obviously cotton, light-coloured, probably white or pale pink, with a pattern - flowers maybe, but she isn't certain. Concerning the man, she states that she would recognise him from the back by his particular way of walking. The importance of this statement will be seen later.
Hardly fourteen hours have gone by since the child's disappearance and already Jane's version is known by many people. The father even referred to it during his statement, as can be seen above. Jane insists that she spoke solely to Gerald about this individual and then without going into details. It is only later that she related it all to the police.
Again, we notice an inconsistency. She was not aware, she says, of how Madeleine was dressed, which seems unlikely: on the night of the disappearance, Kate immediately gave a precise description of the clothes the little girl was wearing when she was put to bed.
Everybody knew they were looking for a little girl of nearly four, bare feet, dressed in light-coloured pyjamas on which there was a pink animal design. This description was relayed to all those who mobilised to find the child. How come Jane Tanner took no notice, she who, at that time, was the main witness in the case?
FIRST EYE WITNESS STATEMENTS; KATE HEALY'S SURPRISING REACTION
Madeleine's parents are already back in Vila da Luz when we receive photos taken on an area of the motorway: you can make out the figure of a little girl, who looks like Madeleine, accompanied by a couple. These images come from a CCTV camera on the motorway linking Lagos to the Spanish border. The McCanns are asked to come to Portimão in order to proceed to an identification. It's the end of the day. Kate Healy seems annoyed at coming back and made uncomfortable by the speed of the police car taking her. We are somewhat astonished by her reaction, as if she was not expecting to get her daughter back. The identification turns out negative.
POLICE REINFORCEMENTS
A team from the Central Crime Fighting Directorate (DCCB) arrives from Lisbon, accompanied by their director. I wasn't informed of this decision, but I agree with it. The reinforcements are welcomed, because we must get on very quickly. The experience of these police officers in the field of abductions and the taking of hostages is a plus for the investigation and the ways they operate are largely superior to ours. In addition, their experts are the most qualified of the police judiciaire. From now on, two deputy national directors, assisted by the coordinator of the Portimão Department of Criminal Investigation, will direct the investigations. A few months later, chief inspector Tavares de Almeida was to share one of his convictions with me: if we had remained solely responsible for the investigation, we would have advanced more quickly.
In reality, I don't know. I don't think we can rewrite history with "if." At that time the directorate of the police judiciaire had decided on it, and we had favourably welcomed the arrival of that team. It was about doing our best with these new participants and taking advantage of their ways of working. The motivations behind that decision, whatever they are don't interest us in the slightest.
MISSING PERSONS POSTER IS ISSUED
In the afternoon, we ask the Public Minister for authorisation to issue a missing persons poster to the press. It is published on May 5th, accompanied by a photo of the child and telephone numbers. We, thus, hope to obtain new information. We are going to be inundated with witness statements of every kind: people who are persuaded that they can help us thanks to their psychic powers; others who have dreamed about Madeleine and believe they know where she is, and yet others who think they have seen her here or there...A great number of reports come to us, that we have to analyse and check out: none must be neglected, even if most of them, on the face of it, seem absurd. In the hypothesis of an abduction, we might imagine that the abductor has tried to modify the child's appearance to more easily pass unnoticed. So, we create portraits of the little girl, modifying the colour and style of her hair.
THE WEAKNESSES IN JANE'S WITNESS STATEMENT
Friday May 4th, at 8pm, we criss-cross Praia da Luz to take note of the activity in the village at dinner time and to check the street lighting. We stay there until 10pm while the forensic team from the police laboratory get on with their investigation.
Certainly, today there are people who wouldn't normally have been here: police officers and journalists. But, even so, it is noticeable that there is very little movement. The place where the abductor happened to be is dimly lit: how did Jane manage to describe him so accurately? Witnesses confirm that the streets were also deserted yesterday.
Why did the potential abductor choose to walk around like that, in the open, running the risk - in spite of the darkness - of being recognised by a passer-by? If he had planned the abduction, he would have taken the time to study, not only the habits of the family, but also the topography of the place. If he wasn't from the village, he would probably have come by car, and he would have sought to conceal it in a dark corner. But the darkest area is situated in exactly the opposite direction to that indicated by Jane Tanner. Did she actually see that man going towards the east? Wouldn't he rather be going towards the west? Leaving by car, he would inevitably have had to go towards the centre of the village, in which case, he would have to go either past the entrance to the restaurant where Madeleine's parents were dining, or by the main road that leads to EN125*
(*The road running west out of the village towards Sagres and east towards Lagos.)
We walk around Vila da Luz, covering all the roads, trying to imagine the options that presented themselves to the abductor. Without a car, and not knowing the place, the safest approach to the village is the beach. In the few bars, restaurants and cafés open at this time of year, no one noticed anything at all strange during the evening of May 3rd, no suspicious behaviour, nothing out of the ordinary. Most of the establishments had closed at around 9pm.
DISCUSSION IN THE CRISIS ROOM
The crisis unit has been operating for several hours now, on the top floor of the building. Basing ourselves on the details gathered in the course of this first day, we are trying to understand the sequence of events. The original hypotheses are still valid: voluntary disappearance, abduction or death. Divergent opinions and heated discussions fire with enthusiasm. But we always finish by returning to an objective analysis of the facts to refocus the discussions.
We are opening the window to let the fresh air expel the smoke from countless cigarettes smoked during the meeting when, suddenly, someone poses a question that shouts out to all of us:
- Tell me then, what is this story about the raised shutters in the bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping - or not sleeping?
We have in mind the statements from Gerald McCann and Kate Healy.
When Gerald saw his daughter for the last time, at around 9.05pm, she was sleeping in the bedroom with the twins. He entered his apartment by the front door, using his key. No windows were open, but he cannot say if they were locked. On the other hand - everybody is in agreement in saying -, the patio door at the rear wasn't locked.
Then, at 10pm, Madeleine's mother goes in her turn into the bedroom, she sees the open window, the raised shutters and the curtains waving in the breeze. This scenario is highly improbable, since the shutters cannot be operated from the outside. Normally, that window is never opened, she says, but she can't say either if it was locked. This vagueness perhaps serves the interests of the witnesses, but arouses the suspicions of the investigators.
Finally, we were able to conclude with certainty that the only opening that wasn't locked was the patio door at the rear of the building, opening onto the area with the swimming pools and the Tapas restaurant, where the parents were dining.
You ask yourself why Gerald went into his apartment through the front door while the one at the back is closer to the restaurant and doesn't need a key. The parents insist that it was visible from the restaurant and that no one could have walked in without being noticed.
But that's false, as we were easily able to verify. At night, with the surrounding vegetation and the opaque plastic tarpaulin that protects the dining room of the restaurant, visibility is nil: anybody could have got into theMcCanns' apartment without being noticed, particularly as most of the guests had their back to the apartment.
We understand their insistence. The parents need to affirm that the children were sleeping in complete safety, and they were looking out for their well-being. But, whatever the arguments, one thing is indisputable: Madeleine was not safe.
- Strange, all the same, this burglar who enters by the door and goes out through the window with a four-year-old child in his arms. It would have been easier to go back out by the same door.
- In fact, something isn't right.
- Someone is hiding something...
- You could say they were sharing a secret.
Little by little, clearly because of tiredness, everyone starts speaking at once, words are confused. But, gradually, calm is restored, and the information gathered so far allows us to put forward several hypotheses.
- It's hard to understand how a potential abductor would have had the audacity to enter an apartment and abduct the child, knowing that the parents could burst in at any moment.
- Either or: either the man was informed about the habits of the family, and in that case we would have to also suspect employees of the restaurant, or else he hung around in the vicinity for a while to study the lie of the land.
- Only, if he had studied the lie of the land, he would have taken one and the same door for entering and leaving.
- The parents say that the bedroom window was open and the front door was closed at the time they became aware of the disappearance.
- And if they are not telling the truth?
- Put yourself in their place: you are on holiday in a strange place which you don't know; you leave three children under 4 to sleep alone; one of them disappears while you and your wife are quietly dining at the restaurant. You would take on the blame? You wouldn't be afraid of the reaction from the local authorities?
- OK, but if, in one way or another, the parents had something to do with the disappearance? They would inevitably have to invent a story, so logically, lie.
- That's not right, is it? Don't forget you are dealing with well-educated people, nearly all doctors, the child's father is a surgeon. What a ridiculous idea!
- Right, if I understand you properly, you mean that family dramas are the reserve of the simple-minded and the underprivileged...
- We must not put aside any hypothesis, even if it doesn't really grab us, cuts in one of our colleagues, who was listening to our exchanges.
-OK, but for the moment, we must not raise suspicions. They are totally unfounded in the current state of the investigation.
- Apparently, it's the examination of the window that might provide us with an answer. And the fingerprints?
- In the process of being identified.
- Are there copies of the front door key?
- Yes, of course, they are used by employees responsible for cleaning and maintenance and kept in a safe.
- Everybody has to be interviewed.
- Yes. And have the English responded to our requests for reports? We have more and more need of them.
- No, not yet, they are efficiently waiting to collect all the details before sending us a complete file.
- Well, I hope they won't leave us waiting much longer, Every hour counts.
Obviously, we don't end up with any conclusion that night, ....Dawn is breaking already when we finish: the next stages have been decided upon and teams set up. Thus ends the first day of the investigation. Journalists are lurking around the offices of the police judiciaire and in the streets of Vila da Luz. News of the disappearance has spread like wildfire. The eyes of the world are riveted on the Algarve. Little by little the pressure mounts and we have the feeling that our lives will never be the same.
Saturday May 5th
The accommodation we are occupying in the town centre rapidly becomes overcrowded: we need more sheets and blankets. Beds are allocated; some investigators have to sleep on sofas, others on the floor. Astonishingly, in this place, however jam-packed, total silence reigns. We all need to rest. Our dreams are disturbed, our worries are multiplying. Thirty-four hours after Madeleine's disappearance, we tackle our second day of the investigation. In this apartment of temporary refuge, it's the morning bustle; we mustn't lie around. In spite of the lack of sleep, no one shows any sign of fatigue: on the contrary, we are all in a hurry to getting back to work and impatiently wait our turn outside the bathroom.
Before going out, we check that there are no journalists in the area. In spite of their pugnacity, they were never able to find our hiding place. A stop for breakfast, and the day begins. Destination DIC (Department of Criminal Investigation.)
POLISH LEAD IN SAGRES
Hundreds of statements continue to be gathered in Vila da Luz. All the people of the area are interviewed: resort employees, tourists, play leaders from the crèches, residents. Most of them will be of no use to us, but none must be neglected.
From information from Sagres, we learn that an individual has been surprised on Mareta beach taking photos of several children and in particular of a little girl aged 4, blonde with blue eyes, who looks like Madeleine. It was the little girl's father who noticed him. This 40 year-old man, wearing glasses, tells the investigators that the photographer tried to kidnap his daughter in the afternoon of April 26th in Sagres.
He allegedly then fled in a hired car with a woman in the passenger seat. The stranger did not look like a tourist; brown hair down to his collar, wearing cream-coloured trousers and jacket and shoes of a classic style. This report reminds us of the individual encountered by Jane Tanner in the streets of Vila da Luz on the evening of Madeleine's disappearance.
Thanks to the father's composure, he managed to take a photograph of the vehicle. It's not very clear and does not allow us to make out the number plate, but we succeed, nonetheless, in finding the car. The car hire firm provides us with the identity of the driver. He is a forty-year-old Polish man, who is traveling with his wife. They arrived in Portugal on April 28th, from Berlin. At Faro airport, they hired a car and put up in an apartment in Budens, near Praia da Luz. Unfortunately, on May 5th, at 7am, they had already left, taking with them their camera and all the photos from their holiday. We ask the German police, through Interpol, to monitor them as soon as they arrive in Berlin. All the passengers are questioned, but no one has seen a child looking like Madeleine. In Berlin, the couple take the train to return to Poland. Thus, the Polish trail comes to an end. We would like to have seen their photos...but that proved impossible.
A lead is only valuable in as far as it is followed to the end, which was not the case with this one. We will realise that we shouldn't have ruled it out so quickly, and that it is still a topic of interest.
MORE LEADS, STILL NO RESULTS
Other individuals were seen lurking around the apartment, acting suspiciously, shortly before the events. On May 2nd or 3rd, according to an English tourist, an individual in shabby clothing was staring fixedly in the direction of the apartment. He went off in a white van. Other witness statements go in the same direction. For each, we set in motion the research procedures which sometimes include the development of an Identikit picture.
On the outskirts of Lagos, in the direction of Aljezur, there is a Gypsy encampment. Of course, traveling people are no longer thought of as child-stealers. Nevertheless, it is important to make sure they have nothing to do with the case before they hit the road again. As soon as they are informed of our searches, they collaborate voluntarily and let the agents do their work and conduct a search of their tents and their cars. No one has seen little Madeleine in the area.
Throughout the day, numerous apartments are visited in the resort and neighbouring areas: the investigators search more than 400, without result.
QUALMS ABOUT INVESTIGATING THE McCANNS; THE THEORY OF ABDUCTION GAINS GROUND.
Someone puts forward the hypothesis according to which Madeleine would have died in her apartment, and that a member of the group would have removed her. It's a possibility, but nothing so far, no evidence, happens to support that theory.
The McCanns are put up with David Payne. We want to search the accommodation of the family friends to try to pick up Madeleine's clothes, especially those she was wearing on May 3rd at 5.35pm when she returned from the day centre with her mother and the twins. Evidently, this initiative is not widely supported. The British ambassador meets with the team directing the investigation. The political and the diplomatic seem to want to prevent us from freely doing our work.
- I'm sure this check is necessary.
- The clothes? Are you mad? if I understand you properly, you want to go into the apartment to take clothes to have them analysed?
- Yes. What's the problem? It's a perfectly normal procedure in cases like this.
- Of course, but with this media hype...I don't think I have ever in my life seen so many journalists....And I didn't come down in the last shower.
THE PJ'S DIFFICULTIES IN COMMUNICATING WITH THE MEDIA; THE PRO McCANN PRESS OFFICE.
From the start of the investigation, we ask for the presence of a press attaché to accompany us and take on communicating with the media. The Justice Minister fulfills this request. Very quickly, however, this decision is contested. The reaction of the press itself is feared and public opinion, which might interpret that presence with direct intervention in the investigation by the minister....Finally, the person retained is an investigator, who is not working on the case, speaks English and has some experience in this field. With hindsight, it can be said that it wasn't a good decision. In fact, after the reading of our first press release and the parents' press conferences, the press let fly.
We were convinced that the people directly involved in the investigation should remain distanced from the media whirlwind. We needed help: the police judiciaire would have to engage staff to dissect published articles, focusing on the analysis of press statements from the parents and their friends.But that didn't happen. The media circus was in full swing: all the time, new articles, live TV, a growing number of journalists running around the streets of Vila da Luz.
It didn't seem normal to us either that a couple whose child has just disappeared engages press attachés to deal with their relations with the media. It is not a question here of minimising the role of the means of communication and ignoring that a subject like this stirs up a lot of curiosity, but that constant preoccupation with the management of their communication by the parents, appeared to us, to say the least, astonishing.
TELEPHONE CALLS ON THE NIGHT OF THE DISAPPEARANCE.
The tracking of Portuguese and foreign paedophiles - the majority English - residing in the region or simply on holiday, continues to be checked. In spite of the kilometres covered, the interviews and the searches carried out, there is nothing concrete that leads us to suspect any of them.
The investigators continue to deal with the information collected. They look into all the statements, in particular those of the Ocean Club employees, and go through the lists of telephone calls that have been made available to them.
We must also check all communication via mobile phones during the night of May 3rd. It is possible that the abductor had used a mobile. We locate the relay antennae of various operators covering the sector in order to obtain the summary of calls and messages made or received that transited their antennae. Finally, the only suspicious communications are those involving Robert Murat, a person who is central to this case, who will later be placed under investigation.
The walls of the crisis unit are little by little covered in analytical charts, time-series charts, sketches, plans, task lists, photos and other important elements with, at the centre, the photo of Madeleine, to always remind us of the object of our mission.
LOG OF CALLS ON GERRY McCANN'S MOBILE PHONE DELETED
Between 11pm and 3 in the morning, all members of the investigation team meet in the crisis unit; in the same smoke filled atmosphere, we take stock of the situation. Some don't agree with the police judiciaire's press release and think that the information should not have been disclosed, even by way of official press releases. Others think it's possible to interpret the visit by the British ambassador as a form of British government intervention, which may not be impartial. Is it usual for them to get involved with cases of this kind or is it specific to this case, and why? Only they hold the answer.
Until now, the results have hardly been conclusive. New means - in all other investigations, they would already have been put in place - must be deployed.
- Why not monitor and tap the phones of the parents and friends? Their statements are far from convincing. The story about the window is unsound, and Jane's witness statement is not convincing either.
- In that way new details could be obtained.
- We have already discussed it. That would be ideal...Only, we have to get the judge to give us authorisation with the scant details we have at our disposal. And if the parents get wind of it, we risk having the sky fall on our heads.
- In a kidnapping case with a ransom demand, that procedure would be normal, at least for the monitoring of the parents' phone calls.
- That's for certain, but in our case, that comes back to practically accusing them. Further, we don't even know if there's been a crime.
- Yes, I am well aware, but I insist. This would allow them to be ruled out.
The questions raised are relevant. Telephone taps would also allow unfounded suspicions to be destroyed. In our legal system, that procedure is only used with the sole purpose of gathering evidence. At this stage of the investigation, it's very tricky for us to express our doubts as to the sincerity of the parents and their friends.
On May 4th, the parents authorise us to check the phone calls logged on their mobile.
- Here's a copy of the summary of calls.
- I only have that of the couple. We have yet to receive the summary from BTS
- OK, what have we got?
- Do you see what I see?
- Yes, I think so: between April 27th and May 4th, Kate did not make any calls. Hum...
- None either, between 11.22am and 11.17pm on the night of the disappearance.
- Kate mustn't like making telephone calls...
- For Gerald, there's nothing before May 4th at exactly 12.15am
- What does that mean? They never made phone calls then?
- Wait, there's something here. Look at the number at the top of the list.
- Yes, so?
- On her telephone, her husbands' number is logged: she called him on May 3rd at 11.17pm, but on Gerald's, nothing, no trace of that call!
- How can that be explained?
- It's simple as anything: the list of calls has been deleted.
- Always the same old question: why?
Summing up: the first phone calls were exchanged one hour after the disappearance. It could be imagined that in that lapse of time, they were busy looking for their daughter. Nevertheless, it's astonishing that they didn't need to speak to each other at such a difficult time.
Later I learn that the English secret service had already placed the couple under telephone surveillance. If that's true, the Portuguese police were never informed.
(* Base Transceiver Station of mobile phone operators)
THE POLISH TRAIL LEADS TO AN IMPASSE
Sunday May 6th
Meeting room. Seventy-two hours have gone by since the disappearance. We are going through a difficult time: in spite of the searches carried out on the ground and the considerable means deployed, we haven't found Madeleine. The day gets off to a difficult start with bad news from Poland. From all accounts, the police badly interpreted our request for collaboration; all they did was approach the couple and verify that Madeleine was not with them, but didn't seize either their photographic equipment or the photos taken during their holiday. Another lead that remains pending. Perhaps it would have led to the discovery of a paedophile ring.
We are seeking to piece together the couple's itinerary, to find out if anyone noticed them in the vicinity of Praia da Luz, to establish any relationship between them and Maddie's disappearance. We circulate a photo - which we obtained thanks to a surveillance camera in a Lisbon shopping mall - amongst holiday-makers, clients and employees of Praia da Luz restaurants. Fruitlessly. Nobody saw them.
On the other hand, employees of the restaurant they usually went to, in the Burgau-Budens area, remember them: the woman was usually in a bad mood, and both wore clothes totally inappropriate to the place and the time of year. The forensic police won't be able to investigate their hire vehicle, which we managed to locate, because it has already been rented out again. All that's left to us is to find the bin in which the cleaning team dumped the rubbish left in the vehicle. Analyses of the rubbish reveals nothing. Fortunately, no one else has yet occupied the apartment the couple stayed in - it's low season. We go ahead with a thorough search, looking for evidence of a child's presence: shoe prints, fingerprints or footprints. Nothing. We then gather various hair samples - doubtless coming from adults - and notice drops of blood on a kitchen unit. Nothing conclusive. It's probably from an everyday domestic accident.
In the course of a meeting, I ask the director what follow-up to bring to this case, now that the person who took the photos knows he is being sought. The director gives a common sense response.
- It's unfortunate, of course. However, they were never seen in Praia da Luz, much less close to the apartment....The father of the little girl in Sagres was wearing spectacles and we aren't 100% sure of the accuracy of his description.
- Yes, but he took photos of the car. Yet again, it could quite well belong to someone else, but...
- If, in the course of the investigation, there are update details on this lead, we will request a rogatory letter and we will go to Poland to interview them and conduct a search of their apartment.
We doubt that a rogatory letter would be of any use to us. The way this lead was handled makes us think not, but we can't hold it against the Polish police, who collaborated as well as they could.
We refocus our efforts on other leads. Information on more individuals behaving suspiciously continues to flood in.
IN THE REAL WORLD
"The child, [..........] shall, wherever possible, grow up in the care and under the responsibility of his parents, and, in any case, in an atmosphere of affection and of moral and material security;"
United Nations Declaration of The Rights of The Child, 1959
Original translation by AnnaEsse
Posted by Jill Havern - CMOMM
https://goncaloamaraltruthofthelie.blogspot.com/2009/06/chapter-3.html
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Similar topics» July 2008
» The death thesis is the most likely one to explain Madeleine McCann’s disappearance - Magalhães e Menezes
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» The death thesis is the most likely one to explain Madeleine McCann’s disappearance - Magalhães e Menezes
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» Less well-known passages from the Attorney-General's final report on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann - July 2008 [The words of Jose de Magalhaes e Menezez]
» interview with Gonçalo Amaral, Paulo Reis and Duarte Levy, by Júlia Pinheiro, on 'As Tardes da Júlia', TVI, broadcast live on or around the 28th of July 2008.
The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™ :: Books on the Madeleine McCann case :: Gonçalo Amaral's book: 'Maddie: The truth of the lie'
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