WORLD WITNESSES How many Madeleine McCann ‘sightings’ have there been around the world and where were they?

WORLD WITNESSES How many Madeleine McCann ‘sightings’ have there been around the world and where were they?

There have been more than 8,000 potential sights of the Brit three-year-old since her disappearance

By Antonella Lazzeri 14 January 2019



MADELEINE McCann's disappearance remains one of the world's most notorious missing person cases.
Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in the Praia da Luz area of Portugal in 2007 while on holiday with her family. There have been more than 8,000 potential sightings of the Brit three-year-old since her disappearance.

Potential sightings of the British three-year old followed up by British cops total 8,685 across 101 countries and territories, a Freedom of Information request by The Sun showed in October 2016.
A list of sightings from each of the 101 countries - nearly all of which have been labelled NFA or No Further Action.
Most serious were the alleged sightings in the hours and days following Madeleine's disappearance.
On the night she was taken police received two separate potential sightings from members of the public -- however one was fully ruled out as being a holidaymaker with his daughter.
There were six reported sightings between May 4-17 in Portugal, including CCTV footage that showed a girl matching Maddie's description with two men and a woman at a petrol station in the town of Nelas.
Over the border in Spain, there have been three reported sightings - the latest being in April 2012 -- but all have been ruled out, along with eight major alleged sightings in Morocco.
There were as many as 29 in Malta in the month after the disappearance which led to the capital Valletta being briefly locked down.
One of the most serious potential sightings in Amsterdam was revealed when Portuguese police released their case files in August 2008.
It showed a girl of blonde girl of Madeleine's age and description told a shopkeeper her name was "Maddie" and she had been "taken from mummy".
The McCann's were not made aware of this alleged sighting at the time and it is not clear how if at all investigators followed it up.
In November 2017 it emerged that cops had travelled to Bulgaria to try and track down a paedophile's widow.
Reports came to light detectives were hunting down a woman dressed in purple, who had worked with her late husband as domestic helpers on the resort where Madeleine vanished.
Since May 2011 the Met police has collated reported sightings under Operation Grange which was launched in 2011 after the Portuguese-led investigation was shelved in 2008.
A source close to Scotland Yard's search Operation Grange said cops are hunting a "person of significance" in the £12million investigation.
In March 2018, Scotland Yard won Home Office funding to continue chasing a vital "final line of enquiry" for a further six months.
In January 2019, Maddie's parents were boosted by the news that 13-year-old American schoolgirl Jayme Closs had been found three months after her kidnap.

Where have the 'sightings' of Maddie been?

1. ALGERIA: October 2008: A man reported he had seen a blonde girl with a British accent, who looked liked Madeleine, with a dark-skinned Algerian family who were “acting suspiciously”.
2. ANDORRA: Details not made public.
3. ARGENTINA: June 19, 2007: A man took a photo of a girl “identical” to Madeleine. Sighting later ruled out.
4. AUSTRALIA. July 26, 2015: A suitcase containing the skeletal remains of a fair-haired young girl was discovered next to a motorway in Wynarka, near Adelaide. Pathologists said she would have died in 2007. There was speculation that the body was Madeleine’s after a cop said it did not match descriptions of any missing children in that country. But the victim’s DNA did not match Madeleine’s.
5. AUSTRIA: July 2008: A couple at a hotel in St. Valentin claimed a girl resembling Madeleine cried “Help me!” in English as a man dragged her away.
6. AZORES: Details not made public.
7. BANGLADESH: Details not made public.
8. BELGIUM: May 14, 2007: A British man claimed he saw a child asleep on a train from Brussels to Antwerp and thought she looked drugged. The girl was with a balding, 6ft white man in his forties, who got off the train at Mechelen carrying her. British Police trawled CCTV footage but eventually ruled out the sighting.
9. BELIZE: Details not made public.
10. BOLIVIA: Details not made public.
11. BRAZIL: June 7, 2007: A man spotted Madeleine in an Ipanema cafe sitting with a man. He said she looked “sad” and did not speak to her male companion.
May 11, 2007: A man said he saw Madeleine at a book fair in Cinelandia Square, Rio de Janeiro. She was with a white woman and speaking English.
12. BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Details not made public.
13. BOSNIA: July 8, 2007: A British tourist believed he had seen Madeleine at the Roman Catholic shrine of Medjugorje. He said the little blonde girl he saw with a couple was “agitated and sobbing”. Police investigated and traced the girl, who was a local.
14. BULGARIA: May 26, 2007: Female Brit tourists saw Madeleine in a hotel in Sunny Beach with a man. When the girl took her sunglasses off the man told her to put them back on which she found suspicious. Madeleine had a defect in her right eye.
15. CAMBODIA: June 2014: Police travelled to the Southeast Asian country to quiz convicted paedophile Roderick Robertson about Madeleine.
16. CANADA: May 4, 2009: Distressed viewers inundated a Canadian TV station with calls after a blonde girl identical to Madeleine was shown singing with a choir on a news show. Private investigators studied the footage and ruled it out.
17. CANARY ISLANDS: June 27, 2007: Madeleine spotted in a Chinese restaurant in Playas De Las Americas eating with a “dark-skinned family”.
18. CHILE: Details not made public.
19: CHINA: July 3, 2007: A man spotted a tall, blonde girl who looked like Madeleine at Taipei Airport with two men. They were never traced.
20. COSTA RICA: Details not made public.



21. CROATIA: June 19, 2007: She was seen in Dubrovnik, laying on the floor “kicking and screaming” and yelling: “I’m never going to see them again.”
22. CUBA: Details not made public.
23. CYPRUS: October, 2012: A British couple and three children their flat in Ayia Napa after a neighbour alerted police that a girl with them was 'identical' to Madeleine. The family have never been traced.
24: CZECH REPUBLIC: Details not made public.
25: DENMARK: Details not made public.
26: DUBAI: May 31, 2007: A caller, claiming to be a UK barrister, told Portuguese police that Madeleine had been taken out of Portugal on a ship registered in Holland. The report was ruled out.
27: EGYPT: May 23, 2007: A British woman on a boat trip in Sharm El Sheik saw a blonde girl on another boat screaming at a man. Egyptian authorities investigated and ruled it out.
September 12, 2009: Maddie spotted at a hotel in Hurghada. Not traced.
28. ESTONIA: Details not made public.
29. FIJI: Details not made public.
30. FINLAND: Details not made public.
31. FRANCE: May 26, 2008: Seen in a restaurant in Montpellier by a student who shouted out 'Maddie' at which the girl looked up 'surprised' before a man with her 'bundled' her out.
32. FRENCH POLYNESIA: Details not made public.
33. THE GAMBIA: Details not made public.
34. GERMANY: May 31, 2007: Maddie was spotted in a car park in Offenburg.
35. GIBRALTAR: May 2007: A Brit couple said they saw a woman pushing a girl who looked like Madeleine in a trolley out of Marks & Spencer’s. They said they heard the girl shout: “You’re not my Mummy.” The woman replied: “Of course I am.”
36. GREECE: May 12, 2007: A girl resembling Maddie seen in a watch store in Milos.
May 17, 2007: Madeleine was spotted on an easyJet flight from Athens to London.
May 19, 2007: A girl resembling Maddie spotted in Athens, hitch-hiking with a man.
37. GUATEMALA: Details not made public.
38. HONG KONG: June 14, 2007: A woman said she saw Madeleine in a shopping centre but this was ruled out after police studied CCTV footage.
39. HUNGARY: Details not made public.
40. IBIZA: August 12, 2007: A woman saw a girl who had the same visible eye defect as Madeleine.
41. ICELAND: Details not made public.
42. INDIA: July 28, 2011. A British tourist was so convinced a girl in the northern city of Leh was Madeleine she took a photo of her. When it was shown to Kate and Gerry they said it was not her.
43. INDONESIA: Details not made public.
44. ISRAEL: Details not made public.
45. ITALY: June 17, 2007: A British man said he saw Maddie in Bari, walking along with a “large” lady.
46. JAPAN: Details not made public.
47. JERSEY: May 9, 2007: A woman in a park saw a man and a young blonde girl at the top of the slide. She thought it strange as there was no interaction between them all the time she was there. The man was Portuguese but spoke English. Police investigated but ruled it out.
48. JORDAN: Details not made public.
49. KENYA: July 24, 2007: A man saw a child who looked like Madeleine on an internal flight from KTC Wildlife Safari Park, Kichwa Tembo. She got off at the next stop and was never traced.
50. KOSOVO: Details not made public.
51. LAOS: Details not made public.
52. LATVIA: July 3, 2007: A man said she saw a blonde girl exactly like Madeleine holding a woman’s hand in the capital of Riga. He took a photo of her which was later ruled out.
July 20, 2007: A man spotted Madeleine, again in Riga.
53. LITHUANIA: Details not made public.
54. LUXEMBOURG: Details not made public.
55. MACEDONIA: Details not made public
56. MADAGASCAR: Details not made public
57. MADEIRA: May 16, 2007: Madeleine seen in a black car in Funchal.
58. MALAYSIA: Details not made public
59. MALTA: July 20, 2007: A couple staying in a hotel in St Julian’s saw a girl who looked like Madeleine screaming in the hallway. She was rushed away by a couple after guests came out to see what was going on.
60. MAURITIUS: Details not made public.
61. MEXICO: July, 2007: A man said he heard a little scream 'Help me, help me!' while visiting friends in Mexico City. He said she had blonde hair and spoke English. He flagged down a police car but they did nothing.
62. MONACO: Details not made public.
63. MONTENEGRO: June 15, 2007: Dr. Seamus Hegarty, a child educational specialist, said he saw a girl like Madeleine while at a conference in Budva.
64. MOROCCO: August 2007: In the town of Fnideq, A woman aged around 50 was spotted with a blonde girl who had a mark in her eye like Madeleine’s. The girl also had a dummy around her neck, not something usually seen in Morocco.
August 31, 2007: A British tourist took a snap of a local, dark-skinned woman walking with a young very blonde child tied to her back with a cloth. The little girl looked so like Madeleine even computer face- imaging experts said it was a match to her. British police scrambled to Morocco to find the girl but within hours news came back that it was a girl from a village in Rif mountains.
65. MOZAMBIQUE: May 26, 2007: A man saw Madeleine being driven in a 4x4 in Maputo by a man with no teeth. The witness took the number plate. Police traced the man and it was ruled out.
May 26, 2007. Another caller said he had seen Madeleine with a white man in the capital.
66. NEPAL: Details not made public.
67. NETHERLANDS: May 2007: Amsterdam shop worker Ana Stam, 41, claimed a little girl of three or four who said her name was “Maddie” asked her: “Do you know where my mummy is?”
Then she pointed to the couple she was with and told Ana: “They took me from my holiday.” Ana said the little girl was with a Portuguese man and woman. Ana reported her fears to police but nothing was done.
68. NEW ZEALAND: May 2007.: A girl there bore such a strong resemblence to Madeleine that police had to investigate whether she was her TWICE. After a photo of the girl went viral in March 2012 police interviewed her parents and said they believed she was their daughter.
A few months later police officers requested DNA tests from the girl, which finally ruled her out.
69. NORWAY: September 2007: Madeleine was seen at a cafe in Skarnes. She was with two smartly dressed men.
70. OMAN: Details not made public.



https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3419009/madeleine-mccann-sightings-around-world-missing-children/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1547499787

What on earth’s going on?
 
Are Bell Pottinger back in business under a new name and with a new contract or is it just that these so-called journalists have their credit card bills to pay after Christmas?
 
Anyone know if any of these are in the paper editions? 
 
Yesterday we had three on-line McCann stories, this one (which has been re-vamped many times, the similarly re-vamped ‘Mark of Maddie’ coloboma nonsense and also this one, which also feels familiar:
 
 'HIDE AND SEEK CHAMP' 
Vile trolls set up Tinder profile for missing Madeleine McCann claiming she’s ‘down the pub drinking Sangria’
The sick account makes light of the high-profile disappearance and dubs the missing youngster 'hide and seek champion 2007'
By Mark Hendry
14th January 2019, 9:02 pm
Updated: 15th January 2019, 1:28 am
 
A VILE Tinder profile for Madeleine McCann has emerged on the dating app claiming the missing girl is "down the pub drinking sangria".
The sick account, understood to have been created in Glasgow, makes light of the high-profile disappearance……………..

That exact same report (World Witnesses) was published by the Sun in September 2018.

It was listed on google search results as 13th September 2018 but opening the link this January 2019 report appears.  I went back to copy googles result but the date disappeared right before my very eyes.

I wonder why The Sun are regurgitating these nonsense tales - bit short of titillation?

ETA:  I knew I wasn;t dreaming .... found through another sauce..