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Madeleine McCann Documentaries Regist10
The Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann™
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Madeleine McCann Documentaries Mm11

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Madeleine McCann Documentaries

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Madeleine McCann Documentaries Empty Madeleine McCann Documentaries

Post by Verdi 02.02.19 20:58

A new thread to upload the various documentaries produced in connection with Madeleine McCann's disappearance and to discuss different aspects of the content.

What better place to start than the five part Channel 4 documentary 'Madeleine Was Here' first broadcast on 7th May 2009, just over two years after Madeleine's alleged disappearance.

Kicking off with Part 1 of the documentary which gives an insight into McCann family life back in Rothley, Leicester.  The video starts with an introduction where you can see Kate McCann relating the tragic moment she realised her daughter had gone.  

Transcript:

I did my check about ten o'clock and went in through the sliding patio doors ... and I just stood actually and I thought ooh all quiet ... and to be honest I might 'ave attempted to turn round and I just noticed that the door ... the bedroom door where the three children were sleeping was open much further than we'd left it ... I went to close to about here and as I got to here ...  suddenly it slammed and as I opened it, it was then that I just thought I'd just look at the children eh I saw Amelie and Sean in the cot and then I was looking at Madeleine's bed which was here 'gesticulates' and it was dark and I was looking and thinking ... is that Madeleine or is it the bedding ... y'know ... I couldn't quite make 'er out .

It sounds really stupid now but at the time I was thinking ... I didn't want to put the light on because didn't wanna wake them ... and literally as I went back in ... the curtains in the bedroom that were drawn closed ... tchooo ...  was like a gust of wind just kinda blew them open 'gestures' and her little cat was still there and her pink blanket was still there and then I knew strait away that she'd been taken ... you know 'shakes head'


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Five part Channel 4 documentary 'Madeleine Was Here' first broadcast on 7th May 2009

These videos have now been deleted, they are no long available on YouTube for the following reason..


Madeleine McCann Documentaries Scree762

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Madeleine McCann Documentaries Empty Panorama Madeleine McCann 10 Years On BBC Documentary 2017

Post by Verdi 04.02.19 23:51

Panorama Madeleine McCann 10 Years On BBC Documentary 2017


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Madeleine McCann Documentaries Empty The McCanns and the Conman

Post by Verdi 05.02.19 0:05


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Post by Verdi 05.02.19 0:30


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Post by skyrocket 05.02.19 8:24


 

@Verdi - I'll kick off with a comment I've made before regarding Part 1 of 'Madeleine Was Here'.

 

We see Amelie, with long blonde hair, in a a pink top as Gerry arrives home. Running up to the point at 6mins18secs we have Gerry saying:

 

'Yes, we're living with this carrot that, that, she could potentially come back....'

 

And on cue one second later, with a bit of staging, we have Madeleine back in the kitchen in Rothley in 2009 - or at least a look-a-like (with bobbed, shoulder length hair) sitting at the table playing with a doll (hiding much of her face) wearing the same top that Amelie was in. Clearly the child can only be Amelie but it clearly isn't unless she's been given a wig.

 

The substitution serves no purpose, that I can see, in a fly-on-the wall look at family life 2 years on. One would have thought the entire scene would be upsetting to the parents of an 'abducted' child or at least considered to be in too bad taste to broadcast.

 

I also don't like the fact that GM then goes on to clearly shake his head when he states that she (Madeleine), ''is out there and seperated from you....'.
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Post by Verdi 05.02.19 23:38

Searching for Madeleine: A Sky News documentary on the McCann investigation

Martin Brunt: "It's ten years since Madeleine McCann vanished and I'm still fascinated by the mystery of what happened to her.  I've come to Vienna to meet a man who once convinced Madeleine's parents that he could find her" .... enter Daniel Krugel and the mysterious hairbrush


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Post by Verdi 15.02.19 1:16

The Mystery of Madeleine McCann - Part 1 of 3

1:01:27 minutes

checktheevidence


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Post by Verdi 21.02.19 11:21


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Post by Verdi 21.02.19 15:04

Madeleine McCann A Global Obsession


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Post by Jill Havern 24.07.20 16:16



Madeleine McCann: Hunt for the Prime Suspect

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Post by Guest 24.07.20 16:40

The image of Madeleine fronting this video appears to be a chimera of the original pic of her with her hand to her hair in a blue t-shirt where she looks much younger and the age progressed image.
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Post by Verdi 15.08.21 0:55

It's Saturday night and I'm not in the mood for too much diligence - things I would rather be doing.

Not too sure where to stick this without too much thought so here it will be until further notice.

I urge anyone who has access to ITV Hub to watch this.  I can't embed for obvious reasons - sorry sad

Madeleine McCann:  The Hunt for the Prime Suspect

Julie Etchingham for ITV

23rd July 2020

https://www.itv.com/hub/madeleine-mccann-the-hunt-for-the-prime-suspect/10a0436a0001

Like the proverbial fart in a colander - can't get out through all the holes!

The primary focus is of course Christian Brueckner and the so called documentary appears to be the precursor to the Discovery+ documentary, only this is far more revealing.

Note:  The producer/presenter, Julie Etchingham,  is an ambassador to the Missing People charity - just as Kate McCann is.

no

This documentary is worthy of discussion in it's own right. So outrageous it's borderline blasphemy.

I will take it somewhere else in due course.

Meanwhile, if you're still interested in justice in the name of Madeleine McCann, please let me know your thoughts.

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Post by Guest 15.08.21 10:24

AS much as we are interested in justice for Madeleine, we are not going to see it. Perhaps when all the main players are dead - police, the guilty, the suspects, government and embassy officials, journalists etc -  will the fate of this little girl be revealed. It could appear in the form of 'lost' documents, or 'previously mislaid' evidence. Or a confession, but imo that is the least likely to happen.
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Post by crusader 15.08.21 19:50

Programmes like this speak only to the people who believe Madeleine was abducted.

The only link to Madelene is,
Brueckner was somewhere in the area and the "dubious information  from people who knew him". 

Do they make programmes like this to get ratings,  like when they put Princess Diana on the front of the paper, it used to guarantee selling more papers.

If we ever get to see justice for Madeleine, it won't be because of programmes like this.
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Post by Verdi 16.08.21 12:40

As promised, I have moved this topic from the 'Video of the Day' thread

My particular concern about this particular documentary is Dr Graham Hill, former Surrey copper who was seconded to Portugal on 7th May 2007 by the CEOP.  The same organisation headed by the staunch friend and McCann supporter. Jim Gamble!  Like the Scarlet Pimpernel, he crops up everywhere does Jim Gamble.

https://www.grahamhillcriminologist.com/


https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t13561p1025-media-mayhem-mccann-media-nonsense-of-the-day#440898

By coincidence  whistling the studio sofa in chief queen. Mark Williams-Thomas, also hails from Surrey police.  He claims to have exposed Jimmy Savile - as if Savile wasn't perfectly capable of exposing himself!

As Kate McCann wisely said in her autobiographical novelette .... '‘One coincidence, two coincidences – maybe they’re still coincidences. Any more than that and it stops being coincidence.’

The show is yet another opportunity to discredit the Portuguese police and their investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. aided and abetted by the Portuguese journalist, Sandra Felgueiras, who has firmly embedded her name in the connection with the case.  Another one said to be first at the scene of the crime!

As I said earlier, do try to watch this if you can view itv hub - and you're still interested in justice in the name of Madeleine McCann.

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Post by crusader 17.08.21 15:55

Whenever I have seen Dr Graham Hill discussing his involvement in the disappearance of Madeleine, he has rubbished the work of the police and PJ.

He said he was asked to go there by the Foreign and Commonwealth office.

He said the police hadn't taken employees statements soon enough and holidaymakers  had been allowed to go home at the end of the week.

He said very little seemed to be happening and there were only a few police on the streets.

He said he thought the Portuguese police felt insulted by someone offering advice. 

It seems to me as though he thought he should have been greeted  as the big I am by the  PJ and was miffed when he wasn't. 

I watched a video of him being interviewed and he said the McCanns went to Portugal with 8 other couples, 16 people, he also said Madeleine probably went missing between 9&10 pm.

He believes Madeleine was abducted and is dead.

He arrived in Portugal on 7th May and stayed for 10 days, 
I think the PJ were quite rightly suspicious of him.

Hill said he spoke to Gerry and Gerry asked him if he thought Madeleine was still alive,  he told him she was probably dead as an abducted child was likely to be killed within the first 3 hours.

So, from the start he was pushing the abduction theory.
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Post by Verdi 17.08.21 16:31

Thank you for replying crusader, I was rather hoping the subject would attract more attention.

It's very difficult keeping Madeleine McCann in focus these days, sometimes I wonder why I even bother to try.

Understandably public interest in the case has waned.  Without the regular media updates, the latest ripping yarns, naturally folk will drift away from the case which is unfortunate, considering the gravity of the case.  Never has it been just another missing child - the McCanns made damn sure of that!

But the question remains who, why, how, when and where!  

We are still a million miles from the truth and without public interest, that's exactly where it will remain.

Dr Graham Hill is very much on the side of the McCann support network.  Sandra Felgueiras isn't far behind either, folk jumped on the time she threw a rather damning question at Gerry McCann during an interview .... 'ask the dogs Sandra' .... so the natural conclusion was she was suspicious but no such luck.  She is an ambitious journalist after all, they care nothing for truth and justice.

There is however a strong link I see between the British police, the media amd the British government - an interweave of specific people and organisations that have come to light over the years.  Then there is the double glazing salesman who pledged his entire furtune to prove and maintain the McCanns innocence.

In my view Madeleine McCann will never get the justice she so richly deserves, I thought that from the very beginning but that doesn't mean she should be forgotten, cast aside like the cuddlecat.

bignono

I'm guessing the McCanns are taking full advantage of worldly troubles.  It's certainly diluting attention from lesser home affairs.

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Post by Guest 17.08.21 16:58

They may be making a small mistake there; despite global events, they should still be insisting that 'we will never stop looking for Madeleine'. At the beginning, they didn't want other people to forget her, but now they're keeping quiet. They might be having a nice rest, but others are still on the case.
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Post by crusader 17.08.21 17:10

Keep up the good work Verdi, I really appreciate all the work you do.
I will never stop searching for evidence and am just as focused as I was when I joined the forum. the truth will out one day.
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Post by Jill Havern 17.08.21 17:29

crusader wrote:

He believes Madeleine was abducted and is dead.

He arrived in Portugal on 7th May and stayed for 10 days, 
I think the PJ were quite rightly suspicious of him.

Hill said he spoke to Gerry and Gerry asked him if he thought Madeleine was still alive,  he told him she was probably dead as an abducted child was likely to be killed within the first 3 hours.
If Maddie genuinely had been abducted then I think it was very wicked of him to say to the distressed father - within the first two weeks - that she was probably dead as an abducted child was likely to be killed within the first 3 hours.

Surely not?

Surely the police would be trying to keep the parents positive and hopeful, especially knowing they had two other small children? Why devastate them like that when the search was very much ongoing?

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Post by crusader 17.08.21 17:39

He was only there for 10 day's, the way he goes on about it, you would think he was there for months. 

Jill wrote...
If Maddie genuinely had been abducted then I think it was very wicked of him to say to the distressed father - within the first two weeks - that she was probably dead as an abducted child was likely to be killed within the first 3 hours.


Why does that ^^^ not sound true? Because in all probability, it never happened.
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Post by Silentscope 17.08.21 17:47

It sounds more like Dr Hill was trying to cover up the immediate Publicity storm.

If Madeleine was really Abducted, the PJ had quite rightly advised the Parents and friends NOT TO CONTACT the Media, for fear of the Kidnappers hurting the Victim. No Ransom was ever requested.

If she was Abducted to be sold on, the Publicity would make her too hot to handle. 

Either it was too late because the Press was already informed, or they already knew that she was beyond help.
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Post by crusader 17.08.21 18:19

https://theconversation.com/madeleine-mccann-investigation-was-flawed-from-the-start-says-senior-detective-who-was-there-140132

This ^^^ is one of the places where Graham Hill talks about telling Gerry Madeleine was probably dead.
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Post by Silentscope 17.08.21 18:34

The body if hastily concealed could have been discovered at any time.

They needed a plausible excuse should it have been found.
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Post by Verdi 14.09.21 12:46

Will the discovery of a credible suspect lead to answers in the Madeleine McCann case?

The disappearance of the 3-year-old girl while vacationing with her family in 2007 captured the world's attention. Now, more than 13 years later, there is a suspect in Germany who may have answers.
______________________________________________________

I don't subscribe to Paramount so not able to up-load the CBS documentary but this is a taster with transcript by the channel itself..



It's a mystery that has been compared to a jigsaw puzzle with too many pieces missing — until now.  In 2007, while on vacation with her parents at a beach resort in Southern Portugal, 3-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from her bed, sparking one of the biggest missing child investigations in history.

Despite a global media storm and a multinational search and investigation, years passed with no answers until June 2020, when German authorities announced they had a suspect — a sex offender with several previous convictions. His name is Christian Brueckner.

"He absolutely matches the profile of a person who could potentially abduct and or kill a little girl like Madeleine McCann," says Mark Hofmann, a Germany-based crime and intelligence analyst.

"His cellphone was tracked at the crime scene or at least next to the crime scene the night Maddie disappeared," Hofmann tells "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant, who has been covering the case since 2007.

Is the arrest of Brueckner the key to solving the case and finally solving the mystery of what happened to Madeleine McCann?

"It's when you put those things together that you get that clear focus where the jigsaw becomes much, much more complete," says Jim Gamble, the former head of the United Kingdom's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

"For the first time in 13 years, I have to say … I actually feel here is a credible suspect," says Gamble.

WHERE'S MADELEINE?

KATE MCCANN [to reporters, May 2007]: We would like to say a few words to the person who is with Madeleine. … Madeleine is a beautiful, bright, funny, and caring little girl. She is so special. … We need our Madeleine and Madeleine needs us. … Please give our little girl back.  

It's been more than a decade of waiting for Kate and Gerry McCann.  

   GERRY MCCANN [to reporters, May 2007]: We will leave no stone unturned in the search for our daughter, Madeleine.  

Years of searching since their daughter disappeared on May 3, 2007.  

   KATE MCCANN [2007 BBC interview]: We have to be hopeful.  It's what keeps us going and keeps us focused.  

Now, they finally may be closer to finding out what happened to Madeleine.  

This past June in Braunschweig Germany, prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters held a press conference and made a stunning announcement: that German police had a suspect: 43-year-old Christian Brueckner. He also had devastating news. He declared that Madeleine McCann was likely dead.

Peter Van Sant: Mr. Wolters, it's been said that German prosecutors are always very tight lipped … You must have some strong evidence that allowed you to make that statement to the public.  

Hans Christian Wolters: We have strong evidence that Christian B. killed Maddie McCann.  

Peter Van Sant: But you don't have a body, correct? There's no body?

Hans Christian Wolters: No, we have no forensic evidence.  

Peter Van Sant: Then how can you be so certain?  

Hans Christian Wolters: We have other evidence.  

Just as German law does not allow Wolters to use Brueckner's full name, he also cannot say what that evidence is.  

Jim Gamble: I heard the news that the Germans had a credible suspect … and my first thing was, here we go again.  

Jim Gamble was head of the U.K.'s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre and involved in the early investigation.  

Jim Gamble: Madeleine's case was complex.  

Over the years, he has seen countless leads end up as dead ends. But this time, he believes the Germans may be on the right track.  

Jim Gamble: Everyone, including myself, who's touched this case is more hopeful with the German case than, than we've been in 13 years.

Back in May of 2007, British doctors Gerry and Kate McCann were on vacation with their family in Praia da Luz, a resort town in the Algarve region of Portugal.  

Jane Hill: The coastline is beautiful. The sunshine is beautiful.

Jane Hill is a BBC News anchor who covered Madeleine's story.  

Jane Hill: It was just a regular, relaxed week in the sun.  

The five members of the McCann family, including Madeleine and her younger twin brother and sister, stayed at the Ocean Club. They were joined by several other families.  

Jim Gamble: The Ocean Club Resort was seen as a place … where families went. They'd gone there for generations. It would seem to be family friendly and safe.  

   KATE MCCANN [2007 BBC interview]: We were having a great holiday. It was — we had lots of fun.

Especially fun for Madeleine.  

   GERRY MCCANN [2007 BBC interview]: She might look like Kate but in terms of personality she's much more of a McCann. She's very extroverted and lively.  

   KATE MCCANN [2007 BBC interview]: She is very sociable.  

But their idyllic holiday would soon come to an end. On May 3 at around 8:30 p.m., the McCanns left their sleeping children alone in their unlocked apartment and went to meet friends at the resort's tapas bar about 50 yards away.  

Jim Gamble: That was their routine behavior. They had been doing it all week.  

Jane Hill: And the friends would take turns. So, every 15 minutes or so one of the adults from the group would go back … and just check on their sleeping children and check that everything was OK.  

At 10 p.m. when it was Kate's turn, she found the twins sound asleep. But Madeleine's bed was empty.  

Jane Tanner: And Kate said to me, "Jane, Madeleine's gone. Madeleine's gone."

Jane Tanner was one of the friends who was dining with the McCanns.

Jane Tanner: It's the least thing you'd ever think in a million years that you know a child is going to be abducted in a safe family resort.  When Tanner heard that Madeleine had disappeared, she says she remembered that earlier in the evening as she walked near the Ocean Club, she passed a man who had caught her attention.

Jane Tanner: As I was walking up the road this man was walking across the top of the road, carrying a small child, and the thing I noticed the most was he holding her and I could see the — her bare feet and the bottom of the pajamas.  

Tanner told the Portuguese police what she had witnessed that night. But investigators didn't appear to take immediate action.

Jane Hill: There was quite a laissez-faire attitude … she's wandered off somewhere. She's probably got lost. We'll find her. She'll come back. … And that was one of the criticisms that the police activity didn't really get going until the next day.    

By that time, Madeleine's disappearance was making headlines across the world.  

Jane Hill: My editor took me off the air the day after she disappeared and said get on a plane to Portugal.  

Hill was one of the first British journalists at the scene.

Peter Van Sant: Why did this capture people's attention so?

Jane Hill: It is every parent's nightmare, isn't it?

In some ways, Madeleine was more than a daughter to the McCanns. She was their miracle. Unable to conceive, the couple endured a series of grueling in vitro fertilization procedures until Kate finally became pregnant with Madeleine.  

Peter Van Sant: What was it like for Gerry and Kate when Madeleine was born?  

John Corner: Well, they were walking on air quite frankly.  

Family friend Jon Corner spoke to "48 Hours" back in 2007.  

Jon Corner: The bond between Kate and Madeleine was — is something that, amazing, really.

   GERRY MCCANN [to reporters in May 2007]: Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother, and sister.

Within days, Madeleine's face fueled one of the largest international searches for a missing child in history.  

Jane Hill: Madeleine's face became so familiar. She became ubiquitous

Jane Hill:  It was heartbreaking because photographs were released that the family had taken on that holiday.  

   GERRY MCCANN [to reporters in May 2007]: It's obviously extremely difficult …

Jane Hill: Every day me and my team were there, we just watched the press pack grow and grow and grow.  

As the cameras followed the McCanns everywhere, it seemed Kate was never without Madeleine's pink stuffed animal.  

   KATE MCCANN [2007 BBC interview]: Well it was something that Madeleine has with her every night. And if she was upset or not well, then she has cuddle cat. So, it provided me with a little bit of comfort, something of Madeleine's close to me.  

Days passed and the McCanns grew frustrated as the Portuguese police conducted their investigation and shared very little.  

Jane Hill: Portuguese police are not allowed to reveal any details of an ongoing investigation, not just to people like me, to the family involved.  … And what happens when you have no information? You get rumor, gossip, and speculation … there was no proof of anything, that's the trouble …
 
ALL EYES ON THE MCCANNS

Jane Hill: There were … rumors circulated, all the time. I can't tell you what a rumor mill it was. … And you would think … where is this coming from?

A week after Madeleine's disappearance, suspicion fell on a man who lived just down the street from where Madeleine had vanished.  

Peter Van Sant: Tell me, who is Robert Murat?

Jim Gamble: Robert Murat is a British expat who lives in Praia da Luz. … So, he had local knowledge. And he spoke Portuguese, and … engaged with a number of reporters and others in proximity to the investigation and offered himself up to provide help by way of translation or advice.

Police quickly named Murat a suspect. Witnesses say Murat showed up at the Ocean Club after Madeleine disappeared, and claimed he was acting suspiciously. Murat's mother said that wasn't possible.

   JENNY MURAT [2007 interview]:  They couldn't have seen him. He was home all night.

Then, the public began to turn on the McCanns for leaving their daughter alone.  

Peter Van Sant: Did it go from, "We feel so sorry for you" to "How could you have done that?"

Jane Hill: There were … people saying that. … I recorded an interview with a man from the Algarve Tourist Board. … He said, "I mean, you keep an eye on your suitcase. Why would you not keep an eye on your child?"

It's a question Jane Hill had to raise when she became the first reporter to interview Kate and Gerry McCann.

   JANE HILL [2007 BBC interview]: A lot of people, in the last three weeks, have … said, 'I can't imagine doing such a thing. I wouldn't be able to leave three children, in that situation." How do you deal with those sorts of comments?

   GERRY McCANN [2007 BBC interview]: I think, you know … no one will ever feel more guilty than us. … If you thought for a minute that someone could abduct your child, of course, you would never have left them.

Portuguese investigators also began eyeing the McCanns. Three months after Madeleine vanished, specially trained sniffer dogs were flown in to scour the family's vacation rental.  

Traces of blood were detected inside the apartment and in the trunk of the McCann's rental car.  

Partial samples of the blood were recovered and sent to a British lab for DNA testing, but the results indicated that the blood found in the apartment did not belong to Madeleine and the results from the DNA in the rental car were inconclusive.  

Jim Gamble: Well I've seen the letter from the forensic science lab. … The forensic tests … didn't say, this DNA is Madeleine McCann's. … Because actually, the full analysis of that … says that up that up to half the forensic scientists in the lab would have had similar DNA characteristics. It was not a complete DNA sample.

What's more …

Jim Gamble: The car wasn't actually retained by the McCann's until weeks after Madeleine had gone missing. … And if you are to believe that Madeleine was in the boot of the car, they must have either killed her and/or hidden her sometime earlier, recovered her body whilst the media were surveilling them, hidden it in the car … then moved it to a place where they could dispose of it, where no one could see that happen, and then bring the car back. It just doesn't add up. The forensics don't add up.

And yet, four months after Madeleine vanished, Portuguese police declared the McCanns "arguidos"— suspects in their own daughter's disappearance.  

Peter Van Sant: The enormous media coverage in this, do you believe in some ways that pressured Portuguese authorities to say, we have our real suspects? It is Kate and it is Gerry.

Jim Gamble: Well, I can't speak to that. … You'd have to talk to the senior investigating officer from the Portuguese police. But in my opinion, do I think that that type of pressure would focus the attention of a senior investigating officer? Of course.

"48 Hours" reached out to the Portuguese police for comment, but they did not reply.  

Jim Gamble: The McCanns should have been suspects day one, minute one, hour one. And I don't believe for one second the McCanns committed this crime. But what I'm saying is … Your attention should be, first of all, to look at the parents and actually to rule them in or rule them out - not to wait until your months down the line where you have exhausted all of your other ideas, and to then say, "Well, actually, it must be the parents." Because that's not fair on anyone.

Surprisingly, almost immediately after being declared suspects, the McCanns were allowed to fly to the U.K., returning home for the first time without their daughter.

   GERRY MCCANN [statement at airport, 2007]: We have played no part in the disappearance of our lovely daughter, Madeleine.

Kate McCann told her family that Portuguese investigators had pressured her to sign a confession, in which she was to admit that Madeleine had died accidentally, and that Madeleine's disappearance had been staged. Kate refused. "48 Hours" spoke to Kate's mother in 2007.

   SUSAN HEALEY [2007 interview]: Kate said, "Why — why would I sign that confession?" you know. … If an accident had happened, Madeleine had fallen, Kate and Gerry wouldn't have hidden that.  

Peter Van Sant: When the McCanns were named as suspects in Portugal, were they seen as suspects in the U.K. as well?  

Jane Hill: I'm sure there were people in the U.K. who did think that they had some involvement. And that was reflected particularly in the British tabloid press.

Some British newspapers began running unsubstantiated, sensational storylines.

Jim Gamble: And what happened … is, the war of the tabloids began to take place.

The onslaught of wild accusations continued for months, effectively portraying the McCanns as killers.

Jim Gamble: And then you get the armchair detectives. … With social media you've got the geeks, freaks and morons. … But when you've got this world of bile being created online, then people continually feed it.  

It wasn't until the following summer, in July 2008, that Portuguese investigators cleared the McCanns. By then, Gerry and Kate had spent nearly a year under a cloud of suspicion.

   KATE MCCANN [2008 interview]: It's hard to describe how utterly despairing it was to be named arguido and subsequently portrayed in the media as suspects in our own daughter's abduction.

The police also cleared Robert Murat. But what had happened to little Madeleine? The McCanns remained singularly focused on finding out.

   KATE MCCANN | May 2011 BBC interview: I think there's a really good chance she's still alive. … [takes a deep breath] I guess I feel she's out there.  

A NEW LOOK AT THE CASE

More than two years had passed since Madeleine McCann's mysterious disappearance, and Portuguese investigators were no closer to knowing what happened to her. As head of the U.K.'s Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, Jim Gamble knew he had to take action.  

Jim Gamble: We produced a viral video called "A Minute from Madeleine McCann" …

   "A MINUTE FROM MADELEINE MCCANN": Madeleine disappeared on the 3rd of May, 2007, while on holiday with her family in Portugal. … If you know who's involved, and you're keeping this secret …

Jim Gamble:  A video … that said … "It's never too late to do the right thing. … And if you know something, go to your local police."

Peter Van Sant: I understand that the video was in seven different languages, is that right?

Jim Gamble: Yes, it was …in Chinese, in Arabic, in Spanish …   It was downloaded in every part of the world.  

And as the views ticked up, so too did the number of potential leads.  

Peter Van Sant: Give me a sense of the number of sightings … that were pouring in from all over the world during these years.

Jim Gamble: There's been a number of sightings of Madeleine McCann in … Australia, in parts of Africa, across Spain, Portugal and beyond.

Jane Hill: All turned out to be nothing. The trail went cold.  

But things were about to heat up. In 2010, Gamble was asked by the British government to officially review the case.  

Peter Van Sant: When Portuguese police began this investigation, you believe they made some fundamental errors.

Jim Gamble: I — I do think they … made some critical errors.  

Gamble says Portuguese investigators failed to take a close look at everyone staying near the Ocean Club at the time.

Jim Gamble: It was clear that the, you know, searches … were ad hoc. The fact is that all of the details of all of the people who'd stayed in that apartment block … or been in proximity at the time, hadn't been captured.

Gamble also found that cellphone data around the Ocean Club the day Madeleine went missing hadn't been properly analyzed.  

Jim Gamble: The telephone companies captured all of that information in 2007. Yet … there was absolutely no evidence that any of that cell site data had been … investigated.

In June 2010, Gamble finished his case review and submitted recommendations to the British government.  But for almost a year nothing happened. Until…

Jim Gamble: Gerry McCann wrote an open letter on the front page of a popular tabloid … to the prime minister. … And in a day, Operation Grange was commissioned.

Operation Grange became one of the largest and most expensive investigations in British history. The full weight of Scotland Yard was now brought in to assist the Portuguese investigation.  

Jane Hill: There was a sense in the U.K. that this was almost a fresh start. … Let's regroup. … Let's see what wasn't looked at. Let's go through witness statements. Let's see whether we can make fresh appeals for information and really revitalize this.

That meant taking another look at every possible scenario of what might have happened that night.  

Jim Gamble: Could this be that the child simply walked away? … Could it be an abduction? Could it be a burglary that's gone wrong?  

Jim Gamble: Could someone have broken into the room and might they have been disturbed by Madeleine … and could they have responded, you know, out of fear — out of anger and nervousness … and taken her away?  

There was one dark scenario that weighed most heavily; the possibility that Madeleine had been kidnapped by a sex offender.  

   KATE MCCANN [2011 BBC Interview]: Obviously that was our biggest fear. …  But just the thought of someone so lovely and beautiful, our child, being subjected to something like that was, was enough to destroy us.

Operation Grange solved one early mystery: the identity of the man seen in a police sketch, whom that family friend had reported seeing. Scotland Yard determined it was just a man on vacation with his child.  

Aged-progression technology was also used at the time to further the investigation.

Jim Gamble: I have on many occasions looked at images of children who have been found. And the likeness sometimes is remarkable.

By 2016, the number of alleged Madeleine sightings had grown to over 8,600, spanning more than 100 countries. Scotland Yard investigated every credible lead, but none led anywhere.

Jane Hill: How could it be that years later, there was still no trace of this little girl. How was that possible? Nothing.

Jim Gamble: What we're waiting for over these years as all these bits start to fall into place - the cell site data, information about suspects, other sex offenders in the area. We're waiting for that last piece … to fall into place.  

Then, in June 2020, from a small German city, some startling news:

   CHARLIE D'AGATA [CBSN, June 4, 2020]: German police revealing that a convicted sex offender, currently serving a jail sentence, is now the prime suspect.

After years of dead ends, finally a promising suspect- a 43-year-old German man. A look into his past would reveal a monster.

Continued over-page..

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