Netflix probes Madeleine McCann disappearance in new documentary

Hi @ Andema83, have you read the PJ files? if not I suggest it's a good place to start.

The Netflix series and books written by "researchers" including Kate's book will not give you the answers you need.

Once you have read the PJ files you will have a good insight of the events of 2007, with this knowledge you can then compare them with books and documentaries.

Hello [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.],
thanks for the kind advice; I did read the PJ files, admittedly in parts, however, certain questions remain unanswered, at least for me. The biggest one for me is the heavy political involvement and why the ambassador and other high-ranking diplomatic stuff were rushing to PDL so quickly, to my knowledge, no-one could offer a plausible explanation for that. Jim Gamble said in the Maddie Podcast that they just wanted to help, which, frankly, I don't buy.
I get your point that I probably won't find answers to such questions in a Netflix documentary, but I'm still hoping that journalists with their 'investigative research' might bring up new info that could move the case forward. We had a high profile missing child's case here in Germany where a mentally retared guy (who made an easy target for investigators) had been fitted up and wrongly convicted, but that wrongful conviction had been overturned, thanks to the investigative work of two journalists who increased the public pressure on those responsible.
But - whatever, maybe I'm being naive.

There are a lot of unanswered questions I'm afraid, and I agree there was unprecedented political involvement and direct interference with the PJ trying to do their work.

It's not beyond comprehension, an independent investitive researcher  may just find something to move the case foreword, and I hope someone does, I do have a problem with ex police and film makers leaving out important facts because it doesn't fit in with their narrative.

Madeleine McCann: Can an eight-hour Netflix documentary really shed any new light on this case?

By Eleanor Steafel 15 March 2019 • 3:46pm

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The trailer for Netflix’s new series The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann begins with an aerial shot of a pristine beach. Azure waves lap the shore as a lone figure, just a tiny spec in a red swimming costume, walks across the sand. Cut to black. “The world’s most famous missing child case,” the words appear out of the darkness as an eerie soundtrack begins to play. “A mystery in search of answers”. And then that photo — the one stamped on the memories of everyone who can recall this case as if it were yesterday — of the little girl in the red velvet dress with the blonde bob, her big eyes (one blue and one green with a brown mark on the iris) staring out through the camera, willing you to find her.

Twelve years on from the disappearance of Madeleine McCann and it is now possible to have a grown up conversation with someone who doesn’t remember the months of newspaper headlines about the little middle class girl from Leicestershire, who disappeared from her room in a Portuguese holiday resort while her baby brother and sister lay sleeping and her parents ate dinner with friends. It was the story which had people the world-over hanging off every cough and spit. The Telegraph’s reporter in Praia de Luz was the last British journalist to leave the Algarve after five months straight covering the story, but there was a press presence in the resort for well over a year after her disappearance. It was a missing child case that prayed on our deepest fears about the terrifying notion that families could be targeted by paedophiles and child traffickers while on holiday.

For Netflix, the true crime genre has become a bit of a winning formula, attracting huge global audiences. Take a big unsolved case, one with plenty of old news reports to rehash and former witnesses to dredge up. “Reexamine” every old lead, acquire various “fresh” lines of enquiry and air a couple of wild, never heard before claims. With a production budget to make it look like an HBO drama, viewers are then taken on a journey of ever increasing pace and urgency so that at every twist and turn it feels as if you might be about to finally reveal the truth. Making a Murderer, the Ted Bundy Tapes, Amanda Knox documentary — this is a well worn path; the ultimate binge watching for the Netflix generation, who are digesting these stories of human misery with insatiable glee.

The sheer drama of the case of Madeleine McCann will undoubtedly make for gripping watching, especially for Gen Zers, who may be coming at every outlandish theory that has ever been made about what happened for the first time.



From the very beginning, this case has been dogged with controversy and the eight-part series dropping on Netflix on Friday has itself been shrouded in secrecy. Rumblings within the industry suggest the series was at one point almost cancelled altogether over a lack of new material. The creators and collaborators didn't take part in the usual rounds of interviews and press to promote the show. The Telegraph’s own interview with director Chris Smith (who, incidentally, was behind the brilliant Fyre Festival, Netflix’s most recent success story) never happened. A brief announcement on Thursday revealed the documentary would drop the following morning. Meanwhile, Kate and Gerry McCann and their extended web of friends and family had, it emerged, refused point blank to be involved in a series which did nothing but rehash every painful theory about what had happened to their little girl all those years ago.

The McCanns are said to be deeply concerned that the show draws heavily on testimonies from former suspects and key players from the Portuguese police, including the man who has been their tormentor over the past few years, Goncalo Amaral. In 2007 the Portuguese police named them as formal suspects and this ex detective has long been considered by the McCanns as a “thorn in our sides” and was unsuccessfully taken to court for accusing them of covering up their daughter’s accidental death.

“They didn’t ask for this documentary to be done” says Clarence Mitchell, the couple’s longtime spokesman. “They, their family and friends, myself included, were all approached by Pulse Films who were making it to take part, but they felt that there was no tangible investigative benefit in the search for Madeleine. Indeed one of the principle concerns is that it could potentially hinder it. So they declined to engage with it, and asked all their immediate circle and family and friends not to do that as well.”

It is “distressing”, Mitchell says, for the McCanns to see old allegations being aired again. “But Kate and Gerry have through bitter experience over the years come to realise how certain elements of the media will approach the situation. They will only engage if they feel its of benefit to the search for their daughter.”



Of the many distressing theories that have emerged over the past 12 years is the idea that Madeleine was taken by child traffickers. According to one report, experts in the documentary believe she was abducted to order by a child trafficking gang (a middle class British girl, she would be more financially valuable) and taken to another foreign country. It isn’t a new theory, by any means. At the time, it was one of the few theories which provided the McCanns with a glimmer of hope that Madeleine might yet be found alive. But experts say it the notion she was trafficked is far fetched.

Andrew Munday, Unit Commander for the British Modern Slavery Unit, says “nothing” about how child trafficking operates fits the disappearance of Madeleine. “It’s almost unique for a white British national child to be snatched in such a way for the purpose of trafficking,” he tells me. “I can’t think of a single case where the child is kidnapped in such a way.”

DCI Colin Sutton, the detective who caught Levi Bellfield and solved more than 30 murders over the course of his career at Scotland Yard, says this series is a “missed opportunity”. “An organisation with good resources had the opportunity to start with a clean sheet of paper and go through the investigation from the very beginning and point out the discrepancies and point out the potential leads or lines of enquiry that could have been followed, should have been followed or weren’t followed.

“Because of the notoriety of the case it is one where there is a reluctance [on the part of the media and the police, he says] to grasp the mettle and do a proper job of looking at the evidence and analysing and so forth.”

DCI Sutton believes that while theories about child trafficking and targeted abduction might make for spine tingling drama, they are always among the least likely hypotheses with these cases. “I understand that the notion that there are these predatory groups who are stealing children is something that is attractive in terms of selling newspapers and TV programmes, but I’m not sure in the real world how common an occurrence that is.”

The documentary claims that Madeleine could still be alive. It points to the case of Jaycee Dugard, who was abducted aged nine in California and found 18 years later, and Carlina White, who was snatched as a baby from a New York hospital in 1987 and later learned the truth at 23. Jim Gamble, a top child protection policeman who took part in the first UK police investigation into the disappearance has told the documentary that with advances in technology, he believes the truth will come out.

“I absolutely believe that in my lifetime we will find out what has happened to Madeleine,” he says. "There's huge hope to be had with the advances in technology. Year on year DNA is getting better. Year on year other techniques, including facial recognition, are getting better. As we use technology to revisit and review that which we captured in the past, there's every likelihood that something we already know will slip into position.”

Meanwhile, Julian Peribanez, a Spanish private investigator once hired by the McCanns tells the documentary he infiltrated a paedophile ring sharing obscene videos and passed their details to police. Twenty three people were questioned and 13 arrested, and a former head of cybercrime told the documentary: “Some of these investigations may lead to these minors being found and rescued from their captors."

“There is always something left to do until you find her,” he says.

Until we know the truth, there will always be more documentaries to make, more books to write. Dredging up old leads and allegations like this would, the McCanns’ spokesman says, be distressing “for anybody”. “But it’s far worse for a family in their situation, where they’re still hoping that their daughter will be found alive one day.”

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The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Netflix, review: bloated and manipulative, this documentary series tells us nothing new

By Ed Power 21 March 2019 • 8:47am



The controversy swirling around Netflix’s Madeleine McCann documentary in the end has proved more sensational than what has reached the screen. Delays and reports of wrangling behind the scenes raised the possibility of explosive new revelations as the streaming service applied the true crime formula pioneered by Making a Murderer to the mystery of the little girl who vanished from an Algarve holiday apartment in May 2007 as her parents enjoyed a meal with friends 100 yards away.

Alas, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann simply confirms that the true crime genre has become prisoner to its crassest tendencies. The eight-part series is somehow at once overwrought and melodramatic and also crashingly turgid. Kate and Gerry McCann refused to participate and are said to have urged friends likewise to decline director Chris Smith’s advances. It’s hard not to see why.

This is exploitative filmmaking on auto-pilot – a box-ticking re-hashing of the case garlanded with a few vague intimations of sinister figures who might (or might not) have had something to do with the disappearance. At eight hours, it is furthermore far too long, with aimless detours into the historical roots of tourism in the Algarve and the spread of paedophile rings throughout Europe.

Without the McCanns, Smith (director of Netflix’s excellent recent Fyre documentary) casts about widely for focus. He draws his sights on the Portuguese police, whose paranoia is eclipsed only by their anarchic investigation techniques. Their theory that Madeleine’s parents had been drugging and accidentally overdosed their daughter is debunked. But only after Smith cynically leads us to believe the authorities are indeed justified in briefly naming Kate an official suspect.

It’s horribly manipulative. “I probably didn’t really like him. It wasn’t a warm engagement,” says Jim Gamble, former chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, of his first encounter with buttoned-down Gerry. Later Gamble recalls giving the father a pep talk in which he declares that whoever knows something about the disappearance should come forward while they have a chance (nudge, nudge Gerry).

Gamble at this point is explicitly portrayed as suspecting the parents (although he has since come to believe that the McCanns had nothing to do with the disappearance). It is a suspicion we are encouraged to share.



Yet, in the next episode, the rug appears to be pulled away, though it would be a spoiler to reveal exactly how. Suffice it to say that beneath the glossy production values – endless languid shots of the Praia da Luz resort start to feel inappropriate given the subject matter – Smith has stooped to the tawdriest bait and switch. The only intention is keeping us glued.

More than 40 individuals were reportedly interviewed but, for the most part, it is the same parade of talking heads. Gamble pops up repeatedly, as do Looking For Madeleine authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan and former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie. Later we are introduced to Brian Kennedy, the double-glazing millionaire swooping in as the McCanns’s benefactor. The closest to a villain is Gonçalo Amara, the Portuguese police chief who wrote a self-justifying book pinning Madeleine’s fate on the McCanns.

A bigger issue is sheer over-familiarity. Among Netflix’s international subscriber base the basic facts of the case may be fresh and gripping. To anyone who has lived with the story since 2007, the déjà-vu soon becomes exhausting.

And yet, there’s nothing else – no compelling theories, no new witnesses or evidence. The final episode dissolves into a gossipy hit-parade of weirdos, reprobates and spectres allegedly sighted in the vicinity of the McCanns’s apartment in the hours around Madeleine’s disappearance. However, there’s no substance – or even intelligent conjecture: the presumption, never stated out loud, is that child traffickers were probably responsible for the abduction. The closest to a concrete conclusion is Gamble’s belief that the truth about Madeleine will come out in his lifetime. Viewers may wish they had followed the example of the McCanns and steered clear.

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Netflix documentary - The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Top Cast

Anthony Summers

   Self - Investigative Journalist…

Maria João Vaz

   Detective

Gonçalo Amaral

   Self - Former Chief Investigating Coordinator…

Robbyn Swan
 
    Self - Investigative Journalist…

Jim Gamble

   Self - Former Senior Police Officer, Child Exploitation & Online Protection Centre

Sandra Felgueiras

   Self - Journalist, RTP Network

Ernie Allen

   Self - Former President & CEO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Robert Murat

   Self - Local Resident…

Susan Hubbard

   Self - Friend of the McCanns

Haynes Hubbard

   Self - Friend of the McCanns

Kelvin Mackenzie

   Self - Former Editor, The Sun Newspaper

Paulo Pereira Cristovao

   Self - Former Detective, Policia Judiciaria…

Brian Kennedy

   Self - Businessman & McCann Benefactor

Patrick Kennedy

   Self - Brian Kennedy's Son

Jayne Jensen

   Self - Tourist, Ocean Club Resort

Neil Berry

   Self - Tourist, Ocean Club Resort

Jon Clarke

Self - Freelance Journalist

Julian Peribañez

   Self - Private Investigator

Rui Gustavo

   Self - Journalist, Expresso Newspap

Netflix doc shows moment sniffer dogs 'picked up blood scent' in Madeleine McCann holiday apartment

The expert spaniels both flagged the same spot in the Praia Da Luz apartment where the McCann's had been staying to their handler

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Olivia Burke
Published 16:18 25 Apr 2024 GMT+1
Updated 16:18 25 Apr 2024 GMT+1

Chilling footage captured the moment a sniffer dog picked up the scent of blood in the apartment where Madeleine McCann was snatched from in May 2007.
The alarming development in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], which unfortunately did not lead anywhere, left investigators combing through the holiday rental in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] resort of Praia Da Luz with more questions than answers.
Video of the shock discovery reared its head again in 2019, after it featured in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] documentary [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] which was released that year.
Take a look at this:

(Video on this link: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] )

The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] aimed to re-examine the infamous disappearance of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], the media coverage of the case and the investigation conducted by authorities, as well as how her parents [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] dealt with her vanishing.

Months after the three-year-old first vanished on 3 May, 2007, puzzled Portuguese cops were struggling to find a lead and decided to bring in their [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] for assistance.

Expert [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Martin Grime, who has lent himself and his animals to help with crime scene investigations across the globe, travelled from the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with his two spaniels, Eddie and Keela, to see if they could make any progress.

They headed to the resort where the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] had been staying in [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], to see if the dogs could pick up on anything which the human eye or [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] could not.

Explaining the abilities of his highly-trained pooches during an episode of [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.], Martin said: "When the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] indicates in the field, it will either be human decomposition or human blood.
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Martin Grime brought his two spaniels, Eddie and Keela, to exercise their expertise at the crime scene (Netflix)
"The [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] is very persistent, very pungent to the point where we've been able to locate, in blind searches, graves 40 years after the body has been removed and the body was only there for a short period of time.
"With blood, [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] have been to the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and somebody has cleaned the blood up to the point you can no longer see it. That doesn't mean there isn't any there to find.
"It might drip through the gap and run around the back of the floorboard, but odour will still be coming through the gap in the floorboards and the dog will pick it up and respond to it."
Although this means that is unlikely the animals will bypass any key evidence, it also suggests that they may have been detecting the scent of blood which may have been spilled long before the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]s fateful [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.].
Eddie - who was trained to smell traces of human corpses - was the first dog sent on a reconnaissance mission around the apartment.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] journalist Robbyn Swan said that the spaniel's 'behaviour changed the moment he came through the door'.
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The dogs trawled through the Praia Da Luz apartment the McCann's has been staying in (Netflix)
"He became tense and aware," she explained. "The dog handler said Eddie didn't alert in any other situation except when he scented that which he was seeking: the scent of a human cadaver."
The footage from the Netflix doc shows Eddie wandering around the room, sniffing, before going over to a wardrobe and then turning to his handler and barking. He barks again when he sniffs behind a couch.
Keela - who was trained to only alert her handler only when she smelt human blood - then headed in alone for round two.
She also stopped in the same spot behind the couch.
Both of the dogs were then brought outside to inspect the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] hire car the McCanns had used during their trip.
The pair again both indicated to Martin that they had picked up on scents of human blood and a corpse in the boot and outside of the driver's door.
Madeleine's parents Kate and Gerry were named as persons of interest by Portuguese police shortly after the dogs were brought in, however, this was voided in 2008 when the case was archived.
When asked about the dogs findings that year, cardiologist Gerry said: "I can tell you that we've obviously looked at the evidence about cadaver dogs and they're incredibly unreliable."
Featured Image Credit: Netflix
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