The Sun: The Hunt Goes On

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THE HUNT GOES ON What happened to Madeleine McCann, what’s the latest in the investigation and what are the theories on her disappearance?

Three-year-old Maddie disappeared on May 3, 2007, while on holiday with her family in Portugal

By Neal Baker, Jon Lockett, Paul Harper and Gemma Mullin
5th May 2019, 12:56 pm
Updated: 5th May 2019, 1:01 pm

MADELEINE McCann vanished from her family's Portuguese holiday flat 12 years ago - triggering a global search which has failed to find the missing child.

Three-year-old Maddie's whereabouts - or whether she's dead or alive - remains a mystery, despite a £12million police probe.

When did Madeleine McCann disappear?

Madeleine vanished 12 years ago on May 3, 2007, when her family, from Leicestershire, were holidaying in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, Portugal.

Parents Gerry and Kate left their three children – including toddler twins Sean and Amelie – sleeping in their apartment while they dined at a tapas bar - 120 metres away.

When Kate returned to check on the kids at around 10pm that evening, she discovered that Maddie was not in her bed and was missing.

In September of that year, Gerry and Kate, both doctors, were sensationally named as ‘arguidos’ by Portuguese police.

The following summer the McCanns were cleared by investigators in Portugal who declared they had exhausted all avenues in the case.
What theories are there about Maddie's disappearance?

   Investigative journalist and ex-police officer Mark Williams-Thomas believes Maddie left the apartment in search of her parents.
   Ex-police chief Goncalo Amaral has claimed MI5 helped cover-up Madeleine McCann’s body after her parents accidentally killed her.
   Veteran investigative journalist Danny Collins believes the toddler could not have been snatched from the room. He is convinced she left the apartment in Praia da Luz looking for her parents before being abducted and possibly sold to gypsies.
   Former Scotland Yard detective Colin Sutton says the most “most likely and credible scenario” for Maddie’s disappearance is a targeted kidnap by child traffickers - possibly to replace some grieving parents’ own dead child.
   In the Netflix documentary The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, investigators point out that the coastal resort of Praia da Luz would make it easier for traffickers to escape on a boat and travel to North Africa.
   The resort is also only 90 minutes drive from the border with Spain.
   A local resident in the Netflix film pointed out that the Algarve has many wells, some of which are 100ft deep. They suggested Maddie could have wandered out of the apartment and fallen to her death.
   Parents Gerry and Kate have since been forced to confront rumours around their daughter's disappearance, with the couple vowing to fight "tooth and nail" if they are ever prosecuted over leaving their children alone.
   In July, 2017, Maddie parents failed in their latest bid to silence his slurs.
   Another theory is that Maddie was taken as part of a bungled burglary in which an intruder panicked and snatched her after she woke up. While Scotland Yard looked into this theory it has always been dismissed by cops in Portugal since nothing else was taken from the apartment.
   US think tank The Rutherford Institute said Maddie could have been taken by a sex trafficking gang after studying how kids are abducted and abuse in the sex industry. The institute's John Whitehead also believes these gangs could be aided by "predator cops" - although there is no evidence suggesting Portuguese police were involved in assisting with Maddie's kidnapping.
   Portuguese police are now said to think Maddie was kidnapped by a surgical-mask wearing man who is known to the cops, after a tip off from Scotland Yard.

How old would Madeleine McCann be now?

Maddie would have turned 16 on on May 12, 2019.

In April 2012, UK cops released a computer generated image of Maddie showing what she would look like aged nine.

However, parents have said new images of Maddie's age progression are bogus.

Kate and Gerry are warning the new fake images were neither "commissioned nor endorsed" by them or Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange team.

A number of potential leads have emerged since the little girl vanished, but none amounted to anything and no arrests have ever been made.

In May 2018, witness Jane Tanner said Gerry had played tennis with a man wrongly identified as her abductor on the day she went missing.

She said she spent up to half an hour watching Gerry McCann and Dr Julian Totman, 46, play on May 3, 2007.

Less than three hours later, she saw a man carrying a child in pyjamas near the McCanns’ apartment in Praia da Luz.

But she did not recognise Dr Totman and cops pursued the lead for four years, despite the GP saying it was probably him.

What are the key dates in Maddie's disappearance?

   May 3, 2007 - Kate and Gerry McCann leave their children asleep in their holiday apartments while they eat eat a nearby Tapas restaurant. At 10pm Kate finds Madeleine missing.
   May 14, 2007 - Property developer Robert Murat is quizzed by cops and named an 'arguido' or formal suspect.
   August 31, 2007 - The McCanns launch libel action against Tal e Qual - a newspaper that claimed the couple killed Maddie.
   September 7, 2007 - Kate and Gerry McCann are made 'arguidos'.
   September 9, 2007- Maddie's parents return to England with their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie.
   October 2, 2007- Lead detective Goncalo Amaral is taken off the case after criticising British police in a newspaper interview.
   July 21, 2009 - Portuguese police lift the 'arguido' status of  both Robert Murat and the McCanns, and shelve the investigation.
   July 24, 2009 - Detective Goncalo Amaral alleges that Maddie died in her family's holiday flat the day she went missing in a book called The Truth Of The Lie. In a documentary for Portuguese television he claims there was no abduction and the McCanns had hidden her body.
   May 12, 2011 - On Madeleine's eighth birthday, Mrs McCann publishes a book about her disappearance. Scotland Yard launches a review into the case after a request from Home Secretary Theresa May, supported by Prime Minister David Cameron.
   April 25, 2012 - Scotland Yard officers say they believe Madeleine McCann is still alive. A new picture is released, showing what she might look like as a 9-year-old, and they call on the Portuguese authorities to reopen the case, but Portuguese police say they have found no new material.
   July 4, 2013 - Two years into a review of the case, Scotland Yard launch its own investigation into Madeleine's disappearance. They claim to have "genuinely new" lines of inquiry and identify 38 people of interest including 12 Britons.
   October 24, 2013- Portuguese police reopen their case after new lines of inquiry are found.
   November 27, 2013 - Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe called for British and Portuguese police to work together.
   April 28, 2015 - Detective Goncalo Amaral is ordered to pay Kate and Gerry McCann £209,000 each in damages by a court in Lisbon over claims made in The Truth Of The Lie and bans further sales of the book.
   October 28, 2015 - Scotland Yard reduces the number of officers working on Maddie's disappearance from 29 to four.
   January 31, 2017 - Portugal's Supreme Court rules against Kate and Gerry McCann's £418,000 libel claim. The court claims freedom of expression laws protect Detective Goncalo Amaral's claims in the book.
   March 11, 2017  - The Home Office grants Operation Grange an extra £85,000 to continue from April until September.
   September 28, 2017 -  British police are granted £154,000 to keep the probe alive until March 2018.
   March 2018 - Another round of funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
   September 2018 - An extra six months of funding is requested from the Home Office amid fears the cash will run out by the end of the month.
   November 2018 - More funding, thought to be in the region of £150,000 is granted
   November 2018 - Former detective David Edgar, who once helped search for Maddie, says she could still be alive and imprisoned, with "no idea who she is". He believes she is being kept against her identity in a "lair" and could even still be in Portugal.
   November 2018 - UK police are re-examining a theory Madeleine left the apartment to look for her parents. They are also looking at whether her disappearance was the result of a kidnapping or burglary gone wrong.

What are the latest developments in the hunt for Maddie?

There have been more than 8,000 potential sightings of the Brit three-year-old since her disappearance, but police have so far failed to locate her.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said there are "significant investigative avenues" that are of "great interest" to both the UK and Portuguese teams pursuing the case.

Met cops believe she was stolen by child traffickers or sex fiends, or during a burglary gone wrong.

Meanwhile, cops are now hunting a "person of significance" in a shock new development.

A source close to Scotland Yard's search Operation Grange said the person is now a "critical line of inquiry" in the £12million investigation, according to The Times.

And a former Met police chief has called for a fresh interview with Maddie's parents and the Tapas Seven - who have never been quizzed by British cops.

Cops moved the search to Bulgaria as they tried to find a "woman in purple" they wanted to speak to.

On May 3, 2019, it emerged that Portuguese police were hunting a sex fiend who speaks English and wears a surgical mask in relation to Maddie's suspected kidnapping.

In one of his previous cases, he broke into a British family's home and loomed over a seven-year-old girl who woke up and asked "Is that you Daddy?" and he replied "Yes" in a foreign accent, author Anthony Summers said in the Netflix doc.

Detectives have discovered a creep carried out nearly 30 attacks within a 40-mile radius of the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz where Maddie vanished from 12 years ago today.

He crept into Algarve properties rented by families and many victims were British.

And a judicial source is reported to have confirmed the unnamed man was definitely in Portugal at the time the three-year-old suddenly disappeared.

And the insider also alleged he was known to local cops and had previously been investigated on suspicion of involvement in paedophile cases.

A chilling reconstruction features in the final episode of Netflix's recently released eight-part documentary The Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann.

A German paedophile Martin Ney, 48, emerged as a key suspect in May 2019.

He was jailed for life in 2012 for abducting and murdering three children and sexually abusing dozens more.

It is believed he was in Portugal when Maddie went missing.

Goncalo Amaral, the Portuguese cop who first led the hunt for Madeleine, revealed last week that police were probing a “German paedophile who is in prison”.

Ney was working for an evangelical church on a project for the homeless in Portugal when Madeleine disappeared, it's claimed.

Ney also looks like a photofit of a man, who was seen acting suspiciously before Madeleine vanished from her Portuguese holiday apartment 12 years ago.
How much longer will the police investigation last?

Funding for the search was due to expire in October 2017.

But on September 28, 2017, it was confirmed investigators have received £154,000 to keep the probe alive until March 2018.

Then more funding - said to be around £150,000 was granted in March 2018.

The extra cash for Operation Grange is being used to investigate "significant" leads, which Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley described as "very worthwhile".

Kate and and Gerry are “extremely thankful to both the Home Office and Scotland Yard for the continued funding,” their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

The Home Office announced it was ploughing more money into Operation Grange, the official investigation, at the latest request of Met Police.

In February 2018 it was confirmed that the Metropolitan Police were asking the Home Office for more funding to continue the work of Operation Grange.

Scotland Yard's investigation has been ongoing since 2011.

During that time the number of detectives working on the case has been cut from 29 to four in 2015.



https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2238940/madeleine-mccann-investigation-latest-theories/

Yesterday morning from 5 a.m. on and off for about 20 minutes Stevel Allen on LBC radio had a good go about these stories in the papers and mentioned Mitchell and the McCanns and some listeners' comments.

He didn't sound impressed.  Don't know how to post a link to his show but if anyone does it's worth a listen.

You need to watch the Sky video in the Sun itself but this screenshot shows Gerry McCann laughing as he walks along with the missus and Alex Woolfall..



https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/2238940/madeleine-mccann-investigation-latest-theories/

Was this the same day I ask myself?

Hello all, I have a question (that Peter Mac in particular may have a strong view on). It is simply this - other than a confession by the guilty party(parties) what evidence could now be found to lead to criminal charges?  I’m presuming that even if the corpse is in a state that would show evidence of sedation or physical/sexual abuse, then Team McCann would simply say that it confirms their worst fears , and that if the Portuguese police had taken their abduction claim seriously then Madeleine might have been spared such a fate.

knitmar wrote:Hello all, I have a question (that Peter Mac in particular may have a strong view on). It is simply this - other than a confession by the guilty party(parties) what evidence could now be found to lead to criminal charges?  I’m presuming that even if the corpse is in a state that would show evidence of sedation or physical/sexual abuse, then Team McCann would simply say that it confirms their worst fears , and that if the Portuguese police had taken their abduction claim seriously then Madeleine might have been spared such a fate.

Hence the reason a body must never be found.

I would say that it might suit the McCanns for the body to be found -provided its current state is such as to render production of incriminating evidence impossible.  Might be time for Kate to have another , far more specific , vision!

The problem they will have in fitting up any patsy is that the patsy will have to tell them exactly what happened and how it happened. Whatever story they came up with or were convinced or compelled to come up with, it would have to fit with all of the evidence we know of so far, and that would include the evidence of the McCanns and their associates. It would have to include the supposed timeline for a start, and the patsy would have to fit himself into that timeline, or timelines.

The suspect would have to describe the apartment, the point of entry, the point of exit and many more details, one of which might be how they left no trace of themselves anywhere in the apartment.

The patsy would also presumably have to tell what happened to their victim immediately after the supposed abduction.

Even an average defence lawyer would run rings around any such case, were it ever get into court.

By the way, if the chimerical German is ever arrested and charged, who will charge him and where would he be tried?

In my opinion, this will never get to criminal trial, without compelling evidence against certain parties and a will to take it to trial,  because a defence lawyer could put them under intense scrutiny about their version of events. 

Sorry to seem so pessimistic. I do still hold out hope that the truth of this will come out.

All IMHO, of course.

Why bother with a living person when you have hundreds of thousands of millions of the deceased to pick-on.

As I said up-page, or somewhere, the idea of a living patsy is ridiculous in the extreme. You can't just pin the blame on someone without repercussions, in prison or roaming free - at least not in the real world.

Frankly, I think the accused might have something to say in his/her defence.

They can find patsies and convict them, they have done in history,  but I think it would not only be almost impossible to hang this one on a patsy, but also that there couldn't be a criminal trial, because a criminal trial begins with the prosecution trying to establish their version of the facts. Remember that they have to prove the case. In order to do that, they have to try to establish the facts of the case.

To establish the case, the have to call witnesses for the prosecution who can first of all give primary evidence - where they were, what they saw, etc. 

The prime prosecution witnesses in all of this would be the parents. At least in the criminal legal system in England and Wales, any prosecution case will begin with the victim/s giving evidence as to what happened. In a criminal court, there could not be a case without them. Once they have given their "evidence in chief" they are open to cross examination, which in this case would be very interesting.

 
If they were ever put in a witness box under cross examination I believe that their story could not stand up.Even if a patsy were arrested, I think any prosecutor would see the difficulties of proceeding with it. Any cross examination of the parents would cast grave doubt on their version of events and a thick cloud of reasonable doubt over the guilt of any patsy defendant.

All, of course, IMHO, but supported by a bit of legal knowledge .

Yes, I appreciate what you say but the suggestion here is that the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann will be closed on the presumption of a living person being a possible suspect. No investigation, no prosecution, no trial, no conviction - just a name to pin to a very serious crime.

That can never happen, it's ridiculous in the extreme.

Not sure what you are saying here. They could pin the tail on a dead donkey. You can't slander the dead in our legal system. 

I'm just saying that wherever a criminal prosecution of anyone in connection with this case took place, and if it ever did, the primary evidence in the case would have to begin with the parents' account of the holiday. All other accounts, whether Warner staff, the Tapas crowd, other people who were in the resort, the police who attended after the alert, etc, are contingent on what the parents would say in evidence in chief, which would be open to cross examination and subject to corroboration.
I'm not suggesting that they can close the case in the way I think you propose I am. I am saying that any prosecutor contemplating the trial of any suspect would have to baulk at the prospect of the parents being put in the box, because a cross examination of them would tend to undermine the case against anyone else who might be accused. Without the leading evidence of the parents, there would be no case.

Unless, of course, the case for the parents had to be led by the defence.

A live patsy in court is not a prospect. 

IMHO

IMO, it is the public acceptance that a certain patsy IS responsible that is more important than actually proving guilt through a trail.
 By way of example, here in Ireland there is the case of missing Deirdre Jacob. Deirdre (aged 18) vanished in 1998. She was last spotted turning into the driveway of her home. She is presumed to have been the victim of a sex attacker and her disappearance has been upgraded to a murder inquiry. Prior to, and after her disappearance, several other woman had also vanished without trace. Whenever Deirdre's disappearance is mentioned nowadays, it is inevitably mentioned in conjunction with a convicted abductor-rapist who was caught with an abducted rape victim in the back of his car in the remote Dublin mountains late at night.
 That woman was rescued and he was charged with abduction, rape and attempted murder.
 The perpetrator, who had fled, was recognised by the men who happened to come across the scene while out night-hunting foxes. Although this man has never admitted being involved in Deirdre's disappearance, the public perception here is that he IS the culprit.
This is based on his former offences, the fact that he was in the area at the time and his alleged confession to a cell-mate. Technically, the case is still open, but the public feeling is that this man is the guilty party although he may never be charged for this crime due to lack of proof.
I believe that something along these lines would be enough for the public to accept that someone is guilty in the Madeleine case. Gettin that belief out there would exonerate the McCanns and give the police forces the excuse to wind down the investigation. IMO the only trial will be trial by public opinion - and that may suffice after twelve years.

Snipped from the Sunday Independent to illustrate -



Gardai investigating Deirdre Jacob murder interview prisoner who claims Larry Murphy was involved in her disappearance

Parents of missing Kildare woman Deirdre Jacob, Michael and Bernie make a public appeal for information Pic: Mark Condren

Maeve Sheehan
[size=12]November 10 2018 10:17 PM


GARDAI investigating the murder of Deirdre Jacob have interviewed a prisoner who alleged that convicted rapist Larry Murphy was involved in her disappearance.

The prisoner alleged that Murphy confessed to abducting Deirdre Jacob while he was serving a jail sentence for the brutal rape and abduction of another woman.
Sources close to the investigation said that Murphy has not yet been interviewed by detectives. But officers have spoken to the prisoner to whom he allegedly confessed.
However, gardai are understood to have received “significant” new information from other sources since they announced during the summer that they are treating the 18-year-old’s disappearance as murder.



WATCH: News of Deirdre Jacob's case being upgraded to murder enquiry struck her parents 'like an earthquake'
[/size]

Deirdre Jacob vanished in July 1998 outside Newbridge, Co Kildare. She had been on errands in the town and was seen by neighbours on her way home that afternoon before she seemed to disappear without trace.
The prisoner, who first came forward with the information seven years ago, was re-interviewed in recent months after Deirdre’s disappearance was upgraded to a murder inquiry. He claimed that a drunk Larry Murphy allegedly boasted while in prison of abducting a woman outside Newbridge.
After Murphy completed his sentence, the prisoner made several detailed statements about his alleged confession to retired detective Alan Bailey.

• Read More: Paul Williams: How Larry Murphy became the prime suspect in case of missing Deirdre
  

Bailey recounted in a subsequent book that the prisoner claimed that Murphy told him “he had pulled in alongside a young girl on the road just outside of Newbridge, waved the map in her direction, and asked for instructions on getting to a particular place.
Convicted rapist Larry Murphy
 “When the youngster leaned in through the open passenger window to try to see where he was pointing to, he is alleged to have grabbed her by her hair, and roughly dragged her down into the car, forcing her into the front passenger seat..”

Sunday Independent