Mark Saunokonoko: Three easy questions that could help answer what happened to Madeleine

Three easy questions that could help answer what happened to Madeleine

By Mark Saunokonoko
11:37am Jun 18, 2019

It has been more than 12 years since Madeleine Beth McCann disappeared.
Nine.com.au's multi-episode podcast investigation Maddie shone a light on a number of curious and vexing issues about the world's most famous cold case.
Here are three questions that could actually be answered very easily, if the will from police forces and key people is there.
Answering these questions could reveal potential crucial information about what happened to Madeleine on that 2007 family holiday to Portugal.

Why have Operation Grange and Portugal's Policia Judiciaria not taken up a remarkable offer made in the Maddie podcast to solve 18 inconclusive DNA samples?
It seems so straightforward.
There are 18 DNA samples potentially loaded with clues about what happened to Madeleine. There's a scientist with a proven international track record for solving precisely that kind of challenging and previously indecipherable evidence. Give him the samples to analyse.

As exclusively revealed in the Maddie podcast, one of the world's top DNA scientists, Dr Mark Perlin claims he can have results back on those 18 samples in less than two weeks. He's also offered to run those tests for Scotland Yard at no cost.
Scotland Yard's Operation Grange have sat on Dr Perlin's remarkable offer for over a year. Portugal's Policia Judiciaria also appear disinterested, having ignored Dr Perlin's approach for over a month.
Why? 
Dr Perlin's advanced testing methods, based on computational software called TrueAllele, has overturned a number of wrongful convictions in the US. It has been used successfully in US state and federal court, and around the world.
In fact, for around 20 years Dr Perlin's lab Cybergenetics has been assisting the UK police for 20 years; he has successfully analysed previously "inconclusive" DNA evidence in major UK crimes.
So why not use Dr Perlin in the case of Madeleine McCann?
Dr Perlin has told Nine.com.au national crime labs are sometimes wary of his groundbreaking DNA technology, as it can expose flawed tests and mistaken results; those kind of revelations can be embarrassing for national crime agencies and their reputations.
The 18 DNA samples isolated by Nine.com.au and Dr Perlin were ruled inconclusive in 2007 because British testing methods at the time were inadequate and lacked the necessary sophistication.
The DNA evidence relates to key samples taken from inside apartment 5A and the boot compartment of a rental car hired 25 days after Madeleine went missing.
A cadaver dog team alerted in both those locations, although there is controversy about the reliability of cadaver dogs, which is why investigators consider alerts must be supplemented by additional evidence.
It is hard to understand why Operation Grange refuse to even acknowledge Dr Perlin's offer.
In the final episode of Maddie, Gerry McCann and the official Find Madeleine campaign were also notified of Dr Perlin's offer. There has been no reply, so far.


Have Operation Grange interviewed Kate and Gerry McCann or the Tapas 7? If not, why not? 
In 2013, Scotland Yard launched Operation Grange, a significant strike force to investigate what happened to Madeleine in Praia da Luz.
Operation Grange have remained firmly tight-lipped about the investigation, revealing little to nothing about the leads they are chasing.
In 2017, Mark Rowley, then Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, publicly addressed questions about whether his detectives had ever formally questioned Kate and Gerry McCann since the launch of Operation Grange.
No, was Rowley's reply.
Rowley added that the Portuguese police had dealt with the McCanns and the Tapas 7 during their original 14-month investigation, which started in 2007.
It is unclear if any of the Tapas 7, including David Payne, the last person to ever see Madeleine alive outside of her parents, and Matt Oldfield, who entered apartment 5A 30 minutes before she was reported missing, have ever been questioned by cops at Scotland Yard.
Former Scotland Yard detectives and police officers that Nine.com.au spoke to in episode nine of Maddie expressed some surprise if the McCanns had not been questioned by Operation Grange police. They also criticised Operation Grange's perceived failure to not begin its investigation with no preconceived ideas about might or might not have happened.
The McCanns and their friends may be able to help police catch the offender. Any information from them may help advance the investigation, or help to finally rule out aspects of the investigation. If they haven’t been questioned already, they should be.
Last month it was confirmed Operation Grange had been funded to the tune of another $550,000 in tax payer funds, taking total funding to more than $20m.

Why did a reconstruction of May 3 not occur, and has still not taken place? 
On a night of confusing events, one thing is very clear - a reconstruction of all the movements made by Kate and Gerry McCann and the Tapas 7 on the night of May 3, when Madeleine was reported missing, could yield vital clues.
As revealed in episodes one and two of Maddie, from the early evening, there are so many moving parts and people in play that it became very challenging for police to establish if and how the accounts of key players stacked up and held together.
According to the McCanns and their friends, adults were leaving the dinner table at the nearby tapas bar at 30 minute intervals, sometimes as regularly as every 15 minutes, to go check on the children.
The McCann's apartment, at the end of a five-storey block, was at best one minute walk from the restaurant. The other apartments were marginally further, including one holiday unit (where the Payne family stayed) located up a flight of stairs on the first level.
In April 2008, Portuguese police tried in vain to run a reconstitution of the night of May 3 to see if everyone's account of the night and various journeys they made all matched up.
But negotiations failed.
By 2008 the McCanns and their friends were all back in the UK. Documentation in the official police files reveals a chain of emails that were sent back and forth from the group to police. Concerns were expressed about flying back to Portugal, about privacy, a potential press frenzy and Kate and Gerry being named formal suspects.
In the end, what could have been a vital reconstruction assisting the effort to find Maddie never happened.
Portuguese police appeared to have questions around Jane Tanner’s sighting of a potential abductor with a child on the night of May 3; and how she walked straight past Gerry McCann and another Englishman, Jeremy Wilkins, without either man seeing her. These scenarios are explored in detail in episode two of Maddie.
A reconstruction could have helped answer some of this, as well as clarifying events earlier in the day when family friend David Payne visited Kate and the kids in apartment 5A.
Although there appeared to be reluctance from the Tapas 7 to return to Portugal at the request of police, Portuguese detectives must probably bear some responsibility for not forcing the issue of a reconstruction much sooner after Madeleine vanished, instead of the aborted effort in April 2008.
Portuguese police were also criticised for not separating and interviewing Kate and Gerry McCann when they were first questioned by detectives in Portimao Police Station.

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Why did a reconstruction of May 3 not occur, and has still not taken place? 

For the very simple reason that everyone concerned knows and knew that it would be impossible.
The PJ wanted to do it to expose the lies of the Tapas 9, and the Tapas 9 refused to be exposed.

And used various excuses as to why they couldn't attend, but didn't seem to use "finding Maddie" as one of them

PeterMac wrote:Why did a reconstruction of May 3 not occur, and has still not taken place? 

For the very simple reason that everyone concerned knows and knew that it would be impossible.
The PJ wanted to do it to expose the lies of the Tapas 9, and the Tapas 9 refused to be exposed.

No-one can be forced to take part in a reconstruction.

No-one can force any police authority to use a specific DNA testing company or method.

That's two of Saunokonoko's questions answered.

You know UCOS would have interviewed the McCanns & Tapas 7 ...