Marcos Correia's book, and his visions of Madeleine. Two sections from the Madeleine Foundation's essay about this strange man who amongst other things was paid by Metodo 3 to conduct a fruitless but highly publicised search of the Arade Dam for Madeleine

by **Tony Bennett** 13.01.11 16:42

17. A book by Marcos Alexandre Aragão Correia

In December 2008, there was a remarkable interview given by Mr Aragão Correia to a Portuguese journalist, José Leite, from the magazine O Crime. In this interview, he spoke about a book he was writing that ‘mixed truth and fiction’ (perhaps a bit like himself in real life), titled: “The Little Girls that Came from the Stars”. He said it contained references to the hunt for Madeleine McCann.

Aragão Correia told the journalist: “I mix true facts with imaginary ones, dealing with new aspects of the private investigation that Maddie’s parents carried out into their daughter’s disappearance. In the book I speak about my powers as a medium - and how those powers were useful to develop a private investigation that counted on the support of the Método 3 Detective Agency. I wanted to employ that gift of mine to help discover hard truths about the disappearance of Maddie, without in any way using my gift for material gain. My goal was not to earn money - especially as I am fortunate enough to lead an economical life in Madeira without any financial difficulties - but simply to help those parents who were so distraught and living in such a distressed state. One of the major teachings of spiritualism is that it is only through helping others that we are able to help ourselves. That was what I intended to do in this case: to help this little girl, showing her my all-conquering, precious love”.

Pausing there, we see that Aragão Correia states boldy that he is a spritualist, claiming the psychic powers of a medium. Now people have different views about claims like these, some dismissing them as complete fantasy, others by contrast emphasising that these are dangerous occult powers and not to be tampered with (the Christian view). One thing that can safely be said is that a procession of psychics (over 250, it has been reported) offered their help to the McCanns and the Portuguese police. But from reports we have seen and heard on the news and elsewhere of the various claims they made about what really happened to Madeleine, it seems that every ‘psychic’ had a different ‘hunch’ or ‘feeling’ about what might have happened to Madeleine. In short, without wishing to unduly hurt the feelings of mediums and those who claim psychic powers, they are unreliable. Each had a different hunch about what happened to Madeleine. Therefore we can place no trust whatsoever in what ‘information’ Aragão Correia claims to have divined from his claimed powers as a medium. It is far more likley to be his imagination rather than ‘information’.

Aragão Correia then went on to give the journalist an account of his ‘vision of Madeleine’. The journalist asked: “How did that premonition of yours about the Maddie case happen?” In the next section is Aragao Correia’s reply - if you can believe it.

18. Marcos Aragão Correia’s vision described

Mr Marcos Aragão Correia said:

“On 5th May [the Saturday immediately after Madeleine was reported missing], on returning from a spiritualist meeting in Madeira, immediately after going to bed, but just before falling asleep - at around midnight - an extraordinary thing happened to me, for the first time in my life. I saw the image of a little girl that must have been around four years of age, with blonde, shoulder-length straight hair, blue eyes, very disturbed, visibly unable to understand what was happening to her, accompanied by a female being of great beauty and great spiritual standing.

“Then, other images appeared to me, concerning what had happened to this girl. I saw a strongly-built man, blue eyes, somewhat balding and with blondish hair, brutally raping that girl and then strangling her with his hands, throwing the cadaver into a lake. I perceived by a map that was shown to me [presumably he means during his alleged vision], that this happened in the Algarve, but I couldn’t read the name of the village. I stress that I hadn’t seen any photo of Maddie before. I only knew, from what I’d heard on the radio, that she was 3 years old”.

Correia Aragão developed his story further, as the journalist then asked him if his ‘vision’ of a ‘strongly-built blond man’ corresponded with anyone who featured in the Portuguese investigation:

“Yes, there were references about a strongly built individual of British appearance as a suspect. Still, as this was my first vision in my entire life, there was, on my part, a certain reluctance to divulging it. So I let a few days pass, to see whether or not the little girl showed up. Eventually, I gave this lead to the Polícia Judiciária (PJ), on 9 May, but after that they never contacted me.

“Later on, I received information from a PJ insider in Portimão that the investigation was no longer based on the working hypothesis of abduction. So it was then that I decided to carry out my own private investigation. I travelled over to continental Portugal, and visited the various lakes and dams of the Algarve, until I reached the Arade Dam, which was the only one that precisely matched the scenery that I had seen in my vision. I decided to contact a senior official at Método 3, the detective agency that had been hired by the McCanns to investigate their daughter’s disappearance. When I mentioned that the dam was located in Silves, I noticed that they were surprised and immediately wanted to speak with me”.

Again, let us pause to evaluate these words from the unreliable Aragão Correia. He tells us he had this vision on a Saturday night (5 May), after a spritualist meeting. Then he claims he gave the information to the PJ four days later. What information? And how? - by e-mail? Or by ’phone? To whom? He doesn’t tell us. Then we get to an interesting snippet - that he says he recieved inside information (from a PJ police officer, presumably) that the investigation is no longer working on abduction as a theory, but presumably on the possibility that Madeleine died in Apartment 5A and her body hidden or disposed of.

That ties in with information received by journalist Duarte Levy that there was indeed a Portuguese detective who was leaking information about the Madeleine investigation to Método 3. If there was such a leak, that information would of course been leaked to the McCanns and to their teams of lawyers, public relations advisers and private investigators.

Then we are asked to believe that Aragão Correia only decided to contact Método 3 after he had finally located the Arade Dam as the one which matched his ‘vision’. The claim that he only contacted Método 3 after visiting the dam must be put alongside his admission that he had been paid ‘expenses’ for searching the Arade Dam by Método 3. Prior to that admission, of course, he had claimed that he had been funding the search out of the charitable goodness of his own heart, and as a consequence was portrayed in the British press as a ‘Good Samaritan’.

It would not be unreasonable to suggest, therfore, that Aragão Correia was in touch with Método 3 (and through them, Brian Kenendy and the McCanns) well before the searching of the Arade Dam. It might well be suggested, then, that the Arade Dam searches were a well-prepared attempt to divert attention away from the McCanns as possible suspects in the disappearance of Madeleine and to develop and further promote their claim that Madeleine had been snatched by one or more predatory paedophiles.

However, at the time of the second search of the Arade Dam, one newspaper reported the McCanns as being ‘furious’. It claimed: “Kate and Gerry McCann reacted with fury yesterday after divers began a second search of a reservoir for Madeleine's body.

The couple told friends that the search - funded by a Portuguese lawyer who they claim is a ‘fantasist’ seeking publicity - is a distraction from the hunt.

The report continued: “Marcos Aragão Correia claims crime contacts told him she was killed and left in the lake two days after going missing. Correia spent thousands of pounds on a previous search but found nothing. But a McCann source said: ‘There's no evidence Madeleine is in that reservoir. They believe she is alive and are concentrating on finding her’.”

Quite why the McCanns would be ‘furious’, given that the very private detectives they were funding, Método 3, appeared to be paying Correia, is hard to explain. We suggest that the McCanns and Brian Kennedy knew I advance about Marcos Aragão Correia’s two planned searches of the Arada Dam. If we are right about that, then the McCanns’ claim to be ‘furious’ about Mr Aragão Correia’s new searches at the dam would be bogus fury. Only one month later, Mr Aragão Correia, according to him on instructions from Método 3 (and therefore from the McCanns and Brian Kennedy), was visiting Odemira prison, and talking to Leonor Cipriano and the Prison Governor with a view to embarking on a campaign to target Gonçalo Amaral

Let us continue with Aragão Correia’s story: “Two detectives [from Método 3] met with me and told me that they had already received thousands of leads, but that mine was corroborated by a physical case that they had already established. It involved a Portuguese truck driver, M. Gautier, who only two days after the disappearance of Madeleine, at around 4pm to 5pm, while driving down the IC1 road, near the Arade Dam, saw two cars parked by the road, an Audi A3 that was driven by a man - and a green car (of a very unusual green) that was driven by a blonde woman. The two vehicles were separated by a small metallic fence, and while driving by in his truck, the driver saw what seemed like an inanimate child to him, being passed from one car to another, wrapped up in a blanket”.

Aragão Correia claims, then, that Método 3 had a credible report of a child in a blanket being passed from one car to another on Satrurday 5 May in the afternoon - two days after Madeleine ‘disappeared’. He goes into detail, claiming that Método 3 had established from M. Gautier, the Portuguese truck driver, that he “knew the blanket conatined a child by the manner in which the body stood out from the blanket. The bent legs and small dimensions made him conclude, without hesitation, that it was a child. On the other hand, the extremely protective way in which the couple held the blanket, on a hot day, was suspicious”.

He adds the claim that M. Gautier contacted the police the very same day - Saturday 5 May. Correia says: “I spoke to M. Gautier myself. He told me that the PJ had ridiculed him as soon as he called them, on the very same day that he had witnessed the body being transferred from car to car near the metal fence”.

“It was all extremely strange”, continues Aragão Correia, “and because of that, in November, the truck driver reported everything to the detectives at Método 3”.

Let’s pause there. The truck driver is supposed to have contacted Método 3 in November? That’s six whole months after Madeleine went missing. Are we to take seriously the claim that this Portuguese truck driver, M. Gautier, waited for six whole months to contact Método 3, and tell them about the child being passed from one car to another - one of the cars a vivid green? And how likely is it that the PJ ‘ridiculed him’, as he claims?

Marcos Aragão Correia continued: “Método 3 detectives showed M. Gautier the photos of some of the main suspects in the disappearance of Maddie, and found some physiognomic similarities with at least two of them. The PJ were given this lead once again in November, but discarded it once again, after analysing the triangulation points from the suspicious couple’s mobile ’phones, and after questioning the owners of a plot of land on that site. The PJ committed a gross mistake by investigating only that suspect and his girlfriend. The truck driver said that he couldn’t be certain that it was that precise suspect, but rather that it was a person with similar physiognomic features, mainly in terms of body mass”.

So what are we left with here? A truck driver, M. Gautier, says he saw a ‘suspect’ with a similar body shape and body mass to two ‘suspects’ apparently already identified by Método 3. A truck driver, moreover, who waits six months after he says he first reported this to the PJ, to contact Método 3. It all sounds very unlikley. And as it is Marcos Aragão Correia telling the story, we can probably assume that parts of it, at least, are fabricated.

And if all that sounds unlikely, what can we make of the next part of Marcos Aragão Correia’s account? He said: “Método 3 submitted me to a test in order to prove beyond all doubt whether or not my mediumistic abilities and my accounts were credible. They were fed up with following false leads. The fact is that the test gave totally positive results, according to what was confirmed to me personally by the Director of Método 3 in Barcelona himself. Following my mediumistic abilties passing Método 3’s stringent tests, Método 3 offered full support to my research. But given the fact that Maddie’s parents preferred to spend the decreasing money from the Find Madeleine Fund mainly following leads based on the belief that their daughter was still alive, they dismissed the possibility of paying professional divers to search the dam. So I offered myself to pay for the first phase of the searches in the dam, having later received much support, including financial support, from mediums and spiritualists who believed in and corroborated my theory”.

Well, what can we make of that account? We are left guessing at the possible nature of the ‘stringent test’ that Método 3 could have devised to ‘prove’ Mr Aragão Correia’s mediumistic abilities. And now we have yet another story on who paid for those expensive dam searches. First, Aragão Correia told us he had generously funded the searches himself, out of the goodness of of his heart, then we were told that Método 3 had ‘helped him with expenses’.

Now we get a third version, namely: “I was given money by a group of mediums and spritualists who corroborated my theory”. If anyone still thinks that Aragão Corrreia just might be telling the truth, here surely is another mass of contradictions about who funded his dam searchers that tells us that this man is a stranger to the truth, if not an out-and-out con-man and a fraud.

Aragão Correia then returns to the subject of the dam searches and tells the journalist: “The dam searches found items of relevance, but these were not sufficient as evidence. Maybe I made some mistakes, which might have alerted the possible abductors of the little English girl: On 11 January, before the diving in the dam started, Lux magazine published my suspicions in a front page article. Yet it was almost two months later that the searches were started at the dam. That was more than enough time for the criminals to hide any incriminating residues. Nevertheless, we discovered a girl’s sock that was Maddie’s age. I believe the sock might have been used by Maddie, although the lab tests failed to detect any human residues, due to the fact that it stayed underwater for such a long time. We also found several knotted lengths of rope, over five metres [16 feet] long, which would have been ideal to tie up the body at the bottom of the dam. All of this was recovered by the divers in an area where there was no other rubbish. Método 3 were always closely involved in the searches, monitoring them closely, and took all of those objects back to Spain for examination”.

The journalist then asks Aragão Correia to comment on the PJ investigation. He answered: “The information that I received as a medium didn’t allow for me to understand what the criminal’s motivation was. But information that I obtained later on - especially from consulting an excellent book by criminologist Barra da Costa - led me to believe the theory, admitted by the former PJ Chief Inspector, that the police weren’t interested in finding Maddie, nor in catching the real culprits over her disappearance. Dr Barra da Costa said in his book that there was something like a tacit plan to induce a general sense of insecurity across society, to allow for the micro-chip (a device implanted in human beings that gives out signals to track down where they are) to be produced on a major scale.

“At the beginning I had some reservations concerning that issue, because I had never heard about it, but I was interested careful enough to go on the internet and to consult several credible websites, including FBI and CIA sources, where I found some amazing things: the micro-chip was indeed being promoted as the ideal weapon to prevent crime. These sources added that the population should be induced into accepting this technological revolution, even if it was at the eexpense of a policy of deliberatley promoting mass public insecurity. Well, the Maddie case fell like ‘manna from heaven’ for the promotion of the microchip, especially as far as children are concerned”.

And on that very puzzling note, the interview with Aragão Correia ended.

[REST OF SECTION 18 SNIPPED]

Marcos Correia's book, and his visions of Madeleine. Two sections from the Madeleine Foundation's essay about this strange man who amongst other things was paid by Metodo 3 to conduct a fruitless but highly publicised search of the Arade Dam for Madeleine

Marcos Correia's book, and his visions of Madeleine. Two sections from the Madeleine Foundation's essay about this strange man who amongst other things was paid by Metodo 3 to conduct a fruitless but highly publicised search of the Arade Dam for Madeleine

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