Chapter 24 – Quim Zé – that terrible man

Chapter 24 – Quim Zé – that terrible man

It was already in January 2008 that the McCanns’ advisor revealed, during a press conference that was held in a hotel in London, two drawings of a man that he considered to be the main suspect of being the author of Madeleine’s disappearance. He said that Gail Walker, a British tourist in Praia da Luz, had considered the man and his movements to be strange.

This advisor concluded that the man, whose photofit he was holding, might lead to Madeleine. He also mentioned that he could be completely unrelated. He thus reassured public opinion and the subject himself, without ever informing the entity that is responsible for the investigation, exhibiting to the world the drawing of the face of a man that he knew would immediately be pointed out as the author of the most media-exposed abduction ever.

It was suggested that this was the result of a private investigation, which had been carried out over the last few months, and which had made the production of the drawing possible. The press conference was held with great apparatus and the world press was invited. It looked like finally the famous abductor of Madeleine was to be revealed, and the moment had to fit the news.

Said man, or at least the one who most resembled the picture, was Mr Joaquim José, an individual who had already been approached by the Policia Judiciaria during the second half of the month of May 2007. The newspapers echoed this fact. It was concluded that it would have been enough to show the drawing to the investigators first, and everything would have been clarified. But this was not what happened, and Mr Quim Zé had a battalion of journalists at his doorstep.

Joaquim earned his few minutes of fame, which he surely never wished for, due to being married to a British woman who, after a heavy discussion among the couple, denounced him to the PJ for being the dangerous kidnapper who had abducted the English girl. The witness that had helped draw up the photofit ended up stating that Joaquim José was not the man that she had seen.

The fact is that Joaquim José was ‘hit’ with the Police and the journalists camped at his door. The next time that he fights with his wife, he will certainly think twice, and make up with her, to prevent her from accusing him of being the mastermind behind 9/11 or of being the retroactive mentor of the death of Kennedy, in Dallas.