McCanns will NOT return to Portugal

Madeleine McCann's parents vow not to return to Portugal unless new search finds daughter's DNA






Kate and Gerry McCann have “no intention” of being in Portugal’s Praia da Luz while forensic archaeologists and sniffer dogs scour the area







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Not going back: The McCanns will avoid the grim task
The parents of Madeleine McCann will not return to the resort where they last saw [url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/Madeleine McCann]their daughter[/url] next week when British police will start digging for clues.
The significant new ground searches could begin as early as Monday, according to Portuguese sources.
But [url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/Kate McCann]Kate[/url] and [url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/all-about/Gerry McCann]Gerry McCann[/url] have “no intention” of being in Portugal’s Praia da Luz while the grim task is being undertaken, a close pal revealed yesterday.
A UK crack team – believed to include a forensic archaeologist, sniffer dogs and ground penetrating radar - will scour an area yards from the family’s flat in Praia da Luz.
Scotland Yard are focussing on two more sites close by as they prepare for an operation lasting between four and six days.
Portuguese officers will supervise the work and retain overall management of the search.


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New search: Detectives will scour the beach in Praia da Luz

But Kate and Gerry McCann have decided to stay away, a close pal has revealed.
The friend said: “They welcome the new phase of the investigation and hope it may lead them a step closer to finding out what happened to their daughter. They will be kept informed by Scotland Yard of any developments but they have no intention of going there. It is the last place they would want to be while digging takes place.
“It will be a hugely emotional time for Madeleine’s parents but it is a scenario they know needs to happen. They will only go to Portugal, God forbid, if any remains matching her DNA were found.”


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Hope: Gerry and Kate McCann are praying for a happy outcome

Former GP Kate and heart doctor Gerry, both 45, believe Maddie – who vanished seven years ago and would now be aged 11 – could still be alive. Gerry recently told supporters in his home village of Rothley, Leics, that they had been buoyed up by the Met Police investigation.
During a prayer gathering for his daughter he said: “They are going back out to Portugal very soon. They are chipping away and there is new evidence. We are going to continue hoping we get a happy outcome – and one day we will know what’s happening.”
Kate added: “We are still battling, still hoping, still searching for Madeleine.”


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Missing: Madeleine McCann vanished seven years ago and still hasn't been found

It comes less than a week after Scotland Yard chiefs said the search for Madeleine would enter a “substantial” new phase in the coming weeks.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley confirmed: “There is going to be a substantial phase of operational activity involving Portuguese police with British police in support.
“In a major investigation with multiple lines of inquiry and hypotheses, you have to systematically work through them all.
“This is a phase of activity based on those principles.”
Search warrants permitting work to take place on the privately-owned land had already been issued, it has been reported.
One plot is thought to be fenced-off waste land a two minute walk from Madeleine’s apartment which police hired a Portuguese air force helicopter to fly over earlier this month so they could take pictures. Diggers and other equipment are expected to be hired locally by the Met.


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No stone unturned: Diggers are set to be hired in the search of Praia da Luz

Scotland Yard have sent formal requests to search two other plots of land - making a total of five - but the letters have not yet reached police in the Algarve capital Faro.
The “substantial” work Met Police have referred to is also expected to include interviews with new suspects identified by Operation Grange officers heading a British probe into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Several are understood to be ex-Ocean Club employees. The Yard has not ruled out the possibility Madeleine is still alive, but has prompted speculation with its dig requests that they now believe the youngster was kidnapped and her body dumped near her holiday resort.
They are linking 18 incidents when a male intruder broke into British families’ holiday villas between 2004 and 2010 and sexually assaulted nine girls with three near-misses.
One of the victims, a ten-year-old girl, was assaulted in Praia da Luz two years before Madeleine vanished from the resort.
Portuguese police heading a separate investigation into Madeleiene’s disappearance have not ruled out the involvement of a former Ocean Club worker who died in a tractor accident in 2009.
Euclides Monteiro’s widow Luisa Rodrigues has insisted her recovering drug addict partner, a convicted burglar, had nothing to do with Madeleene’s disappearance and was cleared of any involvement in the sex attacks after police questioning the year before he died.
Praia da Luz parish council leader Victor Mata has attacked the police excavations plans.
Claiming locals were “fed up with the Maddie case” and most “didn’t care anymore”, he told a Portuguese paper soon after the first reports of the dig plans emerged: “It’s bad for tourism. It’s beggars belief they’re preparing to open up holes here a month before summer.”
The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell yesterday refused to comment on the forthcoming police activity, saying: “I cannot and will not discuss Operation Grange.”


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"They will only go to Portugal, God forbid, if any remains matching her DNA were found.”

Yea right. Pull the other one.

I wonder what would happen if something was found that perhaps had belonged to Madeleine but it didn't contain any DNA. However it would need to be identified. Would SY bring it back to the UK? Or would it remain in Portugal, and Kate and / or Gerry would be required to go to Portugal to identify it?

From Daily Mirror article, Gerry McCann:

"We are going to continue hoping we get a happy outcome – and one day we will know what’s happening.”:

Err, shouldn't that be: -  and that one day we will at least find out what happened to Madeleine.

So their refusing to return to Portugal has nothing to do with the fact if they return and Maddie is found they will be arrested, or the fact that with new evidence which prompted the reopening of the Portuguese case and also seems to be driving the search means they fear if they set foot in Portugal they will be arrested?

Didn't Ben Needham's family go out to where he was last seen when they began digging?

Why are the mccanns so scared right now to return?

Surely they would want to be there if anything is found, either a dead Maddie or in the highly unlikely event of a live Maddie being found.

Should she be found alive, she would want mom and dad there even if only for a brief minute before going to hospital.
What is she going to be thinking if mom and dad are in the UK and won't be there for a couple of hours?
They couldn't even be here for me when i was rescued?

The mccanns know or suspect what may be found, i will bet they are talking to their attornies checking out extraditions laws , EAW etc.

Mirage wrote:From Daily Mirror article, Gerry McCann:

"We are going to continue hoping we get a happy outcome – and one day we will know what’s happening.”:

Err, shouldn't that be: -  and that one day we will at least find out what happened to Madeleine.

Yes Mirage. He should have said "and one day we will know what happened".  He doesn't want to know about what happened in 2007 (well, he does know imo).  He wants to know what will happen to them now.

maebee wrote:

Mirage wrote:From Daily Mirror article, Gerry McCann:

"We are going to continue hoping we get a happy outcome – and one day we will know what’s happening.”:

Err, shouldn't that be: -  and that one day we will at least find out what happened to Madeleine.

Yes Mirage. He should have said "and one day we will know what happened".  He doesn't want to know about what happened in 2007 (well, he does know imo).  He wants to know what will happen to them now.

Something tells me that the McCanns have just as much knowledge of whether the investigation is a whitewash as we do.

Kate and Gerry McCann have “no intention” of being in Portugal’s Praia da Luz

This sounds very arrogant to me - like it's beneath them. It's like they're in battle mode with a police force who are trying to look for their daughter. Why did they not say something like "K&G will not be in PDL or "cannot be in PDL"?  My glass is half full.

Hobs wrote:So their refusing to return to Portugal has nothing to do with the fact if they return and Maddie is found they will be arrested, or the fact that with new evidence which prompted the reopening of the Portuguese case and also seems to be driving the search means they fear if they set foot in Portugal they will be arrested?

Didn't Ben Needham's family go out to where he was last seen when they began digging?

Why are the mccanns so scared right now to return?

Surely they would want to be there if anything is found, either a dead Maddie or in the highly unlikely event of a live Maddie being found.

Should she be found alive, she would want mom and dad there even if only for a brief minute before going to hospital.
What is she going to be thinking if mom and dad are in the UK and won't be there for a couple of hours?
They couldn't even be here for me when i was rescued?

The mccanns know or suspect what may be found, i will bet they are talking to their attornies checking out extraditions laws , EAW etc.

My bolding.
So they won't return unless Madeleine's DNA is found? Speaks volumes to me that Kate and Gerry haven't mentioned the possibility of Madeleine being found alive. It shows they're only thinking in terms of her remains being found. Not clues which could lead to an alive Madeleine being found.

So they won't return unless Madeleine's DNA is found? Speaks volumes to me that Kate and Gerry haven't mentioned the possibility of Madeleine being found alive. It shows they're only thinking in terms of her remains being found. Not clues which could lead to an alive Madeleine being found.

Once "digging"came into the equation, an alive Madeleine went out the window

QUOTE''Madeleine McCann's parents vow not to return to Portugal unless new search finds daughter's DNA''


  


READ THAT AGAIN....'' ...Madeleine McCann's parents vow not to return to Portugal unless new search finds daughter's DNA''



IS THAT WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR OVER THE PAST SEVEN YEARS? DNA?


SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, MAKE SENSE OF THIS FOR ME!

Why are they not suing SY for intimating that Madeleine is dead, by digging for her remains? SY are digging for remains = G.A.'s opinion that Madeline is dead

Maybe that's what they are so busy doing now, maebee   

Odd the McCanns should say DNA rather than body.  If a body is found, will they dispute it until they have DNA evidence?  Sounds a bit like Gerry's 'there's no evidence' and 'find the body'.  They are clearly not happy about the dig, first they asked for it to be postponed, now they have said they have no intention of going out there.  I agree, it sounds like fighting talk.

If the police had headed out to the moors with JCB diggers, I don't think anything would have kept Winnie Johnson, now departed, mother of Keith Bennett away.

Me thinks a separate investigation is underway here in the UK also...
Fraud ?

worriedmum wrote:QUOTE''Madeleine McCann's parents vow not to return to Portugal unless new search finds daughter's DNA''


  


READ THAT AGAIN....'' ...Madeleine McCann's parents vow not to return to Portugal unless new search finds daughter's DNA''



IS THAT WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR OVER THE PAST SEVEN YEARS? DNA?


SOMEBODY, SOMEWHERE, MAKE SENSE OF THIS FOR ME!

Hmm. They've managed to fudge the DNA issue for the last 7 years by providing control samples from dubious sources - was there ever able to be a true comparison at all? Were the samples collected by the PJ that were sent to the astoundingly careless FSS centre ever compared to a true 'source'? They've been secure in that knowledge for 7 years. Are they calling a bluff, in a "find the body and prove..." sort of way?

But now Amaral tells us they have the hair...

There is no longer any pretence with the religion or call for mass prayer, strange, as bereaved catholics usually turn to their faith for comfort etc, and some would want to speak to a priest.  According to KH1, in the aftermath of Madeleine disappearing she was asking everyone to pray and through a tantrum because her Warners couldn't provide her with a priest in the early hours of May 4th - at a time when others were searching and there was a good chance her daughter was alive.  Now would be the appropriate time to ask people to pray for Madeleine, yet as always, the article is about them.      

Hair?
Separate investigation?

Please elaborate   

Cristobell wrote:There is no longer any pretence with the religion or call for mass prayer, strange, as bereaved catholics usually turn to their faith for comfort etc, and some would want to speak to a priest.  According to KH1, in the aftermath of Madeleine disappearing she was asking everyone to pray and through a tantrum because her Warners couldn't provide her with a priest in the early hours of May 4th - at a time when others were searching and there was a good chance her daughter was alive.  Now would be the appropriate time to ask people to pray for Madeleine, yet as always, the article is about them.      

I believe she followed in her fathers footsteps on the religion side. Things were quickly taken care of in resort with the aid of a pram and a flight to the pope...IMO

worriedmum wrote:Hair?
Separate investigation?

Please elaborate   

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“Then there’s another situation. It is still possible to find out or to collect indications of whether or not the dogs failed. If inside that car boot – I’m referring to the car that was rented by the McCanns some 15 or 20 days after the disappearance – blood traces were found, traces that the lab says may be, although there is no full certainty, that may be from Madeleine McCann, hair was also found. Hair which the laboratory says, from its coloration, which is how this used to be done in the old days, by comparing the coloration, if it belonged to the person or not. Nowadays it is possible to perform, and then it was already possible, to perform DNA tests on hair. Some say it’s only possible to identify the DNA profile with the root of the hair, the English lab says it’s not possible because these have no root, therefore they don’t perform the test. That hair is in Portugal, it was returned to Portugal. They are next to the process. It’s simple: the Public Ministry, that has the investigation, should take that hair and send it to a lab in Europe or elsewhere, where that type of test is done, without the need for the root of the hair."

Dr Amaral's latest interview when he reveals a hair was also retrieved from the Scenic, presumed to be Madeleine's, and still in the PJ's possession. How to prove this with the woolly McCann provision of hairs from pillows back in England for comparison?  Guess the sample taken at birth would be true. If the PJ can obtain the information.   

"Vow" is an inappropriately strong word to use in the circumstances. It stands out as very odd indeed.

If it were me, I would be staying close by keeping sombre vigil in case it was my baby they brought out of that wasteland.

From all that KH has said I would have expected her to be there, praying; Father Seddon, the priest she wanted on the night at her side now, offering pastoral care, spiritual comfort, the sacraments; prayer.

I would want to be the first to see  my baby after so many years of walking the streets of PdL looking for answers; of feeling close to her there.

And then, just when the answers may come pouring forth, what do we hear? A vow to stay away unless her DNA is discovered. Have they lost all cognizance of the bizarreness of that statement to the reading public?

Thank you Dee Coy for the link and transcription.





And Mirage,''Have they lost all cognizance of the bizarreness of that statement to the reading public?''



I think the answer to that is YES.   


BTW, does anyone else suspect that the pink hand has been taken off the rudder when statements like these are being made?

worriedmum wrote:
< snip >

BTW, does anyone else suspect that the pink hand has been taken off the rudder when statements like these are being made?

Although the cusomary 'source' appears to have metamorphosed into the 'close pal' of the McCanns who reportedly said "They will only go to Portugal if, God forbid, any remains matching her DNA were found", I see no reason to suspect or suppose that the pink hand is anywhere other than firmly on the rudder, wm.

However, I detect a certain lack of control over the gears that enable the brain to transmit messages to the mouth in that the above statement appears to imply that any number of remains of 3 year old children are to be found buried in unhallowed ground in Portugal,  Can this be true?   

As the McCanns won't be booking any flights until such time as their eldest daughter's remains have been singled out of the pile that may be dug up, may we assume they have no intention of gracing the Lisbon civil courts with their presence again?

Hobs wrote:So their refusing to return to Portugal has nothing to do with the fact if they return and Maddie is found they will be arrested, or the fact that with new evidence which prompted the reopening of the Portuguese case and also seems to be driving the search means they fear if they set foot in Portugal they will be arrested?

Didn't Ben Needham's family go out to where he was last seen when they began digging?

Why are the mccanns so scared right now to return?

Surely they would want to be there if anything is found, either a dead Maddie or in the highly unlikely event of a live Maddie being found.

Should she be found alive, she would want mom and dad there even if only for a brief minute before going to hospital.
What is she going to be thinking if mom and dad are in the UK and won't be there for a couple of hours?
They couldn't even be here for me when i was rescued?

The mccanns know or suspect what may be found, i will bet they are talking to their attornies checking out extraditions laws , EAW etc.

Didn't they have extradition lawyers standing by soon after their return to the UK?  The same ones who did such a splendid job on Pinochet?

tigger wrote:

Hobs wrote:So their refusing to return to Portugal has nothing to do with the fact if they return and Maddie is found they will be arrested, or the fact that with new evidence which prompted the reopening of the Portuguese case and also seems to be driving the search means they fear if they set foot in Portugal they will be arrested?

Didn't Ben Needham's family go out to where he was last seen when they began digging?

Why are the mccanns so scared right now to return?

Surely they would want to be there if anything is found, either a dead Maddie or in the highly unlikely event of a live Maddie being found.

Should she be found alive, she would want mom and dad there even if only for a brief minute before going to hospital.
What is she going to be thinking if mom and dad are in the UK and won't be there for a couple of hours?
They couldn't even be here for me when i was rescued?

The mccanns know or suspect what may be found, i will bet they are talking to their attornies checking out extraditions laws , EAW etc.

Didn't they have  extradition  lawyers standing by soon after their return to the UK?  The same ones who did such a splendid job on Pinochet?

I think your right about the extradition lawyers but then Pinochet wasn't really know to most where as the mccanns are.
would like that splashed across the front page  that the mccanns were using this lawyer to stop them being extradited(in my dreams)

Yes it does seem strange that only(weeks?months?)ago Madeleine's parents were saying that there was no evidence that she had come to any harm,
-hence the libel trial-
then we had them 'just wanting answers' and Kate speaking of visiting Praia Da Luz on her own to 'look for answers'(Daily Mail 1st May 2014)
next the investigation was 'distressingly slow',
then it was 'please don't dig while we have cake and celebrate Madeleine's birthday',
followed by ' we won't go unless Madeleine's DNA is found'.

The Fiona Bruce clip is from the beginning of this month. (including the 2.41 segment which has been clipped in some online versions).

What a change in four weeks!

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HAVE THEY BEEN TOLD SOMETHING?

It's not long since we heard that Kate visits Portugal at least twice a year because she feels closer to Madeleine there. Suddenly she doesn't want to go there.

And why make this statement now? Have they been asked to return to Portugal?

sharonl wrote:It's not long since we heard that Kate visits Portugal at least twice a year because she feels closer to Madeleine there. Suddenly she doesn't want to go there.

And why make this statement now? Have they been asked to return to Portugal?

Exactly.

Is this the first time CM has said he 'cannot and will not discuss operation Grange? ' normally he's dying to spill the beans?  I thought this phrasing was very odd for him.

nglfi wrote:Is this the first time CM has said he 'cannot and will not discuss operation Grange? ' normally he's dying to spill the beans?  I thought this phrasing was very odd for him.

It's not the first time, we have often heard the phrase "Kate and Gerry McCann do not wish to comment" from the highly paid spokesman. He's been lost for words before, probably afraid of putting his foot in it.