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in Jornal de Noticias today:

http://jn.sapo.pt/2007/09/13/policia_e_tribunais/laboratorio_ingles_atrasa_analisesde.html

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=27 post #391

English lab delays analyses of residues from apartment

Policia Judiciaria still waits for the results from tests on the samples of bilogical residues that were collected in the Ocean Club apartment where the McCann family was staying. This information, which was not yet delivered by the Birmingham lab, in England, is crucial in order to decide the following steps in the investigation, and to start new interrogations of Kate and Gerry McCann, as well as an eventual increase in the coercion measures, depending on whether it is Maddie's blood or not.

Until now, the PJ has only received the results of the DNA research that concern the residues that were found in the boot of the Renault Scenic that was rented by the couple several days after Madeleine's disappearance. And those analyses indicated a compatibility level of 80% with the genetic profile of the English girl - other results that were received were inconclusive.

But when confronted with this and other data during their interrogations as arguidos, Maddie's parents remained silent. It is still to be known whether they will maintain the same stance if the samples that were collected from a wall and a curtain in the apartment - the location where one of the English dogs marked the presence of cadaver odor - are compatible with their daughter's genetic profile.

News that were published in England yesterday reported that the McCann couple will ask for new forensic testing on the rental car in which the English dogs signalled cadaver odor in the boot and found biological residues of the girl.

Validated apprehension

While this waiting moment passes, as JN reported yesterday, a criminal instruction judge was asked to validate the apprehension of an agenda that belongs to Kate McCann, which can also be seen as a "diary". PJ wants to further investigate the habits of Madeleine's mother through that and other documents. The same magistrate will also pronounce himself about the request for assistant status, that was made by the couple, and should deny it.

On the other hand, the Ministerio Publico is analysing what diligences are justified at this point in the investigation. One of them, as has been reported previously, is related to the questioning of relatives and friends of the McCanns, through a request letter to England. The attorney who is in charge of the case will also decide whether it is justified to search further locations where the eventual body of the child could have passed through.


English couple defies Portuguese police

Kate and Gerry McCann sent a message to Policia Judiciaria yesterday, defying the inspectors to find Madeleine's body in order to prove the couple's involvement. According to English newspaper 'Daily Mail', the lawyers for Madeleine's parents said that without a body, it will be extremely difficult to prove the involvement in the alleged death of the 4-year-old child.

Jose Socrates compliments the Judiciaria's performance

Prime minister Jose Socrates, making a statement to 'El Pai's, said he had "total confidence in the Portuguese police's work", in a case he guaranteed to be "difficult", and which he qualified as strictly "police-related" and not political. "Portuguese police have done the best they can to find out what happened to the child", he said, considering that "the politicians' duty is simply not to feed the soap-opera".

Attorneys meet with English journalists

Justine McGuiness, Kate and Gerry's spokesperson, and Angus McBride, one of the couple's attorneys, have been meeting the editors of British newspapers, in an attempt to regain sympathy for the couple. JN knows that these meetings have been happening since early this week and have been scheduled by the McCann Team.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283413,00.html

They've hired the lawyer who represented Chilean dictator, Augusto Pinochet.

SkyNews' Amanda Walker interviews the McCanns as the 100th day of Madeleine's disappearance approaches. Transcript of full version follows.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1279366,00.html
(short version)

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91210-1279448,.html
(full version)

AW= Amanda Walker, interviewer; GM= Gerry McCann; KM= Kate McCann

AW: Kate and Gerry, thank you for joining us on SkyNews. Over the past 100 days you’ve conducted a phenomenal awareness campaign which has led to various possible sightings which have later been dismissed. Take us through the emotional experience you go through from the moment someone says, “I’m definite that I’ve seen Madeleine", until when it’s discounted.

KM: I mean the main thing for us is knowing whether the sighting is credible or not, really. To be honest, we don’t go through that emotional rollercoaster in regards to the sightings. Emmm. You know the only thing we’ll be happy for is when we know it’s definitely Madeleine, but we don’t go through the ups and downs of that. I mean the reassuring thing for us is that it implies people are still looking for Madeleine. And that’s really important and encouraging.

GM: I think it’s self-protection, really. If you were up and down like that all the time you just wouldn’t be able to function. It comes back to, like Kate said, the credibility.

AW: Now it’s been a tough week for you. The Portuguese press in particular seem to be conducting what… could be described as a smear campaign against you and attempting to put the blame of Madeleine’s disappearance on you. Where are they getting this information from and how do you react to it?

GM: We don’t read Portuguese, so I think that’s the first thing to say, so that… accounts firsthand. There does seem to be a consistency this week and claims from police sources, but to be perfectly frank, we don’t know how much of that is true and how much is speculation. What we do know is that speculation sells but it certainly doesn’t help us. We know a number of the facts and I have not seen any evidence or know of any direct evidence to change their viewpoint of what we’ve held for the past 100 days. And, as we’ve said all along, everything we’ve done during the last 100 days is focused on the belief that Madeleine was alive when she was abducted and certainly we were encouraged in that respect and everything we’ve done is to increase the chances of her being returned.

KM: (Mumbling) … Amanda, and we go through that much pain of not having Madeleine with us, anything that’s written or said is just a mind-hurdling comparison and … right through it. We still strongly want to do is what we believe is the right thing to do, what’s the right thing for Madeleine, the right thing for us, and at the minute that’s to stay, and we’re not going to be bullied into going home.

AW: We’ve witnessed the support that you had in Luz, but there is, out there, criticism, not least from your hometown. The website for your local newspaper, the comments page, a barrage of comments that were described as spiteful, defamatory. Were you surprised by that and how did you feel about it?

GM: Again, I haven’t actually read the comments and I have no idea who’s written them. We’ve used the internet to try to raise Madeleine’s awareness. I don’t know who the people are or what they’ve specifically written other than the broad terms you’ve gone…

KM: (breaking in) … mostly it’s sad, because anything like that is really unhelpful…

GM: Whatever anyone thinks of our actions, ultimately, and our only focus is trying to find Madeleine and there’s an innocent child missing. (Shrugs) That’s and, what anyone thinks, that’s the key thing- Madeleine is missing and we’re just doing our absolute best to maximize our chances of her being found…

KM: (breaking in) … and anything negative that’s written, we’ve had thousands to counteract that, Amanda, and I can’t … I mean, well, you’ve probably heard that we’ve had that much support from people, and we can’t say thank you enough really. It’s been so important and that is the main thing really, that far outweighs anything negative.

AW: You yourself say you had a very relaxed, safe feeling in the resort … relaxed and safe enough to leave the children to sleep while you went and ate within the complex. Is that something that you’ve done on other nights? Is it something you were getting the feeling that other holidaymakers were doing?

GM: We can’t really comment about… it’s well-known that we were dining at the Tapas bar 50 yards away and we can’t comment too much in terms of our patterns and our routines and the fact of that’s subject to the investigation, but …

KM: (breaking in) … as we’ve said before, we’re both certain that if we had one second that this was a risk, it wouldn’t have happened. I think that says how safe we felt, you know.

GM: Yes, I mean it was incredibly quiet and family-orientated and incredibly close and (shrugs) we did feel incredibly safe here.

KM: And Amanda, judging on the letters that I’ve had, I mean so many supportive letters from other mothers, and they’ve said, “Kate, you know, we’ve done that, we do that, you know. Who’d have ever thought that something as horrible as that would happen, you know.

GM: As incredibly bad as what’s happened to us, I think we’ve talked about it before. It felt very similar to dining in your garden, and you know, have you ever left a child unattended for any length of time, whether it be, you’re downstairs and the child is upstairs or you went to the garage, you know. Ummm, if we could turn back the clock and rewind, of course we would.

KM: I’m just sorry we weren’t there at that minute.

AW: In terms of staying in Portugal, you’ve both said from the start you’re not going home until Madeleine is safely found and with you. Are you both equally as adamant about that, because there have been some suggestions that Kate, you’re the one that really wants to stay and Gerry, perhaps not so much. What do you see as the benefits of staying, and is it true that perhaps you want to stay more?

GM: I think we both want to find Madeleine and to do everything possible to help. And we felt staying close to the investigation and trying to move that on and cooperate was a good thing. That’s, you know, this week and the week before highlights how important that is. It would’ve been a lot more difficult to progess things if we’d been back in the UK. I think from some practical aspects in terms of efficiency I could see benefits of going home, but emotionally until we’ve done everything, we need to know what’s happened.

AW: Is it difficult for you seeing… because now Luz itself is very… it’s in full swing of the holiday season. Is it hard to be in your situation surrounded by people on holiday?

KM: I just think every day is hard… I don’t think that’s made it any harder for me. I think every day without Madeleine is … is very hard. (shrugs)

GM: I think early on I was very conscious that perhaps our grief, our misery may have been affecting other people, and I was not trying to force that on them, as conscious as that, but you know (mumbling- something about the twins) helps us keep our feet on the ground, and they give us a lot of joy and we have to give them love and attention that they deserve as well, so. And I’m not seeing other people enjoying themselves, you know that’s the way it should be.

AM: As you know, your campaign has been unprecedented. What’s next?

KM: Well, tomorrow’s 100 days we’ll be launching the Youtube channel called ‘Don’t You Forget About Me’, which is a channel for missing children, and it’s been a lot of work going on behind the scenes. I think it’s a fantastic idea… we’re launching it in collaboration, of course, with the ICMEC and Google themselves who will be hosting it with Youtube, and...

KM: (breaking in) And both have been incredibly supportive and just welcomed the idea.

AW: Is this an indication going on on a wider scale like this that perhaps your hope is fading for Madeleine in any way and giving it… putting it in a wider scale like this rather than this being just about finding Madeleine… finding other missing children.

KM: Nah, I think from quite early we wanted to know a little bit about the scale of the problem. I mean, it’s massive actually. I didn’t realize how little I knew, really. And I think, knowing that, it’s very hard to turn a blind eye to it, you know? And we just felt that if there was anything, obviously, we could … now our priority’s Madeleine, we just felt if there was anything we could help with the children that might make the world a little bit, even a tiny bit safer for children, then something good has come out of it.

GM: I think it’s a real something, tangible, that could benefit other people and give new interest to kids as well. It’s a medium that younger people use and tens of millions of people use Youtube … they have over 229 videos of Madeleine on it already…

KM: (breaking in) About 6 weeks ago.

GM: … incredible.

AW: And Kate, finally, if Madeleine could hear you now, what would you say to her?

KM: (pausing, sort of rolling her eyes) Ummm … I mean I love you … she knows that. She knows how much I love her, how much we both love her.

GM: We’re still looking for her.

today in Correio da Manha:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=257744&idselect=181&idCanal=181&p=0

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=27 post #392

Diary: PJ wants to add it to the process
Kate calls her children hysterical in the diary

Kate's diary is fundamental for the investigators of the Policia Judiciaria, who found it open in the villa that was rented by the McCanns after the disappearance of Madeleine from the Ocean Club.

The diary was not apprehended because it is included, in juridical terms, within the sphere of private correspondence, but it was analysed by police investigators. As it cannot be valued as evidence, PJ's members asked the lawyer of the Ministerio Publico to ask for its formal apprehension. This has to be done by the instruction judge, in a separate order, so it cannot be rendered invalid later.

CM could further determine that the importance of the diary is considered to be high. In it, Kate reveals traces of her personality. She often complains that her children are "hysterical" and she talks about Madeleine as a child whose excessive activity consumes her strength. She also says that Gerry doesn't help her with family chores, and that it is on her that the obligation to take care of the small ones falls. CM also knows that Kate reveals details of May 3. She confesses to no crime, but she describes the hours before Maddie disappeared.

Yesterday, an English newspaper also said that the PJ also wants to apprehend Gerry's personal computer. The purpose would be to access his mailbox, a diligence that was never performed because it is only now that the parents became formal suspects.

Tests have not arrived yet

The biological tests that are being performed in the Birmingham Lab have not arrived yet. What is missing is the confirmation of the genetical profiles that were collected in the apartment where the child disappeared from, which, if from Madeleine, come to reinforce the theory of death and concealment of a body.

While the instruction judge does not speak about the requests that were made by PJ, authorities continue to work on the case. The diligences are less visible now, but searches in areas which do not require a judicial mandate are not completely excluded.

in Diario de Noticias today:

http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/09/13/sociedade/murat_abre_portas_a_policia.html

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=27 post #394

Murat opens his doors to the police

The lawyer of Anglo-Portuguese Robert Murat, the first arguido in the Madeleine McCann case, for suspicion of being involved in the child’s disappearance, does not know whether new diligences are scheduled, including questioning of his client or even searches at his mother’s house, in Praia da Luz, which was thoroughly searched twice, in May and in August – and which is located 100 meters from the room where the child disappeared from.

But Francisco Pagarete is tranquil in case new investigations in that direction become necessary. “Admitting to a scenario that the inspectors need to investigate the house, the garden or whatever they need to investigate again, they know the doors are open and our cooperation and our interest go into that direction, too”, the jurist told DN yesterday.

At a time when some newspapers are again mentioning investigations of the Policia Judiciaria about old connections between Robert Murat and Gerry McCann, thus insisting on suspicions of the involvement of the Anglo-British man in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Francisco Pagarete wants to cooperate as much as possible with the investigation, so that “all the rumors that have been published in some media stop appearing once and for all”.

On the other hand, Francisco Pagarete says Robert Murat is aware that until the inquiry is finished, “it will be difficult for him to stop being an arguido in this process”, in which he is subject to ‘Termo de Identidade e Residencia” since May 14 (the weakest coercion measure that is included in the Portuguese Penal Code Process). But, “in the interest of the discovery of the material truth of the facts”, he remains “available” to cooperate with the investigation. Yesterday, Robert Murat was seen for the first time in several weeks in Praia da Luz, walking with his partner and girlfriend (who has also been heard by the Judiciaria within the process).

from RTP online just now:

http://www.rtp.pt/index.php?article=297941&visual=16

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=27 post #395

McCann family wants to request new analyses on the vehicle

British authorities have been at the McCann’s home in Rothley, this morning. The family wants to request new forensic testing, to be performed by another lab, on the vehicle that was rented 25 days after the child went missing.

The family wants to request new analyses “in order to prove that someone who had access to the car put something inside in order to incriminate them”, the reporter from RTP in Rothley, UK, said on Jornal da Tarde [early afternoon news broadcast].

Sandra Felgueiras discovered that that solicitation cannot be fulfilled until the final results from the tests that were performed at the Birmingham forensics lab arrive at Policia Judiciaria. The RTP journalist said these are only expected to arrive by the end of the month.

Kate’s diary

Kate McCann’s original diary will not be apprehended by police. According to journalist Sandra Felgueiras, during searches that were performed by the police in the family’s house two months ago, the document was photocopied. Police now wants “to validate an apprehension that has already been made”.

It was known today that contrary to what has been published in the British press, the Policia Judiciaria is not interested in the computer that belongs to Madeleine McCann’s father, and not interested in the soft toy that the missing child’s mother constantly carries, either. British sniffer dogs detected a cadaver odour on this object, but no blood was found.

"Cultural Divide"

Many Portuguese rallied around Kate and Gerry McCann after their daughter Madeleine vanished during the British family’s vacation in May. Now the still-unsolved case has taken on ugly nationalist overtones.

Newsweek "Web Exclusive"
much more at link below

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20765844/site/newsweek/

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

Good quote. Some things never change.

in Diario de Noticias today:

http://dn.sapo.pt/2007/09/14/sociedade/policia_admite_o_cadaver_nao_exista.html

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=28 post #407

Police admits that the cadaver may not exist anymore

Policia Judiciaria already admits that Madeleine McCann’s body “may not exist”, in order to forever hide evidence about what happened on the fateful night of May 3, in Praia da Luz, near Lagos. Within that scenario, one of the more believable possibilities would include launching the corpse in a bag with stones, far out at sea, from a yacht, namely that of an English sailor at the Marina of Lagos, who was investigated by the authorities at some point, following searches on computers that were apprehended from Robert Murat, as DN referred at the time when the investigation pointed at Maddie’s kidnapping.

Considering that one of the investigation lines which now goes through the possibility that the child was killed inside the Ocean Club apartment, with involvement of the parents, namely of Kate McCann, the non existence of a corpse even “may signify that the death was not accidental”, police sources add.

The Procuradoria-Geral da Republica [General Attorney], in a statement on Wednesday, says “there will be new diligences in order to find out what type of crime” was comitted by Madeleine’s parents, who have been constituted arguidos a week ago, following their daughter’s disappearance and after lengthy interrogations at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of PJ in Portimao.

On the other hand, as DN could discover, several investigators continue to “observe and analyse” discreetly some terrain south of the Ocean Club, namely along the coastline between Praia da Luz and Burgau, which should be the object of searches with the support of sniffer dogs from the Guarda Nacional Republicana, next week. When PJ goes back there, they should have an exact notion of “specific locations under more suspicion” which could be targeted by detailed investigations, like excavations, for example. For now, investigators want to see if certain areas were stirred or bored into. At the same time, caves and cliffs from the Lagos area onwards will also be thoroughly searched.

The English priest of the Anglican Church, Haynes Hubbard, who socialized with the McCann couple at Praia da Luz, considered that the suspicions that now fall on Madeleine’s parents to be an “absurd”, as well as possible searches that also point to the area around the Church of Nossa Senhora da Luz. “The police must focus on finding Maddie. We don’t know whether she is dead. They won’t find anything here”, the English priest said.

Catholic priest Jose Manuel Pacheco told DN he had “informal conversations” with investigators from the Judiciaria, but he was never heard as a witness in this process.

in Correio da Manha today:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=257857&idselect=181&idCanal=181&p=0

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=28 post #409

Investigation: There could be more arguidos
PJ investigates existence of accomplices

Policia Judiciaria believes that Kate and Gerry may have had the collaboration of a third party in covering up Madeleine's cadaver. Or, at least, that one of the friends that were with them on holidays in May, in Praia da Luz, may have helped them covering up the lie.

Authorities thus believe that the McCann couple couldn't hide Madeleine's corpse over so many months and hide her death without the help of another person. Even more so as right after the girl went missing, attention was completely focused on the couple, and their steps were watched almost on the hour by a batallion of journalists.

Also as CM could discover, there are details in the statements from the McCanns' friends that don't add up. Doctor Russell O'Brien, for example, started out by saying that on the night of the disappearance he had gone into the child's bedroom while visiting his own children, but denied this later on. He then said he did not enter the McCanns' apartment, having merely checked there was no noise inside. He had presumed the children were asleep, not fulfilling the alleged requests from the parents.

The rest of the friends also contradicted themselves in their various statements, namely about the timings at which each one left to check on the children and about who was the last person to see Madeleine.

There is another testimony from an English woman who was part of the group and who guarantees she saw a men in a back area of Praia da Luz, carrying what she presumed to be a child. Her deposition was initially valued and strengthened the kidnapping theory, given the fact this woman knew all the members of the group that was staying at the Ocean Club, thus dismissing the possibility of an accident and concealment of a body.

CM knows that, in this case, PJ admits that the aforementioned man didn't carry any child after all, and is therefore unrelated with the kidnapping of Maddie.

In order to clarify all these doubts, authorities will probably require the questioning of the English citizens again. That questioning has to be made by English authorities, which makes the investigation more difficult. PJ cannot follow the depositions, and inevitably a lot of information will be lost. But there is no way around this diligence, given the fact that authorities don't have enough elements to allow for another scenario, namely the constitution of arguido. Simultaneously, other diligences will be requested.

(...)

McCanns never made confessions

Kate and Gerry never made any confession to the catholic priest in Luz, during the four months of anguish they lived in the Algarve. Before going back to England, the catholic couple delivered the church keys to the anglican priest who is a friend, and didn't say goodbye to the catholic priest that supported them on the day after the girl's disappearance.

"In the last few days, they did not look for father Jose Pacheco and they made no effort to say goodbye to him", a source from the parish told CM. The keys to the church, which the members of the parish decided to lend to the couple a few days after Maddie's disappearance, "so they could pray", were returned to the anglican priest who also holds mass in the same church, and who befriended the couple. Haynes Hubbert said on television yesterday: "I agree that the parish lent them the church keys". But he didn't reveal that it was to him that the couple returned them.

The Bishop of Algarve, in a communication that is published on the diocese's site, assured that he did not ask the priest in Luz to request the McCanns to return the keys to the church before they returned to England. D. Manuel Quintas guarantees he never made that request, even more so as "that was an initiative of the local community". It was the first public position taken by the Diocesis since May 30. The Pastoral Counsel of Luz Parish deliberated, yesterday, that the action of delivering the key was "spiritual and moral and always considering the couple's suffering".

(...)

English Government cuts McCanns off

The first call that Gerry made on the night of the crime was to Alistair Clark, a good friend from university days and a diplomat who is close to Gordon Brown. Clark made contacts at the highest level and - before Policia Judiciaria - already Sky News and the British Ambassador were being informed about the abduction.

Ambassador John Buck was in the Algarve and Brown also gave his personal number to Maddie's father in the various phonecalls they exchanged. But, as CM could establish, the present head of the British governemnt is now "rather disturbed" with the inquiry's direction and, last weekend, removed the direct connection from the couple.

McCanns were talking about having another child before Maddie disappeared, according to Kate's father:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topsto...a-new-baby-says-kate-s-father-89520-19789157/

MEDIA BLITZ

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/09/15/europe/EU-GEN-Britain-Missing-Girl.php

in Sol paper edition, September 15:

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=28 post #418

PJ reconstitutes crime
The police is convinced that the McCann couple had someone’s help

article by Felicia Cabrita
translation by summer

The Policia Judiciaria (PJ) will soon make the reconstitution of the events that took place on the night that Madeleine McCann disappeared. It’s an essential diligence in order to clarify the various contradictions that the group of nine let pass right in their first statements. If Maddie was in fact murdered, the McCanns could not have hidden the cadaver alone – which means they had to have the help from a third party.

In order to reconstruct the night of May 3, it’s essential to count on the participation of the McCann couple and the group of British friends, with whom they were spending their holidays at the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz. But at this moment, authorities cannot guarantee that they can arrange for the entire group to come to Portugal, at the same time.

PJ is convinced that Madeleine McCann is dead, that Kate and Gerry are somehow involved and that the cadaver was concealed. But it is still unclear what happened exactly.

Airplanes before the dogs

Besides the reconstitution of that night, PJ wants to verify the only routes that the McCann family and their friends knew, which derived from their daily routine. The first leads to a vacant terrain, behind the Milenio restaurant; the second one was usually made to go to the beach. Both routes have already been trailed by the sniffer dogs.

One of the relevant testimonies within this investigation is the one from Martin Smith, an Irishman who resides in Luz and who says that, on the night of May 3, he crossed ways with a man who was carrying a child. She seemed to be asleep, and both were going in the direction of the beach.

The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine suffered a turnaround in late July, with the arrival in Portugal of highly specialized equipment and of the British police’s sniffer dogs.

Before the dogs went onto the terrain, an airplane which is equipped with temperature and infrared rays cameras made a complete ‘sweep’ of the area from the Ocean Club until the cliffs. The infrared cameras detect the existence of land shifts (in England, they have detected cadavers under cement) and the temperature cameras are used to detect changes of temperature in the earth (given the fact that decomposing bodies register more elevated temperatures).

The planes equipment, however, detected nothing out of the ordinary in Luz.

After these diligences, the possibility of the child’s body having been thrown into the sea was pondered. Police even contacted Joao Alveirinho Dias, an investigator at the University of Algarve, who is a specialist in oceanography, in order to collect information about the movement of tides and beach sand, in that area. With the dogs, the British policemen walked the beachline and the routes that were usually made by the McCanns and their friends.

Blood on the curtains

Later at the Ocean Club, the use of the dogs ended up triggering a turnaround in the investigation.

As Sol could discover, the dogs detected cadaver odour behind a couch in the apartment’s living room, close to a window that leads to the resort’s back area.

This window had curtains that were removed and analysed by police, and a small blood sample was detected. Both the curtains and the wall where it was located at, had been washed.

If the information that the Irish citizen gave to Sol three months ago is confirmed, the child was wearing pink pyjamas, and Smith noticed no blood stains. Whatever happened to Maddie, didn’t provoke a large bloodshed.

Contradictions and refusals to answer

In the interrogations to which they were subject, last week, in the offices of Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, Maddie’s parents were confronted not only with the collected evidence, but also with the contradictions between their first statements, right after the child’s disappearance, and those by their friends.

One of the issues that has yet to be clarified is the fact that both Russell O’Brien and Matthew Oldfield said they left the restaurant, where all of them were having dinner on the evening of May 3 around 9.20 p.m, and Russell came back 5 minutes before Kate gave the alert to the disappearance of her daughter – which was confirmed to Sol by the Tapas restaurant’s employees.

The staff also declared that they didn’t see Gerry McCann leaving to check on his children’s welfare, contrary to what Gerry said himself.

Kate and Gerry ended up being constituted arguidos in the inquiry. Sol knows that both refused to answer a significant amount of questions that the Judiciaria believes to be determinant and of high criminal relevance – thus contradicting their stance of cooperating with the process.

THE FACTS

1. Madeleine McCann, according to her parents, disappeared on May 3, 2007, at 10 p.m., from the Ocean Club

2. The last persons to see Maddie alive were her parents

3. All the clues to a possible abduction were checked by the PJ. After three months, the abduction theory was put aside

4. At this moment, PJ thinks the child is dead

5. Kate and Gerry McCann were constituted arguidos, after failing (and in some cases, refusing) to answer determinant questions of high criminal relevance. They have therefore passed into the status of suspects

THE EVIDENCE

1. In the Ocean Club Apartment

a) cadaver odour was detected by the English dogs behind a couch in the living room, close to a window that leads to the apartment’s back area
b) blood (a very small amount) on that window’s curtains; the curtains and the wall were washed
c) collected fingerprints belong only to the couple and their friends; there are no fingerprints from Robert Murat, the case’s first arguido
d) searches with dogs in the other apartments of the same block at the resort did not yield these results, only the McCann’s

The cadaver odour that was detected by the dogs indicates that the parents were with Madeleine after her death, and therefore must know what happened. This because, as they say, they were in the apartment until dinner time, at 8.30 p.m. It takes at least two hours for a corpse to release odours that can be detected by the dogs

2. In the Renault Scenic car (rented by the McCanns on May 27)

a) cadaver odour was detected by the dogs
b) a very reduced sample of human fluid, in the car boot. After being analysed in Birmingham, this fluid registered, according to the PJ’s director, Alipio Ribeiro, results that do not allow a 100% correspondence with Maddie’s genetic profile
c) hair that is compatible with Maddie’s genetic profile; there is doubt about whether they landed there by ‘transference’

3. In the Vista Mar villa (rented by the McCanns)

a) cadaver odour, detected by the dogs on clothes that belong to Kate, and on the pink soft toy
b) an English book, normally used by police, that focuses on the different types of crimes, as well as on what clues should be looked for to identify its perpetrators
c) a bible, on Kate’s bedside table, open at the Old Testament, at the passage that tells the death of King David’s son (God punished David with the death of his son, in order to force him away from sin and to return onto the path of good)
d) Kate’s diary, in which she writes about daily difficulties, in dealing with her children

4. Contradictions between the couple’s statements and those of their friends

a) Gerry says during dinner he got up to check on his children; restaurant staff says only two people from the group left the dinner table and those were Russell O’Brien and Matthew Oldfield
b) Russell arrived late for dinner and left at some point: he said his daughter had vomited and he was waiting for someone to change the bedsheets; the hotel staff say nobody requested clean bedsheets
c) Jane, Russell’s wife, says she saw a man passing on the resort’s street, carrying a child. An Irishman, who was at the same time in the same spot, says he saw nobody pass



THE LAWYERS

The Portuguese…

Ambition set him apart very early, when he was still a law student at the Catholic University, and he said he wanted to become President of the Republic. His persistence gave results when one day he saw the open doors to one of Lisbon’s main firms.

It was in the office that is lead by penalist Germano Marques da Silva that Carlos Pinto de Abreu, now 40, built his carrer – as a lawyer, for example, for the leaders of UGT [Union syndicate] that were implicated in fraud with the FSE [Fundo Social Europeu, funds from the European Union], for the Cavaco brothers, for the doctor Veiga Fernandes and, more recently, for Isaltino Morais and Antonio Preto. Meanwhile, at the Lawyer’s Order, he was elected in the list of Rogerio Alves in 2005 to preside over the institution’s Human Rights Commission. The McCann couple’s defense, now in his own office, appears at the same time that Pinto de Abreu announces his candidacy to the Lisbon District Council of the Order – a launching pad, his colleagues foresee, for a greater ambition: to become head of the Order.

… and the English

Michael Caplan and Angus McBride are two partners at Kingsley Napley – one of the most distinguished law firms in the United Kingdom. Caplan is a Queen’s Counsel (QC), which means a counselor to the Queen and he was known for defending Chile’s ex-dictator Augusto Pinochet and for having avoided his extradition into Spain. McBride made his career by protecting the reputation of celebrities. He recently defended the English football captain, John Terry, who was accused of kidnapping, and actor Chris Langham, who was accused of downloading *advertiser censored*.

in Sol paper edition, September 15:

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=28 post #419

Silence has returned to Praia da Luz

article by Maria Mateus

“People are saying they always walked hand in hand, and that he squeezed her hand when she talked too much”. Inacio Salgadinho hands out the ticket that allows us to park within the parking lot that belongs to the village hall. He is 77, a man of few words but who doesn’t excuse himself from answering the questions that, invariably, are asked by the people who leave their car there, in front of the beach: “Was the girl located? Was it the parents after all? Where is the Ocean Club apartment?”

Initially, he let the journalists park at no cost, but the space was quickly invaded by the media exclusively. “I started demanding the payment from everyone, because the village hall doesn’t forgive me, I have to pay them at the end of each month!”, he justifies.

The ‘problem’ of journalists doesn’t exist anymore. Now, very few are still around, and even these prefer to park around the church. In fact, if it weren’t for the half dozen dishes on the satellite-cars and the cameras pointing at the church’s main door, and nobody would say that Praia da Luz, in the Algarve, has been the stage for the most mediatized police case there ever was in Portugal.

There are no longer photos of Madeleine in the shop windows, or yellow ribbons in the hair and around the wrists. And there are already people who fear the long-term consequences of the case, which the village will suffer: “With time, the English will stop coming here”, Jorge Silva, a cook, foresees, and he explains: “We’ll be remembered for a bad thing”.

Business was good for some cafés and restaurants but nobody wants to admit a big increase in their income because of Maddie’s case. Behind the counters, the reply is always the same: “High season here can be felt starting in early May” – precisely when the girl went missing.

Only at the bar of the local supermarket, the Baptista, Elsa Barros admits: “This year, we’ve had August twice”. But she adds: “We usually sell well all year round”.

Silence has returned to the village. Because there are less tourists, and because Kate and Gerry don’t drag onlookers and the media behind them anymore.

But there is still a restlessness that is no longer due to the sidewalks being crowded and to the noise that came from the generators of the journalists’ machinery. The noise is present in the memory of those who live in Luz. “We have a bigger fear of people. We had never heard anything about missing children around here. After this case, we started to be afraid”, Celia Rodrigues says, while she irons at the local laundry shop. “My son, who is 11, is still frightened when a stranger looks at him”, she adds. And even at school, Silvia Silva continues, “if someone stops and looks into the playground area… It’s complicated! We suspect everything and everyone”.

Silvia lives at the apartment block ‘Pedras Brancas’, which was inspected by the Policia Judiciaria (PJ). On the days right after the disappearance of Madeleine, a muffed cry that came from that location raised suspicions.

“On Saturday, around half past midnight, two inspectors from the Judiciaria asked to enter my home. My daughter was four months old back then. They looked at her often, they walked around the bathroom, the kitchen, they even peeked into the laundry basket”, she recalls. The reports follow one another on the same subject, because on that night the PJ visited other homes, leaving the inhabitants restless and disturbed. “We didn’t want to risk someone watching us talking to the PJ, like it happened with Luis, Robert Murat’s friend. After the police talked to him, he never got himself another pool to clean”, Silvia remembers.

The truth is that the Madeleine case brought the world unique images from Praia da Luz. The sand beach, the cliffs, the sea, the meandering streets that lead down to the beach, the church that overlooks the ocean – images that introduced an Algarve where one feels like going to. But that is not what people talk about at Luz. There, everybody laments that “we are only known for something so bad”.

in Sol paper edition, September 15:

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=29 post #420

Contention within the [Portuguese] Government

Alberto Costa has been assuring the articulation with the PJ and the English minister

article by Helena Pereira, with Catarina Cristao

The [Portuguese] Government has been treating the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann ‘with tweezers’. For Jose Socrates [Portuguese Prime Minister], the main word is contention.

The silence and distance that have been the rule for the last four months, concerning this case, were broken only this week. The government only decided to make a public statement only after the national director of PJ, Alipio Ribeiro, made a public appearance about the investigations (on the Pros & Contras show on RTP, last Monday) and after knowing that the Procuradoria-Geral da Republica [Attorney General] would emit a statement (which happened on Tuesday).

This articulation was assured by Justice Minister Alberto Costa. It has also been Costa who has been serving as a pivot in the contacts with English authorities, namely the Internal Affairs minister, Jacqui Smith, with whom he has spoken often.

The silence that the government kept until now, and which has been widely criticized, namely by PJ members – the institution under fire from British media – was justified to Sol by a governmental source with the need for the government to keep its distance from the case, respecting the separation of powers.

On the other hand, the Executive believes that, at no moment in time, was the work of the Portuguese police ever questioned by the British government, so there was no need to respond over any attack. Alberto Costa would end up saying that the PJ “is investigating with its entire competence and with the resources that are necessary”. Socrates only spoke about the case because he was questioned by ‘El Pais’ [Spanish newspaper] in an interview, where he stated that “the duty of politicians is not to feed a soap-opera”.

Therefore, the Portuguese government was never available to receive the McCanns in an audience. The couple’s spokesperson, Justine McGuiness, guaranteed to Sol that “they never talked, or requested audiences from the Portuguese government over these four months”. Yet, the McCanns have been received by the Spanish Interior Affairs minister.

in Correio da Manha today:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=258008&idselect=181&idCanal=181&p=0

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1182386581&page=29 post #421

Madeleine McCann case
Car with residues drove 2750 km in a month

The Policia Judiciaria wants to clarify the routes that were driven by the Renault Scenic during its first month of rental in Praia da Luz. The vehicle, where the residues that are preseumed to be from Madeleine, were found, was delivered to the McCann couple on May 27, with 3114 kilometers. On June 3, the rental agreement was extended, and the vehicle was showing 3844 kilometres at that point.

The last record of the vehicle was made in July, also on the 3rd, and the counter of the vehicle registered 5864 kilometres. Which means that from May 27 until July 3 – a little over a month – it ran 2750.

At the moment, it’s unknown how many kilometers were made by the car already, whose contract with the McCanns ends on the 20th of this month. The extensions of the contract were made by phone, and the documents from the rental company don’t show the distances anymore.

CM knows that besides Gerry there was a second authorized driver on the rental agreement. It is Michael Wright, a cousin of Kate McCann, who at some point was the couple’s spokesperson. Michael Wright promoted the Find Madeleine site and organized some of the couple’s most important trips. PJ tries to understand who drove the car and which routes were taken, at a time when the McCanns were touring the world, and used tourist taxis for their connections to Faro or Lisbon airports.

Hair exams

Simultaneously, PJ is still waiting for the tests that are being performed on hair that was found inside the vehicle. Which is an important clue in the investigation. It can typically associate a suspect with a victim, or a victim with a crime scene. The amount and the state the hair is found in, are also important factors in the police inquiry.

In 200, a member of scientific police at the FBI, Douglas W. Deedrick, concluded that the microscopic characteristics of a hair under amplified sight do not allow for an absolute identification of the sample. But one thing can be determined quickly: if the hair fell out, or if it was pulled from a living or a dead person.

Meeting between police and magistrates

During the afternoon yesterday, police and magistrates met at the Courthouse in Portimao. The contents of the meeting is unknown, but the motive is certain: the continuation of the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, the definition of strategies over the coming days.

The meeting ended around 6 p.m, and only the heads of PJ at Portimao, Gonçalo Amaral, and from Faro, Guilhermino Encarnação, were captured by the cameras.

The magistrates exited incognito again and nobody knows what diligences are being prepared. The moment is of absolute silence and even Olegario Sousa, the PJ’s spokesperson for this case, was not to be reached. CM knows that next week the searches, which will be surgical, may start, and could lead police to discover the corpse. At least, this is what the police hopes for, as they believe they can clarify the mystery.

(&#8230

5 persons drove the car between May 3 and 27, the day the McCanns rented it. None of them is in any way related to the couple.

September 20 is the foreseen date for the car to be returned. The McCanns have not yet said if they will extend the contract.

Portuguese police believe Madeleine McCann's body was dumped at sea from a British-owned yacht, according to newspaper reports.

This latest theory contends that the body of four-year-old Madeleine was thrown into the ocean in a weighted sack, The Sun reported today.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=296318