Media Links ONLY - No Discussion

[colomom]

in Correio da Manha this morning (1/5/07):

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=272327&idselect=10&idCanal=10&p=200

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1197741018&page=4 post #53

Rogatory letters: Judiciaria delivers requests
PJ wants to attack the friends' pact of silence

The Policia Judiciaria is going to England to interrogate the McCanns' friends. The diligence is considered fundamental, as the investigators believe that this way they may break the pact of silence within the group of English citizens that accompanied the couple on their holidays in the Algarve, during the first days of May last year.

The questions that will be asked from the nine persons have already been written down by the Portuguese investigators, who will only accompany the English policemen. They will not be able to ask any questions themselves, but they can give indications to their counterparts.

This diligence is thus considered of essence for the investigation. The PJ believes that a pact of silence exists, due to the group's practices - they all had small children that always went to sleep at 8 p.m. and that remained alone in their rooms while their parents dined - which may have created a 'strange' unity, which dictated silences, omissions and even some complicity in the facts that happened after the disappearance of Madeleine became public.

It is within these questionings that the Policia Judiciaria believe they may be lucky. A detail, a loose end, that could lead the investigators on the child's trail - a child which the police believes is dead and whose body may have been hidden as early as the evening of May 3 in the surroundings of the resort in Praia da Luz.

When the diligence is carried out and the results are sent to Portugal, the PJ will study the possibility of questioning the child's parents again - a situation that would prompt a new rogatory letter and the same bureaucracies of the ones that will now be sent to England and took almost three months of preparation.

According to what was reported by Correio da Manhã yesterday, within the diligence that will now be carried out - which should be executed before the end of this month - the authorities will also seize Kate McCann's diary. The document was written after the child disappeared and the authorities believe it can reveal the mother's personality. The copies of the diary have been appended to the process, but the authorities intend to seize the original. In this diary, Kate complained about her children being hysterical and lamented the lack of Gerry's support in the caretaking of twins Sean and Amelie, who are less than two years old.

The Policia Judiciaria has meanwhile asked the instruction judge for the apprehension of the diary, because it is an element that reveals the private life. The understanding of Portuguese law is that its apprehension obeys specific rules, and should only be carried out under special circumstances.

There are also opinions that defend that the document cannot be validated as it is a free text, where persons reflect sentiments that may not even be real, and facts that may not have occurred.

Secrecy is kept

The process' secrecy is going to be kept for at least another three months. The Public Ministery is going to request it and everything indicates that the judge will approve the request. The argumentation will probably not differ much from that which was used when the lawyers were first refused access to consult the process - it is a particularly sensitive case because of the media attention it's under, and there is the risk of disturbing the inquiry of many of the facts become public. Concerning the deadlines for the process to remain under secrecy, they are not known. The judge will presumably extend the secrecy for another three months, but nothing prevents a new extension from happening. The understandings concerning this matter are not unanimous.

Murat awaits notification

Francisco Pagarete, the lawyer for Robert Murat, the British citizen that resides in Praia da Luz, awaits the notification from the Public Ministery. "I understand that the inquiry's deadlines were suspended during the holidays. Therefore, I am going to wait a few more weeks for the Public Ministery to conclude the investigation and notify my client", the lawyer told CM, guaranteeing that he will not try to access the contents of the investigation now. "We will wait with serenity. I am convinced that the files concerning Robert Murat will be archived, and I hope it will all be resolved soon", he said. CM knows that the Public Ministery does not intend to issue an intercalary dispatch that archives the facts against the British citizen, as it considers that the rogatory letters should also focus on the presence of the arguido at the resort on May 3.

(...)

 

[colomom]

in Correio da Manha this morning (1/6/07):

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=272461&idCanal=10

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1197741018&page=4 post #54

Metodo 3: Low credibility
PJ questions statements

The Policia Judiciaria questions the countless witness statements which, eight months after Madeleine McCann disappeared from a resort in the Algarve, are directed towards the abduction theory. The tourists that the Spanish detective firm Metodo 3, which was hired by the McCanns, managed to find over the last few weeks lead the authorities into believing that one is being confronted with a gigantic propaganda machine.

As recently as this week, an Irish couple came forward to guarantee they saw a man leaving while carrying a child at the same time that the parents mentioned the abduction. They had never said it before, although the case achieved a media projection that had never been seen before in the whole of Europe.

The increase in the number of witnesses that assure that Robert Murat was also near the resort that evening, is also seen with mistrust. Many of those that now incriminate him in public gave opposing versions during the first days, when their memory was fresh and less subject to contamination from the media exposure.

 

[colomom]

this morning in Correio da Manha:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=272689&idselect=181&idCanal=181&p=0

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.co...eral&action=display&thread=1199641547&page=13 post #191

Madeleine: Investigation results
Tests mark Maddie's death

The definitive result of the tests that recently arrived from England left no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria's investigators. The blood that was found in the McCanns' car is really from Madeleine, just like the residues that were detected in the house that was rented by the English couple, and from where the child, then aged three, disappeared from without a trace.

The investigation, nevertheless, continues at an impass. Without a cadaver and without any confessions, it will still be possible for the child's parents to create a doubt in court. Not because of the quality of the residues, but because of the method that was used to collect them. "When the residue is not visible to the naked eye, it is necessary to use the 'low copy number'. Which means that the genetic profiles of every person that left traces at the location are extracted. This is not about the contamination of evidence, but about the possibility, an almost academic one, that there is someone who has a genetic profile that is the same as the junction of several others", a source that knows the process has told CM.

Within this scenario - and as Maddie's parents could create the doubt that this is nothing but a huge coincidence - the authorities continue to look for a lucky strike that may change the course of the investigation. The diligences that will be carried out in England over the coming weeks - the questioning of the McCanns' friends and the apprehension of objects like Kate's diary - mean precisely that.

Another barrier for this investigation is the penal context that is at its core. The PJ's inspectors defend that it was an accident, which places the crime on the level of an accidental or negligent homicide. The rest of the crimes are those of concealment of a cadaver and simulation of an abduction, which under no circumstances foresees preventive imprisonment, and the use of evidence like phone listening.

As far as CM was able to discover, even if the friends of the English couple don't add anything to the investigation, the inquiry will most likely produce a public accusation. This is an action that falls under the responsibility of the Public Ministery, though, and the PJ can only suggest the juridical qualification.

Kate and Gerry McCann will also never be judged in Portugal, as the process will be sent to England after it is concluded, where it will be appreciated by that country's Justice.

Madeleine is the daughter of Gerry and Kate McCann

The possibility that Gerry and Kate are not Maddie's parents - given as certain by the 24Horas newspaper - was never anything but an academical possibility, which was dismissed at the beginning of the investigation when the DNA of the missing child was collected. Conceived through artificial insemination, the child's genetic patrimony belongs to the McCann couple.

DNA is not from the twin siblings

Many residues were collected by the PJ, and there is no possibility that those that are attributed to Maddie come from her twin siblings, Sean and Amelie. That possibility was verified, and all the tests were repeated in Portugal and in England. They were also collected at two different moments in time, in May and in August, by investigators from the Scientific Police Lab and experts from the Institute for Legal Medicine.

(...)

Blood trail leaves the investigators without doubts

It is not only the fact that traces have been found which coincide with Maddie's DNA, that leads the investigators to believe that this is a death case. It is also the locations where those were found which allow the Policia Judiciaria to reconstruct what happened to the child, on the evening of the 3rd of May, and on the following days.

In the first place, the English dogs detected cadaver odours in the bedroom, in the car boot and on the clothes that Kate was wearing that evening. Then, blood traces were found, not visible to the naked eye, that indicate the presence of the little girl's cadaver behind a sofa in the bedroom and in the boot of the car that was only rented 22 days later.

The PJ also took into account the analysis of several details during the investigation: from the way the furniture was placed inside the house, until the statements of neighbours.

There, the statement of Pamela Fenn, the English citizen that lived in the apartment that was located above the one that was occupied by the McCanns, became fundamental again. On the day before the day that the child disappeared, the local resident heard Maddie's screams. The child cried and screamed for her father, while the emotional lack of control from her mother was audible.

Pamela Fenn even spoke to the McCanns about the noise the children made, which disturbed her, and the McCanns promised that the situation would not be repeated.

CM knows that all the traces that point to the presence of Maddie in the house of the resort in Praia da Luz also allow to define a trail for the passage of the body. Which was then hidden in an unknown location and transported to another unknown location.

It is also reminded that the English dogs later detected the smell of the cadaver next to the spare tire and on the keys of the car that was used by the couple for several months. It was also in that first location (car boot) that the animals again found biological residues from a DNA that matches that of the English girl, and which gave results that dismiss the possibility that they belonged to her twin siblings.

(...)

 

[colomom]

this morning in Correio da Manha (1/8/07):

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=272781&idCanal=10

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1197741018&page=4 post #59

Process: Letters should arrive in England this week
Rogatory letters delivered

The rogatory letters where the PJ asks for the renewed interrogations of the McCanns and the seven friends with whom they dined on the evening that little Maddie disappeared, were sent yesterday in the early afternoon by the Public Ministery of Portimao.

CM has established with a source that knows the process that the documents were sent to England through the Eurojust system - which assures the connection between the different Justice departments of the States within the European Union - and that they will only be in the possession of the English police authorities towards the end of this week.

It is only from that moment on that the PJ can initiate the diligences in partnership with the British police. But this does not mean that the Judiciaria will fulfill all the questionings that are requested through the documents.

The delay in the sending of the rogatory letters - which arrived at the Public Ministery on the 7th of December - was due, as CM had reported on the 12th of last month, to the need of the Public Ministery to analyse the documents with extreme attention, and mainly due to the translation work, which was minutious.

New arguida denied

Francisco Pagarete, the lawyer who represents the Anglo-Portuguese Robert Murat - one of the three arguidos that exist in the Maddie case - denies the existence of a fourth suspect that could be involved in the disappearance of the British child, Madeleine McCann. "It is false that I ever said that there is a fourth arguido in this process. It is also false that Michaela Walczuch has been made an arguida. Only my client [Murat] and the McCanns are arguidos", he tells CM, denying statements that were attributed to him by newspaper '24 Horas' and adding that, at the moment, "there is nothing new within the process".

Francisco Pagarete guarantees that he has no knowledge of an extension of the judicial secrecy. "I don't know if the judicial secrecy was extended or if the special complexity of the process was requested. I have not been notified of anything yet. Concerning my client, everything remains the same", he says. Pagarete is confident about the result of the inquiry, but he does not reveal what he thinks about the outcome concerning Robert Murat.

Appeal not to visit Portugal

"Don't go on holidays to Portugal". The sentence, which was introduced within an opinion text from commentator Simon Heffer and published in the Saturday edition of the British newspaper 'Telegraph', intends to tell the English not to come into our country to spend their holidays, especially in the Algarve. According to Heffer, it's time for the British citizens to show more solidarity with Kate and Gerry McCann. "If the McCanns killed Maddie then I'm Barack Obama", he ironises. Heffer also criticises the work of the Policia Judiciaria and suggests that not only did the inspectors do a bad job during the entire investigation and while collecting the forensic evidence, but also that the McCanns are being used as scapegoats. For this commentator, Kate and Gerry were made arguidos solely for Portugal to prove it is competent. "Portugal has revealed it is a banana republic. Whether you have children or not, you should be an adult and poder whether you want to spend your holidays in Portugal", he writes.

 

[Claycat]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/09/nmaddy309.xml

 

[april4sky]

MADELEINE McCann’s grandfather says: “There has been so much that has been said and written, much of it untrue and hurtful, but so often it seems to me as if the only really important person in all this has been forgotten – and that’s Madeleine.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liver...0252-20339082/

Brian says he was heartened to read an opinion piece which appeared in the leading Lisbon newspaper Diaro de Noticias. It was written by journalist João Miguel Tavares and published on December 11.
The columnist talked of the need for the media in Portugal to “make a serious analysis of its role in the tragedy and activate mechanisms to stop it from behaving again as a ping-pong table throwing too many lies and too little information”.

 

[colomom]

in Jornal de Noticias this morning (1/12/07):

http://jn.sapo.pt/2008/01/12/policia_e_tribunais/mantido_segredo_caso_maddie.html

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1197741018&page=5 post #68

Secret is being kept in Maddie case

The investigation into the disappearance of the English girl, Madeleine McCann, is going to be kept under secrecy for an additional three months. The Public Ministery (PM) has requested the extension of the deadline for the judicial secrecy yesterday, justifying the request with the exceptional complexity of the process.

The request, which was delivered to the instruction judge at the Portimao Court yesterday, appears three days before the date when eight months have been completed after the opening of the inquiry, which is the maximum deadline that could be applied to this process.

On January 14 - the day after tomorrow - the time limit for the presentation of this request would be reached, due to the fact that eight months have been completed since the day that Robert Murat was constituted as the first arguido in the process. Months later, on September 7, Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of the little girl that disappeared from a tourist resort at Praia da Luz on May 3, would follow suit.

According to the Penal Process Code, if the maximum time limit for the duration of the inquiry (eight months) is overstepped without an accusation or archiving dispatch, the process must cease to be under judicial secrecy. The same law also foresees that an inquiry may be declared of an "exceptional complexity" due to the "highly organised character of the crime".

The facts that the child's body has not yet been found, and that there is no conclusive evidence about Murat's or the McCann couple's involvement yet, may frame the case into this legal concept. The Policia Judiciaria continues to investigate this case, while it waits for the rogatory letters to arrive at Leicester Police, in the United Kingdom. Those documents will be used to perform new questionings on the seven friends of the British couple, with whom they spent their holidays, and whose statements are awaited with expectation.

 

[ThoughtFox]

Interesting article about Metodo:
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3333778.ece

Speculation grows that its contract will not be renewed. It is not hard to discern why. Metodo has never recovered from the extraordinary swaggering comments of its director, Francisco Marco, when he boasted in December that not only did they know who abducted Madeleine, but that she could, in that most ill-fated of phrases, "be home by Christmas". So have the McCanns wasted £300,000 on the Spanish equivalent of Inspector Clouseau? Or are Metodo 3 slowly making progress?

Based in Barcelona's plush Eixample district, Metodo 3 inhabits the first floor of a Modernist block. Ever since the December faux pas, inquiries at the office are met with a polite response that the elusive Señor Marco is "in meetings" or "travelling".

*sigh* And here are two articles which try to tie Maddie's disappearance to a pedophiles in other countries:

The Canary Islands:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topsto...e-cops-search-pet-crematorium-89520-20285763/
Spain near Huelva:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/01/15/maddie-spain-link-is-probed-89520-20286110/

 

[ThoughtFox]

The McCanns have contacted the family of this missing girl:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/17/nmadeleine117.xml

Mr Cortes, a 34-year-old former professional footballer turned builder, said: "Kate McCann has been in touch to send her condolences.

"She knows what we're going through and I understand them now too."

A family friend added: "Knowing they have the support of Gerry and Kate has been comforting. They have been touched by the fact someone who is going through her own turmoil can find the strength to think of them in their moment of need."

The pledge of support came after Mr McCann wrote on his blog: "Hearing of the probable abduction of Mari Luz Cortes has brought many awful emotions flooding back. We hope and pray that Mari Luz is quickly found and returned safely to her family."

 

[colomom]

in Jornal de Noticias this morning:

http://jn.sapo.pt/2008/01/21/policia_e_tribunais/pais_revelam_novo_retrato_robo.html

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.co...eral&action=display&thread=1200844465&page=15 post #218

Parents reveal new sketch

Yesterday, Kate and Gerry McCann launched a new campaign within the search for their daughter, by revealing two images of a suspect that they believe is responsible for the disappearance of the 4-year-old little girl, on May 3, in Praia da Luz (Lagos). The drawings reveal the figure of a man who looks North-African, and who raised suspicions shortly before Madeleine's disappearance.

According to Gail Cooper, an English tourist who stayed with her husband and her granddaughter at the same resort ('Ocean Club') from which Madeleine would later disappear, the man is not a Portuguese citizen and was reportedly seen three times, behaving in unusual ways.

According to the interpretation of the family itself, this man may be the same who was seen by Jane Tanner on the evening when Maddie disappeared, and whose drawing was revealed last October. But, this time, the images reveal details of the suspect's face. A second drawing shows the same man walking, dresses in a brown jacket and a blue pullover.

"There are obvious similarities between both sketches. We are not saying this is definitely the same man, but we want to know who he is and where he is. We want to find him, and quickly", the family's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, stated to JN.

During the presentation of the images, the McCanns' spokesman made an appeal for a worldwide search to find this man, and added that the new images were delivered to the PJ and to Interpol. But the campaign is being run by the private investigation agency Metodo 3, which is located in Barcelona. The drawings were comissioned by the private detectives, and executed by an FBI-trained artist.

With dark hair and a latin look, the suspect that was described by Gail Cooper is approximately 40 years old and very skinny, which are characteristics that fit the description that was made by Jane Tanner to the PJ. This man was seen three times by Cooper, between the 20th and the 22nd of April. On one of the occasions, he reportedly followed a group of children during a walk on the beach, but the witness only revealed her suspicions to the English police after Madeleine's alleged disappearance.

"The police had access to this information, but for some reason no sketch was comissioned. We contacted this witness a week ago, and comissioned this image".

A connection to the disappearance of Mari Luz in Huelva has been dismissed by the McCann team, who still believe that Madeleine may be alive.

 

[colomom]

this morning (1/20) in Correio da Manha - an opinion article by Moita Flores:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=274434&idselect=93&idCanal=93&p=200

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1197741018&page=6 post #80

Maddie and Mari Luz

Mari Luz disappeared from a public area. Maddie and her siblings were abandoned by their parents [...] they were exposed to chance

Every time that a sequence of violent acts occurs, whether homicides, abductions, or terrorist acts, the first exercise that our common sense memory does, is to search for communions and to make analogies that tend to generalistic judgements that puff up one or another solution. When these facts have a strong impact within the media, the level of certainty that is formulated increases even more. It is therefore hardly surprising, that the disappearance of Mari Luz prompted the search for identifications with the Maddie case, leading to the comfortable and opportunistic theory that there are connections between both cases, both being the victims of a sexual predator.

There do not exist. Although close in time, they are absolutely different cases. Beginning with the space where the facts took place. Maddie disappeared from the room where she was sleeping, alongside her siblings, inside the apartment that belonged to her parents, even if only for the duration of their holidays. Mari Luz disappeared from a public space. The time coordinate is also different. The English girl disappeared during the night, the Spanish girl disappeared during the day. The location is also different. Mari Luz disappears in a street of her neighbourhood - and those who know this area in Huelva, know that we are talking about a poor community, of degraded housing or modest construction, which is inhabited by persons with financial difficulties, where the street is used by its inhabitants as a playground. To play on the streets in Torrejon is a socially normal action, there are neighborhood relationships, the bonds of social mutual recognition are evident. It is normal for a mother to send her child shopping. According to the daily behaviour patterns, it cannot be said that the parents abandoned Mari Luz. That space is the community's territory. Maddie and her siblings were abandoned by their parents, in a foreign country, in a quality resort but, due to their short stay, that was strange to them and to their children. They went out to drink while the children were delivered to chance. But within a safe, controlled unit, without space for an abductor to act naturally. The public space is where abductions take place, by excellence. On streets, in shopping areas, on beaches, or when large crowds meet in open air. The private space, the home, is the territory of love, of violence, of tenderness and of death. But this is not where differences end. Mari Luz's parents immediately communicated the case to authorities. The police heard about Maddie long after the English diplomacy and Sky News did. The parents of Mari Luz expose themselves, in their suffering and distress, to the police and to the media. Maddie's parents chose to make emotional appeals but without a coherent explanation about what happened. They brought in a spokesperson to tell the press what it wanted to hear, but themselves, when it was time, refused to talk and left. The organised web never wanted to discuss the case's details. They chose to insult the PJ and the country that gave them shelter.

The truth, the sad truth, is that two children went missing. One, almost certainly, is dead. The other, the authorities still hope to find her alive. I hope they will. Unfortunately, these are not the first cases, and they will not be the last ones. They are cases from our common life. Unfortunately.

 

[colomom]

Correio de Manha http://www.correiomanha.pt/not.....&p=200 (Bad Link)

translated by Li @ http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.co...eral&action=display&thread=1200926355&page=13 post #182

22 January 2008

Sketch: Dozens of witnesses claim they saw him
The suspect is everywhere

Dozens of phone calls were received by detectives who are working for the McCanns, following the disclosure of the photo-fit of a possible suspect. "We received many calls that are not important," admitted to the CM Clarence Mitchell,spokesman of the family, "but at the same time we also received dozens of phone calls with important information," he added.

Clarence Mitchell does not specify from where the calls are made,if they are from British who were in Praia da Luz or residents in the area, but ensures that "many people saw the man on the spot." Nonetheless yesterday in Luz, nobody remembered the individual, McCann's spokesman ensured to the press that there is a girl of 12 years old who remembers the man. Clarence Mitchell, however, did not want to tell who is that mysterious witness.

The detectives of the Spanish agency Metodo 3 that are working for the McCanns are now examining all clues received by telephone. "We can not say that we will find the man but we are trying," said to the CM Clarence Mitchell. "Nor do we say that he is suspect of kidnapping but we want to know if he has anything to do with the disappearance," he added.

The photo-fit is seen as "one of the most important clues that the detectives of Metodo 3 are working on," concluded the spokesman of Kate and Gerry.

Meanwhile,the PJ is still awaiting the response of the British authorities concerning the rogatory letters sent to England, asking for new interrogations to the group that spent holidays in Praia da Luz "Till now there is no novelty," confirmed to the CM source linked to the research.

About this issue, Clarence Mitchell assured that "officially there is no information that PJ wants to interrogate Kate or Gerry." Nevertheless, "they are willing to cooperate with the authorities in order to speed the investigation," the spokesman continued, "they want to show to the Portuguese police they have nothing to do with the disappearance of their daughter."

Clarence Mitchell admitted knowing that there is a request from the Judiciary in Eurojust (the European agency which is the connection between the departments of Justice of the European Union countries), "but I do not know whether they want to question Kate and Gerry, the group of nine friends or just some of them. "

 

[colomom]

This morning in 24Horas (http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2746&link=09), courtesy of Li at the Mirror Forum

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.co...eral&action=display&thread=1200926355&page=13 post #194

Nobody in Praia da Luz saw the alleged kidnapper of Madeleine

"I would never forget a face like this"

Many questions the fact that the image only appeared now. There are some that say he looks like Charles Bronson the actor

Text: Sónia Trigueirão

The inhabitants of Praia da Luz, Algarve, guaranteed that they never saw the man represented in the photo-fit divulged by the McCann's family as being the alleged kidnapper of Madeleine. Almost all of the persons interviewed yesterday by 24 Horas said that if they had seen him they would remember. " I would never forget a face like this", was the most repeated sentence.

Carla, 32 years old and client of the video club Eureka had already seen the photo in the newspapers. "It is strange it only appears now. So many months after people don't remember half of the faces that passed through here at the time. Nonetheless, I think that if I have seen him I would never forget", she said to 24 Horas. And she added that the photo reminded her of someone: " When I saw that photo in the newspapers it seemed to me like Charles Bronson".

Edward Price, Tuc Price's brother, friend of Robert Murat refused to be photographed seeing the image of the alleged kidnapper but he gave his opinion: "He does not seem alike with anyone I know or I have seen in the area. But 8 months after what are they expecting by showing this image. There are many questions that were not made. How, why only now? ".

Kneen, British citizen, 56 years old, living in Praia da Luz for three years goes further and gives some suggestions to the authorities. "Please! If I was the kidnapper I would never walk in the street like this. I think that they should try to make different images from this one and put them side by side", he said suggesting that they should make another image without the moustache or even with shorter hair. "Does anyone believe that the man was walking in the streets like that waiting to be caught?". Haynes Hubbard, the Anglican priest friend of the McCanns did not recognize the photo: "I only arrived here two months after the disappearance of Madeleine, but after that I never came across with nobody like this man. I wish I did! I could help Gerry and Kate".

We also spoke with some employees of the Ocean Club, the resort from where Madeleine disappeared. None recognised the man.

We heard the same answer in the Baptista's supermarket, the Tapas Bar and in the coffee shops near the beach where the British went during their holidays in Algarve.

 

[Salem]

Interesting news on the low copy DNA process.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3240973.ece

 

[ThoughtFox]

Strange new story about a Murat look-alike! A guy who worked at the Ocean Club there really did look like Murat and his name is Symington.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/32542/Lookalike-will-put-No-1-suspect-Murat-in-Clear-

There is no suggestion that Mr Symington had anything to do with the tragedy. He insisted that he was at home with his family six miles away when Madeleine vanished.

He said last night: “I had been away in England for 10 days and came back the day before Madeleine went missing. I was here on the day, and for a few days following, but then I left again for a week.

“I categorically wasn’t around on the night she vanished. I left Praia da Luz at close of business at 6pm to go home. It couldn’t have been me. The first I was aware of the story was when I arrived at work the next day.”

 

[colomom]

in Correio da Manha this morning:

http://www.correiodamanha.pt/noticia.asp?id=274919&idselect=181&idCanal=181&p=0

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=latest&action=display&thread=1197741018&page=6 post #82

Photofit: Police dismisses any connection to the case
PJ has already spoken to suspect

The "terrifying" man that Gail Cooper described as a suspect, originating the photofit that was released by the McCanns this week, was contacted by the Policia Judiciaria twenty days after the disappearance of Madeleine. After the image was published, the Judiciaria spoke to him again, and at the moment dismisses any connection [of this man] to the case.

A source that is connected to the process has confirmed to Correio da Manha that "at the time, a person that had been pointed out as a suspect by a tourist that had been in Luz, was contacted. He was cleared of any suspicion at that time".

This week, "another English citizen, who spent her holidays in Portugal, pointed out the same person as being the one that was portrayed by the photofit", the same source explains. As a result, the man "was once more contacted and it is clear that he has no connection to the case whatsoever", is being guaranteed.

It should be referred that the PJ does not assume that the man they spoke to is the same that can be seen on the photofit. "In certain aspects he matches the description but, for example, presently the hair even looks different. Now he has rastas", the source says. The Judiciaria is not giving a lot of importance to the image that is being publicised by the McCanns, defending that the photofit "could apply to many persons".

At the time when Madeleine disappeared, on May 3 last year, besides this man "there was also a couple that was indicated as suspicious, by tourists who were there on holidays", the same source continues. The couple "was cleared of any suspicion" after having been contacted by the Judiciaria.

Gail Cooper, who made the description for the photofit, was in Praia da Luz in April.

To the English press, Gail said that, during that month, she saw the person near the Ocean Club apartments, from where Madeleine would disappear in May.

Threatened to get a gun

Correio da Manha, based on information that was given by some locals whom the photofit was shown yesterday, tried to speak to the man who seems to be the one who was heard by the Judiciaria. Our purpose was to hear the person's version about the issue and to confirm whether it actually was the person upon whom suspicions were cast by the English citizens.

The man, who lives in the area between Espiche and Barao de Sao Joao, in the Lagos municipality, reacted intemperately when he was approached by the CM's reporters, and gave us no opportunity to start a dialogue. Surrounded by several dogs, the man even threatened to fetch "the gun" from his house, in order to make the reporters leave the area, and then returned to his house, extremely upset and allowing for no explanations, despite our appeals for him to calm down.

Notes

Informal

The contact that was made with the person "was in no way an interrogation or a questioning", a source that is connected to the process stressed, "it was an informal contact to clarify any type of suspicion".

Denunciations

Although Clarence Mitchell guarantees that numerous phonecalls have been received, from persons who say they saw the suspect, the PJ has not received any information or denunciation, except for those from the two English citizens.

Return

Gail Cooper, who gave the description that gave origin to the photofit, has returned to Portugal in an attempt to find the individual that looked suspicious to her, the British press reveals. "I have returned because I want to help", Gail said. The English citizen is going to try to help the Spanish detective agency Metodo 3, that was hired by the McCanns to find their daughter.

One hundred thousand euros in the fund for MariLuz

The fund that supports the searches to find Mari Luz, the Spanish girl that disappeared 11 days ago in Huelva, has already achieved one hundred thousand euros, Luis Molina, the family's spokesman, has confirmed to CM. The bank account that was opened at the BBVA to finance the campaign "started out with 400 euros and has grown every day", said this element of the family, which considers the possibility of using this money to pay for private detectives. The searches are ongoing on location, namely in the area of the Marina in Huelva. As the chief inspector of the Policia Nacional, Jose Tocornal, told CM, all the garbage from the city continues to be analysed "until next week" and clues are searched for "at construction dump areas". The authorities guarantee that "all the informations are being investigated".

 

[Pinkhammer]

New Madeleine McCann link 'ruled out'


By Caroline Gammell
Last Updated: 6:27pm GMT 24/01/2008




A man with a similar appearance to that of a suspected abductor of Madeleine McCann - whose "scruffy" image appeared in two sketches released by her parents - has been traced and ruled out of the police investigation, it has been claimed.
In full: The Madeleine McCann investigation The man, who apparently has straggly hair, protruding teeth and a thick moustache, was found living in a village just eight miles from where the four-year-old disappeared in Praia da Luz in the Algarve last May.
Watch: The man seen loitering on the beach at Praia da LuzPolice in Portugal have apparently interviewed the man – named locally as pig-farmer Joaquim Jose Marques – on two different occasions but eliminated him from inquiries.
Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, said as far as they were aware the man had not been traced and Metodo 3, the Spanish private detective agency hired by the couple, was still following up "dozens" of leads sparked by the images.
The pictures were circulated around the world after British holiday-maker Gail Cooper gave a detailed description to an FBI-accredited artist of a "strange-looking man" seen loitering near the McCann's holiday apartment on three separate occasions before Madeleine vanished.
The image matched a description given by a friend of the couple Jane Tanner who claimed to have seen a man carrying a child

 

[ThoughtFox]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080130/wl_uk_afp/britainportugalmissing;_ylt=A9G_RzzkBaFHGHcAmB5vaA8F

Wed Jan 30, 5:39 PM ET

LONDON (AFP) - Police do not suspect the parents of missing toddler Madeleine McCann were involved in her disappearance, the couple's spokesman said on Wednesday.

During a debate on media coverage of the child's disappearance, Clarence Mitchell told a packed theatre at the London School of Economics that officials, whom he did not identify, had told him in private briefings that the case was being treated as a "rare stranger abduction".

"I have also had briefings privately from the police and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre that also gave me complete reassurance that the authorities, in this country certainly, are treating this as a case of rare stranger abduction, as they call it," he said.

 

[april4sky]

Madeleine: Investigation a 'fiasco' as bungling Portuguese police fail to send crucial documents to British authorities

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=511426&in_page_id=1770

 

[colomom]

in 24Horas this morning:

http://24horasnewspaper.com/total.php?numero=2754&link=10

Copied from: http://helpmadeleine.proboards79.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=1201720406&page=6 post #80

Rogatory letter was in England but was returned to the State Attorney
English tantrum delays process

The letter that was destinated to interrogate the McCanns and their friends returned because of simple bureaucratic problems. The PJ was unaware of this whole story

A veritable 'tantrum' from the English is delaying the conclusion of the investigations into the Madeleine case. The English have already held the letter that contains the questions that the PJ wants to be asked from the McCann family and their friends - sent by Eurojust, the European entity that is competent to establish the judicial connection between various countries - but their understanding was that some bureaucratic formalities were not being observed. And they requested a new letter.

The team of investigators which is led by Paulo Rebelo was unaware of this situation. "It took us a month to elaborate the questions and to request the translation. All that work was done during the end of the year 2007. We always thought that the letter was in England, to be executed", says a source at the PJ that is connected to the process.

The first letter that was sent to the Home Office - the equivalent to our Interior Administration Ministery - gathered all the conditions that were necessary to be immediately accepted.

"The letter was translated and duly prepared. Two persons from Eurojust had been working on it, not in terms of the contents, but of the legal procedures, so it could be executed. One was a Portuguese jurist, the other was English. There were direct contacts with the Home Office. Unfortunately, the English understood that there were still some procedures that should be observed and demanded that the letter was sent through normal diplomatic channels, and not through Eurojust", José Lopes da Mota, the president of that entity, explained to 24Horas.

Second version

"The case is being followed by us with a lot of attention. The English could have accepted the version that we prepared, but that did not happen. They made suggestions and we transmitted them to the competent authorities. At this moment, there is a second version of the rogatory letter that is following the legal diplomatic channels that were demanded by the British. But that does not mean it's the final one. There have been cases where we had to send three or four versions for this type of request to be accepted. The English just asked for the letter to be reformulated, according to their right", Lopes da Mota said.

A source at the State Attorney's Office clarified yesterday that the letter was sent by the Public Ministery via Eurojust at the beginning of this month, but "the English authorities raised some questions from that European entity". Therefore, the State Attorney's Office admitted, "the letter was sent back to the Public Ministery".

And it concludes: "The State Attorney's Office is now trying to solve a problem it did not create".