Tuesday 2 May 2017

What happened to Madeleine McCann? Six possible theories examined

Accident, burglary and abduction have all been suggested as possible explanations for Madeleine's disappearance 10 years ago.


01:51, UK,
Wednesday 03 May 2017



By Martin Brunt, Crime Correspondent

There have been hundreds of different theories about how Madeleine McCann went missing, but they mostly fall into six main categories.

:: The parents




The first senior detective on the case, Goncalo Amaral, believed Madeleine died in the family's rented holiday apartment and her parents covered up her death and disposed of her body.

The suspicion appeared to be supported when British sniffer dogs - trained to detect body scent and blood - reacted in the apartment and in a car which was hired by Gerry and Kate McCann about three weeks after Madeleine disappeared.

The misinterpretation by Portuguese investigators of the results of forensic swabs taken from the apartment and car led to Kate and Gerry McCann being questioned and made "arguido" - official suspects.

The couple were ruled out when the Portuguese case was closed, unsolved, after 15 months. They have always denied any part in their daughter's disappearance and two Portuguese investigations and a Scotland Yard inquiry have found no evidence to suggest otherwise.

Would two doctors, trained to preserve life, choose not to raise the alarm, but instead dispose of their daughter's body, and have the means to do so without a car and in a foreign country, before joining friends for dinner as though nothing had happened? And keep such a secret for years while drawing global attention to themselves and their campaign to find Madeleine?


:: Burglary-gone-wrong





Madeleine wakes up and disturbs a burglar.

He panics and attacks her, then decides to carry her off, dead or alive.

In 2014, Scotland Yard - through the Portuguese police - questioned four local suspects on this theory. They came under suspicion because of their mobile phone contact and location at the time of Madeleine's disappearance, as well as their backgrounds, but were later ruled out. The Yard is still pursuing the general theory, but Portuguese police dismissed it.

Wouldn't a burglar who is disturbed simply get out of the apartment? Detectives say you cannot apply cold logic to a criminal reacting under pressure. If you have eliminated other theories, you pursue the one where you have some evidence, however thin it is, until you disprove it as well.

Such a spontaneous act is likely to lead to mistakes, a trail of evidence and detection.




:: Attacked by a local paedophile




Madeleine was the victim of a paedophile who snatched her and later killed her - burying or hiding her body, possibly in the sea.

Witnesses saw several suspicious men watching the McCanns' apartment in the days before and on the day, though Scotland Yard said some have been eliminated.

This was the theory pursued by Portuguese detectives who reopened their investigation in 2011 after studying a series of attacks in resorts along the Algarve coast in the years up to 2007. A man had entered the apartments and villas of mainly British holidaymakers and molested young girls while they slept.

There were attacks in Albufeira, Carvoeiro and Silves.

Portuguese investigators believed one man was responsible for those attacks and identified former Ocean Club waiter Euclides Monteiro as their suspect. He was already dead after being killed in a freak tractor accident in 2009.

He was eventually ruled out by DNA evidence, but that means a predator or predators were still at large when Madeleine vanished.

Detectives argue that paedophiles prefer older, pre-pubescent victims and only rarely would risk taking a child from inside a building. They tend to panic after the deed and the bodies of their victims are eventually found not far away.

Such a serious attack is often the culmination of a history of escalating behaviour by a sex predator who may already have a criminal record for lesser offences and be more easily identified.




:: Abducted by childless couple





Madeleine was taken by or for a couple who could not have children of their own or had lost a child. This could also apply to a woman - or even a man - who wanted a child to keep.

The hole in this theory is that such a kidnapper would be more likely to take one of the younger children, Madeleine's twin siblings Sean and Amelie, who were sleeping beside her and were only two years old.

They would have been less likely to wake up and resist and would remember far less or nothing at all of their old life as they grew up.

The theory would be most welcomed by Madeleine's parents because it would probably mean that she is alive and being cared for.




:: Taken by child traffickers




Madeleine was kidnapped by a gang, taken abroad and sold into slavery. In 90 minutes she could have been driven to the Spanish border or put on a boat in nearby Lagos marina and taken to Morocco hours before police suspected Madeleine had been abducted.

It was an early theory explored by Portuguese investigators after a report that Madeleine had been photographed on the beach by a stranger. It could have been part of a selection process.

Human trafficking gangs are known to operate in the northwest African country of Mauritania, which in 1981 became the last country in the world to abolish slavery. Many are still thought to be kept in slavery there today.

Several witnesses reported possible sightings of Madeleine in Morocco, a country on the trafficking route to Mauritania. Her parents went to Morocco to make appeals for help in the weeks after their daughter's disappearance.

This may be the the most logical explanation for a child vanishing without trace, as Madeleine did.




:: Accident





Madeleine woke up and went looking for her parents, opened the unlocked patio doors and walked out of the apartment, down the hill and fell into a big roadworks pit where she died or was knocked unconscious and was not spotted when the hole was filled in the next morning.

This theory assumes Madeleine, who was nearly four, would have been able to open the curtains, slide open the patio door and then shut the curtains and door behind her - as well as open and shut the garden gate to the road.

If she went looking for her parents it's likely she would have followed the route down the hill but, instead of continuing towards the roadworks, turned into the pool complex where they were eating. It was a journey she had taken regularly and in the dark street she would probably have been attracted by the light and noise.


Other accident scenarios suggest she walked out and was hit and killed by a car, whose driver panicked and disposed of her body. Or, she wandered off and squeezed herself into some remote, small place and couldn't get out or climbed into a well and drowned.



Sky News     




Remembering Madeleine Beth McCann ten years on 2007 ~ 2017




Pedro do Carmo: "Maddie's parents are not suspects. Period."

by Joana Morais 8 hrs ago



In an interview with Expresso newspaper, the deputy director of the Judiciary Police, Pedro do Carmo, argues that no police in the world could guarantee results different from those obtained so far in Portugal in the case of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. 

"We had never had and did not have a similar case again"

By Hugo Franco

I's a ten year old mystery that still divides the public opinion and intrigues the Portuguese and English authorities that investigate the case. What happened to Madeleine Beth McCann, the 4-year-old English girl who disappeared from the Ocean Club apartment in Praia da luz (Lagos) on the night of May 3, 2007 - 10 years ago the next Wednesday? The Judiciary Police (PJ) has some suspicions and a certainty: it was not the parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, who harmed to the child born in Leicester.

In September 2007, the McCanns were constituted as arguidos by the the Portuguese Justice but in the following year the case was closed for lack of evidence. It was reopened by the PJ in 2013 and continues to be investigated simultaneously with Scotland Yard. To this day, however, despite hundreds of leads and sightings of Maddie, no one was charged or convicted and the girl, who would have been 14 years old, has never been found.

Until the process was archived in 2008, there were three lines of investigation by the Judiciary Police on the case. Hypothesis 1: the parents accidentally killed their daughter and then concealed the body. Hypothesis 2: Maddie was abducted by a group linked to the trafficking of minors and sold for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Hypothesis 3: The child was killed following an abduction that went wrong.

Did the reopening of the case in 2013 open up more investigative lines than the three that were followed at that time?

I cannot speak about the investigation. What I can say is that the PJ remains convinced that there are elements that can still be worked and that can lead to some results. If it is not possible to achieve this result, at least we want to get some answers to the many questions that the case generates. Ultimately, to get to a point where the PJ concludes that there is nothing more that can be done to answer those questions.

Did Scotland Yard's entry into action in the case back in 2011 delivered results?

Since they've also decided to open an investigation, the contacts between the PJ and Metropolitan Police have been regular. There has been a constant exchange of information, which has been positive. This exchange of information remains. It can even be said that the relationship between the two police forces is of great proximity and great collaboration.

The reconstruction of the night of May 3, 2007, as the PJ investigators initially intended, with the presence of the McCanns and their English friends at the scene (that never happened due to the group's lack of willingness to return to Praia da Luz) would it have been essential to better understand what happened to the English girl?

I do not want to talk about what happened up to 2008. This has been sufficiently debated at its appropriate place.

Any idea how many people were heard in total in this case?

No. But certainly several hundred people.

Ten years on after the events at Praia da Luz, why do you think the case is still so much debated?

First because there was a deliberate and legitimate effort on the part of the child's parents in keeping the issue on the agenda of the media. But there are also other elements, such as the circumstances of the disappearance. Ten years later we still do not know what happened, which makes it possible to say, at least in relation to Portugal, that this is a unique case. We had never had one, and we did not have a similar case again. There were other cases of disappearances of children where it was not possible to bring the perpetrators to justice. But in those cases we either caught someone or it was possible for the police to understand what had happened. In this case we are not yet in a position to say what is behind the disappearance. This makes it a unique case. And maybe an extremely rare case worldwide.

Do you hope to know the truth about what happened on the night of May 3, 2007 in Praia da Luz?

Of course that's what motivates us. It is that hope that keeps us working on the investigation.

As you said in a recent interview, the Maddie case is a thorn on the side of the Judiciary Police?

Although I have used this expression into the conversation, it is not the term 'thorn on the side'. It is in the DNA of the Judiciary Police to solve all the crimes that as a duty to investigate. Whenever this does not happen it is something that will not leave us, and can not leave us, satisfied. We are very demanding with our work. In this case, we are not satisfied and remain committed to resolve the case.

Is the PJ still learning from this case ten years on?

We like to learn from every case and we also want to learn from this one. But only after we know what has happened will we be able to draw conclusions from it: understand what we have done well and less well. And we have not yet reached that point. We want to learn lessons from it in its due time.

The English media again insinuates that Portugal continues to be a country that cannot solve a case of this dimension. But the British police have not done better. Can the English public opinion change since Scotland Yard has not been successful, either?

We are not insensitive to others' opinions but our responsibility and commitment is with our fellow citizens. The Portuguese have every reason to be proud and trust their Judiciary Police, which proves on a daily basis its capacity, effectiveness and competence. Difficult cases exist in all countries. The results sometimes take time to arrive and this is also true for all countries. Our expectation is that there is a capacity for everyone to understand that this is so. No police anywhere in the world could guarantee different results.

So would a case like this one have the same results today anywhere else in the world?

I would not say it would have the same results. I would say is that in a case like this one there would be no guarantee of having different results anywhere else in the world. No police in any part of the world could guarantee different results, up to this moment, from those the Judiciary has achieved.

Would the PJ have done something different today in this investigation?

That is a conclusion that we can only reach after the moment we know what has happened or have reached a point where it is not possible to do anything more to clarify the case. And we have not yet reached that point.

Do you think it was a mistake to have the McCann couple constituted as arguidos in September 2007?

Obviously, I will not answer that question. But what I can say, just as I did back in 2011 and 2013, is that Maddie's parents are not suspects. That statement remains: the parents are not suspects. Period.


in Expresso, May 2, 2017





Joana Morais



This work by http://joana-morais.blogspot.pt/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License




"The behavior of the parents was always unusual"



Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann
Photo: Imago, Reuters


Articles By: BEATE KRAUSE released on
02.05.2017 - 10:24 h


Dr. Christian Lüdke has been working in the care of violence and crime victims for about 25 years, taking care of people who have lost relatives through accidents, murder or terrorist attacks (such as last time at the "Berliner Breitscheidplatz"). He was responsible for the psychological training of special units at NRW police for many years. 

When little Maddie disappeared without a trace, Lüdke said a few months later about the parents' behavior, Kate and Gerry McCann (now 49). This had made him "stupid" because it does not correspond to the behavior of parents in similar situations, which he has supervised in the past years. 

The psychotherapist did not rule out the fact that Maddie's parents might have been guilty of her daughter's disappearance and may have had something to do with her death. His opinion met with criticism at the time, and Lüdke was attacked and even threatened.

Maddies parents at a press conference in Berlin 2007
Photo: AP


Berlin / Essen -  Now, ten years later, BILD wanted to know from him: "How do you see the Maddie case and the role of parents today?"

Dr. Christian Lüdke: "For me the behavior of the McCanns is still exceptionally unusual and atypical. In my work, I have never experienced the fact that parents whose children have disappeared behave like the McCanns: they looked extremely controlled and controlled, have left nothing to themselves. Shortly thereafter, they went jogging, traveled around the world, started the search. 
All this still amazes me, because first of all they were for me first victims, whose child has disappeared. "

THE CASE MADDIE




FOR 10 YEARS MISSING The 8 most important theories on Maddie's disappearance

Ten years ago, Maddie McCann disappeared from a holiday resort in Portugal without a trace. What happened at that time - BILD mentions eight theories.


But is it not comprehensible to divert a piece of normality?

Lüdke:  "No question, but I have seen that other parents are usually affected by other mechanisms: they are completely shocked, are 'outside of themselves' and feel themselves in the 'wrong film'. They experience an alternating bath of feelings between hope and fear, which can last for years, until such time as there are certain insights. Of course they also try to distract themselves. But a 'normal' life can not usually be talked about, it is more a 'functioning'. For such parents are a monstrosity, two laws of life were broken: 1. Your child died before them, and 2. It has not died a natural death. This makes her, in the truest sense, 'heartbroken'.

In addition, parents often make mutual reproaches: who has done what or why. This leads to bad debt. Many couples do not stop this, separate. In contrast to the McCanns, they were very connected from the beginning, they also showed their great closeness in public. "

The McCanns in May 2012 at a run event in Liverpool. With their participation they wanted to draw attention to their missing daughter
Photo: Imago

There are several theories that might have happened in the case of Maddie. Could it really be that the McCanns had killed their child or hid a deadly accident?

Lüdke: "For me as an outsider, this can not be answered. But there are cases where mothers suffer from a disorder and can not build a (strong) emotional, loving attachment to their child. Then the child can become a disruptive factor, one must get rid of, often shortly after birth.
This type of "conflict resolution" can also happen years later - because the problem is initially superimposed, for example when partnership and work seems to be going well. But it can come back later - and a catastrophe occurs.

Maddie was begotten by artificial insemination, the parents had tried in vain to get a child in the normal way for many years. Perhaps this fact also affected the partnership. "

Even at the then Pope Benedict XVI, Kate McCann, a Catholic believer, was present in Maddie's search campaign (archive photo of May 30, 2007)

Photo: dpa

If the parents were actually involved in Maddie's death - how could they have lived with that debt so long? As faithful Catholics, they even had Pope Benedict XVI. met.

Lüdke: "There are people who make it to such an act to reinterpret an intolerable reality: rather than supplant the fact, they create a new, their own truth in a creative process.

Maddie's parents still claim that their daughter is alive. Even if there is - objectively speaking - no indications. " 



Bild





CMTV remembers the night Maddie disappeared

2 May 2017




Ten years later, CMTV returned to where Madeleine McCann disappeared. Inspector Goncalo Amaral, responsible for the case, participates in the report, defends the theory that girl was killed by her parents and speaks in "political pressures" to justify her removal. 
See the video

(ONLY AVAILABLE IN PORTUGUESE)

CMTV issued a large report yesterday on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the British girl missing on May 3rd, 2007. Inspector Goncalo Amaral, who defends the theory that the parents are perpetrators of death and concealment of corpses, participated in this reconstitution.

"In my naiveté, I get the fact that they belong to the middle upper class, and the British do not like their 'doctors' doing shit abroad and being scrutinised for it. I do not think you can get out of a senior police officer to defend a suspicious couple." says the inspector.

Goncalo Amaral accuses the British political power of interfering in the process, to save Kate and Gerry McCann

See the report, which includes a reconstitution, in Praia da Luz, of a version of Madeleine's disappearance (version that is not confirmed).

PTJORNAL