Missing Maddie – Latest News Case Shelved July 21,2008

Portuguese authorities today have shelved the investigation into missing Madeleine McCann after almost 15 months since Maddie disappeared. They have said that they found no evidence that any of the suspects in the case had committed any crime or were involved in Maddies disappearance.

This now means that Gerry McCann, Kate McCann and Robert Murat are no longer arguidos – official suspects – in the case having now been formally cleared.

The McCann’s have been informed of the statement made by Portugal’s attorney-general, Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro but have made no comment at this moment in time, but it will certainly be a relief for them to no longer be official suspects in their daughter disappearance.

Should any new evidence come to light the investigation could be re-opened.

The disgraced former head of the investigation, Goncalo Amaral, has written a book about the investigation, ‘True Lies’ which is due to be published this week and is promising “explosive revelations” about the inquiry. It is reported that it contains allegations that Madeleine died accidentally in her parents’ care and that they disposed of her body to cover up the death.

Mr Amaral, made the decision to name the McCanns as official suspects in their daughter’s disappearance, and he was also widely criticised for focusing on the parents and not potential leads in the investigation.

He maintained his belief that Madeleine died in their holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 last year. It was also rumoured that many of the leaks and smears to the media came from Mr Amaral and they stopped when he was sacked from the investigation last October. Mr Amaral took early retirement last month, but is also facing a perjury trial over an unrelated case,

The McCanns’ legal team expect the book to amount to pure speculation, and have said that they are more interested in being given access to the police files

The decision to close the case could also lead to the strict secrecy laws being lifted and would also open the files to public scrutiny as well as allowing Mr Amaral to publish his book.

No matter what happens, there is still a young girl missing, and the speculation as to whether she was abducted or murdered will undoubtedly continue.

This has been a very sad case and very drawn out, but the McCanns’ legal teams and investigators will continue the search for missing Maddie.

Missing Maddie – Investigation To Stop? Update July 1, 2008

There are reports in the Portuguese media today that the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is to be dropped. These reports have not been confirmed by the Portuguese authorities.

It is has been stated in the media that the inquiry would stop because the Policia Judiciaria report on the investigation is only ‘descriptive of the facts’ meaning that it has not reached any conclusion as to whether they were investigating an abduction, murder or concealment of a body. Other sources have said that the case would remain open without further investigation unless new evidence was found.

The final report is expected to go to the Ministerio Publico in Portimao in the next few days for a decision to be made.

It is also not certain that Kate McCann, Gerry McCann or Robert Murat will have their arguido (formal suspect) status lifted.

A spokesman for the McCann’s has said that at present they would not give any views until such time as they are told that the case has been officially dropped.

They would also like access to the files held by the PJ for their own investigators to continue their own lines of inquiry in the search for missing Maddie. The McCann’s have applied to the Family Division of the High Court for access to police files on the various reported sightings.

The judge, Mrs, Justice Hogg will decide whether the case and judgement will be made in public or not on July 7. British police have kept to their agreement with their Portuguese counterparts not to disclose any information regarding the investigations and interviews that have been carried out.

Madeleine McCann went missing from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007, but secrecy laws in Portugal led to much speculation by the media, most of which was pure speculation and not based on fact or evidence.

Related Post:
Timeline and Update June 20, 2008

Missing Maddie – Latest News,Timeline, Update June 20 2008

May 3, 2007
Madeleine McCann goes missing from the family’s holiday apartment in the resort of Praia da Luz, Portugal, between 9.30pm and 10pm.
May 7, 2007
Kate McCann, Madeleine’s mother, made an emotional plea for the Maddie’s safe return.
May 12, 2007
Madeleine McCann’s 4th birthday.
May 14, 2007
Portuguese police started searches at the villa of British ex-pat Robert Murat. The villa is one of a number of properties that were searched near where Madeleine was last seen.
Kate and Gerry McCann said that they will not leave Portugal until Madeleine is found.
May 15, 2007
Robert Murat was named as an official suspect or ‘arguido’ by the Portuguese police.
May 16, 2007
Police interviewed Russian computer expert Sergey Malinka, who owns a property in Praia da Luz.
May 30, 2007
Madeleine’s parents visited the Pope at the Vatican.
June 6, 2007
In Berlin, the McCann’s denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance in response to a question from a German journalist.
June 28, 2007
A man and a woman are arrested by Spanish police for attempting to extort money from the McCann’s.
August 4, 2007
Police conduct a second search of Robert Murat’s villa.
August 6, 2007
Newspapers report that sniffer dogs had detected traces of blood and the smell of a corpse in the apartment where Madeleine went missing from.
August 9, 2007
The McCann’s said they would not be bullied into leaving Portugal.
September 6, 2007
Kate McCann was questioned at a police station in Portugal.
September 7, 2007
Kate McCann was named as a formal suspect or ‘arguido’ in the investigation. She was then questioned again at the police station. Gerry McCann was also questioned separately and also declared ‘arguido’. Neither were held at the station after questioning.
September 8, 2007
The McCann’s announced their plans to return to the UK.
September 9, 2007
The McCann’s arrived back in Britain and go home to Rothley in Leicestershire.
September 11, 2007
Reports emerged that DNA evidence in the McCann’s hire care and holiday apartment matched missing Madeleine’s.
October 3, 2007
The Portuguese policeman heading the investigation was sacked from the inquiry.
November 1, 2007
Gerry McCann returned to work in Leicestershire.
November 29, 2007
Portuguese and UK forensic experts met in Leicestershire to discuss the DNA samples from the inquiry.
December 22
The McCann’s made a TV appeal for information about their daughter’s disappearance.
January 8, 2008
The McCann’s categorically deny that they are considering a movie about Maddie’s disappearance.
January 20, 2008
The McCann’s released drawings of a man who they say needs to be eliminated from the investigation to find Madeleine.
February 1, 2008
The McCann’s launch a new website dedicated to finding Madeleine on the day that their twins, Sean and Amelie had their third birthday.
March 19, 2008
The McCann’s accepted £550,000 libel damages from Express Newspapers for stories alleging they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance. They also received front page apologies from many of the tabloids. The money will be used to fund the ongoing search for their daughter.
April 8, 2008
The McCanns are asked to return to Portugal to appear in a reconstruction of the time when Madeleine disappeared.
April 10, 2008
The McCann’s visited the European Parliament to urge it to introduce an EU-wide missing child alert system based on the US AMBER alert system.
May 12, 2008
Madeleine McCann’s 5th birthday.
May 28, 2008
The McCann’s reveal that they will not return to Portugal for a reconstruction of events.
May 30, 2008
The friends of the McCann’s were also asked to return to Portugal to take part in a reconstruction, but at least four refused after asking for a guarantee that they would not be made suspects in the case, but Portuguese authorities would offer no guarantees and could also charge them with ‘child abandonment’ which carries a sentence of up to ten years.
June 18, 2008
Kate and Gerry McCann will soon have access to the police files covering the official investigation into Maddie’s disappearance. Portugal’s Attorney-General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro has said that the period of official secrecy in the case ends in July and that all interested parties would be able to consult the documents held in secret for over a year.
June 19, 2008
The parents of Madeleine McCann seem to be gaining vital backing of MEPs for a Europe wide child abduction alert system, similar to the Amber Alert used in the US.

Since the start of their latest visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, another 72 Euro MP’s have signed up to their campaign and they require the signatures of 393 Euro MP’s by July 24, but the president of the European Parliament is said to be ready to allow them more time to gather the necessary support. The original campaign started in April, with the McCanns’s travelling to Brussels.

Such a signed declaration by member States would carry no legal weight but hopefully it will be seen as the ‘political will’ to implement such a scheme throughout Europe.

At this time, there is still nothing that shows that the McCann’s or their friends had anything to do with Maddie’s disappearance on May 3, 2007 and there has been no results from the many forensic tests to implicate any of them. The McCann’s believe that once they were made ‘arguidos’ the police stopped their search.

There are still private investigators working on the case, yet there is no new information as to where Maddie is or what happened on the night she disappeared.

Related Posts:
Missing Maddie – Investigation to Stop?
Latest News July 7, 2008
Maddie Case Shelved July 21, 2008

Missing Maddie – Latest News 20th January

Police files on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are likely to remain secret for another three months, according to the spokesman for the girl’s parents. Lawyers for official suspect Robert Murat are seeking to have the files opened up because it is now eight months since he was named as an “arguido”.

But on Friday, Portuguese detectives asked for the case’s secrecy limit to be extended beyond the usual eight-month limit that starts once police have identified a formal suspect.

A spokesman for Kate and Gerry McCann, said the couple expected authorities to agree to the extension. He went on to say that they are working on the basis that there will be another three months of official secrecy.

Portuguese law prevents the McCanns from speaking about police investigations into the disappearance of their daughter.

Madeleine vanished from the family’s holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3.

Robert Murat, a British man who lives near the apartment from which Madeleine disappeared, has denied any involvement in the case. Asked whether his client would be cleared of his status as a formal suspect, his lawyer said that he didn’t know anything, but would like the arguido status to be lifted.

On Sunday 13th January, a five-year-old girl went missing from Huelva, on the Spanish border, 120 miles from where Maddie disappeared.

Mari Luz Cortes’s family believe she was kidnapped outside her home in Huelva, 25 miles from the border with Portugal. Mari was last seen at a sweet stall 100 yards from her home on Sunday afternoon after going to buy a packet of crisps from a local shop. Her family, who raised the alarm after searching for her themselves when she failed to return, are said to fear she has been abducted.

Officers have been scouring the area for the girl, and Portuguese police have also been carrying out searches on their side of the border.

The McCanns’ spokesman has said there were ‘comparisons’ that could be made, but also said that it was too early to say if the two cases were linked. He added that detective agency Metodo 3 are working very closely with the Spanish police in the first instance, and with the family to establish whether there are any links or similarities

Meanwhile, investigators in Portuguese are planning to re-interview friends of the McCanns. The friends were on holiday with the McCann family in Praia da Luz when Maddie vanished. They are key witnesses in the case and reports claim Portuguese detectives are prepared to fly to the UK to sit in on fresh questioning of them by British police.

Portuguese authorities are also seeking the assistance of a Europe-wide body in securing the help of the authorities in Britain. The Portuguese public prosecutor contacted Eurojust – the judicial co-operation agency – at the beginning of January. A spokesman for Eurojust has confirmed that they have been asked to be the go-between for the Portuguese and the UK authorities, but will not be releasing any details.

A new sketch of the man who could be behind the abduction of Madeleine McCann has been revealed. A police artist drew the likeness after a Sunday tabloid tracked down a holidaymaker, Gail Cooper, who reported seeing a ‘creepy man’ hanging around the apartments in Praia da Luz, Portugal, prior to the abduction on May 3 last year, and it has also been revealed that a 12-year-old girl, has come forward to back up her story.

The photofit shows a man with long hair, bushy eyebrows and a moustache.

A friend of the McCanns – Jane Tanner – who gave a description to police of someone she spotted carrying a child from the Algarve resort on the night Madeleine vanished – told the paper the new picture resembled the man she saw.

The McCanns’ spokesman has said that the image had been passed to police and the family believe the picture could be an important breakthrough in the hunt for Madeleine.

Portuguese police have known about Gail Cooper’s description since May, but it has only now been made public after the McCann’s own investigators began to re-interview witnesses.

Missing Maddie – Latest News November 27th

It is now 207 days since Madeleine McCann went missing.  

A tourist Isabel Gonzalez, claimed she saw Robert Murat’s girlfriend Michaela Walczuch and Madeleine in the remote town of Zaio, northern Morocco on June 15.

The claim was made made after recognising Michaela Walczuch, 34, on the TV news.  Metodo 3, the detective agency hired by Kate and Gerry McCann is investigating the claim and has said it picked up a ‘trail’ at the beginning of last month, and believe that Madeleine was snatched to order and is now in Morocco. 

  

The twist came as it emerged four-year-old Madeleine may have been handed by her kidnapper to a paedophile gang.

A Portuguese trucker also claims to have seen Maddie being passed over on May 5, two days after she vanished.   Detectives believe she was then smuggled to North Africa.

Private detectives had a call two weeks ago from the trucker who thought he saw Madeleine in Silves.  When he was shown photographs, he is reported to have told the detectives that the woman looked like Walczuch.

Ex-pat Murat, 34, remains an official suspect.  Detectives are investigating him, Walczuch and her estranged husband Luis Antonio –  who works as a pool cleaner with access to the complex in which Madeleine was staying.

Michaela Walczuch claims she was at a Jehovah’s Witness meeting four miles away when Maddie was abducted.  However,  church elder Brother Teofilo Castela said that she was thrown out of the church more than a year ago and no longer attends.

Another witness, who did not want to be named, also claimed she had not seen Walczuch all year. Portuguese detectives are probing claims that ex-pat Murat and Walczuch, both 34, were involved in Madeleine’s abduction.

Meanwhile,  Attorney General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro claimed that Madeleine was almost certainly killed by any kidnapper because of the intense publicity drive generated.

Portugal’s most senior police officer, Alipio Ribeiro, admitted last week that they do not have any solution at present, but lines of inquiry are being pursued.

A massive review of the case under the leadership of Paulo Rebelo.   He ordered a complete reconstuction of events on the night that Maddie disappeared and they are thought to be considering the possibility that she may have been killed by a mystery man seen running from the holiday flat with a child in a blanket.

If this is the case, this would be a complete u-turn on all previous claims and clear the parents of any complicity in the disappearance of their daughter and the disposal of her body. 

It has been reported that this theory is gaining strength and although there are still further DNA test results to come, they do not believe that they will yield any useful information.

  

It must be stressed that the McCann’s and Metodo 3 believe that Madeleine is still alive, and although the detective agency is not allowed to operate in Portugal, it is consistently returning to Morocco.