Madeleine McCann: you can read the police files of the investigation in English.

Kate and Gerry McCann: new video from HiDeHo4 "The Road to Hell."

McCanns - The Road to Hell - The Shocking... by HiDeHo4

Madeleine McCann: Video of sniffer dogs in the McCanns' apartment today on CMTV Portugal

This evening Portuguese CMTV has an exclusive showing of the "sniffer dogs," videos. These show Eddie, the Enhanced Victim Recovery Dog (Cadaver dog) and Keela the CSI dog, who is trained to alert to human blood: in the McCanns' apartment; in the car the McCanns hired three weeks after Madeleine disappeared; alerting to items of clothing belonging to the McCanns.

Today in a strict exclusive, see the complete video of the sniffer dogs’ search in the McCann’s apartment and of the McCann couple’s clothes, at the beginning of “CM Jornal” at 19.45 and on the “Rua Segura” special, at 23.30. Maddie Case, investigative journalism by Correio da Manhã.

(The above translated by Ines MCF)

Video by HiDeHo4 "Who Died in the NcCanns' Apartment"

Eddie and Keels in apartment 5A

Eddie and Keela search the McCanns' hired car

Madeleine McCann: Full documentary based on Gonçalo Amaral's book

Video by HiDeHo4 


View full transcript in English here (Joana Morais blog.)

McCanns DID NOT SEARCH! Tapas Cook breaks SILENCE!

One year after Madeleine McCann disappeared from the holiday apartment her parents Kate and Gerry had rented in Praia da Luz, the cook who had worked at the Tapas Bar where the McCanns dined every evening of their holiday, broke her silence.

From 1.06 on the video, the subject is the employees who worked at the Tapas Bar on the evening Madeleine McCann disappeared. Translation is by Joana Morais and I have transcribed as faithfully as possible to Joana's original text.

Presenter: These 8 employees didn't see their contracts renewed this year. They were obliged in the last 12 months to be silent, forbidden to talk with journalists. Since they contracts were not renewed they decided to talk.

SIC has spoken to the cook. She doesn't "show" her face, but a year later and without working in the Ocean Club, Manuela decided that she wasn't obliged to the silence any more. The cook who prepared a "Robalo" fish with cuscus and the pepper steak meal the McCanns had to dinner in the night Maddie disappeared was in the griller area, 3 meters away from the table of the couple. The former employee from th Tapas tells us that immediately various colleagues left their work post to help the searches.

Manuela: Meanwhile, in the hours that followed, during most of the time, the McCanns stayed inside the apartment. My colleagues were indignated [angered/offended] because they went. One of them even had his feet all red, tired, and he was offended because he went to search though he wasn't anything related to the girl and the parents didn't. They stayed indoors in the apartment.

A year ago, suddenly everything changed in the Ocean Club. The quiet resort, ideal for family holidays, was invaded by police and journalists. The Ocean Club and Tapas turned into a pandemonium. No one could get out and no one could get in. Even if we were married, our husbands couldn't get in, neither our friends. Everything was surrounded. The security officers didn't know the employees. They thought the employees were journalists.

In the beginning, everything was really complicated. The Judiciary was in a full scale operation to Praia da Luz. For more than a month the investigators created a kind of head quarters in one of the apartments of the Ocean Club. All the employees from the resort were heard. They all went in two..in two hours by two hours, two [referring to the number of people in pairs] during some time. Close to a month. We were almost 200 employees.

Presenter: Manuela remembers seeing Madeleine some times. When the parents would put her at the crèche, in the babysitters, the kitchen was next to it.

How was Madeleine's routine during those holidays? When she entered there in the Ocean Club?

Manuela: She got in, was delivered to the babysitters. The babysitters would do a class: they would do a group course with the girls. Between 4pm and 4:30pm they had something to eat. In the morning they had a fruit lunch. [breakfast?] And the parents would come to pick them up at 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

Presenter: In the middle of those children, do you remember Maddie?

Manuela: Because she entered there, she would wave goodbye or say hello..She was really nice [lovely/polite] She was always smiling.

Presenter: After the disappearance of the girl, several family members of Kate and Gerry came to the Algarve.

Manuela: I remember the family members. Instead of being worried with the family, would go to the pool, rented the tennis court, played tennis....Instead of being worried with the child that was disappeared.

Presenter: The majority of the employees who was in the Tapas in the night of Maddie's disappearance, as all left the resort.

Manuela: The contract ended and they sent us to unemployment.

Presenter: All the team that was in the Tapas that night?

Manuela: All the team that was there in that night.

Presenter: After the disappearance of Maddie, the McCanns stayed in the Ocean Club for more 65 days. In July they moved to a house in the outskirts, away from the journalists eyes. It was there that they stayed until 9 of September, the day that they went back to England.




Video by HiDeHo

Translation by Joana Morais

RECONSTRUCTION: Why McCanns and Tapas 7 won't participate.

Thanks HiDeHo!

Today, Sunday May 5th 2013, the Sunday Express carries an interview by Robert Murat, the first suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in May 2007. Robert Murat is calling for a reconstruction of the events surrounding Madeleine's disappearance. I'll go into that interview later, but in the meantime, a quick look at what happened to a proposed reconstruction in March 2008.

When asked about participating in a reconstruction of the events surrounding his daughter Madeleine's disappearance, in HiDeHo's video, posted above, Gerry McCann expresses concern that the proposed date has been made public. "How can you do a reconstruction with what will undoubtedly be a media event?" As if Gerry and Kate had never staged a few media events! On June 3rd, 2007, Gerry was planning a few.

We want a big event to raise awareness that she is still missing.
“We would look at high-profile people who have already pledged support. It will be some sort of focus around an anniversary, to tell people that Madeleine ’s still missing. I think it would be later this year, once media attention has dropped, to bring it back up, hopefully, for a short period.
“It wouldn’t be a one-year anniversary, it will be sooner than that. (Paulo Reis)

So, one calender month after Madeleine disappeared, Gerry was obviously not expecting her to turn up any time soon with his planning of "some sort of focus around an anniversary.." Not a one year anniversary, though it appears that Gerry thought there would be one.  

Gerry McCann also refers in the video to the fact that the planned reconstruction was dependent on other people. Read here the correspondence between Stuart Prior (call me Stu!) of Leicester Police, the group of friends the McCanns went on holiday with, as well as other witnesses and significant officers of the Portuguese police. The reconstruction was eventually cancelled as the group known as "The Tapas Seven" placed so many obstacles in the way, it became impossible to stage.

On the subject of participating in a reconstruction, Kate McCann states that if there were anything that would help find Madeleine, "..of course we'd agree to it." OK, then, what about the 48 questions Kate McCann refused to answer when interviewed by the PJ? Surely the parent of a missing child who wanted to do anything that would help the police find their child would want to give as much information as possible? Surely such a parent would be trying to provide every little detail they could remember surrounding the circumstances of the child's disappearance? Maybe not! Why not?

OK, so now Robert Murat wants the Portuguese police to "Bring them all back to Portugal" for a reconstruction. The article doesn't appear to be online and I had intended to buy a copy of the newspaper this morning, but I forgot! However, thanks to the very helpful Duarte Levy I have the article as a pdf! Thanks Duarte!

Mr Murat, 39, spoke to the Sunday Express while sipping tea in Casa Liliana, his elderly mother Jenny's villa 150 yards from apartment 5a of the Ocean Club, where Madeleine vanished.
He said "They need to speak to everybody, including myself, and they need to get the Portuguese involved in a much more constructive way.
"To get somewhere now they need to have a joint team working here together in Praia da Luz. This is where it happened. It didn't happen in England." 

I agree with Robert. If the Scotland Yard team is serious about reviewing all the evidence in this case, then all the main characters involved in the drama need to be interviewed. Robert Murat is willing to be interviewed. So, how about the rest of them? Surely they'd all want to assist with anything that might help solve the disappearance of Madeleine McCann seemingly into thin air?

Robert Murat adds:

The reconstruction should cover the critical period just before and after the abduction

And:

A reconstruction is a real necessity. I am sure it would fill in some of the missing pieces of the jigsaw. Even now after all this time, the timeline is still confused. 

Gonçalo Amaral on the need for a reconstruction:

The reconstruction will have to involve all the parties: the McCanns and their friends. You see, there are so many inconsistencies in these people’s statements that a reconstruction will very quickly highlight where they have not told the truth”. http://www.algarve123.com/en/Articles/2-1403/

In my opinion, highlighting those inconsistencies, the confusion in the timeline, would be the real benefit of staging a reconstruction of the events surrounding Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Any witnesses will surely have come forward by now, given the world-wide media attention that has accompanied this case. Madeleine has been "sighted" on all five continents, sometimes on the same day, but nothing of any value has come of any of it. The world's most well-known child has not been seen since she disappeared on May 3rd 2007 and I'm pretty sure she's not in a "hellish lair," in one of those "lawless villages" referred to by the McCanns' PI Dave Edgar.

A few questions that come immediately to mind: how did Jane Tanner manage to slip-slap past Gerry McCann and Jeremy Wilkins, on the same side of the road, in flip-flops, and neither of them saw her? How did Matthew Oldfield manage to see the twins Sean and Amelie breathing in their cots in the dark, through solid cot sides? When Jane Tanner's abductor was heading across the top of the road, when she was slip-slapping along, why didn't Gerry McCann see him? How did Jane Tanner's original "man carrying a bundle that could have been a child" transform over time into swarthy man carrying a child in pyjamas identical to those worn by Madeleine?

It may be too late to jog the memory of any tourist who was in Praia da Luz at the same time as the McCanns, but that's not the main purpose of staging a reconstruction. The main purpose is to highlight the many inconsistencies in witness statements from the Tapas Nine, which eventually may lead to the answer as to what happened to Madeleine.

If Kate McCann is serious about wanting to do anything that would help find her daughter, then she should be expressing her willingness to go back and help the Portuguese police by participating in a reconstruction. But let's see what, if any, response comes from that quarter. I can't see the plane tickets being booked any time soon.

Related blog posts:

All posts labelled "Reconstruction" here.

"Where was Maddie when the lights went out"

McCanns Explain CADAVER odour as ROTTING MEAT and NAPPIES!

Previous video from HiDeHo: "Incredible proof that cadaver dogs do not alert to rotting meat"

Cadaver dogs are trained to ignore rotting meat and other decomposing substances. They are trained to detect and alert to human cadaver odour, as shown beautifully in the second video.