Blood found in McCanns' hire car 'DID come from Madeleine'

Last updated at 22:46 08 January 2008

Traces of blood found in Gerry and Kate McCanns' hire car and holiday flat DID belong to Madeleine, it has been claimed.
It reflects detectives' belief that she is dead and her parents disposed of her body.
Tests carried out at a UK laboratory confirmed beyond doubt that the blood was that of the toddler, a Portuguese newspaper reported.
The McCanns have always insisted there were innocent explanations for the traces found behind the sofa at the Ocean club apartment in Praia da Luz and in the boot of the Renault Scenic they hired there 25 days after Madeleine vanished on May 3.
They have had independent DNA tests on the car which they say revealed no trace of Madeleine and are understood to be distressed by the reports which they categorically deny.
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Hire car: Kate and Gerry McCann maintain that they are innocent

Read more...

• Madeleine witnesses 'may have mistaken this friend of the McCanns for Murat' on night she disappeared
• Madeleine: Portuguese prosecutors seek to re-interview Tapas Nine

They claim that the DNA could be linked to Madeleine's siblings, two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie.
But the respected Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha reported yesterday: "The definitive result of the tests leave no doubts for the Policia Judiciaria.
"The blood found in the McCanns' car is that of Madeleine as well as those samples detected in the flat."
Detectives in Portugal asked British scientists to carry out new tests after initial ones by the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham proved inconclusive.

Missing: Madeleine McCann

It is understood that they are using a new technique called low copy number analysis, which allows them to find a genetic fingerprint from a tiny sample.
The samples from the flat and the hire car were said to be damaged and of low quality, but police sources now claim the latest results are definitive.
Portuguese detectives plan to travel to Britain in the coming weeks to reinterview the McCanns and the friends they were dining with at a tapas restaurant on the night Madeleine vanished.
Yesterday Dr Russell O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner were named as the two friends reported last year to have told police they wanted to change their account of that evening.
Ms Tanner, 37, from Exeter, says she saw a mystery man carrying a child away from the flat at 9.15pm on the night Madeleine vanished.
Police were said to believe Dr O'Brien, 36, wanted to change his statement to claim he also saw the man, newspaper 24 Horas reported.
But staff at the restaurant say Ms Tanner was at the table througout the meal and only left after Kate came running in shouting, "They've taken her", the newspaper reported.
Dr O'Brien and Ms Tanner have denied contacting police to change their stories and sources close to the McCanns support that posistion.
Portuguese police believe Madeleine died in an accident and that Kate and Gerry conspired with their friends to dispose of the body.
Police sources claim the couple could be charged with manslaughter as well as hiding a body and wasting police time.
Kate and Gerry deny involvement in their daughter's disappearance.
They have had independent DNA tests on the car which they say revealed no trace of Madeleine.
Last night, their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "These reports are very distressing for Kate and Gerry - they are depressed that again wild rumour and speculation is being presented as fact.
"We wish Portuguese police would just get on with their investigation, come over to England and carry out the interviews with Kate and Gerry and their friends. All those interviews will prove, yet again, that Kate and Gerry have nothing to hide.
"As for the supposed DNA testing, we cannot comment on yet more unsubstantiated rampant speculation in the Portuguese press.
"It is ridiculous to suggest that Madeleine's blood was in the their car because she was never in it.
"It was hired more than 20 days after she went missing, which means it was impossible for her to have ever been in it.
"Kate and Gerry were in no way involved in her death. Nor were they involved in disposing of her body.
"To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. This report is flying in the face of all other articles which reported that the DNA and forensic tests were inconclusive.
"If there had been anything found, I would have thought there would have been more urgent activity on behalf of the Portuguese police than there has been.
"We have been waiting months now for them to come to England to carry out their re-interviewing.
"Anything the police feel may give them cause for concern can be wholly and innocently explained.
"But until we actually see the official FSS report, we have no idea what it contains, and I suggest the Portuguese press don't either."


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-506725/Blood-McCanns-hire-car-DID-come-Madeleine.html#ixzz1vA8ibVJX

Paulo Reis:Gerry McCann, speaking on June 3rd, 2007: "Later this year (...)"

Tuesday, 15 December 2009

LET'S HOLD A MADELEINE DAY FOR THE WHOLE WORLD

Sunday June 3,2007
By Jason Groves
Daily Express

ROCK legend Sir Elton John is being lined up to front a global pop concert, to carry the message of missing Madeleine McCann’s plight to every corner of the earth.
It is hoped the singer will headline a huge series of worldwide events to mark a special Madeleine Day that her distraught parents are planning in the effort to find the vanished four-year-old. Sir Elton’s popular appeal is guaranteed to attract a swarm of other film and music superstars keen to offer support to parents Gerry and Kate McCann.
The couple, having promised not to return home until they are reunited with Madeleine, are now planning a series of visits to European and North African cities, to distribute posters and widen the appeal for information.
Sir Elton has played an emotional DVD of Madeline at his concerts, but now believes a larger effort would do more to raise awareness of her predicament.
Gerry McCann, 38, said: “One of the ideas is maybe getting all the people who have publicly supported us to come together. I don’t just mean from the UK but from different parts of the world. 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 thatMadeleine ’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. What we’re doing at the minute has its role but doing that down the line in a few months won’t have anything like the same impact. We might have a sporting event, something arts, something music.
"We’ve had backing from sporting people up to now. We have had backing from certain musical celebrities as well. We’ve got some other musical contacts that we are exploring, who are happy to offer support.
“We’re not saying it would necessarily be one big concert, it might be that on a certain day they are playing her DVD.
“What we want at the current time is maximum message out there now, about her disappearance but then just events to bring it back up occasionally just to remind people, if she’s not found.”
A month after the sleeping Madeleine was snatched from her bed, Gerry and Kate McCann have betrayed the first signs that their hopes of finding her alive are starting to fade.
The couple confessed that they are haunted by the harrowing thought of her being held captive by a pervert. Still desperately clinging toMadeleine ’s pink Cuddle Cat, 38-year-old Kate said: “We don’t know where she is. We’d like to think she’s still in Portugal, she might still be in Portugal.
“But we know there’s a possibility she’s gone over the border – or several borders. We know there are bad people out there, but we know there are also a lot of sad people. We hope it’s the latter.”
Gerry added: “Of course we believe Madeleine is still alive but you would be incredible if you hadn’t considered the worst scenario, that she’s dead.
“Kate and I discuss it – not a lot, but we talk about hope, and that while there’s some we will not give up. At the minute, there’s loads of hope.”

PS - Don't look for this story, on the Daily Express site. It was deleted, long ago...

Mari Olli : Report sent to British Police about Madeleine's sightig in Morocco

Mari Olli: “She looked sad (...) she turned to the man and said something that sounds like: “Can we see mommy soon?”

Mari Olli, a Norwegian and a retired social worker, 45 years old, lives in Spain, Málaga, with her husband. The couple has been on hollidays in Agadir, Morocco, when Madeleine was abducted. They knew nothing about it, as they didn't watched news, while on holidays. They were returning to Spain and they stopped at Marrakesh, for the night of May 8 to 9.

Early in the morning, they drove their car to Tarifa, to catch a ferryboat back home. They stopped at a gas station to buy some water and that was the place where Mrs Mari Olli says she saw Madeleine. This is the report that she sent, by email, to British Police, after she tried, without success, to give the information to Spanish Police (and not to Portuguese Police, as some British newspapers wrongly wrote):
“At the petrol station next to Hotel Ibis Palmeraie in Marrakesh (Address, Avenue Abdelkrim Khattabi) Wednesday 9th of May, about 10 am, I saw the girl inside the shop. She was wearing clear blue pyjamas. Some pattern on the top, trousers little darker. Don’t think the trousers had any pattern. She was very small. Under 1 meter. She was with a man.”

“She was standing alone, the man about a meter from her. I looked back at her, she was very sweet. And it was a strange situation because the man didn’t look like her father. And it’s very strange to see a blond small girl standing alone in Marrakesh. She was very small and normally you would hold her in your arms or at least her hand. And he was turning away from her.”

“She looked sad. I looked at her face, she looked at me. Then she turned to the man and said something that sounds like: “Can we see mommy soon?” I am not sure if he reply. I turned around to pay my things, two bottle of water and some hygiene serviettes. I went in our car, looked for if they had a car, but could not see any special. I wanted to tell my husband, but he was busy with the driving to catch the ferry from Tanger to Tarifa. I didn’t know about the missing child at that time. Because I had not watched the news, when I was on holiday.”

“I saw the news on Thursday the 10 of may, in the evening. Then I remember what I saw in Marrakesh. I started to phone the police, Spanish and English. The Spanish police didn’t want to talk to me. I talked to the English (Police). Friday morning I gave my report to Katy Peters from Scotland Yard. She said someone was going to phone me. But I have not heard anything. I have emailed them and phone them several times. But no response. I am very worried and very sure this was that girl. Her face is very special. And that situation was very strange!”

“My mind is on this situation all the time, and I need to know if someone is looking into my report. I am sure the two Moroccan men inside the petrol station can confirm my seeing as well.”
“If I can do anything more to help, PLEASE let me know!

Regards
Mari Olli”

According to Correio da Manhã, the daily Portuguese newspaper that first got in touch with Mrs. Mari Olli, as soon as the information reached the Portuguese Police, through British liaison officers, Portuguese Police contacted Mrs. Mari Olli, for six times, on May 18 and May 21, to get more details from her.

(01:57 am, June 2 - 2007)

Chelsea Hoffman : Who Killed Madeleine McCann?

Madeleine McCann (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
With it being unlikely, due to evidence, that Madeleine McCann was abducted, there aren't many other theories left. Those theories all involve the death of the toddler in 2007, but how did she die, when did she die and who was ultimately responsible for her theoretical death? The following post will delve into the details of the evidence in this case (along with a couple clarifications and corrections) in hopes of building a solid theory of what happened to this "missing" child, and who might need to be investigated.


It's no secret that I am a fan of criminal profiler Pat Brown, and it's no secret that I have leaned more and more toward the probability that Madeleine McCann is dead. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise to find out that I agree with Pat Brown's assessment of this case. I've only had to do very, very light research to reach this conclusion.

I started out not really knowing a thing about this aside from the fact that there was a cute blonde child named Maddie McCann missing since 2007. I'm prolifically known for my coverage of missing persons cases and crimes against children as an advocate of justice for those who have no voice. This whole mess started on Twitter when someone who had been following my work mentioned that I should look at this case. So here I am thinking I'm going to find out that the dear parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, are just innocent pariahs.

I'm sorry but the known evidence in this case simply points to the likelihood that they either killed their daughter or covered up a horrible accident that ended her life.  Still, let's list off some of the reasons why I've come to my own idea that Kate McCann could be England's version of Casey Anthony.

• Kate and Gerry McCann claimed they would take a polygraph test at any point. It's interesting that when a media source offered to pay for a polygraph test, the two backed out of their promise. Why would supposedly innocent parents of a truly missing child back-out after swearing they'd take one of these lie detector tests? As far as I've been able to find, they've still not taken one. 

It's reported that Don Cargill, the chairman of the British And European Polygraph Association, had been in contact with the McCanns regarding the administration of a polygraph. However, Kate McCann submitted a list of "conditions" that would make giving the test impossible. In other words, it seemed like Kate would only take the test if the administrator only stuck to the questions she and Gerry would answer. 

"Kate said she'd take it to prove her innocence but in reality, she wasn't willing. I was dumbfounded, to tell the truth." -- Don Cargill.

Let's be clear here: People who have nothing to hide; people who are completely innocent; people who are not connected to the potential crimes committed: do not refuse polygraph tests, nor do they try to weasel their ways out of answering the questions that matter. In the United States, where the homicide rates are certainly higher than the UK and Portugal, it's rather general practice for the parents of a missing or murdered child to take polygraph tests. Our experts recommend it regularly, such as John Walsh of America's Most Wanted, who often reminisces that when his son Adam was abducted, he and everyone in the family immediately volunteered polygraph tests because they wanted to be cleared immediately so the crime could be investigated properly and justice could be served.

The point is simple: Refusing a polygraph makes you look guilty as hell. Period.

• Kate McCann refused to answer all but one of 48 questions during the an interrogation after Madeleine was allegedly abducted. She was asked if she was aware that her refusal to answer questions would hinder the investigation and she acknowledged it. You can see the list of 48 questions right here. Now ask yourself, if your child was missing would you answer these questions if you were innocent of wrongdoing? 
• The McCanns and their friends have never been able to get their stories to fully mesh. None of them have been able to agree on when the adults checked on the children the night Maddie "was taken." Furthermore, they all refused to do a re-enactment to help in determining the direction in which the investigation was to travel. Why? Probably because none of them can get their stories right. A re-enactment would only further reveal the inconsistencies in their stories, I think.
• In regards to the evidence discovered by two famed British scent dogs, the behavior displayed by Kate  and Gerry McCann was suspicious to say the least. From the very beginning the two began attempting to discredit the findings. They even quoted a U.S. case where a dog was thought to be in error -- however, the McCanns didn't find it in their best interests to admit that the dog's findings were later proven correct! Oh, they had tons of excuses and reasons for why the blood and cadaver dogs hit in their Algarve vacation rental and the "boot" of their car. It was from diapers, or a cut from one of the twins, etc etc etc., She also washed the toy called "cuddle cat" before police were able to test it -- claiming it smelled of suntan lotion. Like Cindy Anthony cleaning away the evidence from the car driven by Casey Anthony, the woman was apparently washing away some kind of evidence. 

The blood evidence found by scent dogs was tested and found to have an 88% match to Madeleine McCann.  It's reported that 12% of the DNA was too damaged to determine. Now, does this mean that the DNA didn't  belong to Madeleine, or did it? Groupies of suspicious parents of "missing" children tend to grasp for any possibilities that their "team" scores the points they want, so in the eyes of some 88% might as well mean 0% -- However, the 16 points taken from this 88% match did indeed match Madeleine's DNA. Unfortunately, 88% DNA match is apparently inadmissible, but it certainly lent to the direction of the investigation. Also, it should be mentioned that one of the dogs who found this evidence was a dog trained to specifically sniff out human cadaver oil. That means the scent that the dog picked up came from someone who was dead -- the oils released post-mortem. So, if this DNA being only 88% match to the missing child, was part of the "post-mortem" oil finds, then that blows the McCann's excuses out of the water and shouldn't be overlooked by investigators.Obviously the human cadaver oil certainly would not belong to Kate McCann or the twins! In fact, that is why I believe the DNA evidence most certainly is Madeleine's. She's the one who was missing, and nobody else died in the rental apartment in the Algarve. Period.

#McCann : Clarence Mitchell Complaint With IPCC And Police For Changing A Witness Statement.

The Independent have been informed of this disgraceful article filled with lies and written by Sam Marsden.

A TAXI driver who believes he picked up Madeleine McCann the night after she vanished has claimed that Portuguese police ignored his report.

Kate and Gerry McCann's spokesman said it was "deeply shocking" that detectives never interviewed Antonio Castela about his possible sighting of the missing child.

Mr Castela, 72, went to the Policia Judiciaria (PJ), Portugal's CID, after three men, a woman and a young girl resembling Madeleine got into his cab on the evening of May 4 2007 in Monte Gordo in the Algarve.


This is about an hour's drive from Praia da Luz, where the British child had vanished from her family's holiday apartment the previous night.


The taxi driver drove the group two miles to the Hotel Apolo in Vila Real de Santo Antonio, where they drove away in a blue jeep.

Mr Castela told the Evening Standard: "After I went to the police, I never heard anything from them again.

"They did not seem to take me seriously and never questioned me. They simply took down the details and that was it.


"I am amazed that it has been five years and nobody has ever asked me what I saw that night. I am absolutely certain it was her."


McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "Mr Castela did absolutely the right thing at the time by reporting his sighting to the PJ.


"It is clearly deeply shocking that he now tells us he has not been interviewed once by a detective in five years.

"This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be looked at in the investigative review now being carried out by the Metropolitan Police.

"Kate and Gerry remain very happy that the Met are performing their role as efficiently as they can."

- Sam Marsden

http://www.independent.ie/world-news/europe/madeline-mccann-taxi-driver-who-believes-he-picked-her-up-is-ignored-3097315.html

http://marieluzcorezmurdervictimofthemccanns.blogspot.com.es/2012/05/mccann-latest-victim-antonio-castela.html

A Taxi Driver Story and The Rogatory Letter Saga

http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2008/02/taxi-driver-story-and-rogatory-letter.html

28 February 2008 | Posted by Joana Morais Leave a Comment
300 DAYS. The round date, on Maddie's disappearance, marked yesterday, did not deserve to Gerry and Kate any special mention in the site FindMadeleine.com, not even in the blog written by the father.
The last entry is of 22.

TAXI-DRIVER IS SURE THAT HE TOOK MADDIE IN HIS CAR IN THE NIGHT OF THE GIRL DISAPPEARANCE

“I transported that girl”

The driver remembers that he transported them in the night of the disappearance, in the 3rd of May, from the square of taxis of Monte Gordo for the Hotel Apolo, in em Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The passengers went then to a jeep. António contacted the PJ, but, as he says, no one took notice of his story.

A taxi-driver of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, in the Algarve, guarantees to have transported Maddie, Kate McCann and three men – one of them similar to Murat – in the night of the disappearance of the English girl, in the 3rd of May of last year. António Castela Cardoso, 67 years, does not forget the hour or the details of the passengers. He regrets that after having communicated the Judiciary Police of Portimão, he never received a follow up call to explain his statement. Taxi-driver, with 17 years in that profession, António Castela has the habit of memorizing the face of his clients. That one particularly, “She was a girl with very pretty eyes and she called my attention because of the sign that she had in one eye and the twitch that she was doing with the chin”, he remembered. In the beginning of that night, António was in the square of taxis of Monte Gordo, four kilometres of Vila Real de Santo Antonio, was ready to stop the cab service. “It was 20h10 and I like seeing the television news”, he remembers.

Man was similar to Murat

The clients approached and asked him to transport them to the Hotel Apolo, in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. The driver did not refuse. On his side a man seated who was using “fine glasses”. “He was similar with the one that appears in the television like the third suspect”, says António, concerning Robert Murat – who is arguido in the case. In the seat behind, a woman “like Kate” sat down, between two men. The girl that the taxi-driver says to be Maddie sat down to the lap of one of them.
“She was wearing pink pyjamas. The mother had the hair tied and a yellow coat”, he remembers, with exactness. It was a silent journey. The passengers did not exchange one word; they did not show any emotions. On the arrival to the journey destiny, António pulled out the baby's chair of the luggage car. “It was the same as what the couple usually uses”, he affirms. The customers asked him, in English language, how much the cab journey was. “I said that there were 3, 25 euros and they gave me five and then I thanked them”, he says.

Top-of-the-line Jeep

The taxi-driver saw three men, the woman and the child move towards a metallic-blue, top-of-the-line Jeep “ I do not know if it would be a BMW, but I remember that the license plate was yellow and therefore was not a Portuguese one ”, he affirms. The vehicle was parked in the Hotel Apolo parking. António returned to his house with the image of the girl in the head. It reminded him of his son, now with 37 years. “My son was operated to his eyes because he had a similar eye defect. He also did that twitch with the chin. They even looked like brothers”, he observed.
The next day, António was watching the television news besides his son and his granddaughter, with the same age of Maddie. With astonishment he saw that the blond girl of light eyes had disappeared. “I immediately told my son: ' I transported that girl yesterday! ’ ”.
The son, a police officer of the GNR, advised the father to phone to the Judiciary Police of Portimão. “ He (the son) dialled the number and I said what I am telling you (to the journalist of 24 Horas newspaper)”, he remembers to 24horas.
The inspector who answered then asked him if in the hotel there was a system of video vigilance. The taxi-driver did not know.
Up to today, António waits the police contact to give declarations personally. “I defend the girl as I would defend my granddaughter”, he affirms.
Some days later, out of curiosity, António still asked for informations to some of his acquaintances, at the service of the Hotel Apolo. He was told that there was not any reservation for that evening. They also told him that the Hotel had not been contacted by the Judiciary Police. Even worse. The system of video vigilance was damaged two years ago and was not catching any image. “Also I do not know if they did enter in the hotel”, says the taxi-driver.

Since then, António Castela has been accompanying the news on Maddie. When the telephone rings, he still thinks that it will be someone who investigates the case that want to speak with him. When he knew that a certain period of time was still to be explained in the investigation, António Castela immediately thought that this might be the explanation. “In two hours you can travel from Aldeia da Luz to Vila Real de Santo Antonio and return. Someone can be lying. They should establish if Kate did not go away during this period”, says António.

The taxi-driver has been telling this history in public establishments and to clients whom he transports. Only this week a journalist of the “Jornal do Algarve” contacted him to publish what the driver affirms to have seen. “Now they do not leave me alone. Tomorrow [today] there is a team coming from England on purpose to interview me”, he says.
Madeleine McCann disappeared mysteriously from the Ocean Club, in Aldeia da Luz, in the 3rd of May. 300 days already have passed since. The parents are still arguidos in the process, but up to now nobody managed to know what it went on that night.

From Correio da Manhã: A source connected with the investigation guaranteed that the facts told by António Castela were "investigated" and the “lead was proven false”.

Madeleine has no Twitches

Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, reacted yesterday with amazement at the declarations of the taxi-driver. “The declarations of Mr. Castela are false. They are a perfect nonsense. He can only be mistaken when he says that at that time he transported Kate and Madeleine with three men”, he said, underlining the fact of being several independent witnesses who place Madeleine's parents in a completely different place. “How is that possible, if at 20h35 several witnesses say that Kate and Gerry were sitting down on a table of the Tapas restaurant”, he questioned. Clarence doubts of the intentions of the taxi-driver. “It astonishes me that only now, ten months later, he talks about this. These are declarations that only cause pain to Kate and Gerry", he said, advancing that that the McCann's daughter has no facial twitches.
“The only sign to report is the one she has in the eye.”

THEY TOOK FIVE MONTHS TO READ A LETTER

The Inspectors of the Judiciary Police are already preparing the suitcases to travel again to Leiceister, where the McCanns and the friends with whom they had dinner with will be questioned again. The team led by Paulo Rebelo finally received green light from England.

English speak again with the Judiciary Police

With the suitcases done, the Judiciary Police is already finalizing with the English authorities the details for, five months after the sending to Great Britain of a rogatory letter, their return to question the McCanns and the friends with whom they had dinner with when Madeleine disappeared, on the 3rd of May, in the Praia da Luz, in Lagos, Algarve.
“The rogatory letter was returned in January to the Public Prosecution Office, for lack of completion of some bureaucratic proceedings. It was remade and then returned to the English Home Office in the beginning of this month. Finally, the letter it’s already in the possession of the Police of Leicester and we are finalizing the details to give completion to the solicitations done by the British authorities”, it explained to 24horas a judicial person in charge connected with the investigations. According to the same source, everything left done is now a mere “schedulement in order that the interrogations are prepared to the friends of the McCann and to the parents of the lost girl themselves, an organized plan that will have to be ended during next week.
In ten days a team of Portuguese investigators will travel to England, they will attend the interrogations, as the interrogations themselves will be done by the police officers of Leicester. “We can only hear, analyse the expressions of the persons and suggest some questions that do not appear in the rogatory letter”. The first persons to be questioned
will be Jane Tanner, David Paine and Russel O'Brien, whose lawyers revealed the intention of their clients to alter their first statements.

Source: Jornal 24 horas

Now Maddie police will probe leads from psychics: A £2million police review will examine previously ignored calls

• It is five years since Madeleine went missing in Portugal at the age of three
• Kate McCann said the family were 'probably as positive' as they had been in a long time about finding their daughter
• Met Police released a new age-progression picture of Madeleine last week

By Vanessa Allen and Phil Vinter
PUBLISHED: 09:22 GMT, 2 May 2012 | UPDATED: 06:18 GMT, 4 May 2012

• Comments (662)
• Share

The £2million police review of the Madeleine McCann case will examine calls from psychics which were previously ignored.
Detectives are studying around 100 logs of calls that were discounted because the callers said they were psychics or had dreamt about the high-profile investigation.
Critics said the decision to include information from ‘supernatural’ sources was a waste of resources.

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Mystery: The evidence has emerged as Gerry and Kate McCann prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance tomorrow

Police were inundated with calls about Madeleine after she disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Crimestoppers set up an international number and sent the information they received to Leicestershire Police, the McCann family’s home force, and to Portuguese police.
But Leicestershire Police reportedly asked Crimestoppers not to forward information from psychics, or calls based on dreams about the case.

 

More...

• 'I want to be with my mum': Teenager commits suicide two months after his mother lost her cancer battle
• Anorexia tragedy of teenage cover girl: Parents tell of their grief over 19-year-old model who 'didn't realise how beautiful she was'

Enlarge  

Missing: Madeleine aged three, left, and in Scotland Yard's computer-generated age-progression picture of how she might look now, at the age of nine

Some 100 call logs were not passed on because of the request, Sky News reported. But they have now been sent to the Scotland Yard team reviewing the case.

TALE THAT CAPTURED OUR HEARTS

Kate McCann's book about Madeleine's disappearance has sold nearly 400,000 copies and raised up to £1million for the fund to find the missing child.
Mrs McCann thanked supporters for buying her account of how her daughter went missing on holiday in Portugal, which was published in hardback a year ago.
She said: 'The book has done amazingly well. That's thanks to the general public, and I'm really really grateful.
'Not only obviously has it helped Madeleine's Fund, more importantly it's got people engaged again.
'There's more awareness now, there's more information still coming in now.
'For a long time we had wanted to correct things that were incorrect, just so people could be better informed, and therefore the search enhanced.'
Her husband Gerry added: 'It's put everything in the right context. So much in this case has just been taken as snippets and taken out of context.
'It's a properly considered record of what we've gone through, and Kate's done a brilliant job.'
Mr McCann said sales of the book, simply entitled Madeleine, are 'close to 400,000' and it may have generated as much as £1 million for the couple's fund.
A paperback edition with a new epilogue will be published on May 10.

The information will be examined and entered into the police computer for the first time to ensure no detail has been missed.
But it is considered unlikely that any serious investigation will result unless the leads are corroborated by other evidence.
Peter Kirkham, a former detective chief inspector with the Metropolitan Police, said he was sceptical about the ability of psychics to help police investigations.
‘As soon as you have a high-profile case you get a range of people coming forward,’ he said. ‘I’m certainly not aware of any case that’s been solved by psychics.
‘You can’t waste resources no matter how emotive a case may be.’ US crime author Pat Brown said in a Twitter message: ‘This “review” just gets stupider and stupider.’
Madeleine vanished days before her fourth birthday from an apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz while her parents, Kate and Gerry, had dinner with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant.
The review team has sifted through more than 40,000 pieces of information, including files from the Portuguese police investigation and from the private detectives used by Madeleine’s parents.
It has identified 195 potential new leads, but Portuguese police have refused to reopen the case because they say there is no new evidence.
Mr and Mrs McCann said the fact the Metropolitan Police were reviewing the case had made their lives ‘much more bearable’.
In a statement to mark yesterday’s five-year anniversary of her disappearance, the couple said: ‘It’s hard to define succinctly how it feels to have reached five years without Madeleine – impossible, heart-breaking, frightening, exasperating, incomprehensible.

‘Sometimes it feels like forever and at other times, just like yesterday.’
Scotland Yard said: ‘We can confirm we are in close dialogue with Crimestoppers to ensure that all material in their possession – from any source – is shared with us.’

TIMELINE OF THE INVESTIGATION

May 3, 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann leave their daughter Madeleine and her two-year-old twin brother and sister Sean and Amelie in bed in their apartment and head for dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant.

9pm
The couple check on them regularly and at around 9pm, Mr McCann finds nothing amiss when he returns to their room in the seaside resort at the Ocean Club in Praia Da Luz.

10pm
Mrs McCann goes to check on them again and finds the shutter slid up, the bedroom window open and Madeleine gone.

May 4
The police begin hunting for Maddie.

May 15
Robert Murat is officially named a suspect by police in Portugal.

June 17
Portuguese police say Madeleine's friends and family may have destroyed vital evidence in the first few hours after her abduction.
September 7
Detectives make Mr and Mrs McCann 'arguidos' in their daughter's disappearance.

April 7, 2008
Three Portuguese detectives fly to Britain to re-interview the seven friends on holiday with the McCanns when Madeleine vanished.

July 17
Mr Murat receives £600,000 in libel damages from four newspaper groups over 'seriously defamatory' articles connecting him with the child's disappearance.

July 21
The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the 'arguido' status of the McCanns and Mr Murat.

Five years on, the pivotal questions

Is she alive?

There have been no confirmed sightings of Madeleine McCann since she disappeared on May 3, 2007.
The original Portuguese police team believed she died in a ‘tragic accident’.
Kate and Gerry McCann have always insisted there is no evidence to suggest she is dead, and British police now believe ‘there is a possibility she is alive’.
Where is she?
There have been reported sightings all round  the world, ranging from the credible to bizarre psychic visions.
Of those investigated, none have been confirmed as Madeleine.
Who is responsible?
Three people were officially named as arguidos, or suspects, in the investigation - Kate and Gerry McCann and British expat Robert Murat.
All three were formally cleared when the investigation was shelved and have won libel cases against newspapers and broadcasters which falsely claimed they were involved in Madeleine’s disappearance.
The McCanns believe Madeleine was taken by an abductor.
Convicted paedophile Raymond Hewlett allegedly said he saw the girl twice before she vanished and claimed she was stolen to order by a gypsy gang, but denied he was involved.
He died in 2010.
Are there new leads?
British police have identified almost 200 new lines of investigation from the Portuguese case files and the McCanns’ own private detectives.
They have refused to reveal details.
Why was this not done before?
Portuguese officers were convinced Madeleine was dead and have admitted publicly that they did not fully investigate other theories, including many of the sightings.
What else was missed?
Police did not set up effective searches and did not alert the Spanish border for 12 hours, allowing a potential abductor to escape with Madeleine undetected.
Even a basic check of the other guests at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz was not completed for 48 hours, by which time many potential witnesses had left.

Gratitude: The McCanns thanked Scotland Yard for their review and the public for the support they had received for their campaign

What about forensic evidence?
Police did not seal off the McCanns’ apartment until 10am the next day, by which time the McCanns, their friends, resort staff, concerned helpers and police officers had all potentially contaminated forensic evidence.
Samples were taken and tested for blood and DNA but were found to be so degraded and contaminated that the results were inconclusive.

Will the case be solved?
British police want the case reopened but public opinion in Portugal has not been supportive of the McCanns and there may be little interest in raking over a five-year mystery which has already damaged the country’s tourist industry.
Even if the case is reopened, the reality remains that blunders in the first few days after Madeleine’s disappearance may mean the McCanns will never know what happened to their daughter. 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138286/Now-Maddie-police-probe-leads-psychics-A-2million-police-review-examine-previously-ignored-calls.html#ixzz1ttnkCHBb