INVESTIGATION UPDATES

 http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/portugal/detalhe/ingleses_no_algarve.html

British investigators arrived this Monday to Faro

14/10/2014 00:50

English in the Algarve looking for Maddie

In addition to meeting with the PJ in Faro British will be meeting in Legal Medicine, Coimbra.

By João Mira Godinho

The British police who are investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in 2007, in the Algarve, have scheduled a meeting with officials of the Institute of Legal Medicine, Coimbra, in addition to meeting previously announced, with the Judicial Police in Faro. Men from Scotland Yard arrived yesterday, in the afternoon, the capital of the Algarve airport. trip to Portugal This is just to take stock of the research that has been developed so far by the British. This is because further action, as requested by British police in letters rogatory are still awaiting authorization from the Portuguese prosecutor. Both meetings will serve well for sharing the information that has been collected so far by Scotland Yard with national authorities. Meanwhile, the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, who was four years old when she disappeared from Praia da Luz, Lagos, where he spent holidays with . parents, has cost more than € 12 million to the British exchequer, double the initially foreseen by the English authorities, when they decided to reopen the case, in 2011 the Metropolitan Police spent € 2.4 million in 2011; 3.5 million in 2012 to 3.3 million last year. This year's budget researchers should exceed the amount spent in 2013, which will increase spending to more than 12 million. costs of research to the Maddie case reopened by order of Prime Minister Cameron, are being criticised.  

 http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/oct/13/madeleine-mccann-forensic-scientists-portugal

Forensic scientists to join British police in McCann investigation

Analysts want to re-examine evidence retrieved from apartment from which Madeleine went missing in 2007

Brendan de Beer in Portimão

The Guardian, Monday 13 October 2014 23.18 BST

A team of British forensic analysts are expected to join DCI Andy Redwood and his team of detectives in Portugal this week in a renewed bid to uncover the truth behind the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Portuguese police sources told the Guardian that the scientists have asked to revisit some of the evidence retrieved from the holiday apartment from which the British toddler went missing on 3 May 2007. The forensic evidence gathered at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance has been stored at the National Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences in Coimbra in central Portugal.

Detectives and forensic technicians from the Metropolitan police are scheduled to visit the laboratory on Wednesday.

Detectives led by Redwood will meet with their Polícia Judiciária counterparts in Faro on Tuesday to discuss the request.

Police said they had not yet received any official orders from the public prosecutor’s office and that the next phase of the investigation was unlikely to commence for at least a fortnight.

A source close to the case told the Guardian that the request appeared “to focus primarily on the further questioning of some of the suspects brought in by Faro police in the summer”.

In July, Portuguese police quizzed four Portuguese nationals who were declared arguidos, or formal suspects. They also spoke to 11 witnesses.

The questioning of these suspects followed the end of major ground-level searches in Praia da Luz in early June, when Scotland Yard detectives scoured a large patch of scrubland.

The force described the operation as the largest overseas deployment ever undertaken by British police, and said it was the “first phase of this investigation” into Madeleine’s disappearance.

Although the searches turned up no fresh evidence, the Met said detectives had gained an “essential understanding of the activity for which people have used this piece of land” and alluded to “substantial work which is yet to be done in the coming months”.  

 Joana Morais ‏@xklamation  
Not sure why people are quoting  @guardian article when the facts are different

Comments:  

1.  Sane, sensible people will trust the Guardian over a hateblogger, or some Portuguese rag that can't even tell the difference between 'British' and 'English'.

2.  LOL, the woman who hosts a site which contains tens of thousands of copyright articles from newspapers (including The Guardian), so that people can refer to them, is telling everyone not to trust the papers. She is so focused on defending the indefensible that she doesn't even notice the contradictions in her own statements and actions. Why should anyone believe her when she has told so many lies either openly or by omission? We all know she has zero ability to judge what is true and what is not true. She told everybody that.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/522577/Maddie-Madeleine-McCann-Cops-Search-Back-Portugal

Madeleine McCann detectives return to Portugal to re-question suspects

SCOTLAND Yard detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have returned to the Algarve for the first time since quizzing four suspects at the start of July.

he Operation Grange detectives arrived in Faro yesterday on a BA flight from Gatwick before picking up a hire car and driving to their hotel.

Only a small team of three officers - led by Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood - made the trip.

They were due at Faro Police Station early today (TUE) for a meeting with Policia Judiciaria counterparts.

The meeting - described as "routine" - follows the appointment of a new woman prosecutor to the case. Ines Sequeira has yet to approve a fifth letter of request sent by British authorities earlier this year.

British detectives - who are understood to want to re-interview three of the four Madeleine McCann suspects they questioned in July - are expected to press for a quick 'yes' to their new bid to crack the seven-year-old mystery of Madeleine's disappearance.

Mrs Sequeira took over from predecessor Jose Magalhaes e Menezes last week and has told colleagues she views the Madeleine McCann case as a priority.

It is thought the Operation Grange detectives may seek a meeting with her before they return to London.

A source close to former GP Kate and consultant cardiologist Gerry, both 46, has said they think the appointment is a "step in the right direction."

The new Scotland Yard trip to Portugal comes after it emerged the cost of the British police search for Madeleine will top £10million - double the original amount estimated by the Home Office when the force was called in by David Cameron in 2011.

The Operation Grange inquiry is running in parallel with a new Portuguese probe, reopened in May more than five years after being shelved.

The reopening of the investigation in Portugal coincided with news a former employee at the Ocean Club holiday resort in Praia de Luz where Madeleine vanished, had been identified as a suspect.

ecovering heroin addict Euclides Monteiro, a convicted burglar, died in a tractor accident in 2009.

His widow Luisa Rodrigues was interviewed by Portuguese detectives but insisted he was an innocent man and has been fighting to get authorities to confirm they have now ruled him out as a suspect.

Portuguese police believe Madeleine was snatched by a foreigner no longer in Portugal, although the Cape Verde immigrant is still officially a suspect.

They have privately dismissed the British police work, which involved digs and sewer searches for her body in June in Praia da Luz, as "senseless."

The Home Office has defending the rising cost of the British police probe, insisting: "The Government believes it is right that it does all it can to support the search for Madeleine McCann."

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20141014/local/update-2-76-year-old-briton-to-be-extradited-possibly-linked-to-mccann-case.539720#

Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 12:46
Update 2 - 76-year-old Briton to be extradited - possibly linked to McCann case
A 76-year-old British national, who was living in Gozo, will be extradited to the UK where he will serve time for the sexual assault of a girl aged under 13.
Roderick Macdonald, who was living in an apartment at Ta Cenc, consented to be extradited this morning before Magistrate Audrey Demicoli.
He was arrested by the Malta police in the whereabouts of Sannat yesterday.
Roderick Macdonald – who also used the surname Robinson – is also wanted by UK police who believe he can shed light on a paedophile ring possibly linked to the abduction of Madeleine McCann, according to UK tabloid newspapers Daily Mail and the Mirror.
Madeleine McCann has been missing since May 2007. She disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal as her parents Kate and Gerry were eating in a near-by restaurant
The Mirror reported that Mr Macdonald was in Algarve when the three-year-old vanished in 2007.Scotland Yard detectives chasing new leads in Praia da Luz where Madeleine went missing wanted to quiz him about paedophile rings in the area in 2007.
Police were ­investigating 18 possible linked break-ins at Algarve villas by a lone intruder from 2004 to 2010.The attacks stopped in 2010, at around the time Robinson was deported from Portugal to Australia for raping an eight-year-old girl there, the Mirror reported in May.
Within weeks of his release the former oil rig worker fled to Thailand but three months later he was deported back to Britain after Thai authorities found out about his past.
He moved to south coast resort Brighton where he was made to sign the sex offenders register but in 2012 he was given a suspended prison sentence in 2012 for abusing five- and seven-year-old girls in Brighton who bore a resemblance to Madeleine, the Mirror reported.
Mr Macdonald appeared in court in Malta this morning under arrest on the strength of a provisional arrest warrant issued by the courts after the UK judicial authorities requested his extradition "to serve a term of imprisonment of sexual assault of a female under 13 years of age".
A European Arrest Warrant had been issued against him on April 25, 2013, by the Lewes Crown Court in East Sussex
Police Inspector Mario Cuschieri prosecuted.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-mystery-dna-tested-4438451

Madeleine McCann: Mystery DNA tested to locate her kidnapper
Oct 14, 2014 20:20 By Gerard Couzens

Metropolitan Police proposing DNA tests on key samples that have been stored for seven years

Scotland Yard detectives probing Madeleine McCann’s disappearance are to propose new tests on mystery DNA that could belong to her kidnapper.

The Operation Grange team have been invited into the bunker where key samples collected from the holiday flat she vanished from are being held.

The Met Police officers plan to discuss new ways of analysing evidence held on file for the past seven years at a forensic science HQ in Coimbra north of Lisbon.

They are expected to focus on DNA found in Madeleine’s bedroom that does not belong to any of her family or workers at the Ocean Club holiday resort where she was staying who were tested at the time.

They hope modern-day technology could help them match the samples, described as “vague”, with DNA taken from three new suspects who were questioned in July.

Their visit to the National Institute for Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences comes 24 hours after they met Portuguese police chiefs in the Algarve capital Faro a four-hour drive away.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood and two colleagues pressed for an quick response to their bid to do more background work on the three suspects during talks with local police chiefs Luis Mota Carmo and Ana Paula Rito.

New prosecutor Ines Sequeira, who has the final say about Scotland Yard’s fifth international of request, is expected to answer detectives in the next fortnight.

Mr Redwood declined to comment before being driven away from Faro police station in the back seat of a BMW hire car.

Asked about the new prosecutor and his hopes from the trip to Coimbra, he said: “I’m sorry but I’ve nothing to say.”

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/524393/Three-women-solve-riddle-Maddie-s-disappearance

Three women who could solve riddle of Maddie’s disappearance

THREE women are the key players in determining whether Scotland Yard's costly Madeleine McCann investigation will succeed or fail.

By: James Murray in PortimaoPublished: Sat, October 18, 2014

The trio hold top positions in the Portuguese judiciary and police and all have privately vowed to do everything in their powers to discover the fate of Madeleine and bring those responsible to justice.

For the first time in years all the vital departments are working in tandem, which is a major relief to Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who heads the Yard's Operation Grange team trying to solve the seven-year riddle.

Ines Sequeira, the chief state prosecutor covering Praia da Luz where Madeleine vanished in May 2007, and the one with the most power, has given the case priority status.

The 49-year-old mother of four high flier is a breath of fresh air in the department.

She has instructed her team to let nothing stand in the way of bring a successful conclusion to the investigations.

She is based in a huge office in the grand marble-clad court house in Portimao, a large coastal town some 12 miles from Luz on the Algarve.

It will be she who decides on whether to prosecute or not.

Slim and stylishly dressed Ms Sequeira trained in Lisbon, where she is believed to have met her husband, now a judge.

She was the main prosecutor in the town of Silves, 10 miles from Portimao for years, working on robberies, murders, sex offences and assaults.

A colleague said: "She quickly built up a very good reputation in Silves, particularly with her work on homicides.

"She is very precise and demands high standards.

"She can see mistakes before others realise their significance and weeds them out.

"No one was surprised she won promotion.

"She likes to work away from the spotlight, quietly and methodically in her office."

She works with Ana Paulo Rito, the criminal co-ordinator of the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, the role once taken by Goncalo Amaral, who is now locked in a libel action with Kate and Gerry McCann over his claims that Madeleine died in apartment 5a of the Ocean Club.

A legal source said: "Both women are clear thinking, driven, hard-working and utterly determined to do whatever they can to solve the case.

"They have brought fresh minds to the case and have similar character traits with no big egos and a quiet and efficient work ethic.

"They are both ambitious and career minded and they want results without cutting any corners.

"Both are quite new in their positions and they want to prove themselves and bring pride to their departments."

The third woman is Ms Helen Monteiro, who leads the Portuguese detectives' review of the case in Porto in the north of the country.

Work by her team has greatly helped the Yard in their efforts to finally solve Madeleine's disappearance.

Three Algarve men have been given arguido or suspect status and the Yard wants to speak to them further.

Last week there was clear evidence of the new spirit of cooperation with an unprecedented meeting about potentially case breaking DNA material from the flat where Madeleine McCann was taken.

Hairs found inside the apartment have not been matched to any of the people who were known to have entered the property before or after Madeleine vanished aged nearly four in May 2007.

So now they are set to be examined in Britain or Portugal in the coming months.

Francisco Brizida, Portugal's leading expert in forensic science, last week told Yard officers that curtain fabric, potentially harbouring DNA samples, is also available for testing.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-new-dna-hope-4508372

Madeleine McCann new DNA hope: Curtains may hold key to who took her
Oct 25, 2014 21:17 By Matthew Drake
Scotland Yard forensics want to use new ­techniques to analyse the curtains, which hung in the room where Madeleine was sleeping with her baby brother and sister

Detectives plan to do new tests on curtains which hung in the apartment where Madeleine McCann disappeared.

They believe the fabric, which has been sealed in an evidence file since three-year-old Madeleine vanished in Portugal in 2007, may hold DNA which will identify to her abductor.

Scotland Yard sent an urgent request to their counterparts in Portugal asking permission to re-examine the fabric.

Forensic experts on the Operation Grange team want to use new ­techniques to analyse the curtains, which hung in the room where Madeleine was sleeping with her baby brother and sister.

Officers are also set to re-examine 30 strands of hair found in the apartment in the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz using advanced genetic and biological testing procedures.

A team led by Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood has asked for a quick response to the request.

They think the curtains from apartment 5A will have been preserved well enough to hold traces of DNA from Madeleine’s captor.

Portugal’s Public Ministry will now decide if they are willing to hand over the material, which is being kept at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in the city of Coimbra.

There have been significant new developments in DNA science since the initial investigation in 2007.

The first murder conviction using DNA evidence was in 1988, when baker Colin Pitchfork was found guilty of killing Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, both 15, in Narborough, Leics.

Since then the UK has developed one of the largest “libraries” of DNA samples, which increases by more than 400,000 profiles every year.

DNA samples can be taken from body fluids, but also from tiny quantities of human cells left on any surface, from cups and cutlery to cigarette ends.

The increase of DNA samples being taken and stored has led to a rise in convictions, especially for crimes committed a number of years ago.

The quality of DNA can now be ­“amplified” using complex chemical processes.

A sample of DNA can also now be extracted from a single cell and laboratory robots are being used to speed up the process.

Last week Francisco Brizida, president of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, where the DNA library is held, said: “Technology now allows us to go further than years ago.”

But he said: “I wouldn’t like to be that ambitious and say the secret to unlocking the Madeleine McCann case lies in our lab.”

A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.”

Police digs in Praia da Luz and interviews with new suspects this summer ended in disappointment.

The probe run by 30 officers in Operation Grange has cost £10million.

Maddie McCann: British police to return to Portugal for fresh interviews

BRITISH police are preparing to return to Portugal after getting the green light for fresh Madeleine McCann interviews.

Scotland Yard detectives have been given permission to instigate a new set of probes by new prosecutor Ines Sequeira, who has finally approved a fifth international letter of request that was received by the state in August.

After being given the go-ahead, officers in Faro, Portugal, are now arranging interviews for British police, which will take place at the same police station where four suspects were probed in July.

It was thought three of the suspects would be given a new grilling when the Operation Grange team led by DCI Andy Redwood returned to Portugal.

However, it is understood that Mrs Sequeira only authorised interviews with witnesses whom British police have never questioned directly.

In their fifth letter of request, Scotland Yard opted out of asking for permission to reinterview the suspects, according to Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias.

British cops will also interview ten unnamed witnesses - some of whom were questioned by Portuguese police more than seven years ago when Madeleine first disappeared in Praia da Luz.

As happened when Operation Grange quizzed suspects and witnesses in July, Scotland Yard detectives will sit in on the interviews but they will be led by Portuguese officers who will ask questions on their behalf.

Operation Grange, an investigative review by Met Police into the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance, was last in Portugal three weeks ago.

A small team of three officers, including DCI Andy Redwood who is in charge of Operation Grange, met Policia Judiciaria bosses in Faro for an update meeting before visiting a lab where DNA samples collected after Madeleine's disappearance are held.

British police told Portugal's Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences that they now want to retest some of the samples after it was found previous DNA tests carried out during the original investigation were incomplete.

Last week it emerged that nearly 100 of the 444 strands of hair tested during the original Madeleine McCann investigation were never DNA-matched

The investigation found 432 hairs were human and 12 non-human, while they were unable to DNA-match 98 of them and only obtained partial results from 19 of them.

n order to retest the hairs, British police will need to send a sixth letter of request to Mrs Sequeira, who will then have to give permission for forensic experts to take samples to Britain for analysis.

Institute president Francisco Brizida, said after the October 14 meeting: "I have the certainty they went away very happy.

"The tonic of the meeting was about the possibility of the tests on samples collected in 2007 being re-done.

"The British police wanted clarification on the examinations the institute had carried out during the early stages of the inquiry in the areas of genetics and biology.

"We talked about non-identified material that was collected in Madeleine's apartment.

"I can't say for sure new DNA tests that didn't yield a conclusive result in 2007 could now yield an objective result.

"But technology nowadays allows us to go further than years ago in areas like genetic markers."

Last month it was revealed that the cost of the British police search for Madeleine will soon reach £10million.

However, the Home Office has defended the cost of the probe, insisting: "The Government believes it is right that it does all it can to support the search for Madeleine McCann."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/11/madeleine-mccann-british-expats-seven-new-suspects

Madeleine McCann investigation: British expats among new suspects

Men believed to have lived on Algarve before three-year-old disappeared in 2007 face questioning by Portuguese police

Two British expats are among seven new suspects identified by detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

The men, who have been declared arguidos – or formal suspects – by the Portuguese police, will be questioned later this month and ordered to provide DNA samples. The Britons, who are not known to each other, are believed to have lived on the Algarve in Portugal before Madeleine’s disappearance on 3 May 2007. A further four individuals are being treated as witnesses.

Two other Britons – a man and a woman who also live in Portugal – will assist the investigation as witnesses, the Guardian has learned.

Detectives will question the suspects between 24 and 28 November in a process expected to include ordering them to provide DNA samples that may be matched against evidence recovered during the original investigation seven years ago.

None of the seven new suspects was questioned by Portuguese police in the summer, when detectives interviewed four Portuguese nationals about the three-year-old’s disappearance from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

Detectives from Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange investigation are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry, but Portuguese police chiefs are understood to consider the theory Madeleine was abducted by a foreign national – rather than a local – as among the most probable.

The imminent questioning of new suspects comes after British forensic analysts visited Portugal last month to revisit some of the evidence retrieved from the Ocean Beach Club holiday apartment where Madeleine was last seen.

In July officers questioned four Portuguese nationals over the disappearance. Those interviews followed a ground-level search in Praia da Luz in June in an operation that failed to recover any new evidence.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-detectives-forced-delay-4650864

Madeleine McCann detectives forced to delay interviews of new suspects
Nov 18, 2014 18:08 By Gerard Couzens

Scotland Yard cops have put their trip on hold after failing to reach an agreement on the interview status of 11 people they were due to quiz

Cops hoping for a breakthrough in the case of missing Madeleine McCann were dealt a blow after they were forced to postpone plans to quiz new suspects.

Detectives put their trip to Portugal on hold after they failed to reached an agreement over the interview status of 11 people they were due to question.

They had been given the go-ahead for the new round of interviews next week after a new criminal prosecutor in the case approved a fifth international letter of request.

A British man and a woman were understood to be among those facing a list of questions over the night Madeleine McCann disappeared from her Algarve holiday resort.

It is believed Operation Grange detectives cancelled their five-day trip to Faro over confusion about whether some of the people set to be interviewed would be questioned as arguidos - formal suspects in Portugal - or witnesses.

Prosecutor Ines Sequeira is off sick and was unable to clarify the situation, sparking the suspension of the trip by DCI Andy Redwood and his colleagues.

A new date for the interviews has not been set - and they are now unlikely to happen this year.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We have never officially confirmed when we are going out and we're not going to give a running commentary on this case."

http://www.itv.com/news/2014-11-19/madeleine-mccann-investigation-robert-murat-to-be-questioned-again/

Madeleine McCann investigation: Robert Murat 'to be questioned again'

Robert Murat is expected to be questioned again in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, ITV News understands.

Speaking to ITV News this morning, Mr Murat confirmed that he had only learned of the news through Portuguese media reports.

Portuguese newspapers today published claims that Murat will be spoken to in the coming weeks.

This has also been confirmed to ITV News sources.

Murat won substantial libel damages from a number of media outlets after he was named as an arguido or suspect in the case in 2007.

He has always denied any involvement.

Murat is said to be one of seven people to be spoken to as a "person of interest".

His wife, Michaela Walczuck, and her former husband, Luis Antonio, are also understood to be on a list of people identified to give statements to the inquiry run by British police.

The people of interest and four witnesses were expected to be questioned in Faro next week.

However, due to legal difficulties those interviews have now been postponed.
Last updated Wed 19 Nov 2014

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30115913

Madeleine McCann: Ex-suspect Murat 'faces new questions'
Breaking news
Police investigating the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann are to question former suspect Robert Murat, the BBC has learned.

British police are due to travel to Portugal to sit in on the questioning of eleven people of interest.

A source close to the case has told the BBC that two of the eleven are Mr Murat and his wife.

Mr Murat was named as an arguido, or, suspect, in the case in 2007 but was later cleared by Portuguese police.

He won substantial damages from various media organisations and has always denied any involvement in Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

Madeleine, of Rothley, Leicestershire, was three when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment on 3 May 2007.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/nov/19/madeleine-mccann-police-robert-murat

Madeleine McCann police to re-interview Robert Murat
British expatriate in Portugal listed by Scotland Yard as one of four witnesses for questioning says he will cooperate with inquiry
Share 9


Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are set to re-interview Robert Murat, the British expatriate who was first questioned by police when the three-year-old went missing in 2007.

Murat has been identified as one of four witnesses to whom detectives want to speak after Scotland Yard reopened its investigation into the case.

Speaking to the Guardian from his home in Portugal on Tuesday, Murat said neither he nor his lawyer had been contacted by the police but he would cooperate. “My conscience is clear and I have no problem speaking to police again,” he said.

Asked whether he was concerned about facing yet another interrogation, he replied: “I have more important things to worry about, like running my business, paying my taxes and I also need to paint my house.”

Murat, an IT consultant on the Algarve, was the first person to be declared an arguido, or suspect, during the high-profile police search seven years ago. He was never arrested over Madeleine’s disappearance, and he later won several hundreds of thousands of pounds in libel damages from British newspapers.

A source close to the investigation told the Guardian on Wednesday that Murat had been listed as one of four witnesses by the Metropolitan police.

A spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said the force would not give a running commentary on the inquiry.

5News ✔ @5_News
Robert Murat tells #5News: Reports police will re-interview him are 'just fantasy-land' #mccann pic.twitter.com/UVRICr3X0O

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-cops-ignored-tip-off-4688474

Madeleine McCann cops 'ignored tip-off that her body was dumped in lake'
Nov 24, 2014 22:30 By David Collins
An employee of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz found note in the doorway of apartment 5A, where Madeleine vanished, on the first anniversary of her disappearance

A letter handed in to Portuguese police claimed to know the final resting place of Madeleine McCann, it has emerged.

An employee of the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz found the letter in the doorway of apartment 5A, where Madeleine vanished, on the first anniversary of her disappearance.

The handyman, who we are not naming but was formerly employed by the holiday resort, immediately handed in the note to the police in May 2008.

He described the letter as being headed: “Madeleine Beth McCann”, with a description below of how she had been dumped in the Barragem da Bravura reservoir, nine miles from the holiday resort.

He said: “It was raining that night so it was soaking wet when I found it. It clearly said Madeleine’s name at the top. It was written in Portuguese.

“Beneath it was a location for what it claimed was her final resting place.

“I spoke to the other staff about it and they said to hand it in to the Portuguese police. I gave it to them, but I have no idea what they did about it.

“It would be the perfect place to hide a body.”

It is believed that although the surrounding woodland was initially looked at by detectives on the case, there has never been an underwater search of the reservoir.

Tonight a spokesperson for Kate and Gerry McCann said they would “welcome” any new searches of the area.

Clarence Mitchell said: “Kate and Gerry will be informed of what this witness is telling the Daily Mirror.

"We would welcome any new searches. But they cannot comment on any specific detail as that is entirely a matter for Operation Grange and the Portuguese authorities.”

The man-made lake is close to the A22 motorway which runs from Praia da Luz towards the Spanish border.

In October 2007, five months after Madeleine disappeared, officers from the Civil Guard helped search the large area of woodland, which has a lake in the middle supplying water to surrounding towns and villages.

The search was re-ordered by lead investigator Paulo Rebelo, who took over the stalled investigation, after concerns the area had not been searched properly when Madeleine went missing.

Detectives believed it was a possibility the youngster’s body may have been weighed down with rocks and disposed of in the huge expanse of water.

However reports at the time say police, along with specially trained sniffer dogs, spent just two hours at the site and are not thought to have deployed underwater search teams.

One eyewitness, who was there at the time of the search, said: “I never saw any divers physically trawl through that lake. The water is dark and murky and would need to be searched thoroughly.

”It’s so close to Praia da Luz, and such an obvious place to hide a body, that I’m amazed following an actual tip off this hasn’t been done.”


The Portuguese investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance has been widely criticised and is known to have made several serious mistakes, including the failure to close off the apartment which led to the contamination of the crime scene after up to 20 people were allowed inside.

It has previously been reported how a Dutch newspaper was sent an anonymous letter and a map of the area near the same reservoir bearing a cross and the words: “Where Madeleine is buried.”

The desolate Barragem da Bravura lake, or the “Reservoir of the Wilderness”, occupies an area two-and-a-half miles wide and a perimeter of 25 miles.

Only a handful of isolated dwellings dot the beauty spot.

Many of the Ocean Club staff believe the four-year-old could have been taken there after she vanished from the McCanns’ holiday apartment.

In February 2008, a team of divers hired by Portuguese lawyer Marcos Aragao Correia searched the Barragem do Arada reservoir, which is 35 miles east of Praia da Luz.

The human rights lawyer claimed that underworld criminals told him Madeleine was dumped in a nearby lake that was “deserted with lots of trees and a beach area” - however the search came to nothing.

Kate, 46, and Gerry, 45, of Rothley, Leics, were at a tapas bar about 80 yards from their apartment when Madeleine vanished.

Gerry checked on her and her brother and sister at 9.15pm. At 10pm Kate found she had gone.

Police believe seven new possible suspects, five men and two women, may have information.

It has been reported they also plan to re-interview expat Robert Murat, 41, who was cleared by the 2007 inquiry.

A friend of the McCann’s from Rothley, Leics, said they were desperate to find out what had happened to Madeleine and were confident Scotland Yard would “do everything in their power” to unravel the mystery.

The friend said: “They hope police search any potentially significant new place but until there is evidence to suggest otherwise Kate and Gerry remain hopeful that Madeleine could still be alive.

”If an anonymous letter has come to light which suggests their daughter’s body could be in a lake in a barren area not far from Praia da Luz then they know police will be thinking ‘Was this area searched before and do we need to look at it again?’

”They would hope it has been acted on before but if there is new information it will surely be in police hands.”

Former GP Kate and heart doctor Gerry, both 46, rarely comment on the huge multi-million police inquiry ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron.

But in a joint statement released this summer when cops were digging up part of the resort from were three-year-old Maddie was snatched in May 2007, they said: “We are very pleased that significant activity has taken place in Praia da Luz over the last eight days with police officers and support teams from the UK working closely with the Portuguese Policia Judiciaria and the Guarda Nacional Republicana.

”We are further encouraged that, despite intensive searches, no trace of Madeleine has been found and this reinforces our belief that she could still be alive.”

Kate and Gerry’s Portuguese lawyer Isabel Duarte told the Mirror: “They want to know exactly what has happened to their child.”

A Scotland Yard spokesperson refused to comment.

Assorted comments:

Joana Morais ‏@xklamation
Are you taking the piss out of your readers? Stop with the #mccann #spin, the dam was searched back then, fkng hack @DavidCollinsMir

Lurking Gardener ‏@Coldwater3As
If you're at a seaside resort and want to dump a body in an expanse of water, why go 10 miles inland to a reservoir? #mccann

Liz Woods ‏@elizawoods 1 hr1 hour ago
@DailyMirror What's this story from Sky News then in 2007 showing the lake was searched? http://news.sky.com/story/547048/madeleine-police-divers-to-trawl-reservoir … #mccann

Tut tut! Some people need to learn to read what is REALLY there, not what they want to be there...

A reservoir is being scoured by specialist police divers as the hunt for Madeleine McCann intensifies.

Detectives are said to be preparing to search a 10-mile area around Praia da Luz, where the child vanished on May 3.

The hunt is also focusing on the Barragem da Bravura reservoir, which is around 15 miles away from the Algarve resort.

The whole story seems to have come from some Portuguese rag when hysteria was running rampant. Unless someone can find a reference to it in the police files, I suspect it's safe to conclude it never actually happened.

Can anyone find it in the police files?

Sunday Express: EXCLUSIVE: Madeleine McCann detectives set to quiz key witnesses again
MADELEINE McCANN detectives are planning to requestion key figures who arrived on the scene shortly after the three-year-old disappeared.
Published: 00:01, Sun, November 30, 2014
By James Murray

Detectives have key questions for witnesses to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann

The Scotland Yard officers have analysed minutely events which happened just before, during and immediately after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007 and appear to be seeking new information and clarification from important witnesses.

Among those scheduled for requestioning is Silvia Batista, who ran the service and maintenance departments of the Ocean Club at Praia da Luz on the Algarve where the McCanns were staying.

Shortly after the alarm was raised, Mrs Batista was contacted at her home in nearby Lagos and immediately went back to work.

When she arrived at a reception area she saw Madeleine's father Gerry on his knees on the floor crying out for help and banging his hands on the floor.

A few minutues later she entered the bedroom at apartment 5a and said that the shutters were down, the windows closed and the curtains slightly open.

Kate McCann has said that when she arrived to find Madeleine gone, the shutters were partly open in the bedroom, leading her to believe that Madeleine had been taken through the window.

In her statement Mrs Batista said Gerry told her he had closed the windows as their other two children, Sean and Amelie, then 18 months, were still asleep in separate cots in the bedroom.

Mrs Batista, a former receptionist at the Ocean Club, worked closely with her husband Joao, who was head of maintenance and services.

In the past year both were made redundant because of falling bookings at the Ocean Club, which have been blamed on the recession and publicity surrounding Madeleine's disappearance.

Another facing requestioning is John Hill, manager of the Ocean Club.

When he arrived at the club after receiving a call at 10.28pm from a colleague, some 100 people were already searching for Madeleine.

He also spoke with Kate and Gerry that night in their apartment and helped arrange for photos of the child to be distributed.

Mr Hill and his wife Donna printed pictures after being given a memory stick by Russell O'Brien, a friend of the McCanns whose partner Jane Tanner's picture of Madeleine gathering tennis balls is well known.

Donna Hill is likely to be requestioned early in the New Year.

Scotland Yard detectives are also interested in claims that a set of keys to apartment 5a, kept in the maintenance section, went missing in the week that Madeleine vanished, first revealed by the Sunday Express last February when we reported that a former maintenance worker said the disappearance of the keys had not been reported to the authorities.

Detectives also want their Portuguese counterparts to interview Mario Fernando, 47, who came forward last May to say he saw a suspicious man wearing sun glasses in a stairwell looking at apartment 5a 24 hours before Madeleine disappeared. The former Ocean Club laundryman was collecting sheets when he saw the man: "I saw the weird guy and we nearly bumped into each other.

"He was embarrassed. He was nervous. He was walking out from the hole under the stairs and must have been much further inside but had taken several steps back after hearing me coming.

"He had a really fat face and had two-tone sunglasses on."

Last week it was revealed that Robert Murat was one of those on the Yard's list of people it wants more information from.

Mr Murat told the Sunday Express he would be happy to cooperate but has not received anything official yet from the authorities.

Portuguese police have to conduct the interviews but Scotland Yard officers can sit in during questioning. Some interviews were due to be held last week but they now look likely to be held in the New Year.

Former Scotland Yard murder detective Peter Bleksley said that this next stage of the investigation was a "logical progression" for the police.

"I would think that they have been concentrating on the timeline in the review period and they have may have come across some inconsistencies which they want to look into," he said. "That would be my thinking on this.

"They will want to know who was where, who saw what and at what time and try to work through the inconsistencies while at the same time seeking new information.

"Going back to square one will have formed a big part of the original review which has now moved into the investigative stage. It is a logical progression."

Madeleine McCann: Cops quiz British paedophile who was in the Algarve when Maddie vanished
Dec 02, 2014 22:46 By Adam Aspinall
Officers from Scotland Yard flew to Malta to question Roderick MacDonald, 77, in his prison cell in a bid to uncover any vital clues

British police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have quizzed a convicted paedophile said to have been in the Algarve when she vanished.

Officers from Scotland Yard flew to Malta to question Roderick MacDonald, 77, in his prison cell in a bid to uncover any vital clues about who snatched little Madeleine, aged three at the time.

MacDonald was questioned about his alleged connection to a child sex gang operating in Portugal, linked to her disappearance.

It is believed he was pressed on what he knew about a spate of burglaries which occurred in the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine’s family were staying when she went missing in 2007.

British detectives reckon the burglaries – believed to be carried out by a lone intruder between 2004 and 2010 – could be the key to finally solving what happened to her.


he latest development comes as it was confirmed 11 people – four of whom are thought to be British – due to be quizzed over Madeleine’s disappearance next week will be asked to attend a police station as witnesses, not as suspects.

Scotland Yard said they would not give a “running commentary” on the investigation but their
visit to MacDonald was confirmed by Maltese Government officials.

MacDonald was due to be extradited to the UK after he was remanded in custody in Malta.

But when detectives there searched his flat in the quiet village of Sannat they uncovered a stash of child pornography and sentenced him to 16 months in prison.

This forced Scotland Yard detectives to jet out to Malta in order to question him at the Corradino Correctional Facility outside the capital Valletta.

A close friend of MacDonald’s, who had no idea about his sordid past, said: “He was always talking about how he was in the Algarve when Madeleine went missing.

"He would brag about how he sailed a yacht into Praia da Luz but we never thought anything of it.

“We had no idea how evil this man was before he was arrested. Now it seems completely sinister. No wonder the police were so keen to quiz him.”

MacDonald, of Aldershot, Hants, was first arrested in the Algarve in 2010 and extradited to Australia where he was wanted for the 1998 rape of an eight-year-old.

He got six months’ jail after accepting a plea deal for indecently assaulting the child then fled to Thailand after he was released.

After being deported to Britain by Thai authorities due to his history, MacDonald – previously known as Roderick William Robinson – settled in Brighton, East Sussex.

Despite being put on the sex offenders’ register, he was convicted of molesting two girls, aged five and seven, on a boat at Sussex Yacht Club in 2012.

He fled abroad prior to his sentence and was handed a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years in his absence.

When he was finally arrested in a dramatic swoop on his flat on the island of Gozo he is believed to have told detectives: “I should have spoken about all this years ago.”

MacDonald is the first person to be questioned in connection with Madeleine’s disappearance since July, when four men were quizzed as arguidos – persons of interest.

They all denied any involvement.

The 11 people due to be interviewed as witnesses are reported to include Robert Murat, his German wife Michaela Walczuch, her ex-partner Luis Antonio and John Hill, the manager of the Ocean Club where the McCanns were staying.

IT consultant Mr Murat – who had his arguido status removed in 2008 when the first Portuguese enquiry was shelved – has said his conscience is clear and he is happy to speak to police again if required.

The Operation Grange squad who will sit in on the interviews, led by Portuguese police, will include team leader Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood.

Police to quiz two male suspects about missing Madeleine McCann

TWO men who bear striking resemblances to people seen around the holiday apartment from where Madeleine McCann vanished will be the focus of Scotland Yard investigations in Portugal this week.

Published: 00:01, Sun, December 7, 2014By JAMES MURRAY

The men, one British and one Portuguese, are expected to face questioning in Faro on the Algarve along with nine other witnesses.
Portuguese officers will conduct the interviews with British officers present.
Separate witnesses saw the men near the apartment in Praia da Luz shortly before Madeleine, three, was abducted on May 3 2007.
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood flies to Faro tomorrow in the hope that he can achieve a breakthrough in the days before he retires.
He is being joined on the trip by DCI Nicola Wall from the Met’s Homicide and Major Crime Command Unit.
She is taking over command of Operation Grange, the Yard’s investigation into the case, on December 22.
Her appointment means an all-woman team now heads the international investigation.
DCI Wall will be working closely with Portuguese state prosecutor Ines Sequira.
She will also attend meetings with Ana Paulo Rito, the criminal coordinator of the Policia Judiciaria in nearby Portimao, and Helen Monteiro, who leads the team of Portuguese detectives.
Meanwhile, in Lisbon on Wednesday the libel trial brought by Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann against former police chief Goncalo Amaral resumes.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/544461/Police-quiz-two-male-suspects-about-missing-Madeleine-McCann

Madeleine McCann Cops To Go Back To Portugal
Police are expected to spend three days questioning several people in connection with the three-year-old's disappearance in 2007.

British police are returning to Portugal to question several people in connection with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann this week.

The detectives, who will travel to the Algarve on Monday, are expected to spend three days working on the case.

It comes in the wake of the departure of the detective leading the hunt for Madeleine, who vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in May 2007 while her parents Gerry and Kate were dining with friends nearby.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, who has been the head of Operation Grange since it was set up in 2011, will step down before Christmas.

He will be replaced by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall, who will officially take over the inquiry on 22 December.

She will travel with the detectives going to Portugal and will meet with officials there.

Earlier this year, Scotland Yard detectives returned to Portugal to help interview several people over the case.

It followed on from searches of three areas of land near the Ocean Club, the hotel where the McCanns were staying.

Portuguese and British investigators excavated an area of scrubland to the west of the resort at the start of June but found no evidence related to the case.

Portuguese police closed their investigation in 2008, but the Met launched its own inquiry three years later.

Collective Women's power.
No chance Kate can act damsel in distress. She will be ignored.  

But what is the purpose of these interviews, and who has called these witnesses?

Has Operation Grange found a number of witnesses who are willing to back up the McCann version of events?!

Christian Fraser ‏@ChristianFraser 3h3 hours ago
We're hearing Robert Murat was not questioned today & will have to return on Friday. His wife left as a witness after questioning. #McCann

Rebecca Barry ‏@BeccaBarry 3h3 hours ago
Robert Murat will have to return to police station on Friday for questioning as they ran out of time today #McCann

Andrew Wakeman
19 hrs
How did murat questioning go did he confess to anything??