When Madeleine McCann disappeared the whole country willed her to be found. But the spotlight soon turned on her parents: they were accused of faking an abduction and hiding Madeleine’s body. For 16 years they’ve lived under constant suspicion. Now we can reveal how the police force that made Kerry and Jerry McCain suspects have said sorry. Panorama: Prime Suspect: Who Took Madeleine McCann? Richard Bilton reporting, BBC 2023
Portuguese police now suspect this man abducted and killed Madeleine McCann. And the German authorities are building a case against him. ibid.
The case against Christian Bruckner and the German investigation that has stretched across the Portuguese Algarve. ibid.
A Bulgarian woman has been placed on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted list. Panorama: The Missing Cryptoqueen, news, BBC 2024
Cryptoqueen Accused Of Defrauding Investors of $4 Billion. ibid.
For five years the BBC has been investigating the missing cryptoqueen, a fraudster who stole billions. ibid.
She [Ruja Ignatova] may be linked to a major crime gang. ibid.
The founder of a cryptocurrency called Onecoin. ibid.
The minor Madeleine died in apartment 5a ... A simulation of an abduction took place ... Kate and Gerry McCann are involved in the concealment of the corpse of their daughter. Portuguese police internal memo
On May 3th 2007 3-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing. 168 days later that is the only indisputable fact about this extraordinary case. Dispatches, Searching for Madeleine, Channel 4 2007
The McCanns say they put their children to bed at 7 p.m. … At 8.30 p.m. Kate McCann and her husband Gerry joined their friends for dinner at the Ocean Club Tapas bar. ibid.
‘You can be in and out in less than a minute provided you had done the necessary amount of planning.’ ibid. reviewing detective
The steps leading to the patio doors are in darkness. ibid.
Yet more hiding places … There are hundreds of wells … They spot large industrial bins all over the resort … They were still emptied on the night Madeleine disappeared. ibid.
‘It makes you local in some ways … and known in the area. ibid. Professor Cantor
Madeleine McCann is the most famous missing person on Earth … one of the stories of the century. Madeleine McCann: A Global Obsession, Channel 5 2014
The media and the public would come to be divided on a global scale. ibid.
Each year 5-600 children are reported missing in Britain. ibid.
Robert Murat and his family were chased by the British media for months. Kate and Gerry McCann would be next. ibid.
In which the former judiciary police inspector defends the thesis of the involvement of Kate and Gerry McCann in their daughter’s disappearance. Madeleine McCann: The Truth of the Lie, Youtube 2012
I will prove that the child was not abducted and that she died in the holiday apartment in Praia de Luz. ibid.
There is a kind of need to stifle the case, to silence the case. ibid.
In later questionings the testimonies diverge. Gerald McCann says that David Payne stayed at the McCanns’ apartment for thirty minutes; his wife Kate guarantees it was only thirty seconds. At that time Kate was bathing the twins and Madeleine. ibid.
It was shortly after 8.40 p.m. that the English friends went for dinner at the Tapas bar. The restaurant is approximately fifty metres away as the crow flies from the apartments where eight children remained alone. ibid.
At around 10 p.m. Kate McCann, Maddie’s mother, raised the alarm. Maddie was not in the room. ibid.
No search in Portugal had ever included such means and so many people. ibid.
The families take turns in checking the children. ibid.
At around 9.10 p.m. Jane Tanner goes to check her children and to check the other apartments. On her way to 5D she passes Gerald and Jeremiah. Jane will later tell the authorities that she saw a stranger carrying a child in his arms. ibid.
There are many contradictions: the most evident one was that someone was inside that room when Gerald went in. ibid.
The detailed identification that she gives of a possible abductor is impossible .. how was it possible to see so much at such a distance and under such light? How was it possible for Gerald and Jeremiah not to see Jane or the abductor? ibid.
We have two possible sightings of potential abductors. The problem is that the Smiths’ sighting doesn’t confirm Jane Tanner’s vision, in its time and its direction. ibid.
If the little girls were abducted by the man that Jane says she saw at 9.20 p.m. then the window was open from that moment on. ibid.
The dogs only reacted (alerted) in the apartment where the McCanns stayed. Eddie marked (alterted to) cadaver odour in the wardrobe of the McCanns’ bedroom … Eddie also detected the odour of death behind the sofa in the apartment’s living room. Keela is brought in, and she points out a small amount of blood behind that same sofa. ibid.
They inspect several vehicles, and they only alert to the car that was hired by the McCanns 23 days after Madeleine’s disappearance. Eddie alerts that the car key and the boot had been in contact with a dead body. Keela discovers organic traces for analysis in the boot. ibid.
These dogs have never failed in over 200 cases. ibid.
As well as Kate’s clothes and Madeleine’s soft toy. ibid.
The British press repeatedly attacked the Portuguese investigation. ibid.
Some witnesses are never questioned again in Portugal like the Smith family, who said they saw Gerald McCann carrying a child in his arms, towards the sea, around 10 p.m. on the 3rd of May 2007. ibid.
The front door and window were not forced. ibid.
Madeleine McCann: the three-year-old British girl abducted from her bed by a stranger between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on Thursday 3rd May 2007. It’s become one of the most enduring mysteries of our time. Buried By Mainstream Media: The True Story of Madeleine McCann, Richard D Hall online 2014
The Portuguese detective who investigated Madeleine’s disappearance pulled the McCanns in for questioning and made them suspects in their own daughter’s disappearance. ibid.
Initial press statements: front door lying open, window tampered with, shutters jemmied. ibid.
Gerry McCann’s first witness statement made the very next day … ‘using his key, the door being locked’ … ‘the windows to the children’s room open, the shutters raised and the curtains drawn open’. ibid.
‘It’s difficult to see how anyone could have interfered with those [bedroom window] shutters.’ ibid. Professor Dave Barclay, forensic scientist
The claims about the gust of wind and the door slamming shut were never in any of the McCann’s original statements. ibid.
The photos of the children’s room taken when the police arrived show the windows closed. ibid.
‘Reports state that Mr Payne saw Madeleine being put to bed by Kate at 6.30 p.m.’ … Who put it [news report] there? ibid. news report
Payne visit: a) just for a visit; b) to bring the children down; c) to see Kate was all right; d) to help look after the children; e) to see if Gerry could play tennis; f) Dr Payne offered to go … when was the visit … was he there at all? … statements made to the media seeing children put to bed … children in apartment or not … twenty separate contradictions … This visit didn’t happen. ibid.
The evidence of two cadaver dogs … all the alerts: eleven by the cadaver dog and another five in the same locations by the blood dog. ibid.
Not a charity … it was intended to be a fighting fund to meet legal expenses. ibid.
£50,000 per month fees to Metodo 3. ibid.
Metodo: Madeleine is alive; We know where she is; Closing in on kidnappers; Maddie home for Christmas. ibid.
Oakley International: basically a man-one band run by a an Irish fraudster and conman Kevin Halligen … Halligen achieved nothing. ibid.
‘Halligen squandered half a million pounds’. ibid. The Mail on Sunday
Why was the government so much involved? … Gordon Brown got even more involved when he became prime minister. ibid.