The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz, Algarve, was archived on the 21st of June 2008. Without a reply. Almost a year later, the prosecutors who hold the process admit, for the first time, to tvi24.pt that they continue to receive “diverse information” about the case, but until now none of the leads has “resulted in a fact or circumstance” that could justify “the reopening of the inquiry”.
Never before had a child been so avidly searched for. Madeleine McCann disappeared from apartment 5A at the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz, Lagos, on the night of the 3rd of May 2007, and those who committed to recover her, on the days that followed the tragedy, now point the finger at the parents, who don’t move and don’t convince anyone, anymore. For the people, Maddie is dead and buried… by the hands of her parents. And this crime without punishment generates a revolt that feeds off the theory of former investigator Gonçalo Amaral.
Gonçalo Amaral offers a glimpse of what is coming… “There are things that we need to clarify. It’s important to understand the role of Mr David Payne in this story. He was on holidays with Maddie’s family when the little girl disappeared, and right on the 16th of May, an English doctor told the British authorities that on another occasion, when she and her husband were on the beachside with the McCanns and their friends, that gentleman had made obscene gestures, of a sexual nature, about the girl… That doctor also told that David liked to bathe the little girls… Now, if he was part of the group of adults that went to check on Maddie and her siblings… he was one of the last persons to see her alive. It would be important to find out how much time he spent with the little girl doing what, but information about this lady’s statements only arrived in Portugal in October, at a time when I was not even on the case anymore. This is one of the various important things that were ignored. Someone pretended he didn’t know about this…”
More: the Tapas Bar restaurant is located at the back side of the apartment and the window, as well as the main door, are located at the front of the building. In order to walk from the table to the bedroom, one needs to walk out of the Ocean Club’s inner patio, walk down a few steps, walk through reception, walk around the apartment block, enter a corridor… a walk that takes six to seven minutes. And all of the lamps on the McCanns’ apartment front had been broken for two days, which means that there was complete darkness. From the place where Maddie’s parents dined, all that one can see is half the living room window, and to get there, one needs to cross the pool area, and then walk along a row of bushes (approximately 70 metres long). Still, anyone who would be looking in, couldn’t see Maddie or her twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, on the opposite end of the house.
In Praia da Luz, opinions about what happened to little Maddie that night are divided, but the vast majority believes that she died, and holds the parents responsible. Almost nobody rises to defend the McCanns. For Maria Bandeirinha, the owner of a rent a car business, the parents’ attitude is incriminating. “Kate passed by my door, laughing her head off, with a friend, days after her daughter disappeared. What mother has a child in an unknown location and feels like laughing? Looking back, I don’t even know how she managed to convince the people that her daughter had been stolen from her… Just compare her with Rui Pedro’s mother. I’m not going any further, because I’m a mother myself and I cannot imagine life for one minute, if I lost my daughter.”
Paul, the owner of one of the restaurants that are located by the bay of Praia da Luz, is one of the few that still believe in the possibility that Maddie is alive. “This story has been badly told, directed and investigated. For me, the McCanns are guilty, but not over their daughter’s death. They are guilty over the little girl’s abduction, because they offered the criminals the possibility of carrying it out… Children can’t be left alone at home! For me, she is alive, she was abducted and sold.”
Gonçalo Amaral’s documentary is still widely present, but a reply is on the way. In early April, Maddie’s father returned to the Ocean Club with Channel 4’s cameras, for a detailed reconstruction of his version of events on the night of May 3, 2007. “He didn’t stay at the Ocean Club, I don’t know where he slept, and he could hardly set foot on the street, because people wanted to give him a beating… Then he had some ridiculous letters distributed, which were all over the place, shredded, on the next day”, another resident of Luz told us, showing us a sample of the letter. Concerning the documentary, “it is most likely to be a pack of lies”. Gonçalo Amaral agrees: “I don’t care about the documentary. It’s all lies!”'The Thruth of The Lie' in more than 15 countries
Marta Vaz de Sousa, the head of Valentim de Carvalho Multimédia, took the documentary ‘Maddie – The Truth of the Lie’, that TVI broadcast, to MIP, in Cannes, and is preparing its sales. “There are more than 15 countries interested in it, business deals that could be closed within a week.” But she does not comment on whether it will reach the United Kingdom. Clarence Mitchell, on the other hand, reacts and leaves a warning. “I doubt that anyone around here is interested in watching it and the station that broadcasts it will be sued by our lawyers!”
“Hardly. Looking at the facts that are known and what has been revealed, through the various reconstitutions, namely the documentary that was broadcast by TVI, the little girl can hardly be alive. I don’t know what happened, but I don’t believe that Maddie is alive. I don’t read anything into the parents’ behaviour, but I’d love to interview them. To have the opportunity to talk with them like Oprah did. The McCanns have never given a deep interview to a Portuguese television. If they would give me an interview, maybe I could understand and decode what lies in their soul. I think that there is a domestic tragedy that we’re not able to discern yet. I believe that there is a secret with them that we may find out about, some day. It’s surely a heavy secret.”
“I don’t believe it. I can’t imagine someone fetching a child from a room where two others are, taking one and leaving the others behind. I think that Maddie’s parents’ behaviour over the past two years has the purpose of maintaining and feeding a big fat lie. I believe that they will do it until the end. Until the truth is known or until the story dies on its own. And I’m not accusing anyone. I recognise that the McCanns have been trying to prevent the story from dying. But I don’t know why the heck they do it.”
“I don’t believe it. No matter how the disappearance happened, I don’t believe that Maddie is alive. Whether it was an accident and she died in the apartment or she was taken that night, I believe that she has passed away by now. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that she is alive. Concerning her parents and their behaviour, I’m not sure about anything.”
“I don’t believe in that possibility, because I simply don’t believe the abduction theory! All the forensic evidence, according to the majority of experts in the field, point towards the little girl’s death. In fact, I believe that if the little girl was alive, we would have received a sign about it. The only sign that we have about that is a belief or a lie from the parents. Nothing else. First they put up a show to conceal what actually happened, then, in the various attempts that they made to extinguish the phenomenon, there were so many differing actions and reactions that they prevented the phenomenon itself from extinguishing. And since then, we have been watching some breaths that result from the parents’ pressure, the last of which is their appearance on Oprah’s show and a so-called reconstruction that was made to measure by the McCanns.”
“I didn’t believe it from the outset. The little girl died on the location where she disappeared from. All the investigative evidence indicate that. The programme that was broadcast by TVI shows it to evidence. The lies that were told by the group that dined with the McCanns that night, as well. The parents themselves gave a sign, on the 21st of June 2007. They summoned a South African expert in finding corpses. Everything else are issues with the FindMadeleine fund. It can only exist as long as a living child is searched for…”
“I would like to believe that she is still alive. But I find that very difficult. Concerning the McCanns, I have only one explanation. It’s the fact that they are parents and refuse to believe that their daughter may be dead. Murdered or not. Believing in the abduction theory allows them to keep her alive until the contrary is proved. It sound illogical, but feelings have no logic.”
Gonçalo Amaral, the former Judiciary Police head of the Maddie investigation, thinks that the Freeport process is being handled at the same “power pressure” level as the disappearance of the little English girl.
The suspicions against medic David Payne, one of the McCanns’ English friends, who was in Praia da Luz on the 3rd of May 2007, when Madeleine disappeared, were never investigated. Meanwhile, the doctor moved house and doesn’t live in the same London area anymore. He was expected to return to Praia da Luz over the last few days, to record the documentary that is being prepared in England, but he ended up cancelling the trip. It is unknown if an actor will play his part in the reconstitution that is promoted by Kate and Gerry.
“Madeleine McCann died in apartment 5A and her body was concealed.” With this certainty, Gonçalo Amaral closes the documentary ‘Maddie – The Truth of the Lie’ that was broadcast by TVI on the 13th of April.
The former Polícia Judiciária inspector already expected the programme to be a success, but never this much. “We were expecting great impact, because it’s an issue that still touches people. They want to know the truth and they want justice. But we never expected this much”, reveals Gonçalo Amaral, who doesn’t doubt that since the 13th, the Portuguese are now better informed about Maddie’s disappearance. But according to the former inspector, it seems that not everyone watched it attentively: “The Attorney General should have realised by now that he holds a very important document that proves that there is no abduction, and all he has to do is to reopen the process.”
The Ocean Club staff shares the same opinion and add that “after the little girl’s disappearance, there was a break of 40 per cent in the number of tourists. We used to host entire families. There were even ‘wars’ to get a sunbed. Now, that doesn’t happen anymore”.
The truth is that, two years after the disappearance of the English girl, that paradise by the sea has yet to return to normalcy. “We enjoyed a quiet life, and it was bad luck that this happened here”, a resident says. The locals have not managed to forget about Maddie, and they are not even allowed to do so! Gerry’s return to Praia da Luz, earlier this month, is proof. Despite the fact that Kate remained in England, supposedly due to being physically and psychologically debilitated, the husband returned to the crime scene, but was ill received.
3rd May Madeleine McCann disappears from the room where she slept with her twin brother and sister, at the apartment 5A of the Ocean Club, in Praia da Luz. The parents were having dinner with a group of friends in the resort's restaurant, around 50 meters away from the apartment.
31st July The PJ, elements of the British police and two dogs, trained to detect traces of blood and cadaver scent, inspect apartment 5A and find new evidence.
9th September Kate and Gerry return to England.
21st July The Attorney General's Office [PGR] announces the archiving of the process due to not obtaining evidence of the practice of any crime.
4th April Gerry McCann returns to Praia da Luz to shoot a documentary about what happened on the 3rd of May 2007.
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