Author Topic: Tongeren Man  (Read 1978 times)

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Offline Wonderfulspam

Tongeren Man
« on: February 02, 2014, 09:44:36 AM »

ITN
 
3rd August 2007


Belgian police hunt Madeleine suspect
 
Belgian police have issued an identikit drawing of a man reportedly seen with a child fitting a description of missing Madeleine McCann.
 
Madeleine, four, was snatched exactly three months ago from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on the Algarve in Portugal as she slept next to her younger twin siblings Sean and Amelie as her parents dined nearby.
 
A woman spotted a couple and a young girl bearing a resemblance to the British youngster in a restaurant in the town of Tongeren on the Dutch border on July 28.
 
The three left before police were called but a bottle and a straw the child had been drinking from were taken away for tests.
 
A police spokesman in Brussels said: "The woman told us the little girl bore a striking resemblance to Madeleine and was behaving nervously.
 
"She said she got up to call us as soon as she saw the girl but when she returned to her table all three of them got into a car and left. We are taking the sighting very seriously."
 
Jolien Houbrech, who works in the De Pauze restaurant in Tongeren, said she served the English woman and Dutch man who were with the blonde-haired girl aged around five or six.
 
Miss Houbrech, a 21-year-old student, said she had no suspicions at first about the couple, who she assumed were the girl's parents, until another customer approached her.
 
"A woman who was a child therapist came up to me and asked if I noticed any resemblance between Madeleine and the child.
 
"She said that because of her work as a child therapist she had noticed that the people's behaviour was not that of normal parents. After she said that, I said maybe she should call it in to the police."
 
The couple, who were driving a car with a Belgian number plate, left before the customer had raised her concerns, Miss Houbrech said.
 
"Now I wish I had done more and paid more attention to them and maybe tried to hear the girl talking, but at the time I didn't notice anything suspicious about the couple," she said.
 
Meanwhile, Madeleine's parents are heading back to Spain to continue with their search. Gerry and Kate McCann are visiting Huelva, the capital of Andalucia, where they will put up posters of the toddler across the city.
 
The McCanns' trip will take them along the main motorway between southern Portugal and Spain, which some believe could have been the route taken by her abductor.
 
The couple's quest to find Madeleine has seen them travel to Spain before, as well as Morocco which lies just a short ferry ride to the south.
 
Speaking on Thursday night, Mrs McCann said: "Gerry and I want to remind people that our lovely little girl, Madeleine, is still missing. Today will mark three months since she was cruelly snatched from her bed.
 
"We do not know where she is, or where she has been taken, but would urge tourists and residents in Portugal and Spain to keep looking for Madeleine. All we want is to be reunited with Madeleine and to be a happy family once again."
I stand with Putin. Glory to Mother Putin.

Offline Wonderfulspam

Re: Tongeren Man
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2014, 09:46:49 AM »

4th August 2007

The Telegraph

Madeleine sighting puts Belgium on alert

Belgian police have put the country on national alert after a reported sighting of Madeleine McCann in the company of a “suspicious” couple last weekend.
 
A children’s therapist called the police after seeing a couple behaving suspiciously with a girl who looked like Madeleine on a café terrace in the Flemish town on Tongeren.
 
Police officers reacted within 30 minutes to an emergency call from the “De Pauze” bar but the man, woman and child had already departed.
 
Officers have taken a fruit milkshake bottle the child had been seen drinking from away for analysis but there are as yet no results, a police spokeswoman said yesterday.
 
Jolien Houbrechts, a waitress in “De Pauze” bar, described how she was approached by the witness on Saturday afternoon.
 
“The woman said to me that the couple looked strange and the girl looked like Maddie. I told her to call the police,” she said.
 
Belgium’s Federal Police yesterday issued a bulletin and identikit picture of the man accompanying Madeleine.
 
He is described as approximately 40 years old, six feet tall, with black hair and unshaven.
 
The man spoke in Dutch with a Dutch accent. Witnesses said the woman is in her mid-twenties, with sun-tanned skin and brown hair.
 
She spoke English and was always accompanied by the child.
 
The girl is described as “more or less” five, wearing a pink dress, with shoulder length fair hair and blue-green eyes.
 
Police have put out an alert for black Volvo car, probably a recent model, registered in Belgium and starting with the letters VUV.
 
Katia Vandoren, at the Tongeren state prosecutor’s office, said: “We are asking anyone with any information to come forward and the two adults to make themselves known to the police.”
 
The report came as Gerry and Kate McCann marked the 90th day since their daughter disappeared.
 
Tongeren is not Belgium’s first alleged sighting of Madeleine, another was reported in Liège in May.
 
Other sightings were reported in Malta in June.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1559363/Madeleine-sighting-puts-Belgium-on-alert.html
I stand with Putin. Glory to Mother Putin.

Offline Wonderfulspam

Re: Tongeren Man
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2014, 09:49:29 AM »

9th August 2007

The Telegraph

Belgian DNA doesn't match Madeleine McCann

A possible sighting in Belgium of missing Madeleine McCann was ruled out today after DNA tests proved negative.
 
A child therapist alerted police after saying she was "100% sure" she had seen the four-year-old at a restaurant in the Flemish town of Tongeren, not far from the Dutch border, on July 28.
 
The girl was with a "suspicious" couple who disappeared while she was calling police. Belgium was put on alert as a photofit of a man was issued. Detectives took away a drink bottle used by the girl, but the sample returned today did not match the DNA of Madeleine.
 
It is the latest in a long string of alleged sightings across the world which have been ruled out. The two most complelling to police - and to the McCann family still clinging to the hope of finding their daughter alive - were in Morocco and Malta.
 
Both were eventually ruled out after investigations by local authorities. Other alleged sightings have occured in Guatemala, Argentina, Switzerland, France and Spain.
 
Despite constantly having their hopes slightly raised only to be dashed afterwards, Kate and Gerry McCann say that every alleged sighting is a positive sign that people are still aware of Madeleine's plight.
 
Mrs McCann told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour today: "It says to us that people are still looking and that is really important and we would encourage that."
 
She added: "We haven't had any news to the contrary that Madeleine isn't alive, and that's very important.
 
"And there have been many cases of children that have been found much later than this so again that's reassuring. So the hope's still there."
 
Meanwhile, suspected traces of blood found in the Algarve apartment where Madeleine was last seen were due to arrive in Britain today for tests. They are expected back in two weeks, although priority cases can sometimes be processed in 48 hours.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1559782/Belgian-DNA-doesnt-match-Madeleine-McCann.html
I stand with Putin. Glory to Mother Putin.

Offline Wonderfulspam

Re: Tongeren Man
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2014, 01:17:56 PM »


13th October 2013

EXCLUSIVE: German Crimewatch to widen hunt for 'suspects'

TWO German sounding men are being sought by detectives trying to solve the Madeleine McCann mystery, we reveal today.

The focus of the hunt for the missing girl, now aged ten, will dramatically switch to Germany later this week when Kate and Gerry are expected travel there to make an urgent television appeal to run with new e fit pictures of potential suspects.

On Wednesday the German television channel ZDF will feature the BBC Crimewatch reconstruction in their programme, called Aktenzeichen XY, which means File Number XY.

Presenter Rudi Cerne will interview Kate and Gerry in the studio, allowing them  to directly appeal to millions of Germans for help in identifying the men.

A blurb for that programme says detectives are now going on the "offensive," suggesting the Yard investigation is rapidly gathering pace.

It says the trawl through existing documents has produced new information which leads to Germany for the first time.

The blurb adds: "This is the reason why XY will show sketches of two men who appear to speak German and who have so far been paid little or no importance."

Programme makers say this is the reason why Scotland Yard approached the programme's producer and asked for a similar appeal on Dutch television on Tuesday night.

In Europe the Dutch and German accents sounds similar so the Yard felt it was vital to appeal to people in the Netherlands, where viewers will see the BBC Crimewatch reconstruction.

ZDF says Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood will travel to Holland to appear on that separate programme.
Scotland Yard has already made inquiries into potential suspects in Germany.

British child abuser Raymond Hewlett was staying on the Algarve when Madeleine went missing in 2007 and also stayed in Germany.

He says he was at a flea market 30 miles away when Madeleine was taken, but declined to speak to the McCann's private investigators.

He told people gypsies had been looking to buy children, but could never be pinned down on details.

Hewlett died from cancer in Germany in 2010 aged 64 without making any admissions.

The Yard also liaised with their German counterparts on the movements of serial child killer Martin N, who is serving a life sentence in jail in Germany for abducting and murdering three boys.

The charming youth worker targeted children at beach holiday resorts and broke into their homes to snatch them.

In 2011 the Sunday Express published a picture of him alongside an e fit of a man seen acting suspiciously around apartment 5 a in Praia da Luz, just hours before Madeleine was taken.

Ney looked uncannily like the e-fit, but has told German police he was not in Portugal and had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/436289/EXCLUSIVE-German-Crimewatch-to-widen-hunt-for-suspects-in-Madeleine-McCann-search
I stand with Putin. Glory to Mother Putin.