Latest news on the search for Madeleine McCann

[Alfred R Jones]

A very clear info!!!!!!!!!!!!

Madeleine McCann suspects to be questioned soon, Portuguese police say
Portuguese confirm 'several people' identified for questioning by Scotland Yard officers
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Tracy McVeigh and Brendan de Beer in Praia da Luz
The Observer, Saturday 7 June 2014 20.54 BST


Portuguese police sources have confirmed to the Observer that a number of suspects identified by Scotland Yard detectives will be taken in for questioning "in the very near future" over the disappearance seven years ago of Madeleine McCann.

Police confirmed that "several people" had been identified by the Metropolitan police, who have had officers and two sniffer dogs in the Algarve all week searching a large area of scrubland close to the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz where the McCann family were staying when the three-year-old disappeared in May 2007. The search of that particular area, a Portuguese police source said, would end on 8 June and shift to another area.

It has been six months since the initial request by the Met for access to "three prime suspects" for questioning, although it is believed that as many as eight could be on the interview list. They would be the first significant arrests in the case. The three are thought to be burglars who may have carried out raids in the holiday resort and live locally, although the Portuguese would not say whether the men had criminal records.

The development comes after a cold-case review by British officers and involved the painstaking examination of hundreds of phone records from the area on the night the toddler vanished from her bed as her parents ate supper with friends at a nearby restaurant.

On Friday, officers in Met uniform were seen studying a flat area of ground at the opposite end of the area. They had previously focused on a hole covered in undergrowth. Forensics officers sifted through soil in large sieves inside a white tent set up to cover the void but nothing of interest has been found.

Portugal's attorney general's office said in January it had received an international letter of request in regard to "prime suspects" sent by British police investigating the disappearance. On Saturday the source said there was still no date set for questioning to take place but it definitely would not happen during the current search phase of the investigation, which they said would expand to new sites on Wednesday (11 June), culminating by "no later than next Friday".

Police also confirmed all the suspects still live in Portugal and that interviews would take place at either of the two Algarve police stations, Faro or Portimão, conducted by Portuguese detectives with their British counterparts allowed to sit in but not intervene.

Those police want to talk to will be immediately constituted as arguidos, a Portuguese term for someone who is a suspect, which garnered infamy when Madeline's parents, along with a British expatriate called Robert Murat, were given the status by Portuguese authorities. All three were cleared by a prosecutor in 2008.

The Praia de Luz mayor, Victor Mata, has said the timing of last week's search – which coincides with the resort's busiest holiday period and brought dozens of journalists back to the area – "couldn't be worse". He said local tourism was suffering and people were being "punished". Mata warned that if there were more searches in future, he would seek court action to stop them happening during peak summer period. "The people of Luz are not against the searches for Madeleine but seeing as it's been seven years, they would have appreciated it if they could have started in a few months' time."

Kate and Gerry McCann released a statement on their website saying they were "encouraged by the progress" being made by search teams in Portugal.

Writing on their Official Find Madeleine Campaign Facebook page, the couple said: "We are kept updated on the ongoing work in Portugal," and added: "Thank you for continuing to stand by us and supporting our efforts to get Madeleine home."

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jun/07/madeleine-mccann-suspects-questioned-police

Hmm....this one may give the doubters pause for thought.  But only for a second or two until they find a way to put a positive (for them) spin on it...

[faithlilly]

That actually made me laugh out loud.  Dream on my deluded doubter.

So that will be a no then, will it ?

According to the BBC Smithman is very firmly in the frame again because his phone was used near the McCann's apartment around the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Now with so much rumour and innuendo doing the rounds at the moment this could be a load of old nonsense but maybe..........!

[VIXTE]

So that will be a no then, will it ?

According to the BBC Smithman is very firmly in the frame again because his phone was used near the McCann's apartment around the time of Madeleine's disappearance. Now with so much rumour and innuendo doing the rounds at the moment this could be a load of old nonsense but maybe..........!

According to the BBC SY has requested to question 3 suspects and the request has been granted in a way that PJ will queston them and the SY would sit in. PT has added few more suspects to this list.. According to the Guardian all live in Portugal..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27745593?

[pathfinder73]

Madeleine McCann: New search site linked to suspect

11:07 AM Sunday Jun 8, 2014

The search for Madeleine McCann is to move to scrubland around a water treatment plant where a prime suspect may have worked.

Portuguese police sources have revealed that British officers are due to start scouring the area near the resort of Praia da Luz on Wednesday.

A fingertip search of wasteland in the centre of Praia da Luz is due to be completed today.

Then they will turn their focus to two areas by a small water treatment sub-station, a derelict farmhouse and an abandoned well.

Heroin addict Euclides Monteiro was working at a water and sewage plant in Lagos, four miles from the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was staying with her parents, Gerry and Kate.

Ex-colleagues of Monteiro, who was born in Cape Verde, have suggested that his duties included visiting other treatment plants in the area.

Monteiro used to work as a waiter at the Ocean Club but was sacked for stealing tips a year before Madeleine, then three, vanished in May 2007 - amid fears she had been abducted in a botched break-in by a thief looking for cash. He was signed off sick several days before she disappeared and did not return to work for two months.

Suspicions about him were heightened after analysis of his mobile phone data placed him near the apartment when Madeleine vanished.

Monteiro, who had served a jail term for burglary, died in a tractor accident, aged 40, in 2009. His widow Luisa has insisted he had nothing to do with Madeleine's disappearance.

The two new areas reportedly due to be searched are on a back road, half a mile from the Ocean Club. One is a ten-acre area of thick undergrowth.

It is believed that the sites were identified by British officers before they flew out to Portugal.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said: yesterday: 'We will not provide a running commentary on the progress of an investigation.'

- Mail on Sunday

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11269974

[pegasus]

Thanks. And from TVI in portugal -
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2014/06/maddie-case-searches-to-continue-on-two.html
Includes video of the two new areas, on the road from Luz to the N125

[Martina]

http://www.publico.pt/sociedade/noticia/policia-inglesa-devera-interrogar-oito-suspeitos-no-caso-maddie-1639150#/0

A polícia britânica identificou um conjunto de suspeitos no caso do desaparecimento de Madeleine McCann que quer que sejam interrogados, embora tal nunca deverá acontecer antes de terminarem as buscas que decorrem actualmente na Praia da Luz, no Algarve.

Now, my portuguese is not that good but I can understand that the above excerpt says SY indeed has some suspects to be questioned, but it won't happen before the end of the current searches in Luz.

A informação foi confirmada ao PÚBLICO por fonte da Polícia Judiciária (PJ), que negou, no entanto, que as autoridades se estejam a preparar para deter alguém em breve.

The info above was confirmed by the PJ, but they denied that the authorities were pereparing any arrests soon.

Ao PÚBLICO, a Judiciária não confirmou se as pessoas que a polícia tenciona interrogar serão traficantes, condenados ou não, ou sequer assaltantes.

The last sentence clearly states that the PJ did not confirm, that the people they plan to interrogate are drug dealers, convicts, or burglars.

I would be grateful if someone speaking portuguese could look at this article and correct my eventual mistakes.

[pegasus]

Found it, the location of the new searches.
At six seconds into the TVI video, there is a stone gatepost with the top missing, and a bent tree.
http://joana-morais.blogspot.com/2014/06/maddie-case-searches-to-continue-on-two.html

Here is the same gatepost (at an earlier date before the top fell off) and the same bent tree.
https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=praia+da+luz&ll=37.096892,-8.719847&spn=0.000296,0.001234&channel=fs&oe=utf-8&gl=uk&hnear=Luz,+Portugal&t=h&z=20&layer=c&cbll=37.096893,-8.719847&panoid=OnS8ZOJ5tYKwTrMz1jFUjA&cbp=12,339.69,,0,-1.66
Just zoom out to see  location on map.

[pegasus]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-search-digs-up-3659944

Madeleine McCann search digs up the [ censored word ]s and misguided conspiracy theorists

... The [ censored word ]s refer to cadaver dogs who showed ‘beyond doubt’ that a body must have been kept in the wardrobe of the apartment ...

[misty]

Just along the road from the spot Pegasus has given us on the GoogleStreetView is La Valverde Hotel & Campsite.
Co-incidentally, Luis Antonio's assistant did a night-shift there on 3/4 May

1488 to 1492  Further information regarding Luisa Antonio with request for diligences repeats of 1485 to 1487
06-Processo Volume VI pages 1488 to 1492 [ Repeats of 1485 to 1487]
1214 to 1216 Witness testimony of Joao Crisostomo Vieira Olim Junior 2007.05.14
1217 Consent to search above witness car a Volkswagen Passat
1218 Search warrant to search Volkswagen Passat
05-Processo Vol V pages 1214 to 1218
05_VOLUME_Va_Page_1214
05_VOLUME_Va_Page_1215
05_VOLUME_Va_Page_1216
05_VOLUME_Va_Page_1217
05_VOLUME_Va_Page_1218

Witness testimony of Joao Crisostomo Vieira Olim Junior 2007.05.14
      
Snip
-- Relating to the events under investigation in this case re: the disappearance of British minor, Madeleine McCann, on 3 May 2007 from Ocean Club Garden - Praia da Luz - Lagos, the deponent stated he knows absolutely nothing about any incidents that might have possibly surrounded the occurrence.
--- He explains that on that date he was in Almadena in the morning doing his part-time work described above.
--- Having spent the morning cleaning and disinfecting several private pools in that area he stopped work at 12h00.
--- Then he will have gone to L.A.'s house to park the car there, then he will have walked home on foot to Rua da Estrema ... in Lagos, where he will have rested, as usual, given that he had a night shift from 24h00 to 08h00 as nightw..ch at the Valverde campsite.
--- Later, at 18h30, he would have prepared himself for a Jehovah's Witness meeting which he attended between 20h30 and 22h30.
--- He states that at a time he does recall exactly, but between 18h30 and 20h00, he will have eaten his dinner at home.
--- The above [prayer] meeting being over, he will have returned home where he changed into his uniform and left for the Valverde campsite where he would have been the entire early morning of 4 May fulfilling his job as nightw..ch.
--- Therefore, he reiterates knowing nothing about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, wishing to add that he found out about its proportions and the related incidents only the following day from what was said and written in the Press.
Nothing more said. Read, ratifies and will sign.



Always found it strange he never mentioned seeing Miss Walczuch at that meeting.

[John]

All this talk about imminent arrests is a load of journalistic contrived baloney.  None of these suspects or more properly 'persons of interest' will be arrested any more than Robert Murat or the McCanns were.  They will be questioned and if appropriate they will be granted arguido status pending further investigations.

[jassi]

It certainly would seem that way.

[Victoria]

Madeleine McCann search digs up the [ censored word ]s and misguided conspiracy theorists
Jun 07, 2014 20:25
OPINION BY KAYBURLEY

There can’t be many parents around the world unaware of the plight of a beautiful little girl who was only three years old when she disappeared in 2007, writes Kay Burley in the Sunday People.

Immediately recognisable by her first name, Madeleine, the eldest of the McCann children disappeared one warm May evening in 2007 as her parents dined with friends in a restaurant at their resort in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

Despite an Interpol search and worldwide publicity nothing has been seen of the little one since.

This week, seven years on, police from the Met have begun searching an area of scrubland near the apartment including a deep, concealed shaft and sewers.

Could this prove to be the final resting place?

Her parents, Kate and Gerry, who suffer every single day with the consequences of their actions that night have decided not to travel to Praia da Luz for this latest hunt for Madeleine.

Who can blame them?

Well, it would appear quite a few. I am absolutely staggered by the number of people on social media who think they know exactly what happened to little Madeleine.

Conspiracy theorists believe that it’s only a matter of time before the McCanns are held culpable for their daughter’s disappearance.

 
They point out Kate refused to answer some questions put her by the Portuguese police. Kate was with her lawyer when interviewed by the police.

She would have been advised what to say.

The [ censored word ]s refer to cadaver dogs who showed ‘beyond doubt’ that a body must have been kept in the wardrobe of the apartment and then later driven in the McCann’s hire car to be buried.

Under the noses of the Portuguese police and the world’s press?

Easy to dismiss such claims as Looney Tunes, but even a national newspaper was guilty of claiming the McCanns know more than they have told the police .

As a mother I am offended and appalled by such unfounded allegations.

Every morning the McCann’s must wake up only to be smothered by a blanket of guilt.

‘If only we’d done this…’

They have always held on to the hope that Madeleine will be found alive.

So as the search continues, please ignore the [ censored word ]s and think instead of two desperate parents hundreds of miles away sitting by the phone and hoping against hope that nothing is found this time.



http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-search-digs-up-3659944#ixzz3401lq49X

Very well said, Kay. Don't often have time for her, but it needed saying and I respect her for it. 

[Alfred R Jones]

Oh I see. So it's only the view which supports the McCann's which is important? We can just sweep Mrs Tractorman's misfortune under the carpet......she's fair game.....the McCann's are off limits.

You're getting hysterical. 

[pegasus]

Very well said, Kay. Don't often have time for her, but it needed saying and I respect her for it. 

IMO it is a more than balanced article, for it very fairly presents an opposing point of view:

[ censored word ]s refer to cadaver dogs who showed ‘beyond doubt’ that a body must have been kept in the wardrobe of the apartment

[jassi]

IMO it is a more than balanced article, for it very fairly presents an opposing point of view:

Very cleverly written, IMO.  Are we sure Kate is capable of writing such stuff?