“One night (December 2007?) three figures were seen entering the church with a bag, through the side door, when there is a body of a lady from the UK inside and which was then sent to be cremated in Ferreira do Alentejo. It is possible that the child’s body was in the urn”, he said.
When Kate was being questioned they said that someone had seen her and Gerry carrying a black bag. So how many bags are there? God knows where Madeleine was supposed to have been all the time from May to December if it was the McCann's sneaking into the church to hide her body.
I really worry about the mental health of Amaral at times.
Why would people question his mental health? He lead an investigation where he concluded a child had probably died and then had to consider scenarios in which a body was concealed and disposed of.
The December date is obviously not a direct quote from Amaral or it wouldn't be in brackets with a '?'. It's not a surprise that detractors of Amaral would make no effort at all to try and clarify what he actually said about concealment of a body but accept a glaringly obvious error because it makes Amaral look bad. In other interviews it seems apparent that the cremation in Church theory came from information gathered from others on the case and was in the period in which the McCanns had a key to the church and were visitors of it, ie. in the month after their daughter went missing.
Transcript from CMTV interview, 23/04/16
Anchor - I would like for you to tell us in detail your explanation for the disappearance of the body, you have a thesis..
Gonçalo Amaral - No, I don't have one.
Anchor - ... in this book...
Gonçalo Amaral - No, in that book there isn't anything concerning what we just saw me saying on the news piece that was shown. Because these are elements, these are information that appeared afterwards and were never investigated. It's just an hypothesis, and when considering that hypothesis...
Anchor - An hypothesis that Madeleine's body could have been hidden, could have been incinerated, right?
Gonçalo Amaral - There's an information here, in the police, that mentions that. That in a night, three figures were seen carrying a bag, entering the church...
Anchor - In the Praia da Luz church.
Gonçalo Amaral - In that church was a coffin of a woman, a woman from the United Kingdom...
Anchor - Of a British woman.
Gonçalo Amaral - ... and in the following day that coffin was transferred to Ferreira do Alentejo to be incinerated. But no one is saying that the parents did that, or saying who did that. It's something that someone who is on the field investigating has to ascertain, must investigate thoroughly.
Anchor - But you concede that hypothesis, that possibility of Madeleine's cadaver being taken to the church, and then incinerated is a plausible hypothesis...
Gonçalo Amaral - We're practically starting by the end, first is the disappearance, if you allow me to explain, to explain to the viewers... [overlapping speech]
Anchor - I'll allow you, but just so not to lose this train of thought, is this hypothesis plausible for you?
Gonçalo Amaral - It is plausible, and I say plausible in this sense, that that body would fit underneath the cadaver that was already there.
Anchor - And it would fit?
Gonçalo Amaral - It would, yes. At the time, when I was already out of the Judiciary Police I obtained the opinion of people that dealt with that, of funeral agencies, and they said that it was a possibility. It's an opinion that is not officialized but it's a possibility. If it happened like that or not, we don't know, there are several hypotheses to make a body disappear.
Liverpool Echo, 2014
Speaking earlier to a Portuguese newspaper and its TV channel, Amaral, sacked after botching the initial hunt for Madeleine, repeated his claims the youngster is dead.
But he suggested the McCanns hid her body in the woman’s coffin at Praia da Luz catholic church – which they had a key for – a month after she vanished in 2007.
Amaral added: “The mystery will only end when the McCann couple are no longer being protected. Only then will we understand the truth.”
But a source close to the couple said: “These are sickening allegations that no sane person would believe.
“It’s about time people realised what Mr Amaral is, a liar and a fantasist. He has been making these false claims since he was sacked.
“He is suggesting Kate and Gerry moved Madeleine’s body a month after she vanished.
So Amaral says it is just one possibility that would have to be investigated in an investigation of this kind and that it happened up to a month after the disappearance. Note the fact that 'a source close to the couple' felt the need to counter this theory even though 'no sane person would believe' it.
