Scotland Yard about to commence digs in and around Praia da Luz.

[carlymichelle]

The Guardian is reporting that Met is saying they won't comment on speculations..

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/05/madeleine-mccann-portugal-forensics-excavations?

So, this whole digging business might be a speculation?

our australian media are reporting it

[VIXTE]

our australian media are reporting it

They might be reporting it but it doesn't mean it is true.

I trust The Guardian more.

And I am waiting for the BBC to report it!

[icabodcrane]

They might be reporting it but it doesn't mean it is true.

I trust The Guardian more.

And I am waiting for the BBC to report it!

You don't believe a search for Madeleine's body is planned then  ?

[carlymichelle]

You don't believe a search for Madeleine's body is planned then  ?

sadly thats  exactly  what i  think it is??  i doubt there  would be a body by now either look at caylee anthony  and daniel morcombe

[VIXTE]

You don't believe a search for Madeleine's body is planned then  ?

The source of this story is not a trusting source.
From these sources it is just as any other news reported from the same source.
Their  next news from the Mirror is that Euclides Monteiro is the prime suspect.

[carlymichelle]

 Madeleine McCann cops to start digging up resort where she vanished 7 years ago

    May 04, 2014 22:49
    By Tracey Kandohla, Russell Myers

While the search for missing Maddie continues the McCanns must also consider the possibility that her body will be found in police digs

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Kate and Gerry McCann have never given up hope their missing daughter Madeleine is alive – but they are now bracing themselves for the heartbreak of a police search for her body.

Scotland Yard detectives are preparing to go to Portugal to launch extensive digs in and around the holiday area where the youngster vanished seven years ago at the age of three. The tormented couple have been briefed by officers about their plans to search three sites near the Praia da Luz resort they were staying at.

It is understood a team of highly-skilled forensic officers will use radar equipment to look ­underground in the grim hunt for clues.

A source close to the McCann’s said: “Kate and Gerry have been told police will be conducting the searches in and around Praia da Luz as soon as they get the green light from Portuguese authorities.

“There will be earth diggers everywhere and it will look very dramatic and it will be a heartbreaking and hugely emotional time for Madeleine’s poor parents.

“They don’t believe police are acting on any new tip off. They just need to carry out their own digs, looking for any possible clues that Portuguese authorities may have missed on their previous searches.

“It will not be a mere fingertip search of certain areas, it will be full ground searches, using radar and other equipment. It is such a sensitive part of their investigation but it has to be done.

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Exclusive: British Police officers from Scotland Yard arrive in Portugal
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“Police have assured Kate and Gerry that it does not mean they are specifically searching for her body. They are doing searches as much as to rule scenarios out as much as rule them in. They will be concentrating on several different places at different phases.

“Certain areas should have been searched properly way back by the Portuguese authorities but were not.”

Kate and Gerry will not be going to Portugal but will be kept updated throughout.

The source revealed the dig will form a routine part of the Met’s cold case review into Madeleine.

It comes after a ­Crimewatch TV appeal resulted in new information coming to light. The source added: “They have been tasked with the painstaking job of going through every single detail the Portuguese police have already done, plus following up any new leads that have come in. They are looking into it with fresh eyes. New ­information has come in following Crimewatch but it is not known if any of it is linked to these searches.”

Police will dig two areas of land surrounding the Ocean Club’s Apartment 5A, where Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007, and an area on the nearby beach.

PA Kate and Gerry McCann.
Kate and Gerry McCann.

Saturday was the anniversary of the ­youngster’s disappearance and prayers were said for her at her village church in Rothley, Leics. Heart doctor Gerry, 45, told wellwishers: “The Met are going back out to Portugal very soon. They are chipping away and there is new evidence. We are going to continue hoping we get a happy outcome and one day we will know what’s happening.” Kate has admitted the pair could not be blinkered to “a worst case scenario” but they are said to have been buoyed by the new development. They previously raised concerns about the pace of progress in the new ­investigation after tensions were revealed between British and Portuguese investigators.

The Met had said they were confident of being able to start “operational activity” in Portugal soon but their hopes have so far failed to materialise. The latest news is a sign Portuguese ­detectives could be willing to grant full access to files and evidence their British ­counterparts on Operation Grange have been requesting for months. Sources say a team could be in place even by the end of the week to fly to Portugal to try to find what happened to Madeleine, whose 11th birthday is next Monday.

Kate, 46, said recently: “The passing of further weeks and months as a result of ­unnecessary delays and barriers are not only frustrating, they are distressing.

“Each day without Madeline and each day of not knowing is another day too many. I just want to know if she’s alive or dead.” The former GP told last week how she secretly returns to the resort to feel close to her daughter and “to walk those streets” and “look for answers”. But she has not been back since April last year.

Madeleine’s great uncle, Brian Kennedy, 75, said: “We would just like to know something, whatever news that may because not having any idea where Madeleine is, is so difficult.”

The Daily Mirror Praia da Luz
Praia da Luz
 

Police are trying to identify a serial sex beast who may have struck at least 18 times in Algarve resorts from 2004 to 2010, assaulting British girls as young as 10 as they slept in their beds. In some attacks he wearing a burgundy, long-sleeved top. It may have had a white circle on the back.

Around six weeks after Madeleine vanished, police unearthed a potential burial site in the village of village of Arao, nine miles from Praia da Luz following a tip-off from a Dutch newspaper. But the search found nothing and that part of the probe was dropped.

The McCann’s official spokesperson Clarence Mitchell last night refused to comment on the latest planned digs. Scotland Yard said: “We do not provide a running ­commentary on ongoing investigations.”

[John]

Funny, that's where sy are going to dig....

The last I heard it was Dave Edgar's theory too that she isn't too far from Praia da Luz.

[John]

There is certainly something going on what with all the recent hints from SY that Madeleine might be deceased after all.  And not to mention the McCann's latest reaction to that independently produced artists impression of Madeleine at 11 that they have chosen to deride.

[Wonderfulspam]

Madeleine McCann: UK police travel to Portugal resort to oversee excavations

Report says forensics team plan to use radar equipment to look underground for clues to child's disappearance seven years ago

The search for missing child Madeleine McCann is set to enter a new phase as British police prepare to travel to Portugal to oversee excavations in the Portuguese resort where she went missing seven years ago, according to a report.

A team of forensic officers will use radar equipment to look underground for clues to her disappearance, according to a report in the Daily Mirror, which cited police sources.

The child's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were said to have been told of the plans to search three sites near the Praia da Lux resort but are not expected to go to Portugal.

Madeleine went missing from her family's rented holiday apartment in Praia da Luz on 3 May 2007, as her parents dined with friends at a nearby tapas bar.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police said that the force would neither confirm nor deny the report. "We are not going to give a running commentary," he said. "From the beginning of Operation Grange [the UK-led hunt for Madeleine], we have made it clear that speculation has been unhelpful to the investigation and that continues to be the case.

"As we have said from the beginning, we will not be commenting on any speculation surrounding this investigation."

Police said last month that they knew of nine sexual assaults and three "near misses" on British girls between the ages of six and 12 who were on holiday in the Algarve between 2004 and 2006.

Scotland Yard began a review of the case in May 2011 – codenamed Operation Grange – and opened a formal investigation last July.

Five new cases in which young girls were assaulted and one near miss came to light as a result of an appeal in March for information about a lone predator entering rooms of British families on holiday.

The Met said more than 500 people came forward and its officers were cautiously optimistic that they would be soon be working on the ground with Portuguese authorities, who will remain in charge of the investigation despite hopes of a joint operation. Portuguese police last year reopened their investigation after discovering new lines of inquiry.

There is a £20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible for Madeleine's disappearance. Anyone with information can call police on 0207 321 9251 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/may/05/madeleine-mccann-portugal-forensics-excavations

[jassi]

It would be nice to think that this radar search will actually happen - some genuine searching of the area as opposed to the mere scanning of documents and postulations over possible suspects and persons of interest.

[jassi]

The last I heard it was Dave Edgar's theory too that she isn't too far from Praia da Luz.

Didn't he think she was held in some nearby lawless village, held by some latter-day Hole in the Wall Gang?

[Brietta]

Funny, that's where sy are going to dig....

According to the tabloids.

I think NSY are having a bad enough time of it in Portugal trying to get access to witnesses to rule them in or out.
Not terribly sure precisely what the reaction would be to them ripping up the environs of Praia da Luz with huge diggers in the middle of the holiday season.

[jassi]

According to the tabloids.

I think NSY are having a bad enough time of it in Portugal trying to get access to witnesses to rule them in or out.
Not terribly sure precisely what the reaction would be to them ripping up the environs of Praia da Luz with huge diggers in the middle of the holiday season.

Not just the tabloids - the Guardian is carrying the article as well.  It will be interesting to see what actually happens and whether SY are just there as observers .
From what we have seen on programmes like Time Team, ground radar can be quite effective in locating objects.

[Brietta]

Not just the tabloids - the Guardian is carrying the article as well.  It will be interesting to see what actually happens and whether SY are just there as observers .
From what we have seen on programmes like Time Team, ground radar can be quite effective in locating objects.

Time Team is one of my all time favourite TV programmes, one of the main things I learned from watching ground radar in operation is how open to interpretation the readings are. 

Quite often the evidence or lack of it resulting from the dig very often did not correlate with the expectation raised by the ground radar readings and the resulting argy bargy made for excellent television . 

I think the Portuguese authorities are going to take a lot of convincing to allow the deployment of mechanical diggers. 

Perhaps someone with a firm grasp of police procedures could advise of the rights or wrongs but it is my opinion that this is putting the cart before the horse. 
The civil authorities have to be convinced and that could take some doing.
The police - particularly a foreign force - can’t go on a fishing expedition digging holes all over the place in the hope of finding something, and nothing is certain even when acting on what seems to be sound information.   

For example, despite intelligence from a witness and confirming alerts from dogs an excavation did not result in Mr Hoffa’s body being recovered. 

As far as we know NSY have not yet been allowed to follow through or even start the initial cold case investigation.

Therefore my opinion is that whether reported in the tabloids or broadsheets, exploratory digging of holes is putting the cart before the horse, and might this not be something to do with eliminating the question of what lies beneath Mr Murat’s drive?

[jassi]

Time Team is one of my all time favourite TV programmes, one of the main things I learned from watching ground radar in operation is how open to interpretation the readings are. 

Quite often the evidence or lack of it resulting from the dig very often did not correlate with the expectation raised by the ground radar readings and the resulting argy bargy made for excellent television . 

I think the Portuguese authorities are going to take a lot of convincing to allow the deployment of mechanical diggers. 

Perhaps someone with a firm grasp of police procedures could advise of the rights or wrongs but it is my opinion that this is putting the cart before the horse. 
The civil authorities have to be convinced and that could take some doing.
The police - particularly a foreign force - can’t go on a fishing expedition digging holes all over the place in the hope of finding something, and nothing is certain even when acting on what seems to be sound information.   

For example, despite intelligence from a witness and confirming alerts from dogs an excavation did not result in Mr Hoffa’s body being recovered. 

As far as we know NSY have not yet been allowed to follow through or even start the initial cold case investigation.

Therefore my opinion is that whether reported in the tabloids or broadsheets, exploratory digging of holes is putting the cart before the horse, and might this not be something to do with eliminating the question of what lies beneath Mr Murat’s drive?

Like with most things, we need to wait and see what develops.
From what is being reported, forensic scientists are involved and they are not likely to be using  mechanical diggers.  The Portuguese authorities may be be quite happy with this, particularly if SY are seen to be  there in an advisory capacity, rather than openly directing operations.

If nothing is found, it will be another area of investigation eliminated and if remains of Madeleine  are unearthed, then the reinvestigation will have achieved at least part of its objective.