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Transcript - McCanns 7:56 It's certainly been the worst 4 months of our lives. Every day is very hard without Madeleine and we all miss her so much. It certainly feels like there's a big void in our life without her. Kate
8:12 I'm sure most people can imagine how bad it was that first night when we discovered her gone and how terrifying it was. It is as most parents would say - a parent's worst nightmare. Gerry
8:44 I think the key thing that we've tried to do is to channel all of our emotions and energy into influencing the search for Madeleine and that what drives us forward. That we do still have some influence on it. And as parents the last thing we want to do is look back in a few months time and say I wish we had done this. Gerry
9:17 We've also got two other children and it's very important that we're there for them as well. Kate
Our families have given us tremendous support, absolutely amazing. Gerry
10:45 She's pretty extrovert. She's very sociable and very engaging. She's bright and funny. She does have a sense of danger though even though she's very young. She does have a sense of danger.
11:03 We're clearly biased but Madeleine is close to the perfect child as you could get for someone who was so young, less that 4, when she was taken. She really is amazing. She's quite a leader I would say amongst her peers and she's engaging and it really affects people who've met her. Gerry
She has a lot of personality for someone as young as she is. Kate
Nothing like this has ever happened like going with anyone she didn't know for example. Gerry
13:26 She went sailing, she went to the beach, mini tennis. Did role play, singing, that's sort of thing and she really loved it. She was having a ball this holiday. Gerry
13:48 She's go so much energy Madeleine and that was one thing even our friends commented on while we were there. Wow she keeps going. Kate
14:10 Portugal has a tremendous reputation for being child friendly to start with. Luz itself, everyone was saying nothing ever happens here. It was incredibly quiet. Gerry
We felt very very safe. Nothing struck us as unusual. Kate
We were off-season, the last week in April beginning of May and it was very quiet. We felt that is was virtually an idyllic holiday really. Gerry
18:54 I knew straight away she had been taken. Well put it this way I knew she hadn't walked out of the apartment. Kate
I have to say when I got there and Kate told me and when I looked at the scene as well I had absolutely no doubt. But our immediate reaction was to double and triple check. We did do that both in the apartment and in the vicinity. And then we said call the police and one of our friends alerted both the resort manager and the police. Gerry
19:33 And that was within 5 minutes or so it was very quick. Kate
It was all done very quickly. And to the credit of the tour operators Mark Warner. They had a large number of their staff back in organising a missing child alert. All the staff came in off-duty and started searching the complex and the beach etc. different areas. And many other holiday makers and people who live in the village joined that search. Gerry
20:56 We can't talk in any detail about it. It was pretty much a normal day but what we can't do is talk about detail of our actual movements on that day in case it prejudices the investigation. Gerry
21:14 Did something happen between the beginnning of the day and the time she disappeared? Something different?
21:15 No no. Gerry
24:45 What we do know is that we don't know where she is. We don't know who's taken her and we don't know why. But given the very extensive searching both in the first week or two and again four weeks ago there's still no evidence of serious harm to Madeleine that we know of and that gives us hope that she could still be alive. Gerry
25:24 It's a horrible situation. It's the not knowing. Not knowing what's happened. How she is? What's she going though? How long it's going on for? If we ever get a conclusion. Kate
Because you tend to imagine the worst and we found that particularly hard early on. The not knowing means it's incredibly difficult to move on. You don't know if that person's alive or dead or being hurt or being looked after which still could be the case with Madeleine. Obviously we pray that it could be something like that. Gerry
29:55 We want to do everything in our power to influence the search for Madeleine. Gerry
32:22 We don't know whether she would have been found by this time in any other country given the same circumstances. We're not going to give up on Madeleine and we're going to keep looking for her. Gerry
39:52 You just gotta keep hoping really that they're going to find her. That's the bottom line. We're not detectives. Like everybody else we can speculate but speculation doesn't help. Kate
The hardest thing I think is and this would be the case whether we were in Britain, the United States or any other country. It's difficult because Madeleine hasn't be found and you don't know if she would have been found by this time in any other country given the same circumstances. And also additionally we've learned a lot about child abduction both in Europe and also from North America where they have the best collection of statistics. And there are lots of individual cases of children being recovered after long abductions. Gerry
40:51 That's the key message that there is hope and other families have proven that there is hope until you know for certain and that's what we are very much and all our family believe. We' not going to give up on Madeleine and we're going to keep looking for her. Gerry
42:16 Do you rely on the expertise of Portuguese police?
We have to rely on them. They are the investigating police force. They're professionals, they are detectives and use to dealing with serious crime. Clearly in this case they have had assistance from the UK police who have provided some specialist support and of course the investigation we've stated all along is the most likely chance of us finding her. Gerry
45:29 I think that's what it is. It's a theory. Gerry
There's always been a possibility that she might not be alive even from the very first minute we realised she wasn't there. We spent for first 3 or 4 days we couldn't think of anything else. That's all we could think of. That's she'd been taken and killed. And obviously has time goes on and it's nearly 4 months now and we still don't have any evidence to say that she's dead. There's still that hope even if it's a small hope there's still that chance she's alive. The worst thing you can do is write off a child and give up if there's still a chance she's alive. Kate
52:36 I can't do this any more. I just want to press a button and we're all gone and it's all finished and we're all together. Kate
54:48 We never asked to be put in this situation and we certainly would never have wanted to be in the media spotlight early on. And the vast majority of the time the media have actually treated is very well and with a degree of respect and shown some respect for our feelings as well.
I mean although obviously we don't plough through the papers we've got an idea of what's been said. There has been quite a lot of upsetting stuff recently and there's been a lot of fabrication as well I think that's fair to say which has been very upsetting. Kate
55:29 Some of the things that have been written are incredibly hurtful to us considering what we're actually going through any way to imply.......No one knows whether Madeleine is dead but to have people stating it and that we are involved in it is incredibly hurtful and I also feel it damages the investigation and it smears the campaign. And it causes a great deal of anxiety to our family as well. Gerry
56:37 Kate you always carry that child's toy. It belonged to Madeleine. Why are you always with that toy?
It's Madeleine's favourite cuddly toy and you know she took it to bed with her every night or if she was tired or not feeling very well she always had it as a comfort. And I suppose it's special to Madeleine so it's special to me really and I just feel that bit closer to her. Kate
She's got a rival for it now though - Madeleine's younger sister wants to adopt it. There's a bit of a fight between the ladies in the house. Gerry
58:14 It's not easy you know. It really isn't easy and some days are better than others. Kate
Other days do you want to give all this up?
Give up and stop looking for Madeleine. Gerry
There's days when you think I can't do this any more. I just want to press a button and we're all gone and it's all finished and we're all together and gone whatever! But you can't you know. Kate
59:15 It's very hard to think about leaving Portugal, Praia da Luz mainly because this is the last time we saw Madeleine was in PDL so it's incredible hard to move away from there. But logically I know that Madeleine could be any where, unfortunately Madeleine could be any where so whether I'm here or or in the UK or elsewhere in Europe I don't know how far I'm from her. Whether I'm one mile from her or a thousand miles from her it's still incredibly hard. Kate
