The McCanns release their second media statement on the evening of 05 May 2007
Reports and videos published on Saturday 05 May 2007
Police search/McCanns walking with the twins, 05 May 2007
Police Search For Missing British Girl
The parents of a three-year-old feared abducted in Portugal have made an appeal for her safe return.
It's thought that Madeleine McCann may have been snatched from her hotel room at a resort on the Algarve. Sky's Ian Woods
reports.
00:03:15
Devastated Family: Pictures From Portugal
The family of missing 3 year old Madeleine McCann have been seen with their two other children
walking around their resort in Portugal. See the latest pictures here.
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the
English three-year-old child that was on holidays in Lagos,
"is a very badly told story", a source from the Polícia Judiciária in Portimão has confided to DN. The statement reflects
the authorities' doubts concerning the "confused" depositions that were given by the witnesses yesterday, throughout the day.
After one day of searches, the authorities
have widened their action into Spain. Despite the contradictions in this case, the scenario of the child’s abduction is gaining
strength. The little girl went missing on Thursday night, from the room where she was sleeping with her twin siblings that
are one year younger than her, at the Ocean Club tourist resort, in Praia da Luz.
At this edition's closing time, the searches
were ongoing, carried out by approximately fifty elements of the GNR, aided by sniffer dogs that are specialised in the detection
and rescue of humans, which were offered the pink blanket that covered the little girl in the bed where she was sleeping.
Since 4 p.m., the means had been reinforced by a helicopter from the National Civil Protection Service, the firemen from Lagos and divers from the Maritime
Police.
The PJ is considering the possibility of
abduction, and the heads of the Directory of Faro and of the Criminal Investigation Department of Portimão are taking part
in the investigations. Consternation is the feeling that is generalised among the English community and the Portuguese population
that reside in Luz, which have been trying to help the authorities, out of their own initiative, in an attempt to trace the
little girl's whereabouts. The operation included houses, yards, swimming pools, apartments, open fields and the beach (which
is located approximately 300 metres from the resort), not only in Luz, but also in the neighbouring areas of Burgau and Lagos.
The disappearance of little Madeleine, who
is to become four years old next week, has reportedly taken place between 9 and 10 p.m. on Thursday. Her parents, Gerard and
Katie McCann, him a cardiologist and her an expert in internal medicine, both approximately 35 years old, residing in Leicester,
in England, left the three children sleeping alone in the apartment while they dined at the "Tapas" restaurant, which belongs
to the resort. According to what they told the GNR, every half hour one of them went to check the room in order to assure
that all was well.
It was during one of those visits that they
noticed the little girl was missing. They started out by searching for her within the resort, having asked for support from
the group of friends that had travelled with them, and from the employees at the resort. At 11.50 p.m., the couple alerted
the GNR in Lagos, which arrived on location 20 minutes later, having immediately launched the investigation, at the same time
as the PSP, the PJ, the Foreigners and Borders Service, and Faro Airport were alerted.
The parents, who were taken to the PJ in
Portimão at around mid-morning, refused to speak to the journalists, but advanced the idea that the apartment had been broken
into, to the British media. Nevertheless, the resort's administration and the GNR assert that "there were no signs of a break-in
whatsoever".
Parents' anguish as toddler is 'abducted' at night from holiday resort in Portugal, 05 May
2007
Parents' anguish as toddler is 'abducted' at night from holiday resort in Portugal Independent
By Ian Herbert
Saturday, 5 May 2007
A search was under way last night for a British toddler who is feared abducted after disappearing from an apartment at
a holiday resort in south-west Portugal while her parents dined 200 yards away. Madeleine McCann, who will be four next week,
went missing from the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club complex in Praia da Luz on Thursday night,prompting a hunt involving dozens
of holidaymakers.
Her parents, Gerald and Kate McCann, who left for a nearby tapas restaurant at 8pm, had looked in every half hour on
their daughter and her two-year-old twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie, who at 9.30pm were all asleep Madeleine
in a single bed and the twins in cots on either side. But when Ms McCann, a GP, checked at 9.45pm, Madeleine known to
her family as "Maddy" had gone.
Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, told his sister, Trish Cameron, that his wife
had found the front door to their ground-floor apartment open and that the louvred shutters had been "jemmied" open. "[Gerry
rang last night and told me] 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'," Ms Cameron said. "Nothing had been touched
in the apartment, no valuables taken, no passports. They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door
with her."
Although forensic officers fingerprinted the window sill of the ground floor apartmentand sealed off its private patio,
a spokesman for Mark Warner said there had been no evidence of a forced entry. However, the shutters had been slid up and
the bedroom window opened after the McCanns had left.
John Hill, the resort manager, said all apartments in the five-storey complex had "quite sophisticated shutters".
Madeleine, an energetic three-year-old who enjoys swimming and tennis lessons and is due to start school in September,
was wearing white pyjamas when she disappeared.
"The fear is she has been abducted," a police source said. " There has been absolutely no sign of her."
The child's distraught parents spent yesterday at police headquarters in nearby Faro. They issued a statement saying
they believed Madeleine was alive. "This is a particularly difficult time for the family and we are all comforting each other.
"We have received lots of support from friends, family and the public and the family are very grateful for that support.
At this time all the family's focus is in assisting the UK and, in particular, the Portuguese authorities in securing Madeleine's
safe return."
Mrs McCann and her Scottish husband, who are both 38, live in Rothley, Leicestershire, and are said to be protective
of their children. The holiday to Portugal, with a group of eight couples from Leicester's medical fraternity, was the first
of its kind they had taken. All the couples in the McCanns' group took children, and Madeleine was the eldest.
News of Madeleine's disappearance quickly spread across Praia da Luz on Thursday night and about 70 holidaymakers abandoned
their evening plans to scour the beaches, swimming pools and empty buildings for her and take vehicles in roads leading into
the surrounding hills.
The McCanns scoured the lanes above the resort, shouting for her in the dark. Police notified border police, Spanish
police and airports and deployed sniffer dogs. But with each hour that passes, hopes that Madeleine merely wandered off are
fading.
There were conflicting reports yesterday of how effective the Portuguese police operation has been. A family friend,
Jill Renwick, told GMTV that police activity ground to a halt at 3am. But Mr Hill said this was not true, and that police
had been searching with dogs overnight and continued to search today.
He said: "The police have their dogs in and have been conducting sweeps of the beach and rocky areas very close to the
village. There is a criminal investigator here in charge of the situation and about 20 officers."
The McCanns were due to return to Britain with their children today to prepare for Madeleine's fourth birthday. Instead,
her maternal grandparents,Brian and Susan Healy, left Liverpool to join them in Portugal and offer support.
Tapas for two ... then parents' nightmare began, 05 May 2007
Tapas for two ... then parents' nightmare began Guardian
Police hunt three-year-old believed abducted from holiday apartment
Sandra Laville, Martin Wainwright, Dale Fuchs in Faro
The Guardian, Saturday May 5, 2007
The telephone rang at around 11pm at Trish Cameron's home near Glasgow. She picked it up to hear the voice of her younger
brother. "He was distraught, breaking his heart," Mrs Cameron said. "He said: 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted.'"
Hundreds of miles away in Portugal's western Algarve Gerald McCann, whose job as a heart surgeon demands a calm, steady
nerve, had lost any semblance of control and was crying down the telephone to his older sister. Just an hour earlier he and
his wife Kate had returned to their ground floor apartment in the Ocean Club holiday resort to find that three-year-old Madeleine,
the little girl they had left asleep in her white pyjamas, had disappeared.
Their two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, lay undisturbed in their cots beside the bed, making the absence of the child
they call Maddy all the more haunting. Nothing appeared to have been stolen from the room, but the shutters seemed to have
been forced, the window was open and the main door unlocked, according to the family.
It was Mrs McCann who walked in first. Minutes later she ran out screaming, according to her sister in law. In the confusion
and melee that followed, the police were called and other holidaymakers woken to carry out a search for the three-year-old,
amid hopes that she was merely sleepwalking.
But by the time Mr McCann picked up the phone to his sister in Dumbarton the thread of hope that Maddy had simply climbed
out of the window and wandered off had been eclipsed by the growing certainty that she had been snatched while he and his
wife ate tapas just 100 yards away within the holiday complex.
The luxury resort in Praia de la Luz, where Moorish-style villas sit amid sub-tropical gardens overlooking a beach of
white sand, was transformed into a crime scene yesterday.
Portuguese police used a sniffer dog to check around the complex. The five storey block where the McCanns were staying
was sealed off and forensic experts were dusting the shutters and windows of their two bedroomed apartment for fingerprints.
Those holidaymakers who were not taking part in the continuing search for any sign of the child were handing out photographs
of her in the hope that someone either within the resort or outside in the small village of Praia de la Luz would have spotted
her.
"She is an absolutely beautiful wee blonde girl with blue green eyes," said Mrs Cameron. "Her one distinguishing features
is that one of her pupils runs down into the iris of her eye, her right eye."
The Foreign Office said a liaison officer from the Serious and Organised Crime Unit was in touch with the Portuguese
chief of police. Two officials from the British Consulate in nearby Portimao were with the family to help them as they dealt
with the police, a spokesman said.
The couple were being interviewed yesterday afternoon by Portuguese detectives, who took them through their movements
on Thursday night in detail.
Mrs McCann, a GP in Leicester and her husband, who works in the world renowned cardiac unit of Glenfield Hospital, in
the city, flew out to the Algarve with eight friends last Saturday for the week-long break.
Maddy, their eldest child, was going to be four next week and was due to start school in September. Family friend Jill
Renwick said it was the first time they had been away somewhere with the children and that they had chosen the resort with
care. "This is the first time they have done this. They are very, very anxious parents and very careful and they chose [the
resort] because it is family-friendly," she said.
Throughout the week the family enjoyed the facilities in the resort, which boasts four swimming pools, the beach and
childcare from 7.30pm to 11.30pm for those parents who want it.
On Thursday night the McCanns went out after 8pm, having put their three children into their pyjamas and seen them fall
asleep in their bedroom in the apartment. "They weren't out for long, and they could see the apartment from the restaurant"
said Brian Healy, Madeleine's maternal grandfather.
Mrs Cameron said the couple checked on the children every half hour; the last check was made after 9pm by Mr McCann.
Some time between then and around 10pm when his wife walked into the room to find Madeleine missing, the family believes an
intruder broke in and snatched the girl.
Mrs Cameron said: "Nothing had been touched in the apartment, no valuables taken, no passports. They think someone must
have come in the window and gone out the door with her."
Paul Moyes, 47, from Cheshire and his wife Susan, who own a holiday apartment in the same block as the McCanns, said
they were woken at 11.30pm by a knock on the door and asked to join in a search for a missing girl.
"We went down to the beach with scores of other people to look for her," said Mr Moyes. "The police arrived at around
midnight and by that stage we were already out looking. There were uniformed police, plain clothes and even off duty local
officers who joined in.
"The search went on all night, people were using torches, and in the morning police sniffer dogs arrived."
By 4.30am exhausted holidaymakers began drifting away, having found no sign of Madeleine. Back home in Dumbarton, Mrs
Cameron spoke to her brother again at 10am yesterday.
"It was frustrating for him then because between 5am and 7am the police seemed to do nothing, they were standing about,"
she said.
But the manager of the resort, John Hill, said everything was being done to try to trace Madeleine. "It was a very emotional
and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area," he said.
Throughout yesterday the search continued for Madeleine. Mrs McCann's parents, Brian and Sandra, flew out in the afternoon
from Liverpool to join their daughter and son-in-law, who met as young doctors in Glasgow and married nine years ago in Liverpool.
Mrs Cameron also packed a bag to fly out to help her younger brother.
At the McCanns' family home in the village of Rothley, Leicestershire, neighbours and friends were praying that Madeleine
would be found alive and well. "We are absolutely devastated," said Penny Noble. "They are a really nice family and good neighbours.
They are delightful. We see them take their bikes up and down and going for walks. Madeleine is a very happy-go-lucky little
girl".
Another neighbour, Tracey Horsefield, said that the family "idolised" Maddy and the twins. She said: "They were really
protective of the children. I'm just praying that she's not been abducted. Let's hope that for some reason she just wandered
off."
At the cardiac unit in Glenfield Hospital, staff were at work yesterday with one eye on the phone - hoping to receive
the call which would tell them their colleague's child had been found safe and well.
Doug Skehan, a consultant cardiologist who works with Mr McCann, said: "The mood in the hospital is one of great concern
and we hope that Kate and Gerry will have their daughter back very soon."
Grandfather: evidence that three-year old was snatched, 05 May 2007
Grandfather: evidence that three-year old was snatched Guardian
Sandra Laville and Dale Fuchs in Faro
The Guardian, Saturday May 5 2007
The grandfather of a three-year-old snatched from her parents' holiday apartment in the Algarve said yesterday that there
was clear evidence she had been abducted.
Police helicopters flew over Praia de la Luz yesterday as the hunt intensified for Madeleine McCann, who went missing
from her bedroom in the apartment on Thursday night.
Teams of officers used sniffer dogs to scour the resort, in the south-west of Portugal, where Gerald McCann, a cardiac
surgeon, and his wife Kate, had taken their three young children - Madeleine and her younger brother and sister, who are twins
- for a week-long holiday.
Mark Warner, the holiday firm which runs the luxury resort, claimed last night there was no sign of a break in at the
ground floor apartment overlooking the sea. But Brian Healy, Madeleine's maternal grandfather, told the Guardian his son-in-law
had phoned him shortly after returning to the apartment from a nearby restaurant to find Madeleine had disappeared.
"Gerry told me when they went back the shutters to the room were broken, they were jemmied up and she was gone," said
Mr Healy. "She'd been taken from the chalet. The door was open."
Mr Healy flew to Portugal yesterday to lend support to his daughter Kate, 39, who is a Leicester GP, and son-in-law Gerry,
38, a consultant cardiologist at the city's Glenfield Hospital. He denied suggestions that the couple had simply left their
three children alone while they ate in a restaurant.
"It is not right to say that they just left them," said Mr Healy. "They could see the chalet from where they were sitting
in the restaurant, they were a hundred yards away. They went back every half hour to check on the children. When they returned
at the end of their meal she was gone. My daughter can hardly speak. She is distraught, she is crying and in shock."
Search goes on for girl feared snatched on holiday, 05 May 2007
A LIVERPOOL mother and her husband were last night still searching for their three-year-old daughter who it is feared
was snatched from a holiday resort in Portugal.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a rented apartment on Thursday evening as her parents dined at a tapas restaurant nearby.
Kate McCann, 38, a GP originally from Allerton, and father Gerry, a consultant heart specialist from Glasgow, fear she
has been snatched from the Ocean Club resort.
The couple last night made a heartfelt plea, urging her abductors to return her to her family.
She was last seen sleeping soundly by her father at around 9pm on Thursday night at the resort, run by holiday firm Mark
Warner, in the seaside village of Praia Da Luz in the south-western Algarve.
But at 10pm when her mother Kate went to check on her, she found the shutter slid up, the bedroom window open and her
daughter gone.
Mr McGann last night read out a brief statement, with his wife at his side, pleading with the abductors to release the
three-year-old back to her family.
His voice cracking with emotion, he said: "We cannot describe the anguish and despair we are feeling as parents of our
beautiful daughter Madeleine.
"We request that anyone with any information relating to Madeleine's disappearance, no matter how trivial, contact the
Portuguese police and help us get her back safely."
He then directly addressed anyone who might be holding his daughter, saying: "Please, if you have Madeleine, let her
come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister."
He also asked that the family's privacy be respected so that they can do as much as possible to help the police investigation
into their daughter's disappearance.
"Everyone can understand how distressing the current situation is. We ask that our privacy is respected to allow us to
continue assisting the police in their investigation," he said. The McCanns, who now live in Leicester, were holidaying with
Madeleine and twins Sean and Amelie, two.
Last night, the toddler's anxious grandparents spoke of their distress before catching a flight from Manchester Airport
to Faro to join their daughter in Portugal.
Grandparents Brian and Susan, of Wembley Road, Mossley Hill, decided to fly to Portugal to support their daughter and
help with the search for Madeleine after becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of news in the UK.
Speaking at the door of the family home, before setting off, Madeleine's grandfather Brian Healy said: "It's a very distressing
time."
Madeleine's aunt, Trish Cameron, who lives in Dumbarton near Glasgow, described how her brother, Gerry, had called her
"breaking his heart".
She said his wife had gone to check on the children and "came out screaming".
"The door was lying open, the window in the bedroom and the shutters had been jemmied open.
"Nothing had been touched in the apartment, no valuables taken, no passports.
"They think someone must have come in the window and then gone out the door with her."
She revealed the couple were on holiday with other doctors from the medical fraternity in Leicester.
Pat Perkins added: "Kate and Gerry often visited Liverpool with the children. They are such good parents."
The manager at the Mark Warner resort, John Hill, said around 60 staff and guests at the complex had searched until 4.30am
yesterday.
A HUGE hunt was going on last night for three-year-old Maddy McCann, feared snatched from her holiday flat.
Maddy is believed to have been taken as she slept in the complex on Portugal's Algarve as her doctor parents ate at a
bar 120ft away. Her scent was picked up by a police sniffer dog. But it petered out after 400 yards.
Yesterday, 24 hours after the young child vanished in quiet Praia da Luz, anguished parents Gerry and Kate, both 38,
of Rothley, Leics, begged for her return.
A friend said: "Kate rang us totally hysterical, saying Maddy was abducted. They're devastated."
The appalling news that three-year-old Maddy McCann was feared kidnapped from her holiday flat came in a distraught phone
call early yesterday from her dad.
Heart specialist Gerry McCann rang his sister Trish in Scotland after Maddy vanished from her cot placed between two-year-old
twins Sean and Amelie.
Trish revealed yesterday: "He was breaking his heart, saying 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's been abducted'."
Gerry and wife Kate, both 38, had been checking their three children in the family's ground-floor flat every 30 minutes
as they dined with friends 120ft away.
Trish said: "When Kate checked, she came out screaming. Maddy had gone. The door was open and the window in the bedroom
and shutters were jemmied open. Nothing had been touched and no valuables taken.
"They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her."
Close family friend Gill Renwick, of Liverpool, who also spoke to GP Kate yesterday, said: "Poor Kate and Gerry don't
know where to turn.
"Madeleine has obviously been taken. She couldn't have gone out on her own and the shutters were forced."
Maddy went missing at the Mark Warner Ocean club resort in the coastal village of Praia da Luz on Portugal's Algarve.
A trail of her scent picked up by police dogs at the flat was followed to a supermarket just 400 yards away where it disappeared.
A 24-hour search by police, hundreds of villagers and British holidaymakers failed to find any trace of the child.
Last night Gerry and Kate, of Rothley, Leics, issued a statement saying they were hopeful Maddy would be found safe and
well. It read: "This is a particularly difficult time for the family and we are all comforting each other. We have received
lots of support from friends, family and the public and are very grateful.
"All the family's focus is in assisting the authorities in securing Madeleine's return."
A woman friend of the McCanns - one of their holiday party of nine adults and eight children - said: "We went for dinner
at 8.45pm in a restaurant near the apartments as we've done every night.
"A parent from each family went back to check on the children every half hour.
"Someone checked at 9.15. But when Kate went later Madeleine had gone.
"The window shutters, which had been closed since we arrived on Saturday, were open along with the window. They can be
opened from the outside.
"The window opens on to a car park. The door to the room was shut. It looks as if someone has come through the window
and possibly left through the door."
Close family friend Jon Corner, of Liverpool, told how tearful Kate sobbed down the phone early yesterday: "Someone has
taken my little girl."
Jon, godparent to the McCanns' twins, said: "She was in an absolutely hysterical state - very, very distressed. She blurted
out Madeleine had been abducted.
"Kate said the shutters of the room were smashed. Madeleine was missing It looks as though someone had gone straight
past the twins to get to her. Kate was incredibly upset. I've spoken to her since, and she's still completely devastated.
"She's also very upset that the police don't seem to be doing more to find Madeleine. She thinks there's too little happening."
Mr Corner described the McCanns as a "superb mother and father". He said: "They are a very loving family."
The McCanns' apartment is set in a self-contained complex which boasts villas and apartments together with supermarkets,
restaurants, cafes, boutiques and bars.
Mark Warner management denied there were signs of forced entry at the flat claiming instead that roller shutters had
been slid up and the bedroom window opened.
The firm added that police were keeping an open mind over whether Maddy had managed to leave the apartment on her own.
The McCanns were said to have chosen the complex as a "family-friendly resort."
But they declined to take advantage of a baby-sitting service which would have left their children supervised while they
dined.
Resort manager John Hill said around 60 staff and guests had searched until 4.30am yesterday as police contacted border
authorities, neighbouring Spanish officers and airports.
Mr Hill said: "It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and
trying to search the area.
"There are a criminal investigator and around 20 officers here but unfortunately there's still no information. If I was
in the McCanns' situation, I'd be frustrated as hell. If there were 100 police here I'd want more."
The British Embassy said it had been informed about Maddy's disappearance.
Portuguese police said: "It's a sensitive case. It involves a child and we cannot give more information for now."
Officers sealed off the five-storey holiday block with crime scene tape and fingerprinted the shutters and window sill
outside Maddy's room. A patio to the rear of the block, believed to be attached to the family's two-bedroom apartment, was
also sealed off.
By late afternoon the hunt for Maddy had intensified with helicopter crews, firemen and maritime search teams involved.
A special criminal investigation team from the Policia Judiciria was travelling down from Lisbon.
Sky News weather presenter Jo Wheeler said local police had been giving out maps and telling people where to look. She
said: "It's very well organised."
Wheeler said Maddy could not have wandered on her own back to the beach.
She said: "She'd have to have taken a long and tortuous journey, crossed several roads and walked three quarters of a
mile."
Back in the UK police stood guard outside the McCanns' five-bedroom home in a quiet cul-de-sac. Neighbour Tracey Horsfield,
32, a nurse, said: "They're delightful people - a normal, caring family. They idolise their children. They'd never let them
out of their sight." Another neighbour Penny Noble said: "We're absolutely devastated. They're a really nice family. We see
them going for walks. Madeleine is a happy-go-lucky little girl."
Last night Kate's father, Brian Healy, of Mossley Hill, Liverpool, was preparing to fly out to Portugal. He said: "We're
worried sick. It's a very distressing time."
Gerry McCann is said to be one of Europe's top heart specialists and a consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital
in Leicester. The hospital is a centre of excellence for heart surgery in the UK.
Doug Skehan, also a consultant cardiologist at the hospital, said: "He is a popular, hard-working colleague for whom
we have great affection.
"The mood here is one of great concern and we hope that Kate and Gerry will have their daughter back very soon."
'Maddy was abducted and we have a suspect in mind', 05 May 2007
'Maddy was abducted and we have a suspect in mind' Daily Mail
By Michael Seamark
Last updated at 20:19 05 May 2007
Portugese police believe three-year-old Madeleine McCann has been abducted and have a suspect in mind, a police chief
said today. The toddler vanished from her bed at a holiday resort when her parents were in a restaurant only 40 yards away.
Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said they were hopeful she is still alive
and believe she is still in Portugal.
But he refused to reveal any more details for fear of endangering Madeleine's life.
The three-year-old's great uncle, Brian Kennedy said the family "fear the worst but we are hoping for the best."
British Ambassador John Buck was with Madeleine's family this afternoon. He confirmed that three family liaison officers
from Leicestershire Police had now arrived and were with the family.
Kate and her husband Gerry, a consultant cardiologist, have told family and friends they suspect their daughter was snatched
while her two-year-old twin brother and sister were sound asleep in cots on either side of her.
Madeleine, who was born by IVF treatment, disappeared from the family's ground-floor holiday apartment at the 'family
friendly' Mark Warner holiday complex in the Praia da Luz resort as her parents ate at a tapas restaurant close by.
The child's aunt, Trish Cameron, yesterday described the frantic telephone call she received after the couple discovered
their daughter was missing around ten o'clock on Thursday night.
"It was my young brother Gerry distraught on the phone, breaking his heart. He said: 'Madeleine's been abducted, she's
been abducted'.
"They kept going back to check the kids every half hour. The restaurant was only 40 yards away. He went back at nine
o'clock to check the children. They were all sound asleep, windows shut, shutters shut."
Kate then went over to the two-bedroom ground-floor apartment and 'came out screaming', said Mrs Cameron. 'The door was
lying open, the window in the bedroom and the shutters had been jemmied open.
"Nothing had been touched in the apartment, no valuables taken, no passports. They think someone must have come in the
window and gone out the door with her."
Portuguese police yesterday sealed off the three-storey block and forensic specialists fingerprinted the ground floor
window of the McCanns' apartment. All airports, ports and border posts have been alerted.
But despite a massive search throughout the night by police, sniffer dogs and dozens of holidaymakers, there has been
no sign of Madeleine, wearing white pyjamas when her parents put her to bed with twins Amelie and Sean in the bougainvillea-clad
apartment.
Intriguingly, a Briton who runs a company in the Algarve has told police he spotted a couple carrying a young child early
yesterday.
George Burke, from Liverpool, was driving home from nearby Lagos around 6am when he caught the two people in his car
headlights. "I couldn't see them clearly because it was dark and windy. They scurried down a side road and out of sight."
Last night, as police helicopters and launches scoured the sea, beach and village, Madeleine's family issued a statement
which read: "This is a particularly difficult time for the family and we are all comforting each other. At this time all the
family's focus is in assisting the UK and in particular the Portuguese authorities in securing Madeleine's safe return."
Mr McCann, a consultant cardiologist at Leicester's Glenfield Hospital, and his wife Kate, a GP, had chosen the up-market
resort because it was family-friendly.
A friend of the couple, Jill Renwick, said: "This is the first time they have done this. They are very, very anxious
parents and very careful."
She said Madeleine - known as Maddy - was 'gorgeous, active and chatty and intelligent, not shy. She is four next week
and starts school this year.'
The McCanns, who have been married eight years and recently moved into a £600,000 detached house in Rothley, a suburb
of Leicester, were on holiday with a group of fellow doctors and other young children, paying around £1,600 for a week.
In the evenings, Mark Warner offers a drop-in creche service enabling customers to leave young children with staff while
they enjoy a relaxing dinner.
Customers may also pay for individual baby-sitters but the McCanns, both 38, chose not to use either service, instead
taking it in turns regularly to check their three young children themselves from the restaurant on the other side of a swimming
pool from their apartment.
After Mrs McCann raised the alarm, Mark Warner said it immediately launched a search of all areas within the complex
and the peaceful, 1,000-population fishing village.
Resort manager John Hill said: "As well as staff, we had guests helping, also the majority of the Praia da Luz village.
"Police were informed at the same time as the alarm was raised. They arrived about 10.45pm and after statements were
taken from the family police decided to escalate the situation."
Paul Moyes, 47, from Cheshire, and his wife Susan own a holiday apartment in the same black as the McCanns. He said:
"There was a knock on the door at about 11.30 from a hotel guest telling us a girl was missing and asking us to help in the
search.
"There were uniformed police, plain clothes and even off-duty local officers. The search went on all night, people were
using torches.
"We searched the beach and the hotel grounds with scores of people. Quite a few of us own holiday homes here so it's
a close-knit community and something like this is terribly shocking." Michael Hannar, from Pontefract, Yorkshire, owns a ground
floor apartment close to the McCanns.
He said: "I don't believe a three-year-old child would have been strong enough to open the window or shutter.
"Mine are difficult to open, especially if the window is fully closed. The shutter is also difficult to open."
Family friend Mrs Renwick said the McCanns - who met while training at the Western Infirmary at Glasgow - felt let down
by police.
"I spoke to them this morning and they said the police had done nothing overnight and they felt as if they'd been left
on their own."
Resort manager Mr Hill said: "We're in a sleepy fishing village and manpower for the police, I agree, was low at the
time. After the CID were involved more police were called."
In Leicester, neighbours spoke of the loving, protective parents.
Tracey Horsefield, a 32-year-old nurse, said: "They never let those children out on their own. I have never seen Madeleine
without her parents."
Mr McCann's mother Eileen, 67, from Glasgow, said the couple had been desperate to have children and eventually underwent
IVF treatment.
"Madeleine made their lives complete when she came along. The three children were very close and I don't know how they
will cope - how any of them will."
Madeleine's uncle Michael Healy said: "There has been some negative spin put on this, with people criticising them for
leaving the kids.
"But it's nonsense, they were close by and eating within sight of where the children were and checking on them. No one
was rip-roaring drunk."
From DANIEL BOFFEY and PETER ALLEN in Praia da Luz
Last updated at 21:51 05 May 2007
Police investigating the abduction of three-year-old Madeleine McCann believe they know who snatched her, and are convinced
she is still alive.
They are working on the theory she is being held near to the Algarve resort from where she was taken.
At a dramatic news conference, the officer leading the inquiry declared: "We have a prime suspect. There is a portrait
sketch of the suspect, but I am not going to reveal it because it may put the girl's life in danger. We believe she is still
alive."
The announcement gave Madeleine's anguished parents Kate and Gerry renewed hope.
It came as a colleague of her mother, a doctor, approached The Mail on Sunday offering a £100,000 reward.
"You never, in your wildest imagination, could ever think something as awful as this could happen," said the fellow GP,
who asked not to be named.
"The reason I want to put up this reward is simply in the hope they get that little girl back."
The toddler vanished from her bed at the Ocean Club holiday resort in Praia da Luz three days ago while her parents dined
in a restaurant 40 yards away.
The couple told relatives they fear they were being watched in the hours before the kidnapping.
Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, hinted there may be a sexual motive. "Kidnapping
is not just for money but can be for sexual abuse," he said.
But his belief Madeleine is still alive and his disclosure that he has witnesses brought a delighted response from the
girl's family.
Her aunt, Philomena McCann, said: "It's more than hope, it's a distinct feeling of elation.
"But it's important to keep your emotions in check because the last couple of days have been like a rollercoaster. It's
great to have some hope but we need something to happen. We want her back."
Madeleine, who will be four on Saturday, was taken from her bed in the ground-floor apartment she was sharing with her
parents between 9.30pm and 10pm on Thursday night.
Her parents had been checking every half hour on the toddler and her younger twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelia,
who were sleeping in cots next to her.
When Mrs McCann checked on the children, she found the apartment door wide open, the window shutters jemmied wide and
her daughter's bed empty.
She ran screaming from the apartment, sparking a huge search involving 150 police, firefighters and Portuguese civil
guard, along with villagers and guests at the Mark Warner Holiday complex, many of them British.
Philomena McCann said: "We have no evidence she was stolen to order but you get this gut feeling why one child should
be taken and the others left.
"We think they were being watched and this was premeditated. Gerry is worried that may have happened.
"Some people may ask why they left the children alone in the apartment but it was locked and they had a full view of
the front door and they were checking every half hour."
Around a dozen sniffer dogs joined the search and it is believed they followed Madeleine's scent to a supermarket 50
yards away.
However the trail is believed to have gone cold from that point. CCTV cameras in the supermarket did not pick up any
images of the girl or her abductors.
The 44-year-old married father who offered the reward is a partner in the same Leicestershire surgery as Madeleine's
mother, but amassed a multi-million-pound fortune buying and selling property.
Yesterday he broke down in tears as he described a recent visit to Dublin when his own three-year-old niece went missing
for 20 minutes.
"The feeling was utter devastation and fear but thank God we found her,' he said. "It is unimaginable to understand what
Kate and Gerry are going through right now.
"I am not a close friend of Kate's, and I haven't spoken to her since this happened. Money isn't an issue to me, it is
the hope they get Madeleine back."
Kate and Gerry, a cardiologist, were yesterday spotted walking in silence through the complex.
Mrs McCann was still gripping tightly on Madeleine's favourite teddy bear, as she has since her daughter was taken.
The resort's open layout meant her abductor would have easily been able to watch Madeleine and her parents.
One holiday rep said: "Young children are everywhere, and can easily be seen from the roads outside. There are fences,
but anyone can be observed very easily. Security has never been a huge issue, however, as we have not had any great problems
before."
Police have sealed off the three-storey block and checked the McCanns' apartment for fingerprints.
All airports, ports and border posts have been alerted. However, the helicopters initially used in the search were quiet
yesterday, and locals said there had not yet been a house-to-house search.
Mr Encarnacao angrily denied reports in the Portuguese Press that the police had initially treated statements given by
Madeleine's parents with some scepticism.
He said police responded within 15 minutes and added: "I have 150 men looking for the girl. At first it was just a missing
girl case. Now I can assure you it was a kidnapping. We have evidence of this.
"Yes, we believe she is still alive and still in Portugal. We do have witnesses. They have given evidence but I can't
reveal much more."
The McCanns, who have been married eight years and recently moved into a £600,000 detached house in Rothley, Leicestershire,
were on holiday with a group of colleagues and their families, paying around £1,600 for a week.
In the evenings, Mark Warner offers a creche and individual baby-sitters, but the McCanns, both 38, chose not to use
either.
Last Updated: 12:34AM BST 07/05/2007 (Main body of article written
05/05/2007)
Portuguese police have identified a suspect over the kidnapping of British toddler Madeleine McCann, who was snatched
from a holiday appartment on Thursday night.
At a press conference today, Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said he has
an artist's impression of the suspect and remains hopeful that the little girl is still alive.
However, he refused to disclose any more information for fear of endangering Madeleine's life.
Gerald and Kate McCann, who were dining just 200 yards away when the kidnapping occurred, yesterday appeared before the
media to make a desperate appeal for their daughter's safe return.
Mr McCann's voice cracked with emotion as he said: "Words cannot describe the desperation and despair we are feeling
as parents of our beautiful daughter Madeleine.
"We request that anyone who has any information relating to her disappearance, however trivial, come forward and help
us get her back safely.
"Please, if you are holding Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy and daddy, her brother and sister."
Mr McCann and his wife, clutching a pink teddy bear, then asked for their privacy to be respected before returning inside.
On the night of Madeleine's disappearance Mrs McCann, 39, a GP, made regular half-hourly checks on her children in their
room. But when she returned to the ground floor apartment at 10pm, the door was open, the window had been forced and Madeleine
was gone.
The other children, two-year-old twins Amelie and Shaun, were still asleep in their cots. Mrs McCann broke down screaming.
An immediate search was launched, but the abductor is believed to have escaped through the complex's main entrance.
Last night the family were still hoping that Madeleine, who like her siblings was conceived through IVF, would be found
safe and well. But they began to fear the worst.
Trish Cameron, Mr McCann's sister, said she received a telephone call from her 39-year-old brother, a consultant cardiologist,
who was "hysterical and crying his eyes out".
She said: "They had put the kids to bed at 7pm and checked on them every half an hour as they had dinner nearby with
the rest of the party. Gerry said the window was open, the shutters broken and the door, which had been locked, hanging open.
"Kate came screaming back to the group crying, 'They've taken her, they've taken her'. Gerry was crying and roaring like
a bull.
"Obviously someone has been watching them, watching the children, seeing where they stayed and seeing they were left
alone. It just doesn't bear thinking about.
"They can't have children naturally so, being IVF babies, they were extra special."
She added: "Gerry and Kate are excellent parents and very protective of their children. In hindsight, yes, they wish
they hadn't left them alone, but it's hard when you're on holiday.
"The complex was quite open and it looked like anyone could wander in or out."
She said Madeleine had blonde hair and blue eyes, with a distinguishing feature of her right pupil "running down into
the iris of her eye". The toddler was wearing white pyjamas when she went missing.
Madeleine's great uncle today described how much the little girl, a keen fan of Dr Who, was looking forward to her holiday.
"Madeleine is a lovely little girl, an intelligent, bright child," he added
Jon Corner, a close friend of Mrs McCann and godparent of the twins, said she telephoned him in the middle of the night
distraught.
He said: "She just blurted out that Madeleine had been abducted. She told me, 'They have broken the shutter on the window
and taken my little girl.'
"They had left the apartment locked while they were having their meal, but when they went back the last time they saw
the damage.
"First they saw one of the window shutters had been forced, and then they saw the door was open and the bed was empty
- and Madeleine was gone.
"Obviously Kate was incredibly upset when she phoned. I have spoken to her since, and she is still completely devastated
- as we all are for them.
The McCanns, from Rothley, Leics, travelled out last Saturday with a group of friends, all of whom have young children,
for a week-long stay at the Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, renting a two-bedroom apartment
with private patio.
The couple, who are Roman Catholics and regular churchgoers, were enjoying dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant with the
four other couples. The adults regularly checked on the children.
Around 70 staff and holidaymakers joined the search around the complex and on the nearby beach.
John Hill, the complex manager, said: "It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job
of getting involved and trying to search the area.
"As you can imagine, Madeleine's parents are distraught and not doing very well at all." He said the company offered
baby sitting services but "for whatever reason, they were not being used". He added the locks on the apartment doors were
"quite sophisticated."
Members of the McCann family have flown out to Portugal to help with the search.
Mr and Mrs McCann met when they were medical students in Scotland and became close while travelling in New Zealand. They
were married nine years ago in Mrs McCann's home town of Liverpool.
They lived in Glasgow for a while and as Mr McCann's career took off they moved to Queniborough, Leics, in 2000, when
he began working at the Glenfield hospital in Leicester, a leading heart specialist centre.
Mr McCann, one of five siblings, was placed on secondment to Holland for two years, where the twins were conceived.
They returned to the Midlands in 2004 and moved into their current five-bedroom detached home last summer.
Mrs McCann works one and a half days a week at a surgery in Melton Mowbray, Leics, and spends the rest of the time looking
after the children.
Tracey Horsfield, 32, a neighbour, said: "They are delightful people, a normal, very caring family. They are extremely
protective of the children and would never let them be alone.
"They idolised them and this is the last thing you would have thought would have happened to them."
The couple would have paid around £1,500 for their week-long stay in an area popular with British holidaymakers.
Ocean Club, near Lagos, boasts that visitors will enjoy "privacy in numerous villa-style accommodations dotted throughout
an independently-working village".
The company's brochures also claim the atmosphere is so relaxed and exclusive that "you're as likely to pass a local
as another tourist".
Reports and videos published on Sunday 06 May 2007
Kate and Gerry McCann talk to the waiting media outside the church in Praia da Luz
Prayers for Madeleine at Mother's Day service, 06 May 2007
Prayers For Madeleine At Church
The parents of Madeleine McCann attend the church near the resort where their daughter went
missing on Thursday evening.
00:00:31
Heartache On Mother's Day In Portugal
Kate and Gerry McCann have spoken emotionally about the hope and strength they're gaining from
public support. It's been three days since they last saw daughter Madeleine. They attended a mass where the theme was motherhood.
Ian Woods reports.
00:02:12
It's Maddy's birthday on Saturday and we're still making her a Dr Who
cake, 06 May 2007
It's Maddy's birthday on Saturday and we're still making her a Dr Who cake Daily Mail
Last updated at 10:36 06 May 2007
Just as she did last year, a family friend is making a special birthday cake for Madeleine.
Only this year she is hoping the little girl, who turns four on Saturday, will be home to taste it.
Madeleine's great-uncle, Brian Kennedy, said the cake has a Dr Who theme because the toddler is such a big fan.
'Last year the friend made Madeleine a cake with a Wallace And Gromit theme,' he said. 'This year she's making a Dr Who
one and we have told her to carry on making it.'
It typifies the response of Madeleine's family, who remain in Britain: they are striving to remain positive and strong,
yet they live with pain and uncertainty.
They will the phone to ring with good news, yet at the same time they fear it ringing - because it might just be heartbreak
on the end of the line.
As Mr Kennedy, a retired headmaster, said yesterday: 'We fear the worst but we are hoping for the best.'
Mr Kennedy said prayers were being said in the family's home village of Rothley, Leicestershire, and he and his wife,
Janet, attended a prayer meeting last night at the village church, close to the McCanns' home.
Mr Kennedy, who lives just a few roads away from Madeleine's parents, added: 'It is a very difficult time. You lose a
child for a few minutes and you worry about them.
'They are highly responsible parents who are absolutely devoted to their family. I can only imagine what they are like
at the moment.'
He added: 'Madeleine is a lovely girl, an intelligent, bright child. We are the only close relatives the family have
in the area and we see them most weeks. You won't find more caring parents.'
Last night more relatives flew out to Portugal to help the search, as most of the rest of the family gathered at Mr McCann's
mother's home in Glasgow.
Mr McCann's sister-in-law Diane, 39, said: 'Gerry is trying to keep things together. All three children are their pride
and joy but Madeleine was the first. They'd spent five years trying for a child through IVF treatment before Madeleine appeared.
'It's the sort of situation no parent would ever want to find themselves in and we just hope and pray Madeleine will
be found.'
Sniffer dogs tracked Maddy to supermarket, 06 May 2007
Sniffer dogs tracked Maddy to supermarket Daily Mail
Last updated at 10:37 06 May 2007
A key witness has told police she saw two people in a car acting suspiciously near to the supermarket where tracker dogs
lost Madeleine's scent giving rise to fears she was transferred to a vehicle.
Joyce Joyce, from Dublin, who is in her 60s, saw the black saloon less than 30 minutes before the toddler went missing.
Mrs Joyce's husband, semi-retired businessman Bob, said: 'We have an apartment close by. At around 8.30pm on Thursday
Joyce saw a black saloon car reversing sharply close to where Madeleine went missing. Joyce hadn't seen the the two occupants
before and they were acting in a very strange way. I reported the sighting to police but they didn't seem that interested.
But I went back to see detectives the next day and, thankfully, they took a long statement from my wife. They are now investigating
everything and seem to think our information is important.'
The mother of three-year-old Madeleine McCann has wept for her missing daughter at an emotional Mother's Day service.
Kate McCann and husband Gerry were joined by family members from the UK at a Portuguese mass in the resort of Praia da
Luz three days after the youngster disappeared.
Their visit to the church fell on Mother's Day which is marked in Portugal with flowers which are laid at the feet of
the Virgin Mary during the service.
In an emotional mass, Madeleine's mother was quietly presented with a bunch of five roses by 14-year-old Altar girl Emily
Seromenho, whose own mother is English.
As part of the custom local children arrived at church with flowers, which they presented to their own mothers during
the service.
At the end of the service, Mrs McCann then lined up with Portuguese mothers and walked to the Altar laying her flowers
at the foot of the Virgin Mary.
Pausing momentarily and gazing up at the statue Mrs McCann rejoined her family and prayed silently for Madeleine's safe
return.
At least 150 worshippers packed the small 16th Century Church for Sunday mass. During the service priest, Father Jose
Manuel Pacheco, told the family that the entire community was with them.
As he began the service, which was conducted in Portuguese, he spoke briefly in English saying: "We are here like all
Sundays and today we have a very big intention, we want to be with this family, the family of Madeleine."
Mrs McCann carried a small pink, stuffed kitten which she has carried every time she has been since in public since Madeleine's
disappearance. As the service began she knelt silently holding the soft toy, kissing its head repeatedly.
The mother of missing Madeleine McCann knelt and wept in church as she prayed for her safe return.
Kate McCann lined up with Portuguese women to lay flowers at the altar of the village church in Praia Da Luz on the Algarve
at a poignant service to honour motherhood.
Accompanied by husband Gerry and relatives who have flown out from the UK Mrs McCann attended mass with the local community
to pray for Madeleine's safe return three days after her disappearance.
The three-year-old went missing from the family's holiday apartment where she was sleeping with her younger brother and
sister, twins Amelie and Sean, while their parents just yards away.
Portuguese police have said that they believe she was snatched but offered hope saying they think she is still alive.
With police stopping cars on nearby roads, search teams scouring the surrounding countryside and airports across the country
on alert, officers say they believe she is still in Portugal.
In a public display of unity, the family attended the church of Nossa Senora Da Luz, on the day the congregation were
marking mother's day.
After the service Mrs McCann stood to address reporters, breaking down with emotion.
She said: "Gerry and I would just like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to everybody but particularly the
local community here who have offered so much support. We couldn't have asked for more. Please continue to pray for Madeleine."
Her husband told how the family still had hope.
"From today's service the thing that we are going to take away is strength and courage and hope and we continue to hope
for the best outcome from this for us and for Madeleine."
Portugal police focus on kidnap suspect, 06 May 2007
The net is closing today on the person police believe abducted three-year-old Madeleine McCann from a Portuguese holiday
apartment.
Madeleine's father last night made a fresh emotional plea for help in tracing his daughter. Following criticism of aspects
of how the case had been handled he also expressed the family's thanks to the police for their efforts.
Appearing before a bank of cameras and a crowd of reporters Dr McCann stood arm in arm with his wife Kate who was again
clutching a pink teddy bear as she was when the family were first seen in public following the disappearance which police
are now treating as an abduction.
A colleague of Madeleine's mother Kate has offered a Stg£100,000 reward. Detectives in the Algarve said they were hunting
a "suspect" after evidence appeared to rule out the possibility that Madeleine had gone missing by herself.
Moments before making his statement, Dr McCann appeared first alone before returning to the family's temporary holiday
apartment and re-emerging arm in arm with his wife. He said: "First of all we would like to thank everyone here in Portugal,
the UK and elsewhere for all your support during this extremely difficult time for our family.
"We are pleased that the family liaison officers from Leicestershire are now working closely with the Portuguese Police
in keeping us informed.
"We have no further information regarding the investigation but appreciate the significant effort everyone is making on
our behalf.
"We would again like to appeal for any information, however small, that may lead to the safe return of Madeleine.
"Finally we would like to thank the media for respecting our privacy especially that of Madeleine's little brother and
sister."
While Portugal's Judicial Police refused to give precise details of who they were hunting, they revealed that they believed
Madeleine was still alive.
Madeleine went missing from her family's rented holiday apartment in the Algarve village of Praia Da Luz on Thursday night
while her parents, Gerry and Kate, were eating dinner less than a minute's walk away. The couple said they had been making
regular trips back to the apartment from a tapas restaurant opposite to check on Madeleine and their twin son and daughter
Sean and Amelie.
Hundreds of tourists, British expats and Portuguese residents joined a search for her. Guilhermino Encarnacao, director
of the Judicial Police in the Faro region, said detectives believed she could still be in the country, even still in the Algarve.
Her parents, from Leicester, are being supported by a team of British police who flew in yesterday as people travelled
from up to an hour away to join the search for Madeleine.
Police profile abduction suspect as hunt for missing toddler widens
John Follain, Praia da Luz and Jon Ungoed-Thomas
May 6, 2007
She should have returned home safely this weekend. Instead, on the boulevards and whitewashed apartments of the Algarve
yesterday, pictures of Madeleine McCann's three-year-old face were fluttering in the warm coastal breeze.
Along with her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, who are both doctors, and her close-knit extended family, it seemed that
everyone in the resort of Praia da Luz was keeping a vigil for her safe return. They were praying that she would be home to
blow out the candles on her birthday cake next Saturday.
"Everyone knows what it's like when a child goes missing for a short while and you worry like mad," said Brian Kennedy,
Kate McCann's uncle. "As the days go by it gets harder because you start by hoping for the best and then begin to start fearing
the worst.
"Friends are planning a party for her birthday on Saturday and baking her a cake on the Dr Who theme because it's one
of her favourite programmes. I've told them to continue with those plans. We've got to remain optimistic."
Guilhermino Encarnacao, head of the judicial police in Faro, said that Madeleine had been abducted from the Ocean Club
complex on Thursday evening. She is believed to have been taken as she slept alongside twins Sean and Amelie, her two-year-old
brother and sister, in their apartment in the Mark Warner complex. Her parents had been dining with friends at a tapas bar
nearby, checking on the children every half hour.
An image of a suspect was being drawn up by police. Encarnacao believed the three-year-old was still alive. Searches
were going on including at two campsites a few miles away.
In a televised statement broadcast across Portugal yesterday, Gerry McCann, a hospital cardiologist from Leicestershire,
appealed for the safe return of his daughter.
"Words cannot describe the anguish and despair that we are feeling," he said. "Please, if you have Madeleine, let her
come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister."
McCann and his wife, both 39, yesterday walked hand in hand through the apartment complex. They had lunch with the twins
at the same tapas bar as the evening before. McCann returned alone to the apartment, emerging with a suitcase and a bucket
and spade for the twins.
A friend at the resort, who did not wish to be named, said: "It's a nightmare. Every time the parents see Madeleine's
face on television they fall apart. We all do. We haven't slept for 24 hours. Please God they find her. The longer it goes
on, the worse it is. All we can do is pray."
Police were conducting checks at airports and more than 150 officers were searching the area. Hundreds of tourists, British
ex-pats and local Portuguese were also helping with the search.
Madeleine's relatives and crime experts now suspect that she was targeted by someone who had been watching the family
during their holiday. Roy Ramm, a former Scotland Yard commander, said: "This is somebody who has planned this abduction quite
carefully. He has probably looked and observed this child during the day."
McCann, a consultant at Leicester's Glenfield hospital, and his wife, a part-time GP, were on a week-long holiday with
three other couples and five other children when Madeleine was abducted shortly before 10pm on Thursday.
The children could have been left in a free crèche in the complex. A babysitting service was also available for between
€12 (£8) and €15 an hour.
But the McCanns were eating only about 150ft from their apartment. It is thought they felt they were close enough to
watch over their children.
Hotel sources said the apartment's french doors – which faced the restaurant where the McCanns were eating –
were unlocked by the couple. Their line of view was, however, obscured by bougainvillea and palm trees.
At 9.30pm Gerry McCann checked his children and they were sound asleep, with Madeleine lying with her comfort blanket.
Thirty minutes later his wife returned and found Madeleine gone and the shutter of the rear window open.
Trish Cameron, McCann's sister, said: "Kate came screaming back to the group crying, 'They’ve taken her, they’ve
taken her'. Gerry was crying and roaring like a bull."
John Hill, the Ocean Club manager, said the alarm was raised by the family between 10pm and 10.15pm: "The staff, many
guests and the best part of the village started looking right away, a total of 40 to 65 people. The police were called and
started taking details from the family and then took the decision to escalate the search."
Silvia Batisa, head of administration at the complex, helped to comfort the family and interpret their interviews with
the police: "The parents were devastated, in a panic. They wanted more police and dogs immediately. Kate said all the time,
'Please find my daughter' and 'Madeleine is beautiful'."
She recalled that the twins were still asleep in their two cots and there was the small, bright pink wool blanket that
Madeleine likes to hold when she sleeps. "We walked out quickly so as not to wake up the twins. The parents immediately said,
'She’s been kidnapped'," said Batisa.
Paul Moyes, 58, from Middlewich, Cheshire, was among those who helped to look for the missing child: "At 11.30pm there
was a knock on the door and there was a distressed gentleman saying that a child had been abducted and could we help with
the search. Everybody got involved."
It is not known how the abductor entered the flat. Staff believe it was likely that entry would have been through the
french doors because the shutters would have been damaged if they had been prised open.
From the outset, the McCanns were convinced their daughter had been abducted. There have been complaints from relatives
that the police were slow to respond to the situation.
Speaking from her home in Glasgow, Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, said: "The local policeman was doing very little.
The area was not cordoned off for hours and hours. Kate and Gerry [were] frustrated at the lack of activity. [The police]
tried to downplay the enormity of it and said Madeleine had perhaps wandered off. That is the most ridiculous suggestion."
Nigel Ragg, head of marketing at Mark Warner Holidays, defended the police operation. "It was felt by our staff that
the police reacted quickly. The search was escalated throughout the evening," he said.
The McCanns, who are both Roman Catholics, met as medical students at Glasgow University and were married nine years
ago. They spent a period working in Holland and moved to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, about two years ago.
Father Keith Tomlinson, the priest who baptised the twins a year ago at the Sacred Heart church in Rothley, the family's
church, said: "They are a lovely family. This is a terrible time and our hearts here are with them. We will be praying for
them.
"They came here most weeks and brought Madeleine. She is a nice bouncy happy little girl. They are friendly and open
and obviously love one another and you sense that this is a husband and wife who are united in love and who adore their children."
Julio Barroros, the local mayor, said: "We all hope that Maddy will come home for her family and that England can breathe
when she appears."
Additional reporting: Will Iredale
Child watch
British law does not set out the minimum age when parents can leave children alone, but it does stipulate that it is
an offence if doing so might put them at risk, writes Jonathan Leake.
Experts are divided on just what this means in practice. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
believes that babies and toddlers should never be left alone, whether asleep or awake, even for a few minutes.
Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old apparently snatched from her bed, was in an apartment in a Portuguese holiday complex
while her parents dined and checked on her at least every half hour.
"It doesn't take long for unsupervised young children or babies to injure themselves," said Chris Cloke, head of child
protection awareness at the charity. "Put simply, it is too risky to leave them alone at all at such a young age."
Other experts take a more flexible view. "It's the context that is important," said Professor Carolyn Hamilton, who runs
the Children's Legal Centre, a charity concerned with law and policy. "This couple had . . . clearly made a responsible assessment
of the risks and decided that they were minimal. They could not have predicted the possibility of abduction."
Accidents are the biggest cause of death for children over the age of one. In 2005 about 250 children aged under 15 died
in Britain and more than 2m were taken to hospital, with about half of accidents happening in the home.
However, many accidents happen while children are under supervision and are caused by, for instance, lack of stair gates.
Ben Needham, who vanished on the Greek island of Kos in 1991 aged 21 months, was being supervised by his grandparents
who lost sight of him for only a few minutes. He has never been found.
Emotional appeal by parents of missing Madeleine, 06 May 2007
THE parents of Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old snatched from her parents holiday apartment in the Algarve, have
made a fresh appeal for information.
Madeleine's mother, Kate McCann, a GP originally from Allerton, and her father, Gerry, also said they appreciated the
"significant efforts" being made to find Madeleine.
Earlier in the day, Portuguese police said they believed Madeleine had been snatched, adding that have a suspect in mind
and believe the toddler is still alive and in the area.
She vanished from a holiday apartment within the Mark Warner's Ocean Club in the Algarve resort of Praia de Luz on Thursday
night, while her parents were at a restaurant.
Speaking outside their apartment with his wife, Mr McCann said: "We have no further information regarding the investigation
but appreciate the significant effort everyone is making on our behalf.
"We would again like to appeal for any information, however small, that may lead to the safe return of Madeleine."
In a statement on Friday Mr McCann made a first appeal for help and spoke of his family's "anguish and despair".
Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the Faro region, said officers were working on the assumption
Madeleine was being held between 3km and 5km from the resort.
He said police had taken about 30 calls from potential witnesses and have created an artist's impression of a suspect.
Relatives have flown to the Algarve to be with the couple, now living in Leicestershire, who were holidaying with their
three children.
Shortly before leaving with wife Susan to be with his daughter in the Algarve, Madeleine's ashen-face grandfather, Brian
Healy, spoke on the doorstep of his Mossley Hill home to tell how he and his family were "worried sick".
Mrs McCann’s father said: "It's a very distressing time."
Mrs McCann is a former pupil of Notre Dame High School, in Everton, before she left the city to pursue her medical dream.
That dream eventually led her to meet husband Gerry, from Glasgow, a consultant cardiologist.
Although the pair moved round the country, and even lived in Amsterdam at one point, to further their medical careers,
they were regular visitors back to Merseyside, especially after the birth of Madeleine, their eldest child.
Their holiday to the Algarve was taken with eight other families, all from Leicester's medical circles, and the party
were eating at a tapas restaurant 200 yards away from the room in which Madeleine and her brother and sister slept.
The McCanns made sure the toddler, who turns four next week, and her two-year-old twin brother and sister, Sean and Amelie,
were sound asleep, and that their apartment was locked up.
But between their checks at 9.30pm and 10pm the apartment was broken into through a window and Madeleine was taken, according
to the young girl's aunt, Trish Cameron.
Jon Corner, founder of Liverpool-based River Media, is godfather to the McCann's twins and his wife has known Mrs McCann
since they were both three.
The co-founder of city centre-based River Media, and a father-of-three himself, said: "Kate phoned me in the early hours
totally devastated.
"She just told me that Maddy had been abducted, that the shutters of the apartment had been forced and someone had taken
her.
"Maddy was asleep in the room with Sean and Amelie and whoever has taken her has gone straight past the sleeping twins,
left them completely alone and snatched Maddy.
"Kate is just so distressed. She doesn’t know what to do.
"It has knocked me and everyone else for six. It doesn't actually seem real."
Mr Corner said he saw the couple when they brought the family up to Merseyside for the christening of his last child
at the end of March.
Madeleine, who turns four next Friday, was last seen by her father at about 2100 local time on Thursday.
When Mrs McCann went to check on her about an hour later, she found the bedroom's outside shutter and window had been
opened and her daughter missing.
Police were notified and resort staff and guests helped the McCanns search the complex grounds into Friday morning.
Pictures of Madeleine have been widely distributed, and ports and the Spanish police put on alert.
British Ambassador John Buck, who is with the McCanns in the Algarve, said they had been joined by three family liaison
officers from Leicestershire Police.
We have evidence indicating a kidnap - police chief in Portugal yesterday, 06 May 2007
We have evidence indicating a kidnap - police chief in Portugal yesterday Sunday Mail
By Lynn McPherson in Praia da Luz
May 6, 2007
Detectives hunting little Maddie say she was snatched from her bed
FEARS that a British girl missing in Portugal had been abducted escalated yesterday as police said they had evidence
and a suspect.
Madeleine McCann, three, disappeared from her apartment on the Algarve on Thursday night, while her parents ate at a
restaurant 150 yards away.
Her Scots dad Gerry and mum Kate had locked sleeping Maddie and twins Amelie and Sean in their bedroom.
Last night Faro police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao said: "We have evidence which indicates a kidnap."
He said they had a suspect and believed Maddie was alive and within three miles of the resort in Praia da Luz.
She had been on holiday at the Mark Warner's Ocean Club with her doctor parents Gerry and Kate and their two-year-old
twins.
Encarnacao said police had "a profile" for a suspect but declined to give details "to safeguard the child's life".
He denied police had been slow to respond to the suspected abduction - getting to the scene within 10 minutes of the
alarm being raised.
Around 150 agents are investigating in Portugal and they are in contact with British police, Europol and Interpol.
Police had received 30,000 telephone calls after Maddie was reported missing.
Maddie's mum and dad - who met in Glasgow - made an emotional appeal late on Friday night at the luxury resort 120 miles
south of Lisbon.
The couple, who live in Leicestershire, urged anyone with information to contact police as intensive searches around
the resort continued.
Gerry, 38, said: "Please, if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister.
"We cannot describe the anguish and despair we are feeling as parents of our beautiful daughter Madeleine.
"We request that anyone with any information relating to Madeleine's disappearance, no matter how trivial, contact the
Portuguese police and help us get her back safely."
Relatives of the McCanns travelled from Glasgow to Manchester early yesterday to fly to the Algarve and offer support
to Maddie's parents.
She went missing as they dined while taking turns to check on their children.
The Ocean Club resort has a creche service but the couple had left the kids sleeping in their apartment.
Heart surgeon Gerry checked on them about 9pm. When his wife looked in about half an hour later, Maddie was gone.
She found the bedroom's outside shutter had been opened - fuelling fears someone had taken the girl.
The McCanns, who are on holiday with a number of other families, were joined by tourists, hotel staff and police as they
searched in vain through the night. Sniffer dogs are said to have lost Maddie's scent at a supermarket 400 yards away.
Posters in English and Portuguese were put up around the resort and pictures of Maddie have been been distributed. Ports
and airports were on alert.
The family's original holiday apartment was being treated as a crime scene and police were running forensic tests.
Yesterday, Gerry returned to the apartment alone. He left carrying a suitcase and a bucket and spade. After leaving the
twins in the care of relatives, the shattered couple walked through the complex hand in hand.
They later had a meeting with British ambassador John Buck and three family liaison officers from Leicestershire police.
Earlier Madeleine's great aunt Nora defended the couple's decision to have a meal while their children were in the apartment.
She pointed out that it was clearly visible from the tapas restaurant where they dined. She said: "They are doctors.
They are intelligent people."
Maddie's aunt Phil McCann told yesterday how she has already bought her niece a birthday present.
Maddie will be four on Saturday.
Phil, 43, from Ullapool, revealed she was "elated" that police believe Maddie is still alive.
She said: "She's a normal wee lassie, full of life. She's fascinated by pink like most wee girls. She's a real Barbie
girl.
She's got a wee pink bike with pink ribbons. We were due to go and visit them this week until this happened.
"I bought her a Scooby Doo scooter for her birthday."
The last time Phil saw her was when 46 friends and family holidayed in Ireland at Easter.
She said: "She's just learned to swim from taking lessons and in Donegal, she had her water wings off for the first time.
"She is a confident wee girl who is wary of strangers."
Police say Madeleine abducted as they target prime suspect, 06 May 2007
Police say Madeleine abducted as they target prime suspect Independent
Photofit of British girl's kidnapper prepared as airports alerted
By David Randall
Sunday, 6 May 2007
Police yesterday revealed that Madeleine McCann, the three-year-old British girl who disappeared from a luxury resort
in southern Portugal on Thursday night while her parents dined at a restaurant, had been abducted - but they refused to divulge
any details of the evidence as a desperate search continued.
The police said they had a prime suspect and were drawing up a photofit as detectives mounted spot checks at airports
and railway stations to try to prevent Madeleine being taken from the country.
Local police chief Guilhermino Encarnacao told a news conference yesterday: "We have evidence that indicates a kidnap."
He said calls reporting possible sightings of the girl had been received from all over Portugal. Police said they now had
a drawing of a suspect based on evidence from witnesses at the resort.
Last night, Madeleine's parents made a second tearful appeal for their daughter's return, which was aired live on Portuguese
and British television. Madeleine, who will be four on 12 May, was staying with her parents in the ground floor of a five-storey
block at a Mark Warner resort in Praia da Luz, 120 miles south of Lisbon.
Thursday evening began as just another relaxed time for Gerald and Kate McCann; he a heart surgeon in Leicester, she
a GP in Melton Mowbray. Early in the evening, they put the children to bed, with Madeleine in her pink Winnie the Pooh pyjamas
and the two-year-old twins in cots either side of her. All three were IVF babies.
Just after 8pm the pair went out to a tapas restaurant some 60 metres away from their holiday apartment. They did not
opt to use the resort's babysitting service or evening drop-in crèche. Instead, as they dined with their party of fellow medics
from Leicester, they walked over and checked on the children every half an hour.
At around 10pm Kate went back to the flat to see if the children were still safely asleep. But she found Madeleine's
bed empty, and the window and its shutters open. She left the building screaming and ran to her husband crying: "They've taken
her! They've taken her!"
The distraught parents, friends, resort staff and fellow holidaymakers immediately organised a search of the complex,
its buildings and pool. Police were called, and at midnight they arrived and took charge of what already looked ominously
like a crime rather than an inquisitive, restless child wandering off. No valuables were taken from the flat, and there were
signs that its shutters had been opened - perhaps forced - from outside.
Sniffer dogs arrived and picked up Madeleine's scent. They tracked it to a supermarket car park around 350 metres away.
There it disappeared. Early on Friday morning came reports of a motorist seeing a couple leading a child along a road - perhaps
inevitably described as "suspicious-looking".
By Friday, the full elements of a missing child case were in full swing. Streets and lanes were sealed off, Madeleine's
description and picture were circulated, forensic teams took fingerprints, National Republican Guard patrolled, and police,
holidaymakers and locals combed the area aided by a helicopter and boats.
And then there was the necessary - but barely watchable - appeal from the two parents, sunken-eyed with anxiety and fear.
Gerry McCann, his voice catching with emotion, said: "We can't describe the anguish and despair we are feeling... Please,
if you have Madeleine, let her come home to her mummy, daddy, brother and sister."
Britain's ambassador to Portugal has travelled to the Algarve, while Leicestershire Police sent three Family Liaison
Officers to support the family and liaise with police. A number of relatives also flew out.
In the UK, police were guarding the couple's five-bedroomed Leicestershire home while relatives talked with disarming
candour. Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann, criticised Portuguese police: "We're just not getting any information. My brother
is at his wits' end. His wife can barely stand up. She can't sleep, she can't eat."
Yesterday, senior regional official Antonio Pina said police were fully deployed and operating with "absolute co-ordination".
Trish Cameron, another aunt, was reported as saying: "In hindsight, yes, Gerry and Kate wish they hadn't left the children
alone, but it's hard on holiday. They're excellent parents."
Additional research by Will Dowling
Anguish on the Algarve
20.00 Thursday: McCanns put three-year-old Madeleine and their two-year-old twins to bed and leave for restaurant.
20.45: Meal with friends begins, during which one of them checks on children every half hour.
22.00: Kate McCann returns to discover their daughter is missing. Resort guests and staff begin searching the apartment
complex.
Last Updated: Sunday, 6 May 2007, 21:12 GMT 22:12
UK
The parents of the British girl feared abducted from a holiday apartment in Portugal have attended a church service to
pray for her safe return.
Prayers were said at the Algarve resort where three-year-old Madeleine McCann from Leicestershire was seized.
Gerry McCann said the Catholic mass gave them "strength, courage and hope".
A group of 21 villagers, including children, spent 45 minutes saying the Rosary with the McCanns in the couple's holiday
apartment on Sunday night.
'Continued hope'
Tourists and expatriates also attended an Anglican service at Praia da Luz, and prayers said at the church in the family's
home village of Rothley.
Speaking after the mass on the Algarve, Mr McCann told reporters: "We continue to hope for the best possible outcome
from this for us and for Madeleine."
A tearful Kate McCann said: "Gerry and I would just like to express our sincere gratitude and thanks to everybody, but
particularly the local community here, who have offered so much support.
"We couldn't have asked for more. I just wanted to say thank you. Please continue to pray for Madeleine."
Portuguese police say they have a suspect and believe Madeleine is alive.
On Saturday evening, doctors Mr and Mrs McCann made a fresh appeal for information.
Open shutter
Their daughter who went missing on Thursday from their apartment at Mark Warner's Ocean Club while they were at a restaurant
nearby.
The complex offers a creche service but the couple decided to leave Madeleine and two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie
sleeping in the apartment.
They had been taking turns to return to the block to check on their children.
Mrs McCann found the outside shutter and window to Madeleine's room had been opened and her daughter missing shortly
before 2200 local time.
Mark Warner managing director David Hopkins said the McCanns had "done nothing that I'm sure many parents wouldn't have
done".
He told the BBC: "Whilst keeping a very close eye on their children who are not far away, [they] go out and enjoy a meal
on a holiday in a very, very safe environment."
A spokesman for the company said two holiday bookings at the resort had been cancelled and six had asked to go to another
site.
But the majority of clients were undeterred, the spokesman added.
In the earlier appeal, Mr McCann said: "We have no further information regarding the investigation but appreciate the
significant effort everyone is making on our behalf.
"We would again like to appeal for any information, however small, that may lead to the safe return of Madeleine."
In the first official briefing on the case on Saturday, Guilhermino Encarnacao, director of the judicial police in the
Faro region, said officers were working on the assumption Madeleine was being held between 3km and 5km (about two to three
miles) from the resort.
He said police had taken about 30 calls from potential witnesses and have created an artist's impression of a suspect.
Madeleine McCann family has been enjoying the support of Luz parish, 09 May 2007
(interesting article that refers to events of 05/06 May 2007)
Madeleine McCann family has been enjoying the support of Luz parish Diocese do Algarve
Submitted by: Diocese on Wednesday, May 09, 2007 - 12:41:42 (GMT)
The family of the 4-year-old English child, Madeleine McCann, who has disappeared from a holiday resort in Praia da Luz,
near Lagos, on the 3rd of May, and whose police searches are ongoing, has been feeling the support of the local parish.
Father José Manuel Pacheco, a member of the priest community of the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer, who is responsible
for the pastoral work in that parochial community of Luz of Lagos, explains that little Maddie's parents requested his presence
"since the first hour".
The priest informally visited the family last Saturday at around 7 p.m., and presided over a small prayer in their house,
a house that was different from the one at Mark Warner Ocean Summer Club, the resort where the child disappeared.
"The parish continues, not only through myself but also through other people, to give the family much support," father
José Manuel Pacheco mentions, asserting that "initiatives of prayers for Madeleine were an initiative from the parochial community."
"When I visited Gerald McCann and Kate Healy on Saturday, we agreed to pray a rosary on Sunday afternoon at their house,
which ended up taking place with a significant presence of Portuguese and English people (approximately 30 persons), and it
revealed itself as a very strong moment. The family was confident, and interiorised and lived that moment deeply," he mentions,
adding that he tried "to comfort them, to encourage them and to support them spiritually". "I further informed them that the
parish would pray for their daughter during Sunday Mass and they manifested their will to participate," the priest clarifies.
Sunday Mass, which usually is already composed by the liturgy of the Word in Portuguese and in English, "was prepared
with more care and time, taking into account the situation that the family is going through," father José Manuel Pacheco justifies.
On Sunday, at around 9.30 a.m., the McCann family walked to the parochial church in order to, together with the other
worshippers, participate in the Eucharistic celebration which also included the intention of little Maddie. During the Mass,
the head of the celebration also tried to motivate the entire Christian community (including the foreigners that attended
in greater numbers than usual) to prayers around the child that disappeared from the bedroom where she slept with her two
siblings.
Father José Manuel Pacheco further stresses the "confident and serene" participation of Kate Healy, despite the painful
situation.
On a day when Mother's Day was celebrated, the children's gesture was very meaningful, as they offered a flower to their
mothers during the moment of the embrace of peace. At that time, the priest shared his flower with Kate Healy, so that she,
just like all the other mothers that attended the celebration, could also offer it to Our Lady as a token of gratefulness
for her children. "It was a very moving gesture," father José Manuel Pacheco recognises.
The priest further testifies that Kate Healy "has been seeking moments of silent prayer in church" and assures that his
message has always been one "of hope, of courage and of faith, trying to stress that the little girl is certainly alive, even
more so because that is what people hope for."
During the rosary prayer, which is usual during the month of May, the parish will continue to keep its intent of little
Madeleine always present, as has been the case since last Friday.
