The Huelva Trip

The Huelva trip timeline

Diagram text:

Distance from city to city by car is approx. 110 miles

JOURNEY TO SPAIN

The McCanns left Praia da Luz at 9am on August 3 along with Gerry's brother John and a cameraman hired to take footage for website findmadeleine.com

They travelled east on the A22 and arrived in Huelva at 12.15pm after stopping at a service station for fuel. They were expected at 11am.

POSTER DRIVE

Kate and Gerry began distributing leaflets and posters about Madeleine.

At 1pm they arrived at the train station to hand out more, then to the cathedral at 1.30pm and bus station at 2pm. They headed back to Praia da Luz at 2.20pm.

Note: It was Jon Corner who accompanied the McCanns to Huelva, as seen in the Panorama footage and the photograph reproduced further down this page. There is no evidence to suggest that John McCann was in Portugal at that time.

	The Huelva trip - In context of other events at the time
31 July 2007	Eddie and Keela start work at Apartment 5A In the evening, Portuguese and UK investigators begin their search of apartment 5A with Eddie and Keela. Cadaver odour is indicated in the McCanns bedroom by the wardrobe, in the living room behind a sofa and a light scent indicated outside on the veranda and in a flowerbed. A blood indication is made behind the sofa.
	Gerry's blog: Relatively quiet day apart from phone calls and campaign related e-mails. We have Busy couple of days coming up so off to bed relatively early (before midnight)!
01 August 2007	Jon Corner and Kate's parents arrive Jon Corner arrives to film promotional material for the official 'Find Madeleine' site. Kate's parents also arrive.
	Gerry's blog: Another trip to the airport this morning to pick up our campaign manager. Kate did a series of interviews for womens magazines and the Sunday newspapers which took most of the afternoon. Kates parents, who we visit regularly at home, also arrived and the twins were very happy to see them. They will be staying with us for a week. We have had some new posters designed of Madeleine, in Portuguese and Spanish, which I have been printing out to distribute locally. I also did some filming to camera which we might use on the website and for future events.
02 August 2007	Trip to Huelva cancelled Gerry McCann cancels trip to Huelva due to 'viral illness'. PJ arrive at the McCanns' villa with Eddie and Keela Around 18:00pm, the Inspectors knock on the door of the McCanns villa. Jon Corner states in the Panorama documentary that the McCanns were forewarned of this forensic visit and that there were clothes in the washing machine when the Inspectors arrived. Cadaver odour is indicated on two pieces of Kate's clothing (trousers and blouse), on a red T-shirt believed to belong to Madeleine and on the soft toy known as 'Cuddle Cat'.
	Gerry's blog: Today was a bit of a write off for me as I was laid low with a probable viral illness which meant I could not stray too far from the house! I did manage to get through some e-mails, telephone calls and some paperwork. Feeling a bit better tonight so hopefully be back to normal tomorrow. Kate did manage to put up some of the new Madeleine posters in shops around Praia da Luz.. It is noticably busier, now that we are in August, with lots of tourists many of whom are from Portugal. The figures from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show that one in six kids are recovered after being recognised from a poster. Such statistics do encourage us that relatively simple measures may be effective in helping us find Madeleine.
03 August 2007	Trip to Huelva The Huelva trip goes ahead, despite all public places being closed. The timeline, according to The Sun, is as follows: 09:00 Leave Praia da Luz 12:15 Arrive Huelva (expected at 11:00am) 13:00 Distribute leaflets and posters at train station 13:30 Distribute leaflets and posters at cathedral 14:00 Distribute leaflets and posters at bus station 14:20 Leave to return to Praia da Luz A '100% sure' Maddie sighting is reported In Belgium, details emerge of a possible sighting of Madeleine. A child therapist says she is '100% sure' she saw Madeleine at a restaurant in the town of Tongeren, not far from the Dutch border. A bottle is taken for DNA testing but turns out to be that of a man. The 'sighting' actually took place on 28 July 2007. Covered here
	Gerry's blog: It is exactly 3 months since Madeleine was abducted. Kate and I had an early start as we drove to Huelva, 50Km over the border from Portugal in Southern Spain. We were meant to go yesterday but had to cancel because I was ill. Unfortunately it was a public holiday in Huelva and the large shopping centre we planned to visit was closed. We did distribute posters in several garages, taxi ranks and the bus and train stations and gave out some Madeleine wristbands. This was definitely a worthwhile exercise, as many people did not seemingly recognise Madeleine but we did get a very warm response from the Spanish people we met. We would encourage everyone to continue taking posters on holiday but please ask permission before putting them up in public places. When we arrived back in Praia da Luz we did a couple of media interviews to building up to August 11th, which will mark 100 days if Madeleine is still missing. There will be a lot of media activity next week reviewing Madeleine's abduction, the investigation and of course the campaign to help find her. It is an opportunity to highlight that we have not given up hope and are still optimistic of being reunited with Madeleine. Tonight we prayed for Madeleine at a vigil in the church. This has happened every Friday since Madeleines abduction and was very well attended tonight, probably due to the greater number of tourists in the resort.
04 August 2007	Search of Casa Liliana, summary from 'The Truth of the Lie' - 4 and 5 August. Ground "aired" and opened. Over two days of thorough searching, no signs from Eddie at Murat's home. Jon Corner returns home (see Gerry's blog below)
	Gerry's blog: Another early start to the day as I dropped the crew who did some filming for the website and other forthcoming events. Kate and I did a short interview reviewing the last 3 months and the search for Madeleine. We spent the rest of the day with the kids and Kate's family. We were all glad it clouded over in the afternoon to give us some respite from the intense heat. The most recent searches by the police have attracted a lot of renewed media interest with satellite trucks arriving back in Praia da Luz. It is likely that some of the British Broadcasters will also come back out. We werre all very tired and we managed to get off to bed at 10.30pm, which is very early for us by recent standards.

Madeleine Push Delayed As Gerry Sick, 02 August 2007

Madeleine Push Delayed As Gerry Sick Sky News (article no longer online)

Updated: 12:40, Thursday August 02, 2007

A new push to publicise the search for Madeleine McCann has had to be delayed as the four-year-old's father is suffering from a stomach bug.

Updated posters of Madeleine have been printed in the latest appeal for information.

Gerry and Kate McCann had been due to travel to the Spanish city of Huelva to begin handing out the posters and meet politicians.

The fresh campaign is timed to coincide with the upcoming 100-day milestone since Madeleine's abduction in the Potuguese resort of Praia da Luz.

But the plans have been put on hold until Mr McCann has recovered from his illness.

The cardiologist, who is on unpaid leave from his job at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester, was said to have returned exhausted from his recent trip to the US.

New push to find Madeleine

He has also been busily filming new appeals on camera, as he describes in his blog.

As the painful milestone in Madeleine's disappearance approaches, Kate McCann's parents have flown to Portugal to support their daughter.

Madeleine's brother and sister, twins Sean and Amelie, were said to be very happy to see them.

Grandparents Brian and Susan Healy will be looking after the two-year-old twins when the McCanns eventually make the trip to Spain.

"Gerry and Kate's parents have been incredibly supportive," said a spokesperson for the McCanns.

"They like seeing their grandchildren and it is natural for them to want to visit their daughter as much as they can."

Three months on, Madeleine's parents make fresh plea for help in finding their daughter, 03 August 2007

Three months on, Madeleine's parents make fresh plea for help in finding their daughter Daily Mail

Last updated at 15:00 03 August 2007

Exactly three months after their daughter was abducted, the parents of missing Madeline McCann today made a renewed plea for help in finding their daughter.

Kate and Gerry McCann travelled to Huelva, the capital of Andalucia in Spain, to put up posters of their missing child across the city.

They are distributing the images of Madeleine across the city exactly three months after her abduction.

Ms McCann said: "Gerry and I want to remind people that our lovely little girl, Madeleine, is still missing. Today will mark three months since she was cruelly snatched from her bed.

"We do not know where she is, or where she has been taken, but would urge tourists and residents in Portugal and Spain to keep looking for Madeleine. All we want is to be reunited with Madeleine and to be a happy family once again."

There are no plans as yet to mark the 100-day anniversary since her disappearance, with the couple instead intending to grind their way along the main motorway between southern Portugal and Spain, raising awareness over the four-year-old's disappearance.

Writing on his blog on Tuesday, Mr McCann said he intended to ramp up the campaign over the coming week.

He said: "Relatively quiet day apart from phone calls and campaign related emails. We have busy couple of days coming up so off to bed relatively early."

The couple have been boosted by the news that DNA tests are being carried out on a glass and straw used by a girl resembling Madeleine in Belgium.

The girl was seen by a witness - a children's therapist - who is said to be '100 per cent sure' that the little girl she saw with a young couple on a Belgian cafe terrace was Madeleine.

Police are said to be taking the sighting 'very seriously'.

She has told police the girl was with an English-speaking woman and a Dutchman on the cafe terrace in Tongeren, near Maastricht, on Wednesday.

PJ investigates trip to Huelva, 27 September 2007

PJ investigates trip to Huelva Correio da Manhã (article no longer online)

Suspicions: Authorities went to Spain to try to understand what the McCanns did on August 3

27 September 2007

Thanks to 'astro' for translation

The Policia Judiciaria are investigating a trip of the McCann couple to Huelva, Spain, made on August 3, which used the Renault Scenic that contained traces that are presumed to belong to Maddie. These diligences are performed according to the theory, which is now followed more intensely by the investigators, that points to the child's death and the moving of the corpse in that car. The PJ has already collected video surveillance images in "locations that make no sense" where the Renault Scenic may have been through.

The suspicions become more dense with some details of the trip. Namely the fact that for almost three months, Kate and Gerry had an intense media agenda, which included the presence of the press all over Europe. This was until August 2, a time when Maddie's father alleged intestinal problems and cancelled the entire program, which included meetings with some associations in Huelva.

Gerry missed that day, but PJ found out later that the trip from Praia da Luz to that Spanish city was made the next day, this time including the couple and a small group of journalists. This was the first time in three months, since their daughter disappeared on the night of May 3.

The 'strangest' part is the fact that on that day, it was a holiday in Huelva. And the McCanns didn't schedule any meetings, everything was closed - and there was a big agitation at the city centre. At a time when the inspectors are trying to reconstitute thousands of 'unjustified' kilometres that the Renault Scenic made during this period, CM knows there was even a meeting between the leaders of the investigation and the Spanish police.

After the detection of residues that may lead to the presence of the body inside the car, the PJ, besides failing to find a justification for the exaggerated amount of kilometres travelled, already owns several images of the passage of that van through Spain, on August 3. The van may contain the key to the crime.

Kilometres have not been justified

PJ owns the records of the kilometres that were made with the van, between May 27 and July 3. The distances are being checked, in order to try to reconstitute the locations where the van that was hired by the McCanns passed through.

Residues collected in August

The blood residues that are presumed to belong to Madeleine, were collected inside the car in early August. That was also the time when the English dogs smelled cadaver odour inside the boot, and on the vehicle's key.

(...)

Results delayed

PJ still awaits the results from analyses that are being performed on the rest of the residues that were collected inside the McCanns' car and in the apartment. They are not expected this week.

Awaiting interrogations

The Policia Judiciaria is preparing the request letters that will be sent to England. The purpose is to interrogate the McCanns and their friends.

Why did the McCann family travel to Huelva in Spain on August 3?, 27 September 2007

Why did the McCann family travel to Huelva in Spain on August 3?, Typically Spanish

By h.b. - Sep 27, 2007 - 12:34 PM

Portuguese newspaper 'Correio de Manha' asks the question today as police try to cover the 2,750 kilometres reportedly used by their hire car over a month

According to the Portuguese newspaper 'Correio da Manha', the Portuguese Police are now investigating a journey allegedly taken by the McCann family to Huelva in Spain during August.

The investigators are trying to justify a reported 2,750 kilometres which the parents of missing Madeleine McCann added to the Renault Scenic hire car in the month they used it. This was the same car from which DNA evidence was taken by the investigators.

The McCanns reportedly went to Huelva on August 3, which was a local fiesta in the Spanish city, but the reason for the trip is not clear.

The newspaper claims that the Portuguese police are concentrating their efforts now on the search for a body, although other lines of investigation remain open.

The police believe the child died accidentally on the night she vanished May 3rd and that the parents later moved the body. However the evidence they have is not sufficient they say to charge the parents who it seems will not be questioned again unless new evidence is found.

The McCanns continue to proclaim their innocence and say all the police efforts should remain concentrated on the search for Madeleine.

Police probe lost two hours, 28 September 2007

Police probe lost two hours The Sun

From CLODAGH HARTLEY in Praia da Luz

and ANTONELLA LAZZERI in Rothley

Published: 28 Sep 2007

KATE and Gerry McCann were stunned yesterday at the latest police claim about missing Madeleine – that they buried her during a "missing two hours" while putting up posters in Spain.

A furious pal said as the outrageous theory emerged: "Kate and Gerry have had enough.

"Underneath all this rubbish are horrible accusations and rumours.

"There are sightings of Madeleine which they want properly investigated."

Kate and Gerry – shattered that a girl thought to be Maddie in Morocco turned out not to be the four-year-old – urged police to get on with finding their daughter.

The couple – both doctors aged 39 – were incensed that it took The Sun to discover that the blonde tot photographed by a tourist was the daughter of a local farmer.

Face recognition experts yesterday said they were amazed police in Portugal – where Maddie vanished on May 3 – never followed up the lead. They described the girl in the photo as "highly similar" to her.

David McIntosh, of Omni-perception, said: "I would have expected police to have been on the first plane out – there were enough scientific matches between the photo and Madeleine."

Yesterday it emerged Portuguese detectives are working on the bizarre theory that the McCanns hid their daughter's body in their hire car THREE MONTHS after she was reported missing.

On August 3, the couple drove from the fateful Algarve resort of Praia da Luz across the border to the Spanish town of Huelva to put up posters. With them were Gerry’s brother John and a cameraman hired to take footage for the website findmadeleine.com.

Once in Spain, the couple were followed around by an army of media. Despite this, police are focusing on what they claim was a "missing two hours". They are investigating the possibility Gerry and Kate either buried the body then – or returned to the site of a grave they made earlier.

It is the latest in a string of controversial theories by the Portuguese – many of which have been discredited. To bolster their latest idea – leaked to one of the country's newspapers – police say it was: SUSPICIOUS the trip was postponed from the day before – because Gerry had intestinal problems.

"STRANGE" that the couple, from Rothley, Leics, chose to visit Spain on a national holiday when shops were shut.

MYSTERIOUS that the McCanns racked up "unjustified mileage" in their Renault Scenic – hired 25 days after Maddie disappeared.

Police are awaiting further tests on the car – in which they claim to have already found DNA linked to Maddie. They are said to have met with Spanish counterparts to study CCTV showing the motor travelling in "places without reason."

Yesterday Clarence Mitchell, spokesman for the McCanns, insisted: "The trip to Huelva was organised on behalf of the Find Madeleine campaign. It was conducted in the full glare of journalists from all over Europe and beyond."

A source close to the McCanns yesterday said the couple had a "new determination" to find their daughter. The insider said: "A new ad campaign due to be revealed in two weeks is aimed at getting the message across – keep searching." Yesterday the couple left their home in Rothley to take their two-year-old twins to nursery. Gerry told supporters: "It is just over two weeks since we returned home from Portugal.

"The major news in that time is that we have not been c