The First Reactions

Gerry rings his sister, Trish Cameron, at 23:40 on 03 May 2007

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'." 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." "Kate came screaming back to the group crying, 'They’ve taken her, they’ve taken her'. Gerry was crying and roaring like a bull." "They think someone must have come in the window and gone out the door with her." Link to Daily Mirror article containing this quote

East Midlands Today report from 04 May 2007 - Trish Cameron

BBC East Midlands Today report from 04 May 2007    Click here to view BBC News report    Trish Cameron speaks about the 'break-in' at the apartment, confirming all other initial stories of an abductor forcing his way in through the bedroom window. She recounts the events of the previous night in list form and appears to have a script in her hands to help her remember what to say.   Rachael Oldfield speaks very briefly by telephone to confirm that "some people are out looking again".   (Note: If you are unable to view this, try clicking on 'preferences' in the top right corner and select to view in Windows Media Player)

Kate rings childhood friend, Linda McQueen, at 2:00am

Yesterday Linda recalled how she had spoken to Kate at about 2am on the night Madeleine vanished. "She just said, 'Somebody's taken Madeleine, somebody's taken Madeleine.' She sounded shocked and frantic and was just trying to get everything up and running to find her. It was just awful. This cold, icy feeling came over you." Link to Daily Mail for this quote * It seems slightly odd that Kate McCann should feel the need to phone a childhood friend at 2:00am in the morning - after all, what could she do to help? It's also interesting that Linda McQueen says that Kate 'was trying to get everything up and running to find her'. Surely, Kate would have been better employed 'up and running' looking for Madeleine herself rather than ringing a childhood friend who was in no position to offer any help. It appears to show that the McCanns were already embarked on a campaign. Why did they need to get 'everything up and running' when the police were already there? How could they think so logically at a time of high emotions, extreme stress and desperation. We have been told by friends and relatives that the McCanns were absolutely devastated and uncontrollable with grief - yet they had the calm presence of mind to undertake a carefully organised system of phone calls to friends and relatives to get 'everything up and running'. Were the friends and relatives simply used by the McCanns in order to provide a smokescreen for their real aim - which was to shift attention away from themselves and unleash a typhoon of media comments that would wipe out all oppostion to their story?

Kate rings another close friend, Jon Corner, at 03:00am

Jon Corner, a close friend of Mrs McCann and godparent of the twins, said Kate 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." After speaking to her a second time, he repeated his earlier account, but this time in stronger language He told how tearful Kate sobbed down the phone early yesterday: "Someone has taken my little girl." He continued: "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." The Liverpool Daily Post also speaks to Jon Corner and reports a very similar conversation: 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." Link to Daily Telegraph article - original quote from Jon Corner Link to Daily Mirror article - second quote from Jon Corner Link to Liverpool Daily Post article - third quote from Jon Corner

Kate/Gerry ring another friend, Jill Renwick, at 07:00am

Jill Renwick, a family friend, told GMTV at 7:45am, on the morning of 04 May, that the distraught parents were certain that Madeline had been abducted. "They were just watching the hotel room and going back every half-hour." She said the parents went out about 8pm, checked on the children at 9pm and then when they "went back in at 10pm she was gone". Ms Renwick said: "Poor Kate and Gerry don't know where to turn. She's obviously been taken as she couldn't have gone out on her own and the shutters had been forced open." "The shutters had been broken open and they've gone into the room and taken her." Speaking to the BBC later, Ms Renwick said the McCanns, who had been holidaying with three other British families, had felt let down by police in Portugal. "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. They just don't know where to turn." However, the manager at the Mark Warner resort, John Hill said the police had been doing all they could. He said around 60 staff and guests at the complex had searched until 4.30am while police notified border police, Spanish police and airports.

Female Tapas group member quoted Daily Mirror 05 May 2007

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." Link to Daily Mirror article containing this quote * This is a very interesting quote atributed to 'a woman friend of the McCanns'. Although the woman friend is unnamed, judging by the time they say they arrived at the tapas restaurant, it is most likely this was Rachael Oldfield speaking. Fiona Payne and Diane Webster are not believed to have arrived until 8.55pm. It is interesting for 6 reasons: 1) Before Jane Tanner's appearance on Panorama in November, this was the only quote to come from a tapas group member that specifically spoke about the events of that night, May 3rd. 2) It clearly implies that the last check was done at 9.15pm, before Kate discovered Madeleine missing at 10.00pm. This fits in with Gerry's check at 9.05pm but would appear to cast doubt on Matthew Oldfield's alleged check at 9.30pm. 3) She states how the window shutters which 'had been closed since we arrived on Saturday, were open along with the window'. This makes it even more remarkable that, on 6 separate occasions, members of the group walked past them and didn't see, or register, they were wide open and supposedly damaged. Jane Tanner walked past 3 times, Russell O'Brien walked past twice and Matthew Oldfield allegedly stood in the apartment , at the entrance to the room, and had a 'cursory' look inside. The window, behind the shutter, would almost certainly have needed to be forced or smashed to gain entry - there was no evidence of any forced entry anywhere in the apartment. 4) She states that the window shutters 'can be opened from the outside' but we know this to be incorrect. It is impossible to open the shutters from the outside. The shutters are made from heavy metal and are ratcheted so they can only be opened from the inside the apartment. 5) She continues: 'The door to the room was shut'. This clearly contradicts Kate's later story that the door had been open. Kate stated that she immediately knew there had been an abduction because, as she opened the patio doors, the door slammed shut when the wind whistled through the apartment. 6) She reaffirms the version of events reported in the immediate phone calls to Kate and Gerry's family/friends, that the 'abductor' entered through the window and escaped by the front door. Yet, we are now led to believe that the abductor entered through open patio doors and escaped by the window. How could she get this so wrong when she was actually there?

	"the apartment... was locked" Philomena McCann, Gerry McCann's sister
	Philomena McCann, said on 04 May: "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."   Link to Daily Mail article containing this quote

Philomena McCann talks to Sky News 05 May 2007

'It Is Abhorent To Suggest Bad Parenting' Last night the family of Madeline McCann made an emotional appeal for her return, 24 hours after she vanished from her bed in the Algarve while her parents were having dinner nearby. The little girl's Aunt, Philomena McCann says the family is devastated. 00:02:28 * Note: Philomena says she has spoken to Gerry ''several times'' and she is still recounting the 'abductor through the window' scenario, when she says ''It is obvious that someone, with malicious intent, went through that window.'' When Ian Woods asks: ''Is there a temptation for them to get out and try and search themselves...'' Philomena replies: ''Yeah, well, I mean for Gerry and Kate they want to get out there, they want to search everything, they want to leave nothing unturned.'' - Yet Kate later admits, in the McCanns first interview with Jane Hill from the BBC, that she never actually did any physical searching. There are also no reports that Gerry ever searched beyond the first few immediate hours after Madeleine's disappearance.

Gerry tells Brian Healy the shutters were broken and the door was open, 05 May 2007

"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."   Full article:   Grandfather: evidence that three-year old was snatched Guardian   Sandra Laville and Dale Fuchs in Faro 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."

	'apartment was locked up' - Liverpool Daily Post 06 May 2007
	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. Link to full Liverpool Daily Post article

Timesonline 06 May 2007

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.   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.   Link to complete Timeonline article   *   There are 2 particularly interesting things in this report:   1) It again highlights, despite a number of other possibilities, the McCanns immediate insistance that Madeleine had been kidnapped.   2) It casts doubt on the belief that 'Cuddle Cat' was Madeleine's sleep comforter, instead it suggests, from this report, that her comforter was a 'small, bright pink wool blanket'. This is later confirmed by David James Smith's article published on 16 December 2007 which states that Madeleine 'was lying almost in “the recovery position” with Cuddle Cat, the toy her godfather, John Corner, had bought her, and her comfort blanket up near her head'.

Susan Healy's account of first conversations with Gerry and Kate

On 23 October 2007, Spanish TV aired an interview with Susan Healy, Kate's mother.   In the interview, Mrs Healy revealed details of the first frantic calls she received from Gerry and Kate after Madeleine went missing. The first call she received was from Gerry and the call from Kate came an hour later.   She said: "Kate rang me and said, 'She's gone, mum. She's gone', the night Madeleine disappeared.   "I was able to say to her, 'We'll be able to get her back'. I'm finding it harder to say that. But we're not going to acknowledge she's gone from our life altogether. She's too important for that."   She also revealed that she initially thought there had been a crash when Gerry called her on the night of May 3.   She said: "Gerry phoned me and said, 'There's been a disaster. It's a disaster'. I thought there had been a car accident. He was hysterical. It took me a while to realise. He just said 'Madeleine has been abducted from her bed'."   Susan then talked about how Kate had clung to her Catholic faith since Madeleine's disappearance.   She said: "It was as if she started to ask God straight away to give her Madeleine. Possibly, she feels that there has to be a greater thing that helps her to get Madeleine back, something that has more power than we have."   In the interview, in which she was joined by husband Brian, she was asked about the fact that police believe Kate killed Madeleine by accident.   She said: "I don’t understand the fact that Kate's been made an arguido. I know it's rubbish and because I believe things usually work out, I'm reasonably confident this will go away. For Madeleine to be dead, that's something that could never be rectified."   Describing the scene she and husband Brian found, at the McCanns’ holiday apartment after they flew to the Algarve, she added: "Kate and Gerry were hysterical. Their voices were out of control and I think it was just blind panic and fear that they couldn’t get through to police or to anybody to make it clear they felt Madeleine had been abducted. They were afraid every minute that was lost was crucial to getting her back."   "My daughter is very placid, very easy-tempered and I saw her scream at the British consul that night; shout down the phone at him to get someone to do something."      And in a final message to her granddaughter, Susan said: "Madeleine, you know how loved you are. You know how much your mummy and daddy want you back. Stay strong and we'll get you back."   Brian Healy added in a whisper: "We will keep searching."