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Saturday 28 April 2007
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Kate and Gerry McCann touchdown at Faro airport with their children
Madeleine, Amelie and Sean for a holiday with friends at nearby Praia da Luz.
They take the bus to the apartment.
Mr McCann said Madeleine was used to travelling, having flown to
Italy and Amsterdam.
"She was excited about going away with the rest of the kids, it
was her first time to Portugal. She had her Barbie rucksack... we all had rucksacks - even Sean and Amelie - it was quite
funny. And Madeleine was acting like a big girl, she was so excited."
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Thursday 03 May 2007
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At night, as had become the holiday pattern, Kate and Gerry dine
with their friends at the tapas restaurant, whilst their children sleep in the apartment. The tapas restaurant is located
within the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex but their apartment, 5A, is outside the boundary wall of the complex.
At around 10.00pm, Kate goes to the apartment to check on the children
and reports Madeleine missing and one of the most extraordinary cases begins.
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Friday 04 May 2007
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Police and locals call off the search at 4.30am. Kate, allegedly,
does not leave the apartment after reporting Madeleine missing but is reported to have gone out with Gerry at 6.00am - although
this is later contradicted in her BBC interview with Jane Hill in which she states that she never did any physical searching.
The McCanns are immediately moved to another apartment in the Ocean
Club complex, having been authorised to take just essential items with them. They carry the twins, who it is alleged,
do not wake throughout the whole disturbance.
Police use sniffer dogs and the Spanish and border police and airports
are notified. Volunteer groups continue to search the village resort and beach in efforts to find Madeleine and clues. The
forensic team arrive at 13.00pm to begin work on the apartment.
It is reported in Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha that sniffer dogs found a scent trail from the McCanns apartment
to another apartment in the same holiday complex that had been occupied by Britons.
Kate's parents, Susan and Brian Healy, arrive on a flight from Liverpool with Michael Wright, Kate McCanns' brother-in-law.
At 10.00pm, as the search for Madeleine continues, her parents issue
a statement to say they "cannot describe the anguish and despair" they are feeling at their daughter's disappearance.
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Police reveal that they believe Madeleine was abducted and that
she is still alive and being held in Portugal. They also reveal they have a sketch of a 'suspect' and that Madeleine
may have been abducted for sexual abuse.
Kate and Gerry keep a low profile, although Gerry does return to the apartment where they had
been staying - now a crime scene - to retrieve a suitcase of belongings and a bucket and spade for the couple's two year old
twins.
At one point they are seen walking hand in hand to the apartment where they are now staying,
after dropping off the twins with friends.
They later meet with British ambassador John Buck and are joined by three family liaison
officers from Leicestershire police.
At night, Gerry makes another emotional plea for help, appearing before a bank of cameras and a crowd of reporters.
Last Updated: 06/05/2007 10:33
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.
The first reports:
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Kate and Gerry attend the Mother's Day service at the church in
Praia da Luz and make a brief statement afterwards.
Later, they are driven to the Policia Judiciaria headquarters in
Portimao, as it is alleged the inquiry into their Madeleine's disappearance is centred on a group of three - two men
and a woman.
Two further "couples" aged in their 50s are driven into the back
of the PJ building in Portimao by mid afternoon.
Questions are raised about the quality of the police's sketch, with
one newspaper reporting that the image is based only on the rear view of a man seen with a child in the area.
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Kate makes an appeal for the safe return of Madeleine, from inside
their holiday apartment.
In the first of what will become many 'sightings', police begin
investigating a claim that a man was seen dragging a girl towards the marina at Lagos, a short drive from Praia
da Luz.
Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, reports Robert Murat to Leicestershire police as she believes he has been
acting suspiciously.
Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann - a schoolteacher in Ullapool, approaches one of her former pupils, Calum MacRae, to
set up a website to help raise awareness of Madeleine's disappearance.
Family friend Pat Perkins, sends out a chain e-mail asking for help and information about Madeleine's 'abduction'. See
here for e-mail
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Police follow up 350 possible sightings and say they have already
interviewed more than 100 people.
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In Portugal, police examine a CCTV tape from the Galp service
station on the east-west motorway, just a few miles outside Praia da Luz, showing a woman with a child fitting Madeleine's
description.
In Morocco, Norwegian tourist Mari Pollard says she saw a girl who
looked like Madeleine with a man at a petrol station in Marrakesh. On the same day, a British holidaymaker saw a youngster
outside the Ibis Hotel in Marrakesh.
Two child abduction experts arrive from the UK.
Susan and Brian Healy (Kate's parents) talk to Sky News following their return to the UK Watch video here - (*Note: The Sky News video link doesn't work for this video. You need to enter 'Susan Healy' into the video search
box and click on the video '09 May 2007')
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Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa holds a news conference to give
more details of the search for Madeleine. He insists that he is doing everything he can to find the little
girl, but so far from the ground search "the results are zero". He adds that the ground search for Madeleine is now being wound down.
It is also revealed that police are checking several CCTV images. Mr
Sousa said "images of video surveillance" had been collected from several locations "in order to check possible leads
that may have been recorded".
Kate and Gerry are asked to scan CCTV film for a glimpse of their kidnapped daughter. Footage at a garage in Portugal
captured an image of three suspects, including a woman, with a girl who matched Madeleine's description. The camera also caught
the car’s British number plate and the registration has been circulated by Interpol and British police.
The McCanns were driven at speed from their holiday apartment to a police station in Portimao to help officers examine
the tapes after Mrs McCann again went to the local church to pray for her daughter. Bill Henderson, the British Consul in
the Algarve, was seen leaving the police headquarters while Mr and Mrs McCann were still inside.
Two of the three suspects
in the CCTV footage that may show Madeleine have been identified by a man who claimed he caught them photographing his own
child two weeks ago. The witness, Portuguese-born Nuno Lourenco who lives in Germany, said the gang attempted to abduct his
own young daughter.
He told detectives that he saw a man of English appearance photographing
his daughter, described as strikingly similar in appearance to Madeleine, on April 30 in Sagres, a town just a few miles from
the holiday complex where the McCann family was staying.
The witness, who with his German wife has two children aged two
and four, said he chased the man, who fled, jumping into a car with a woman and another man before speeding off. Mr Lourenco
is believed to have provided the authorities with a photograph taken on his mobile phone. The witness has told officers he
was "100 per cent certain" they were the same people caught on CCTV with the girl matching Madeleine's description hours after
she went missing.
An image of a pair of pyjamas, identical to those which Madeleine
had been wearing when she disappeared, is released.
The McCanns spend most of the afternoon and evening being questioned at the police station in Portimao: Kate is questioned
for 9 hours and Gerry is questioned for 14 hours, eventually leaving the station at 3.00am in the morning.
While the McCanns were at the headquarters, according to local media reports, another British couple were interviewed
at the same station. They were not arrested and were driven from the station concealed by a blanket.
It is also reported that while the McCanns were being reinterviewed police with dogs were searching the McCanns
apartment again. Police say it is the final time they will search the block to look for clues. The wider search in the area
will end in the next few days.
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Gerry's 14 hours of questioning, finishing at 3.00am this morning,
goes largely unreported in the British media as it coincides with David Beckham's video appeal.
Scottish businessman Stephen Winyard offers a £1m reward for information.
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Madeleine's 4th birthday
Kate and Gerry attend a mass to mark the day and call for people
to redouble their efforts to find her.
Robert Murat hires a car from Auto Rent Algarve for the period 12 May - 15 May.
Celebrities including JK Rowling, 42, and Sir Philip Green, 55,
donate to a £2.5 million reward fund.
Gordon Brown offers his sympathy.
The Guardian reports that Portuguese newspaper, Diario de Noticias, 'insisted Mr and Mrs McCann were suspects and
claimed that on the night Madeleine disappeared they had not checked on her, contrary to what they told police.'
Alison Castanheira, a British expat who had helped with the search, said there was resentment among the Portuguese and
expat community: "Everybody is angry as everyone is blaming the police for not doing their job, but realistically the parents
haven't done theirs."
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It emerges London lawyers from the International Family Law Group
have flown to Portugal to assist the McCanns, and are setting up a special "fighting fund" to allow members of the public
to make their own financial contribution to the search.
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At 7.00am, police launch simultaneous raids at Casa Liliana, the
home of Robert Murat's mother - situated 150 yards away from the McCann's apartment, Murat's German girlfriend's apartment
and several addresses with which Murat is believed to have had a connection.
Robert Murat is half British and half Portugese and has been living
at Casa Liliana with his mother Jenny.
Michaela Walczuch, Murat's girlfriend, and her ex-partner, Luis Antonio, are questioned by
police for the first time.
Kate and Gerry answer questions from the media for the first time,
on the road outside their holiday apartment.
Gerry says he is now being helped by two British lawyers from the
Family Law Centre on how best to use money pledged to help find Madeleine and give assistance in Portuguese legal processes.
He said: "We have felt a burden lifted from our shoulders. It is
one less thing to think about. It has allowed us to concentrate more on our own physical and mental wellbeing.
"We do need to spend more time focusing on that
and with our twins Sean and Amelie. We do wish to |
