Madeleine McCann

[Jeff Leahy]

Hi Mike,
You and I both know there was something wrong with what occurred over there in Portugal,and you said that you would have stayed,like I would, and torn Portugal apart.We both would not have run home after we were questioned.Infact,and I think you will agree,we are both the sort of people,who would rather be suspects and remain,to fight another day in Portugal,than run when things beome uncomfortable for you.
Clarence Mitchell talks the most amazing amount of crap,just off the top of his head,in interviews than i've heard in ages...with a smile on his face aswell.

ANNA.

Hi Anna

This is a very emotive subject. But I hope if you donet mind if a drop an observation...I once lost my daughter in a super market, she would have been younger than Maddy..just walking..i got distracted for a spplit second at the till paying the bill and she was gone...I've never felt so sick in all my life..blind panic goes through you..she turned up, what seemed like a life time but was possibly only a minute..she was sat on the floor unloading some poor guys food box...probably the worst moment of my life.

While I simpathize with you, I don't know what these people are going through, I cant imagine...hopefully I will never have to know.

I do know however that the McCanes have a responcibility to there other children...it may seem hard but there is nothing they can do for Mandy, its out of their hands..they can still give their other children a life and must.

People may not like what I'm about to say but my gut reaction is that Mandy is dead or she would have turned up by now.

Sorry if i've upset anyone.

Jeff

[anna]

Hi Jeff,
Not upsetting anyone Jeff,your points are valid ones to make.I know what you mean,I too had instances like yours when my son was younger.They tend to wander off when we just turn away for a second.

Bob has just made a point similar to mine.This sort of evidence,if correct,would have surfaced before now.It's not likely that,
if Maddie had been pinched,she would have been out of her abductors sight long enough to have a conversation with someone,that would give the game away.

I don't know why people,I really dont, but for me something just 'aint right.
Many have sympathy with the McCann's,just as parents,and many don't.
I really have no idea why I have the thought that this is all hogwash,and the real truth may never surface...but I do.
I would love to be proven wrong,but sadly,I don't think I will be.
ANNA.

[Jeff Leahy]

For what its worth Anna, my partner was reading out the news paper last night on the case. She went over and over the bit about the McCanes sending back a friend to check on the kids..I think she agree's with you..

I just do not know. I think we should be very careful with forensics. Mandy's DNA would have been all over the teddy bear..

But I feel unless that little girls body turns up. We will never know.

Good day to you Anna, dont forget to give your son a hug, even if he is to big.

Jeff x

[Mike Covell]

Does anyone have a list of the questions the Mccanns were asked, and which of those questions they failed to answer?

There are numerous sites with the basic list, but I wanted to know which questions they had answered and which they had not.

[Maria]

Hi Anna

This is a very emotive subject. But I hope if you donet mind if a drop an observation...I once lost my daughter in a super market, she would have been younger than Maddy..just walking..i got distracted for a spplit second at the till paying the bill and she was gone...I've never felt so sick in all my life..blind panic goes through you..she turned up, what seemed like a life time but was possibly only a minute..she was sat on the floor unloading some poor guys food box...probably the worst moment of my life.

While I simpathize with you, I don't know what these people are going through, I cant imagine...hopefully I will never have to know.

I do know however that the McCanes have a responcibility to there other children...it may seem hard but there is nothing they can do for Mandy, its out of their hands..they can still give their other children a life and must.

People may not like what I'm about to say but my gut reaction is that Mandy is dead or she would have turned up by now.

Sorry if i've upset anyone.

Jeff

Pirate:

You have not upset anyone, in fact, you have made my point. Even the most responsible parents can lose their children. There was another abduction in Portugal where the mother was in the kitchen whilst her daughter was being abducted in her bedroom as the little girl slept. That mother in Portugal was charged with her daughters disappearance by the same policemen that were " investigating " Maddie´s abduction.

There have been several cases of abduction which have not been solved around that area. The case above was an abduction only a stone throw away from where Maddie disappeared.

A similar case in Britain was solved within two weeks because the British police followed all the leads. The Portuguese police did not follow leads, they just concentrated in lynching the parents. The fact that this information was secret and was not released until now... makes my blood boil. I think that the McCann´s have a case against this shoddy police " work "

Maria

[Jeff Leahy]

Hi Maria

I didnt know other children had disappeared in the area..to be honest I tend to stear clear of cases involving children..

I pulled out of a story on the Moors Murders...

A local killer would make sense to me however..someone who knows this area well...her body wont be very far..

Many thanks for your post

Pirate

[anna]

Hi Jeff,
For what it's worth,I personally don't go for the abductor theory.
For a start,no reward has ever been demanded,and she was a prime target for that,if ever there was one.
Maddie hasn't just been left somewhere.Which,considering the hot potato she became,and how quickly she became it...even if they considered a reward demand too risky,they could have just dumped her,and be done with the problem they unwittingly let themselves in for.
The reward money would far outweigh any money they could obtain from selling her,so the whole episode of an abduction is also a non-event for me.
If your girlfriend is getting interested,a trawl through this thread would be amazing for her.Many thoughts and facts lie within it.
I don't think you could put her into the category that you steer away from.
This is,so far,an untold story...as much as Clarence Mitchell would have us believe otherwise.
ANNA.

Mike,
Was there not a complete list that,I think,you yourself posted on this thread,of the exact questions that were asked?Just a thought.

[Jeff Leahy]

Yoo, I think I've stepped into a conversation I don't fully understand..I just gave some gut reactions as I was discussing the matter last evening with my partner..

Of course I could read the thread from the start and work it out..

However out of respect to you all I'm going to step out...

I just dont think the emotive issue of child murder is one for me..

Its not something I've done over the last ten years..

I wish you all the best.. and will follow this thread...

Jeff xxx

[anna]

No worries Jeff.Nice to have your thoughts on the subject.


ANNA.

[Lord Lucan]

Investigators for Kate and Gerry McCann are probing claims that a girl calling herself "Maddy" was seen in the Netherlands after their child vanished.

The information, reported to Portuguese police in June last year, has only now been made public with the release of previously secret police files.

An Amsterdam shop worker said the girl said "they took me from my holiday".

The McCanns spokesman Clarence Mitchell said it was "tragic" that this kind of evidence has only now been issued.

Madeleine vanished, aged three, in May 2007 while on holiday in the Algarve.

The McCanns, both 40 and from Rothley, Leicestershire, have accused detectives of withholding potentially crucial evidence from them after the release of the official documents.

According to one file, Anna Stam, 41, a shop assistant, said she spoke to a girl aged three or four in Amsterdam who resembled Madeleine and said her name was "Maddy".

In reply to a question about her mother, the girl is said to have remarked: "They took me from my holiday."

A report was sent to Portugal on 18 June last year but it is not clear from the files what action was taken.

Mr Mitchell said: "It is harrowing to hear a child saying that. If it was Madeleine, it was a disgrace that it was not passed on.

"We need to know what happened with this. This is exactly the sort of primary information that we need to know if it was followed up properly by the police.

"If that hasn't been done, that is exactly the kind of information that the private investigators are going to follow up."

The Portuguese police inquiry into the girl's disappearance was wound up last month.

The McCanns and a third British national, Robert Murat - who have always strongly denied having had any involvement in what happened to Madeleine - were declared to no longer be formal suspects.

Among the new files released was a prosecutor's report that said the investigation had uncovered "very little" conclusive about Madeleine's fate.

There were also CCTV images showing a small child said to resemble Madeleine at an Algarve petrol station the day after she disappeared that the McCanns had not seen before.

Several other reported sightings across Europe have been examined by local authorities or the investigators working for the McCanns in the past but all came to nothing.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7544384.stm

I was reading this online myself today. Seems a lead worth following.
It's missing persons week here in Australia and only 2 day ago I was watching a show on her disappearance. Seems the Portugese police were looking for an early conviction but came away empty handed.
I can only begin to imagine how horrific for her family it must be after all this time to still not have any answers.

[Maria]

Hi Jeff,
For what it's worth,I personally don't go for the abductor theory.
For a start,no reward has ever been demanded,and she was a prime target for that,if ever there was one.
Maddie hasn't just been left somewhere.Which,considering the hot potato she became,and how quickly she became it...even if they considered a reward demand too risky,they could have just dumped her,and be done with the problem they unwittingly let themselves in for.
The reward money would far outweigh any money they could obtain from selling her,so the whole episode of an abduction is also a non-event for me.
If your girlfriend is getting interested,a trawl through this thread would be amazing for her.Many thoughts and facts lie within it.
I don't think you could put her into the category that you steer away from.
This is,so far,an untold story...as much as Clarence Mitchell would have us believe otherwise.
ANNA.

Mike,
Was there not a complete list that,I think,you yourself posted on this thread,of the exact questions that were asked?Just a thought.

Anna:

An abduction is not necessarily for money. At this stage there is no evidence that Madeleine is dead, you have to remember that that part of Portugal is very near Africa where children are sold for, it is an illicit market where there are sellers and buyers. White blond little girls fetch a lot of money. It is sad but it is true. A white slave.

Maria

[Mike Covell]

Mike,
Was there not a complete list that,I think,you yourself posted on this thread,of the exact questions that were asked?Just a thought.

Hi Anna, since the files were released this week, it has come to light that the Mccanns were asked a series of questions, some of which they refused to answer.

I have found some on the BBC website, but they reveal only a few questions which the did not answer.

[Maria]

I saw her in my shop

Pirate Jack, Mike, Lord Lucan:

Mike, expanding on your article. This is the latest article I read:

A girl resembling Madeleine McCann told a shopkeeper: " My name is Maddie. They have taken me from my holiday."

The child, seen in Holland with a foreign couple, then asked: " Do you know where my mummy is ? " And she said of the French-speaking woman with her: " She is a stranger, she took me from miy mummy "

The encounter emerged yesterday after more than 20,000 pages of evidence from police files were made public for the first time.

Also released was a CCTV footage, right, of a girl bearing a striking resemblance to Madeleine at a garage less than 30 minutes from her family´s Portuguese holiday apartment, hours after she vanished.

A friend of Madeleine´s parents Kate and Gerry said last night: " Seeing these images has come as a shock."

The little girl told the shopkeeper in perfect English: " My name is Maddie. They took me from my holiday."

The encounter came less than a month after Madeleine went missing from her family´s holiday apartment in Portugal, and was outlined in detail to police there. But they failed to follow up what appears the most credible sighting since Madeleine went missing on May 3 last year, shortly before her fourth birthday.

And her parents Kate and Gerry only learned of it last night, after the release of police files. Shop worker Anna Marie Martha Stam, who was working in the Dam´s Feest party shop in Amsterdam, said a man and woman had gone into the shop with three children late last May.

Mrs. Stam, 41, said the girl looked " very much like " Madeleine, but for her dark hair, and the man with her " did not look like a nice person " She said:
" A little girl approached me. She was three to four years old, she had straight, dark brown hair in a ponytail "

" What called my attention was the fact that she showed little or no emotion on her little face. She asked me in English, " Do you know where my mummy is ? " I answered that her mother was a little bit further back in the shop and she answered: " She is not my mummy." I asked her who the woman was, and she said, " She is a stranger, she took me from my mummy ! "

" I noticed the little girl spoke good English without an accent. I asked her what her name was and she said: " My name is Maddie "

" I then asked her where she had last seen her mother and she answered: " They took me from my holiday "

Ms Stam reported the meeting to Dutch police in early June last year. She described the man, who she believed spoke Portuguese, as aged between 35 and 40 with dark brown hair and a moustache. The woman, who had been speaking French, was slim and blonde, aged between 35 and 40. She told Ms Stam they had a small circus in France.

The spokesman from the McCann´s said last night: " Kate and Gerry were not aware of any of the sightings that the police were supposed to have handled. It is shocking. If it was Madeleine, it was a disgrace that the information was not passed on.

" The worst thing is that Madeleine has been let down by this lack of apparent coordination. It is tragic that it should come this late on "

[anna]

Mike,
I'm just trying to remember...
We all wanted to know the complete list,and,if I remember correctly the one's she did answer were put out by the newspapers first,but the Portuguese police put out a list just after that, that included all the questions she didn't answer,below the one's she did.
I don't think this was obtained via a newspaper's site,I think it may have been the site of the Portuguese Police themselves.
This is just off the top of my head,and someone else may have a better memory than I,and may think differently.
ANNA.

[anna]

Maria,
Let me ask you just one question.
Why on earth would these people,if they thought they had important information that they had reported but had gone no further,not have called the number that was put out on posters and on tv all over the world??
Are you seriously believing that this child was allowed by these abductors,to stand and talk to a woman without being stopped from giving the game away,.....and would the abductors tell the woman who they were... and all this,only a month after snatching Maddie when this story was still in the news,and making front page headlines????
ANNA.