"At this point Madeleine is equally alive and dead."
-- Kent "the imbecile" Wills
"tiny dancer" <tinydancer357@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:0D4hk.5006$US3.1401@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Maddie McCann Case Shelved; Parents No Longer Suspects
> Tainted Evidence Apparently Played a Role in Closing the Investigation,
> for Now
> By AMMU KANNAMPILLY
> LONDON, July 21, 2008 -
>
>
> Nearly 15 months after British toddler Madeleine McCann went missing in
> Praia da Luz, ****tugal, the ****tuguese attorney general has ordered a
halt
> to the investigation and cleared the child's parents of any involvement
in
> her disappearance.
>
> "The Attorney General's Office has hereby decided to 'archive' the
> investigation into the case of Madeleine McCann due to lack of any
> evidence of any crime being committed by the 'arguidos' [suspects],"
> Attorney General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro said today in a statement.
>
> Kate and Gerry McCann and Robert Murat, a property consultant based in
> Praia da Luz, "are no longer considered suspects in the case of the
> missing toddler," he added.
>
> Madeleine McCann vanished on May 3, 2007, while her family was
vacationing
> in Praia da Luz.
>
> Even after the case is shelved, however, it can still be reopened if any
> new evidence surfaces.
>
> In his statement, Monteiro said that the attorney general's office
> reserved "the right to reopen the investigation, or upon request from an
> interested party, should there be legitimate cause or significant new
> evidence emerge."
>
> For now, there are suggestions in the UK media that the evidence that
led
> to the McCanns' being charged was based on incorrect DNA tests.
>
> The Daily Mail re****ted that the attorney general's re****t accuses the
> British Forensic Science Service of making crucial errors during its
> testing of samples found in the McCanns' car and their apartment in
Praia
> da Luz.
>
> According to the Mail, leaks from Monteiro's re****t say that it was the
> forensic service's initial insistence that DNA samples found in the
> McCanns' car and apartment belonged to Madeleine, which was responsible
> for prosecutors formulating charges against the couple.
>
> A month later though, the forensic service officials said they could not
> be certain of their findings, and were unable to determine if the
samples
> belonged to Madeleine, Kate, or Kate's younger daughter, Amelie.
>
> In an interview with ABCNews.com, a Forensic Science Service
spokesperson
> said that, "unfortunately, we haven't seen a copy of the attorney
> general's re****t, so we can't comment on this."
>
> Additionally, when cadaver dogs were sent into the McCanns' Praia da Luz
> apartment, detectives claimed that they had smelled the "scent of
death."
> But, according to leaks from the attorney general's re****t, the police
did
> not take into account that Kate McCann, a doctor by profession, had seen
> six patients who had died, before going on vacation.
>
> But one man, Goncalo Amaral, former head of the ****tuguese police,
> continues to believe that Madeleine died inside her parents' vacation
> apartment, and will publish his account of what happened to her
Thursday.
>
> Amaral was removed from the investigation into her death in October,
after
> he criticized the British police's handling of the case.
>
> In an interview with the BBC, he said, "The evidence that we had
gathered
> by the time that I left the case pointed to the girl being dead, and
> having died inside the apartment."
>
> His book re****tedly alleges that Madeleine died of an accident and that
> her parents disposed of her body to cover up her death. The McCanns have
> strenuously denied any involvement in her disappearance and continue to
> believe that their daughter is still alive.
>
> Speaking to re****ters today, Kate McCann said that it was
"heartbreaking"
> to be considered a suspect in the disappearance of her own daughter and
> said that the family would "never give up the search for Madeleine."
>
> The third former suspect, Robert Murat, welcomed the news today with
open
> arms.
>
> In an interview with ABCNews.com, he described his feelings as
> "vindication," particularly following his $1.2 million victory in libel
> charges against British tabloids last week.
>
> "I am happy to have this finished," he told ABCNews.com, but added, "I
> think everyone needs to realize that there is a little girl missing that
> is still missing, so it's really not over -- least of all for her
parents.
>
> "There is still a certain sadness to this whole situation. I don't think
I
> can be ecstatic about the news no matter how much I welcome it."
>
> For their part, the McCanns have asked for their own private detectives
to
> be given access to all police files related to the investigation.
>
> The couple's spokesman, Clarence Mitchell, confirmed that they intended
to
> "continue the search for Madeleine," adding that, "At the end of the
day,
> that is the most im****tant thing, finding their daughter and keeping the
> search going."
>
> The McCanns have already been granted access to some of the files kept
by
> the Leicester****re police, after a settlement was reached at the London
> High Court between the couple and the Leicester****re police earlier this
> month.
>
> In addition to a British agency, the couple has hired a Spanish-based
> detective agency, Metodo 3, to conduct their own investigation into the
> child's disappearance.
>
> The two agencies will have more material to work with. According to
> Monteiro's statement, all case papers will be available to any
interested
> parties shortly. The McCanns' attorney in ****tugal, Rogerio Alves, has
> told re****ters that he expects to have access to court papers by the end
> of this week.
>
>
>
> http://www.abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=5417382&page=1
>
>
> ****tugal closes case of missing British girl
> By BARRY HATTON - 1 hour ago
>
> LISBON, ****tugal (AP) - ****tugal's attorney general ordered police
Monday
> to halt their investigation into the disappearance of British girl
> Madeleine McCann because detectives uncovered no evidence of a crime
> during their 14-month probe.
>
> The case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges,
Attorney-General
> Fernando Pinto Monteiro's office said in a statement. Detectives found
no
> reason to charge any of the three people named as suspects: Madeleine's
> parents Kate and Gerry and local man Robert Murat, the statement said.
All
> three denied involvement.
>
> A spokesman for the parents said they were somewhat relieved but not
> celebrating the decision.
>
> "In an order issued today, ... the investigation into the disappearance
of
> the minor Madeleine McCann has been halted because no evidence was
> discovered of any crime committed by the suspects," the statement said.
It
> added the investigation could be reopened "if new evidence emerges from
> any serious, pertinent and authoritative" source.
>
> The disappearance of the blond-haired girl in May 2007 immediately
> attracted intense global media attention which continued unabated as her
> parents were named as suspects and few clues turned up to explain how
she
> mysteriously vanished from a hotel room during a family vacation in
> ****tugal's southern Algarve region.
>
> She went missing a few days before her fourth birthday and there has
been
> no reliable indication of what might have happened to her despite
numerous
> re****ted sightings from around the world.
>
> The McCanns have waged a far-reaching international campaign to find
their
> daughter. Through regular statements to the media and via a Web page,
they
> kept the search for Madeleine in the public eye.
>
> Pope Benedict XVI blessed the McCanns, who are Catholics, and a photo of
> their daughter during his weekly general audience at the Vatican a few
> weeks after her disappearance. Celebrities, including "Harry Potter"
> author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham, made public appeals
> that helped raise money for a Find Madeleine fund.
>
> The McCanns also traveled to Brussels, Morocco and Spain in their effort
> to raise public awareness of their daughter's disappearance. And they
> campaigned for the introduction of a Europe-wide child abduction alert
> similar to the Amber Alert system in the United States.
>
> The ruling ends months of anguish for the three suspects who denied
their
> involvement from the start and eases pressure on ****tuguese police whose
> failure to make progress under intense public scrutiny at home and
abroad.
>
> "There is a degree of relief but no air of celebration whatsoever,
> Clarence Mitchell, the McCann's spokesman, said in England. "They should
> never have been (suspects.) The fact that they have emerged from this
> without being charged proves that," he added.
>
> "They are a wronged couple. For the past nine to 10 months, they have
had
> this agony as well as the pain of losing their daughter," Mitchell said.
> "The only thing they care about is finding Madeleine. We hope that the
> ****tuguese authorities will continue to cooperate with their private
> investigation."
>
> Rogerio Alves, one of the McCanns' ****tuguese lawyers, told state
> broadcaster Radiotelevisao ****tuguesa the decision was "an undoubted
> victory." He said the couple's legal team intended to examine the police
> file to see whether there were any leads which private investigators
they
> have hired could follow up.
>
> Lawyers for the McCanns may now ask a judge to grant them access to the
> police file. Officials have said it runs to 10 volumes. Access to the
case
> file is permitted, at a judge's discretion, to "interested parties."
>
> Madeleine's parents said she vanished from their hotel room while they
> were eating dinner with friends at a resort's poolside restaurant in the
> sleepy vacation town of Praia da Luz, about 120 miles south of Lisbon.
> They had left her and her twin siblings, a year younger, alone in the
room
> while they ate at the restaurant about 50 yards away.
>
> Police previously said DNA evidence, though inconclusive, led them to
> doubt the McCann's version of events.
>
> The ****tuguese police faced criticism from the family and others at home
> and abroad for their failure to find out what happened to Madeline. The
> McCanns' family and friends complained that the police were slow to
react
> to the disappearance and apparently struggled to build a case. The lack
of
> sophisticated equipment led ****tuguese authorities to ask British police
> for help with forensic tests.
>
> Defending their investigation, ****tuguese officials said thousands of
> children go missing worldwide each year and are never found.
>
> The McCanns returned home to central England with Madeleine's twin
sister
> and brother in September, a few days after they were named as suspects.
> They hired a legal team and media advisers.
>
> The media further amplified the grim story by using leaks and
speculation
> to stoke public interest. ****tugal's secrecy laws covering ongoing
> investigations placed official information off-limits.
>
> Murat last week won an apology and $1.2 million in libel damages from
> nearly a dozen British newspapers that claimed he was involved in
> Madeleine's abduction.
>
> In March, the McCanns won front-page apologies and a large libel payout
> from several newspapers that had made claims about their role in their
> daughter's disappearance.
>
>
>
> http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h3degXqu-Rl1avDH40zxVeR2_VUwD922C8E80
>
>
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