Express:MADDIE MCCANN: THE SMOKING GUN?...cig stumps Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Madeleine McCann vanished from her apartment in Portugal five years ago

Sunday September 23,2012
By James Murray

A KEY witness with potentially vital ­evidence about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has just been interviewed by a Scotland Yard detective on the cold case review team.

Recruitment company boss Graham MacKenzie thinks he knows the spot from which the McCanns’ holiday apartment could have been kept under surveillance.

He identified a first-floor stairway balcony opposite the apartment to Portuguese police hours after Madeleine disappeared and even asked officers to pick up four ­cigarette butts that could have been left by someone watching the apartment.

However, the officers let cleaners sweep away the butts, which could have held ­crucial samples of DNA from saliva.

Scotland Yard has scrutinised Mr ­MacKenzie’s original police statement and has just interviewed him again.

Father of two Mr MacKenzie, 40, said last night: “I worry that the trail has gone cold after all this time. The stairwell was the perfect vantage point as it was opposite the McCanns’ apartment and, I believe, there was a clear view of the tapas bar where the group was eating, and the side entrance to the apartment.

ì
I don’t think anybody had thought to look in that stairway and balcony
î

Mr MacKenzie

“When I noticed the butts on the floor of the little balcony I became suspicious. Clearly someone had been there for some time smoking. I didn’t touch them but I spoke to Portuguese officers and asked them to take them for forensic analysis.

“No attempt was made to seal off the area and then I couldn’t believe it when the police let cleaners sweep them up. I was so angry at the time and I am still angry about it now. It was sheer police incompetence.

“Those butts could have provided the breakthrough in the case but I couldn’t get the police to listen to me. If the same situation happened abroad again I would sweep the butts up into a bag myself and insist they are kept for analysis.”

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Mr MacKenzie was staying at the Ocean Club resort at Praia da Luz on the Algarve in May 2007 with his then pregnant wife Corinne and their young son and had seen the McCann family, who were at the same resort, in passing.

On the night of May 3, 2007, when Madeleine disappeared from apartment 5A, Mr MacKenzie heard shouting and went out to help look for the three year old, who was thought to have wandered off.

Back in the UK, he contacted Crimestoppers after reading a story in the Sunday Express and gave a statement to Leicestershire Police in December 2007.

In it, he said that he noticed the balcony the day after Madeleine disappeared when he and his family were moved to an apartment opposite 5A for a few hours to wait for their flight home to East Sussex.

“I don’t think anybody had thought to look in that stairway and balcony,” he said.

“Anyone walking past could have access to the stairwell. The apartments there had lovely bay balconies at the front, so if you wanted to smoke that is where you go, not in the stairwell.

“I would urge anyone who may have seen someone acting suspiciously to contact the police, especially if they saw someone in a stairway balcony.” The Home Office is spending several million pounds on the Operation Grange review.

On their findmadeleine website last week Kate and Gerry McCann said they were still hoping for a vital breakthrough in finding their daughter and were “really encouraged” by the Met review.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/347692/Maddie-McCann-the-smoking-gun-
aka the smoking water pistol

...worried the trail has gone cold...so its not Columbo then?cigarette butts in the stairwell eh...meanwhile opposite here,in apartment 5A,there was cadaver behind the sofa with no evidence of an abductor ever entering or there was a cadaver dog wrongly signalling in an apartment where a child was reported missing from but never signalled in any apartment a child wasn't reported missing from...also with no sign of an abductor

am i right in thinking that the McCanns & co stepped up with more a regular checking system on may 3rd...all that surveilance from the abductors from this great vantage point & they go & spoil it...

"Mr MacKenzie heard shouting and went out to help look for the three year old, who was thought to have wandered off." By whom? Thought Kate "knew" it was an abduction straight away?

The PJ visited hundreds of houses and apartments and it could be that they did not bag up the butts because they had interviewed the occupants of the apartment and eliminated them.

MJH1901 wrote:"Mr MacKenzie heard shouting and went out to help look for the three year old, who was thought to have wandered off." By whom? Thought Kate "knew" it was an abduction straight away?

yep she even said it in her book this is the trouble with lying!!!!

I thought the abductor had an obsession with cleaning - remember he forensically cleaned the apartment according to Donal McIntyre. So he was a dirty so and so, leaving his buttts behind him at his stakeout position, then decided to clean the apartment thoroughly before he left with Madeleine.

Why do I get the feeling this latest story is taking the place of a sighting of Madeleine ? Obviously the penny has dropped, nobody believes the sighting stories anymore, so now the McCann media machine is taking a different approach. They should do an age progression image of Jane Tanners abudctor to help.

mossman wrote:I thought the abductor had an obsession with cleaning - remember he forensically cleaned the apartment according to Donal McIntyre. So he was a dirty so and so, leaving his buttts behind him at his stakeout position, then decided to clean the apartment thoroughly before he left with Madeleine.

Why do I get the feeling this latest story is taking the place of a sighting of Madeleine ? Obviously the penny has dropped, nobody believes the sighting stories anymore, so now the McCann media machine is taking a different approach. They should do an age progression image of Jane Tanners abudctor to help.

but if they had been checking every 30 minutes the supposed abductor wouldnt have time to do all that!!!! unless he was the enerzizer bunny!!

article from august 2012

http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/08/09/missing-link-overlooked-in-the-madeleine-mccann-case/#

This story has been regurgitated so many times

fred wrote:This story has been regurgitated so many times

Exactly Fred - and there's not much point in speculating about the motives behind spewing it out again. The people behind this and the rag they use aren't worth the mileage.

Cor blimey folks, when I got up this morning everything was OK, but now I discover that I'm in some 'orrible time warp 'cos the ciggy butts have appeared yet again!
I must stop having strong cheese for supper. I think I'll go back to bed and try again and hopefully the dog ends will have gone away!

Mr McKenzie was a 'she' back then!

http://gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/64aug12/OLIVE_09_08_2012.htm

She had stayed in the apartment a week after Maddie’s disappearance from Praia de Luz, while on a family holiday.



“You could see the front and back of the building from that view point.” she told detectives.

ann_chovey wrote: Mr McKenzie was a 'she' back then!

http://gerrymccannsblogs.co.uk/press/64aug12/OLIVE_09_08_2012.htm

She had stayed in the apartment a week after Maddie’s disappearance from Praia de Luz, while on a family holiday.



“You could see the front and back of the building from that view point.” she told detectives.

my my sex change surgery??

Compare and Contrast

http://textusa.blogspot.pt/2012/01/compare-and-contrast.html

A KEY witness with potentially vital ­evidence about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has just been interviewed by a Scotland Yard detective on the cold case review team...195 leads minus 1 = 194 to go...wake me up when we are down to the last (tapas) 9 please

matthew wrote:A KEY witness with potentially vital ­evidence about the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has just been interviewed by a Scotland Yard detective on the cold case review team...195 leads minus 1 = 194 to go...wake me up when we are down to the last (tapas) 9 please

I think you're in for a very long sleep.

While our newspapers gutter press will continue to print this scoop re-hatched rubbish, the McCanns and their media manipulating support group will feed their fawning followers with the same old tish. Who knows, perhaps the Express even paid them for the story....

That 14 year old must off been a chain smoker!