Madeleine McCann's disappearance – timeline/The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/oct/14/madeleine-mccann-disappearance-timeline

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It has been six years since the three-year-old disappeared from her holiday apartment. Here are major developments since then

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Simon Jeffery
theguardian.com, Monday 14 October 2013 11.48 BST

Pictures of Madeleine McCann when she disappeared and how she might look at age nine
Pictures of Madeleine McCann when she disappeared and how she might look at age nine. Photograph: Teri Blythe/AFP/Getty Images
2007

3 May Madeleine disappears from a holiday apartment at the Ocean Club resort in the Algarve village of Praia da Luz, while her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, dine with friends at a nearby tapas restaurant.

4 May The McCanns make an emotional plea for Madeleine's safe return, directly appealing to their daughter's abductors and speaking of their "anguish and despair".

25 May In their first interviews, the McCanns say the "guilt" of not being with Madeleine will never leave them. Police release a description of the man seen carrying a child on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.

6 June Madeleine's parents deny any involvement in her abduction when questioned by a German journalist at a press conference in Berlin.

16 June A British couple report seeing a small blonde girl in the Maltese capital, Valletta. A full-scale investigation is launched in the wake of a number of other possible sightings.

17 June Portuguese police say Madeleine's friends and family may have unwittingly destroyed vital evidence in the first few hours after her presumed abduction, during their search for her.

28 June Spanish police arrest an Italian man and a Portuguese woman suspected of trying to extort money from Madeleine's parents by offering them information about the missing girl.

6 July Dutch police reveal they have arrested a man in Eindhoven suspected of attempting to defraud Gerry and Kate McCann by demanding €2m (£1.35m) for information on Madeleine's whereabouts.

6 August A Portuguese newspaper reports that British sniffer dogs have found traces of blood on a wall in the apartment where Madeleine went missing. A Portuguese paper, the Jornal de Noticias, claims detectives now believe it is most likely that Madeleine is dead, having been killed accidentally.

15 August Blood traces found in the bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping the night she was snatched were not hers, the Times reports. Forensic results show the blood came from a man, it adds.

31 August The McCanns are to launch a libel action against a Portuguese newspaper that claimed police believe they killed their daughter, it emerges. The action will be against the Tal & Qual paper, based in Oporto.

6-8 September Kate McCann arrives at a Portuguese police station to face further questioning by detectives. Both McCanns are declared official suspects (arguido) after police questioning.

9 September The McCanns return to their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, with their twins, Sean and Amelie.

10 September Portuguese police sources suggest that DNA tests prove Madeleine's body had been in the boot of a car hired by her parents 25 days after she disappeared. Some DNA experts doubt the claims.

11 September A dossier outlining the police case against the McCanns is passed to the local prosecutor, José Cunha de Magalhães e Meneses, who then asks a judge to assess the information.

18 September Clarence Mitchell, a former BBC reporter, confirms he has resigned as the head of the government's media monitoring unit to become the spokesman for the McCann family. His salary is paid by a Cheshire businessman, Brian Kennedy.

19 September The Evora district attorney general, Luís Bilro Verão, rules there is not enough evidence to justify further questioning of the McCanns about the disappearance of their daughter.

2 October The police officer in charge of the inquiry, Gonçalo Amaral, is removed from the case and demoted for criticising British police involvement in the investigation.

16 November Jane Tanner, one of the McCann family's closest friends and part of the so-called Tapas Seven, says she saw a man carrying a sleeping child away from the holiday apartments 45 minutes before Kate McCann discovered her daughter was missing.

2008

13 February Portuguese authorities say the search for Madeleine is winding down, more than nine months after she vanished.

19 March The Daily Express and the Daily Star carry unprecedented front-page apologies for publishing more than 100 articles on the disappearance of Madeleine, some of which suggested her parents were involved in her death. The papers pay £550,000 in damages.

7 April Portuguese police arrive in the UK to be present as Leicestershire constabulary officers begin interviewing the Tapas Seven.

3 May The first anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance is marked with a renewed appeal for information and church services in Portugal and the UK.

7 July Leicestershire police agree to share with the McCanns 81 pieces of information from their investigation. The McCanns ask to have access to Portuguese police files, too.

15 July Robert Murat, a British expat living in Praia da Luz, wins about £600,000 in damages from 11 British newspapers and Sky News for defamatory reports of his involvement in the disappearance.

24 July A book by the former head of the investigation, Amaral, is published claiming that Madeleine died in her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.

4 August The Portuguese police file on the disappearance is made public. It shows that days before the McCanns were formally named as suspects, a British scientist had warned that tests on DNA recovered from the family's hire car had been inconclusive. It also shows that during a subsequent interview with Portuguese police, Kate McCann refused to answer 48 questions about her daughter, apparently fearing they were intended to implicate her in the girl's disappearance.

15 October The Tapas Seven receive a reported £375,000 in damages from Express Newspapers.

2009

10 March Gerry McCann, appearing before MPs, calls for more stringent regulation of the press and labels coverage of his daughter's disappearance as some of the most "irresponsible and damaging" in press history.

1 May A digitally enhanced image of how Madeleine might look now is revealed as the second anniversary of her disappearance approaches.

17 May The McCanns announce they are to sue Amaral over claims made in his book that Madeleine died in her family's apartment and the parents were involved in hiding the body.

3 November A one-minute video message – produced in seven languages – is launched by Britain's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, showing new images of how the girl might look more than two years after her abduction.

2010

28 April Near the third anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, Gerry McCann says it is "incredibly frustrating" that police in Portugal and the UK have not been actively looking for Madeleine "for a very long time".

2011

12 May In an open letter in the Sun newspaper, the McCanns ask the prime minister to launch an "independent, transparent and comprehensive" review of all information relating to the disappearance of their daughter.

13 May David Cameron writes to the McCanns telling them the home secretary will set out "new action". Metropolitan police begin a review.

23 November The McCanns appear as witnesses at the Leveson inquiry into press standards. Kate McCann says she felt "totally violated" after the publication by the News of the World of her personal diaries and Gerry McCann says he believes British newspapers declared "open season" on them a few months after Madeleine's disappearance.

2013

4 July The Metropolitan police says it has new evidence. It says it is investigating 38 "persons of interest" after launching a formal investigation.

14 October Detectives release an efit of a man they want to identify. There is a new reconstruction on Crimewatch of the events on the night of Madeleine's disappearance.

I think this article is very 'hurtful' to the poor McCann's....especially no 10th September ' Some DNA experts doubt the claims'

And 4th August 2008 - talks about Kate not answering 48 questions..

"25 May In their first interviews, the McCanns say the "guilt" of not being with Madeleine will never leave them."

"guilt"

15 August Blood traces found in the bedroom where Madeleine was sleeping the night she was snatched were not hers, the Times reports. Forensic results show the blood came from a man, it adds."

I thought the bloodstains were behind the settee???  I remember the report that the blood stans were from a previous Holidaymaker ,how could they know that unless they took blood samples of all the Guests holidaying in 5a ?. Wouldn't successive chambermaids have spotted them and cleaned them off?

The Guardian must have taken quite some time to trawl through all the 6 yrs of reports , they obviously are not impressed with the Efit and another example of the Press reaction....wait until tomorrow:haha: 

Well done Simon Jeffery. 

Thanks Annabel.

I remember it Panda, the blood was from a male supposedly when shaving himself. He was an earlier guest in 5a.

margaret wrote:I remember it Panda, the blood was from a male supposedly when shaving himself.  He was an earlier guest in 5a.

That's correct. The blood found behind the sofa was relevant to Madeleine, hers was not found in either bedroom.

margaret wrote:I remember it Panda, the blood was from a male supposedly when shaving himself.  He was an earlier guest in 5a.

And he bled for 45 minutes. Wonder if he had any left by the end.

This doesn't really belong here, but I don't want to start a new topic. I do think it's very important and it may be the same in other papers.

On the front page of The Telegraph is the iconic photo with the coloboma almost wiped out!.

Is it possible for someone to scan or save that picture? Because the timeline is being changed, a picture is altered to fit with the statement from KM in the Piers Morgan interview (may 2011) that it's just a fleck you can only see from very close by. It is now!

The evidence is being changed before our eyes, timelines, a family tennis match which never took place. A coloboma which never existed at all, photoshopped in all images and now slowly being deleted I think.

tigger wrote:This doesn't really belong here, but I don't want to start a new topic. I do think it's very important and it may be the same in other papers.

On the front page of The Telegraph is the iconic photo with the coloboma almost wiped out!.

Is it possible for someone to scan or  save that picture?  Because the timeline is being changed, a picture is altered to fit with the statement from KM in the Piers Morgan interview (may 2011) that it's just a fleck you can only see from very close by. It is now!

The evidence is being changed before our eyes, timelines, a family tennis match which never took place. A coloboma which never existed at all, photoshopped in all images and now slowly being deleted I think.

There's a comparison on another thread, a search for "coloboma" should show it.

Iris wrote:

tigger wrote:This doesn't really belong here, but I don't want to start a new topic. I do think it's very important and it may be the same in other papers.

On the front page of The Telegraph is the iconic photo with the coloboma almost wiped out!.

Is it possible for someone to scan or  save that picture?  Because the timeline is being changed, a picture is altered to fit with the statement from KM in the Piers Morgan interview (may 2011) that it's just a fleck you can only see from very close by. It is now!

The evidence is being changed before our eyes, timelines, a family tennis match which never took place. A coloboma which never existed at all, photoshopped in all images and now slowly being deleted I think.

There's a comparison on another thread, a search for "coloboma" should show it.

Thanks. The Opsporing verzocht airs tomorrow here and as I have no TV I will watch it on the internet on Wednesday in the library. I will have gag myself or I'll be turning the air blue - swearing.

I was wondering if they would publish the two timelines written by the T9.

The 'Madeleine on the tennis court 4 hours before she was abducted' says it all really.

oh please don't tell me that is said.

It has been said UMPTEEN times today.....'Madeleine with her parents 4 hours before she was abducted'...'Madeleine with her father 4 hours before she was abducted' 'Madeleine collecting balls 4 hours before she disappeared'



It's not the 'abducted' thing that pisses me off it's the '4 hours before....' that's annoying me


SY....read the files

SY....read Kate mccanns bewk


Madeleine was NOT at the tennis court 6pm on thursday 3rd may....she was too tired and was carried back to the apt at 5.30pm by KM and then Gerry went to the tennis court ALONE at 6pm....get it!!

kitti wrote:It has been said UMPTEEN times today.....'Madeleine with her parents 4 hours before she was abducted'...'Madeleine with her father 4 hours before she was  abducted' 'Madeleine collecting balls 4 hours before she disappeared'



It's not the 'abducted' thing that pisses me off it's the '4 hours before....' that's annoying me


SY....read the files

SY....read Kate mccanns bewk


Madeleine was NOT at the tennis court 6pm on thursday 3rd may....she was too tired and was carried back to the apt at 5.30pm by KM and then Gerry went to the tennis court ALONE at 6pm....get it!!

Perhaps its not just the timeline after 8.30 that SY know to be discrepant.

Thanks to the constant porkies told by everyone involved, nobody can say with any certainty where Madeleine was at 6 p m on 3rd May, that's assuming she was still alive then.

I am surprised though that the McCanns have graciously allowed a filmed version of events that doesn't agree with theirs.