Madeleine McCann new DNA hope: Curtains may hold key to who took her

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/madeleine-mccann-new-dna-hope-4508372



Oct 25, 2014 21:17
By Matthew Drake

Scotland Yard forensics want to use new ­techniques to analyse the curtains, which hung in the room where Madeleine was sleeping with her baby brother and sister

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PA
New hope: Maddie and the room

Detectives plan to do new tests on curtains which hung in the apartment where Madeleine McCann disappeared.

They believe the fabric, which has been sealed in an evidence file since three-year-old Madeleine vanished in Portugal in 2007, may hold DNA which will identify to her abductor.

Scotland Yard sent an urgent request to their counterparts in Portugal asking permission to re-examine the fabric.

Forensic experts on the Operation Grange team want to use new ­techniques to analyse the curtains, which hung in the room where Madeleine was sleeping with her baby brother and sister.

Madeleine McCann VIEW GALLERY

Officers are also set to re-examine 30 strands of hair found in the apartment in the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz using advanced genetic and biological testing procedures.

A team led by Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood has asked for a quick response to the request.

They think the curtains from apartment 5A will have been preserved well enough to hold traces of DNA from Madeleine’s captor.

PA Madeleine McCann
The room from which Madeleine McCann from was seemingly snatched in Praia de Luz

Portugal’s Public Ministry will now decide if they are willing to hand over the material, which is being kept at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in the city of Coimbra.

There have been significant new developments in DNA science since the initial investigation in 2007.

The first murder conviction using DNA evidence was in 1988, when baker Colin Pitchfork was found guilty of killing Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, both 15, in Narborough, Leics.

Since then the UK has developed one of the largest “libraries” of DNA samples, which increases by more than 400,000 profiles every year.

DNA samples can be taken from body fluids, but also from tiny quantities of human cells left on any surface, from cups and cutlery to cigarette ends.

PA Madeleine McCann
The room from which Madeleine McCann from was seemingly snatched in Praia de Luz


The increase of DNA samples being taken and stored has led to a rise in convictions, especially for crimes committed a number of years ago.

The quality of DNA can now be ­“amplified” using complex chemical processes.

A sample of DNA can also now be extracted from a single cell and laboratory robots are being used to speed up the process.

Last week Francisco Brizida, president of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, where the DNA library is held, said: “Technology now allows us to go further than years ago.”

But he said: “I wouldn’t like to be that ambitious and say the secret to unlocking the Madeleine McCann case lies in our lab.”

A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.”

Police digs in Praia da Luz and interviews with new suspects this summer ended in disappointment.

The probe run by 30 officers in Operation Grange has cost £10million.

The assumption, I suppose, is that the 'abductor' touched the curtains.

Best of luck to them sorting out all the other DNA traces that are likely to be on the curtains.

Thanks to the TMCF for the link:

http://mccannpjfiles.co.uk/PJ/EDDIE-KEELA.htm#p8p2190


08 Processos Vol VIII Page 2190
08_VOLUME_VIIIa_Page_2190

3rd August 2007. 17.17 PM

Inspection by Sniffer Dog

Location: Apartment 5 A in the Ocean Club) Praia da Luz, Lagos

Participants:
1. PJ - Ricardo Paiva
2. UK Mark Harrison
3. UK Martin Grime, UK Forensic Canine P SM Expert
4. Keela - English Springer

The entire activity was filmed and recorded (sound).

On this date a new sniffer dog inspection was carried out in the apartment mentioned above, with the help of the dog Keela who detects human blood remains. The activity produced the following results:

19.19 The dog "marked" an area of tiles in the living room, next to the window and behind the sofa.

19.20 The dog "marked" the lower part of the left white coloured curtain of the window behind the sofa.

Signed.

Sonntag, 26. Oktober 2014
The final curtain?

http://unterdenteppichgekehrt.blogspot.co.uk/

Another excellent read from Johanna.

quote....A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.”....unquote

Well that´s that then, I would say pass the sample to anyone other than British officers, they´ll pick on anyone except the Mccanns.

mara thon wrote:quote....A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.”....unquote

Well that´s that then,  I would say pass the sample to anyone other than British officers, they´ll pick on anyone except the Mccanns.

If that's the best hope everyone might as well pack up and go home now

quote....A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.”....unquote

Could Mitchell be the Portuguese police spokesperson one wonders???

well id like to know who the Portuguese who was who said that. didn't the UK FSS have the curtain in the first place or bits of it. sorry this person, if he exists, has more confidence in the UK forensic laboratory in this instance that I do. I know they do amazing things with all kinds of advances in technology its just that in the McC case im very wary that all will be as it is.

"quote....A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.”...."

Invention or distorted quote.. A Portuguese policeman would never say that, it doesn't make any sense and it's again national pride, moreover if you are supposed to say that to a British journalist!

I am sure that the curtains will have lots of Kate's DNA on them because she would have needed to open the curtains in order to open the window. And, as we know, fingerprint analysis showed that it was Kate who opened the window, which she claims to have never opened.

I think they are opening a can of worms here. Perhaps they will only find more evidence of a staged abduction?

jinvta wrote:I am sure that the curtains will have lots of Kate's DNA on them because she would have needed to open the curtains in order to open the window. And, as we know, fingerprint analysis showed that it was Kate who opened the window, which she claims to have never opened.

No jinvta. The last person to be at the window was "the abductor" who "may have touched the curtains as he took three year- old Madeleine from her bed at the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz and climbed out of the window with her".

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/527877/Madeleine-McCann-police-probe-curtains-for-DNA-clues

The "Abductor" climbed out the window with Madeleine in his arms and he left no marks on the lichen on the windowsill.

From what I have read elsewhere, it would appear that the curtains may be from the lounge and not the bedroom curtains as reported.

I don't want to copy anything over as it is a closed forum.

If so, I find this encouraging.

Pat Brown posted "Let's Talk about Curtains" October 25, 2014 available at  patbrownprofiling.blogspot.com - a mockery of curtain testing.

Johanna @UnterdenTeppich  ·  1h 1 hour ago

That was fast. Only two days after I wrote my latest blog we are now into analysing stuff from the hired car http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/nacional/portugal/detalhe/adn_de_444_pelos_foi_alvo_de_analise.html … #mccann