Kate McCann Statement - 4th May 2007

Courtesy of Maddie Case Files Team

Volume I, pages 58 - 65

Witness statement of Kate Marie Healy, on the 4th of May 2007, at 2.20 p.m.
Location: CID Portimão

The witness is heard as a victim, being the mother of the minor. Of British nationality, she has no command of the Portuguese language, spoken or written. Thus, the interview is done in the presence of an interpreter, Natália Carvalho Ferreira de Almeida.

The witness says she has been married to Gerald since December 1998. She had never been to Portugal before.

This trip came at the suggestion of friends, who convinced them, at the end of last year, to spend their holiday in Portugal. The witness thinks that this trip was organised by David Payne, who made the Praia da Luz Ocean Club reservation on the Internet for the witness and her husband, as well as for the rest of the group, a total of nine adults and eight children, including her daughter Madeleine. She has known some members of the group since the year 2000 and others for a year. She was a colleague of David's wife.

They travelled in two separate groups. One of the groups was composed of the witness, her husband Gerard and their three children, and the other one was composed of their friend David and his wife, the mother-in-law and their two children. The departure points, by plane, were Leicestershire and London.

After the trip, the meeting point was in Portugal, at the Ocean Club, where the witness's group arrived on Saturday April 28th at around 3pm from Faro airport in an airport mini bus. The other group arrived on the same day, late morning.

After checking in, the witness and her family were placed in apartment G5A. The nuclear family comprises the witness, her husband Gerard, her daughter Madeleine and twins Sean and Amelie, aged two. The apartment has two beds in one bedroom, and two in another one, plus two cots on loan from the Ocean Club, as well as a bathroom and a kitchen.

The witness and her husband slept in one bedroom and the three children in the other. The twins slept in cots, Madeleine in a normal bed, the other bed remained empty.

Between the day of the arrival, April 28th, and the time at which the disappearance was discovered, the witness says that she noticed nothing unusual. She reports only one episode where, on the morning of Thursday the 3rd, Madeleine asked the witness why she had not come to look in the bedroom when the twins were crying. The witness states that she had heard nothing and had therefore not gone into the bedroom, nevertheless she found her daughter’s comment strange because it was the first time she had made it.

As far as the routines are concerned, the witness refers that on Sunday they went for breakfast at around 7.30/8.30 at the Ocean Club, namely at the resort’s bar which is located at some metres’ distance from the apartment. On the following days, and because the bar was quite far away, they started buying food at the “BATISTA” supermarket, which is located on the same road as the apartment, and they had their first meal of the day at the apartment.

After breakfast, at around 9/9.30am, the children stayed at the resort’s childcare centre, called the "Kid Club", where they did various activities such as painting, collage etc. They stayed there until around 12.30, constantly supervised by several Ocean Club employees in a ratio of one for each three children. The witness stresses that within the crèche, due to the difference in ages, the twins were in one group and Madeleine in another, with separate activities.

At 12.30pm, they collected their children and had lunch in their apartment, as it had a kitchen. After lunch, at around 1.30pm, the children spent time near the club's swimming pool, supervised by the parents, for about 45 minutes, where they played, applied sun cream etc. After this time, they placed the children back at the "Kids Club" until around 5/5.30pm, the time when the children ate at a bar under the watchful eyes of the parents. After the 5pm dinner, they bathed the children, prepared them for the night and let them play for a while at a playground next to the tennis courts, still and always under parental supervision. At around 8pm, the children were put to bed until the following morning, when the described routine started all over again.

While the children are at the "Kid Club," the witness played tennis with her husband, went for walks, read and practised “Jogging”.

Yesterday, after the daily routine, Madeleine and the twins went into the bedroom and were put in their beds at around 7.30. The witness and her husband stayed in the apartment, relaxing, until 8.30pm. She took a bath, did her make-up and drank a glass of New Zealand wine with her husband. Just after 8.30pm, the witness and her husband, after checking on their children, joined the other adults of the group at the "Tapas" restaurant, about 50 metres away, where they had dinner. As usual, every half hour, and given the fact that the restaurant was close, the witness and her husband came to make sure the children were ok. Thus, at around 9pm, her husband went to the apartment to make sure the twins, as well as Madeleine, were in perfect condition, then he went back to the restaurant. Her husband told her that the children were well and that he had bumped into the person with whom he had played tennis, who also had two children.

The witness notes that at the same time, one of their friends, called Russell, went to see his children, too, nevertheless he did not go to the room where the witness was staying.

At around 9.30pm, at the time when the witness should have gone to see her children, her friend Matt (a member of the group), who was coming to check, as well, went to the apartment where his children were staying and on his way went to the witness’s apartment. He entered the apartment through a glass sliding door at the side that was always unlocked and once inside, he had not gone into the children's bedroom. He remained at the bedroom door, listening for noise and observing the beds. He went back to the restaurant and said that everything was fine.

At around 10pm, the witness came to check on the children. She went into the apartment by the side door, which was closed, but unlocked, as already said, and immediately noticed that the door to her children's bedroom was completely open, the window was also open, the shutters raised and the curtains open, while she was certain of having closed them all as she always did.

Faced with this altered situation, she verified that the twins were in their beds, unlike Madeleine, who had disappeared. The cover was neatly pulled back and the toys were on the pillow as usual. After searching the whole apartment thoroughly, and already quite scared and unnerved, she returned to the restaurant, and alerted her husband and the rest of the group to the disappearance. The group immediately headed to the club, and set about searching in all the buildings, swimming pool, tennis courts etc... as well as in the apartment with the help of employees. At the same time, they contacted the authorities, which would later arrive.

Later, the witness would learn that a member of the group, Russell's partner Jane, at around 9.15pm, when she went to her own apartment to check on her children, saw from behind and at a distance of about 50 metres, on the road along the club, a long-haired person, she thinks wearing jeans, with a child in his arms, walking very quickly. But she is better able to tell about that herself.

Concerning Madeleine, she is Caucasian, with quite white skin, aged four (12/05/2003) about 90cm tall. Of slim build, dark blond hair, straight and of shoulder length. Left eye blue-green, right eye also green with a brown spot on the pupil. She had a small brown spot on the skin of her left leg, as well as a small sunburn on her right forearm. She had no scars. At the time of her disappearance, she was wearing pyjamas, with white bottoms with a floral pattern and a frill at the end. The short-sleeved top, mainly pink with a blue-grey donkey figure on the front, bearing the inscription "EEYORE", an inscription which was also on one of the trouser legs.

The pyjamas are of the "Marks and Spencer" brand.

Concerning the child's personality, she was extrovert, very active, talkative, smart and related to other children with great ease. But she would never go with a stranger.

She has no suspects to indicate, nor does she find a motive for such action, as she has no enemies, and knows none for her husband.

She states that her daughter has no illnesses and is not on any medication.

Upon request, she authorises a reading of the data on her mobile phone, nr. 00447903108397.

Apart from the Kids Club and the apartment, they only went to the beach with Madeleine and the other children once, and only for a very short period of time, because the weather was unstable, which happened between 1.30 and 3 p.m., when they returned to the club. At the beach, they only ate an ice cream and returned to the apartment. Apart from that, on Wednesday or Thursday, Madeleine and the other children went sailing at the beach, five minutes away from the club, for an hour, in an event that was organised by the resort. The surveillance of this activity and the organisation were done by the club, and the deponent was not present, nor was her husband.

She never noticed any strange behaviour during these days or anything which might lead to such an outcome.

After having been shown the list of the club’s guests, she said she only knows the names of the members of the group.

Other than the daughter, nothing else has disappeared, including the child’s clothes or accessories.

When asked, the witness said she did not have an intercom, unlike David and Fiona
who had one to listen to their children’s cries or other noises.

She has nothing else to add, and wishes the due criminal proceedings and to be indemnified over the action that she was a victim of.

Reads, confirms, ratifies and signs, as does the interpreter.

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