Map re: McCluskey sighting in Alvor - Madeleine McCann case

05-01-Apensos V, Vol 1, Pages 133-135
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Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Madeleine McCann, McCluskey

Susan McCluskey Statement - Madeleine McCann

APENSOS V, Volume I, Supposed Sightings and Locations (FILE 01)
(PDF Pages 113-114).... 
Pages 129 to 130? "Statement of Susan McCluskey sighting 2007.05.09 (English)"
Apensos V, Vol 1 Pages 129-130
Page 129 (Page 1 of 2)

CONFIDENTIAL STATEMENT
Number : S18
Surname : MCCLUSKEY
Forename(s) : SUSAN
Age : OVER 18 Date of Birth : 14th May 1957
Address : x, LIxx AVxxxx, SUNDERLAND, TYNE AND WEAR
Postcode : SRx xxx
Telephone No : 019153xxxxx
Statement Date : 9th May 2007 Number of pages : 3

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Madeleine McCann, McCluskey

Tape from petrol station in Portugal may show missing girl: newspaper

Tape from petrol station in Portugal may show missing girl: newspaper
9 May 2007
Agence France Presse
LISBON

Video from a petrol station surveillance camera depicts a girl who resembles a three-year-old British national who disappeared in Portugal's southern Algarve region, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

A recording from the petrol station along a highway in Lagos shows a girl accompanied by a woman behaving strangely, according to Diario de Noticias newspaper, which cited employees.

Police have not commented on the report and have been tight-lipped on many details of the investigation into the suspected kidnapping of Madeleine "Maddie" McCann, who turns four on Saturday.

The girl disappeared from her room in a seaside resort near the village of Praia da Luz, close to Lagos, in the Algarve on Thursday as her parents ate dinner in a nearby restaurant.

Another newspaper, 24 Horas, reported on Wednesday that police had found a vehicle near Praia da Luz that may have been used by the kidnapper.

Meanwhile, Portugal's ambassador to Britain, Anton Santana Carlos, told BBC television Wednesday that officials were looking at whether Maddie may have been taken out of the country, despite earlier police suggestions she was still in Portugal.

Portuguese police said Tuesday they had called in members of the organised crime unit to help in the hunt. They are in addition to 240 police and fire officers and 20 civilians already involved in the search.

Britain has also sent in kidnapping experts to join three other British investigators who have been in Portugal since Saturday, said John Buck, Britain's ambassador in Lisbon. He did not provide a number.

Portuguese newspapers have previously reported that police were looking into the possibility that an international gang of child sex predators or an adoption ring abducted the girl.

Reports said investigators had a photofit of the man suspected of kidnapping her, but they are holding it back out of fear of endangering Maddie's life.

Her disappearance has been the focus of intense media interest in Portugal, with many press outlets publishing photos of the smiling girl.

On Tuesday, Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Manchester United in Britain, urged anyone with information to come forth and help with the search.

President Anibal Cavaco Silva told Portuguese media he was following the case "with great concern," adding that police, in collaboration with international investigators, were "doing everything to find the child alive."

And Tony Blair's spokesman said Wednesday that the prime minister was following the case closely and that "we are helping in whatever way we can."    

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Ambassador John Buck, BBC, Madeleine McCann

Madeleine: 350 possible leads

Madeleine: 350 possible leads
9 May 2007
The Scotsman

DETECTIVES in Portugal investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, three, have investigated 350 separate suspicious incidents.

As two child abduction experts arrived from the UK yesterday, police in the Algarve said they had received hundreds of calls and interviewed more than 100 people. Police are reported to be investigating British paedophiles with links to the Algarve.

Portuguese media said authorities in the UK have supplied detectives in the region with information on child abusers who have moved or travel there.

The British ambassador, John Buck, last night said: "The Portuguese authorities are very pleased with the collaboration of the British authorities. They are in close touch with Interpol and Europol, and I know [Madeleine's parents] Kate and Gerry are very grateful for their efforts."

The Portuguese football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Paulo Ferreira appealed yesterday for the three-year-old's return.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Ambassador John Buck, Madeleine McCann

Madeleine police are doing their best, says ambassador

Madeleine police are doing their best, says ambassador
John Bingham and Chris Greenwood
9 May 2007
Aberdeen Press & Journal

The British ambassador stepped in to the media spotlight last night to defend the efforts of the police in Portugal as they try to find missing Madeleine McCann. John Buck said he had received assurances at the highest level that detectives were doing all they could to find the three-year-old.

The diplomat said Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry - with whom he spent an hour yesterday evening - were happy with the investigation so far. And he underlined the restrictive nature of Portuguese law which has so far virtually gagged police, despite a huge clamour for information about their inquiry.

Speaking in the Algarve, Mr Buck said Mr and Mrs McCann were "grateful" for the work of police from Portugal, Britain and across Europe. He added: "I also wanted to assure myself personally that the necessary links between British and Portuguese experts here on the ground are working well - and they are."

Mr Buck said he had spoken to the Portuguese prime minister's office, cabinet ministers and the police authorities. "They all assure me that everything possible is being done to ensure the safe return of Madeleine," he said.

The Portuguese ambassador in London, Antonio Santana Carlos, echoed his comments, saying the police were doing all they could.

As the search entered its sixth night, with no evidence of a breakthrough, some details did emerge of the scale of the investigation. Officers said they had followed up 350 separate suspicious incidents and searched 500 apartments.

Two British experts - reportedly in child-abduction cases - arrived to join three family-liaison officers from Leicestershire Police.

Police are believed to have an e-fit picture of their suspect, reportedly a dark-skinned man, but have refused to release it.

Officers said they had interviewed more than 100 people following a deluge of phone calls by both Portuguese people and foreigners.

Detectives involved in the inquiry are also investigating British paedophiles with links to the Algarve, according to Portuguese media reports.

Leicestershire Police confirmed they were responding to any requests from the Portuguese police to supply them with information from the UK.

Officers said they had also scoured fields across a nine-mile (15km) area for traces of little Madeleine.

Meanwhile, appeals were made by football superstars Cristiano Ronaldo, John Terry and Paulo Ferreira.

Madeleine, from Rothley, near Leicester, disappeared on Thursday night after she was left with her brother and sister, two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, in a holiday apartment.

Her parents, Gerry and Kate, had been dining in a nearby restaurant and checking on them regularly.

She was wearing white pyjama bottoms with a small floral design and a short-sleeved pink top with a picture of Eeyore on it when she vanished.

A vigil was held in Madeleine's village last night as family and friends prayed for her to be found safe and well.

One of the 350 reports of suspicious incidents came from tourist Amanda Mills, 34, of Basildon, Essex. She said she saw a man trying to steal a pushchair at the same resort two weeks ago.

"It was late at night," said Mrs Mills. "This guy came along and put his hands on a pushchair outside somebody's apartment. He didn't even look to see if there was a child in it."

A Mark Warner Holidays spokesman said she only reported the incident three weeks later. Had she done so immediately it would have been followed up.

Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo made his own personal appeal - in English and in his native Portuguese - for help in tracing the three-year-old.

It is hoped the appeal by Ronaldo, who plays for the Portuguese national team and is a huge star in his own country, will boost the search further.

He told Sky News: "I was very upset to hear of the abduction of Madeleine McCann and I appeal to anyone with information to come forward, please come forward."

His countryman, Chelsea star Paulo Ferreira, and England captain John Terry, also appealed for the safe return of Madeleine.

Terry said: "We are all devastated to hear that Maddie was abducted. Our thoughts and feelings go to her parents and family.

"We are urging anyone out there with any information at all - please, please, please come forward. It's a terrible thing for her family to go through - she's only young - so, please, please come forward."

Portugal international Ferreira repeated his team-mate's words in Portuguese.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Ambassador John Buck, Madeleine McCann

British experts fly to Portugal to help in hunt for Madeleine

British experts fly to Portugal to help in hunt for Madeleine:
Portuguese detectives hit back at criticism of inquiry:
More than 500 apartments searched near resort
Steven Morris, Praia da Luz and Sandra Laville
9 May 2007
The Guardian

British police and behavioural experts are working with Portuguese officers to try to solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann's disappearance, it emerged last night.

In an "unprecedented" move, two staff of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, one a police detective with experience of heading investigations, flew to Portugal yesterday to give an insight into how a child abductor might have acted and how he or she may now be thinking.

British police are also following up calls from around the UK over the disappearance of the three-year-old girl. Britain's ambassador to Portugal, John Buck, said last night he had been in touch with the office of the Portuguese prime minister, Jose Socrates, and senior police chiefs to make sure that links between British and Portuguese officers were working. The developments followed concerns that Portuguese police had lost control of the investigation and did not have the experience to deal with such a complex case.

Earlier, a potential sighting in northern Portugal briefly raised hopes that the police may have had a breakthrough but it turned out to be a false alarm. Local television reported that a man with a girl matching Madeleine's description was seen in a supermarket in the town of Nelas, six hours away from where she vanished. An hour later police said it was only one of many leads that had been followed.

Another lead came from a worker in a bar near the apartment from which Madeleine disappeared last Thursday who said police showed him a sketch of a tanned suspect with shoulder-length hair. He was sure the man had been repeatedly using a telephone near the bar in the days before Madeleine vanished.

Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa, who is leading the investigation, said at another chaotic press conference that his officers had been following 350 leads and interviewed more than 100 people. Five hundred apartments and an area nine miles around the resort of Praia da Luz on the Algarve, from where Madeleine disappeared, had been searched. Mr Sousa, clearly impatient, hit back at claims that the police operation was botched, saying: "We are doing everything we can."

Responding to growing frustration at the lack of information, he added: "I ask the British people for their cooperation. The legal system in Portugal is not equal to the British system. It's not my fault."

At lunchtime yesterday Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, spent 15 minutes with the parish priest at the church of Nossa Senhora da Luz in Praia da Luz. In the UK, Leicestershire police received calls from people who were on holiday when Madeleine went missing from her bed last Thursday as her parents dined nearby, including a woman who reported seeing a man trying to walk off with a pushchair.

The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre said the decision to send their staff to Portugal was "unprecedented".

Portuguese newspapers reported that one of the theories is that a British paedophile gang snatched Madeleine.

The Manchester United and Portugal footballer Cristiano Ronaldo appealed yesterday for anyone with information to come forward.

The investigation

What we do and don't know about the kidnapping case

Portuguese police have so far refused to provide a timeline, have not issued descriptions of possible suspects and have not said how she might have been taken. This is what we do know about how Madeleine disappeared

When did Madeleine vanish?

Between 9.30pm and 10pm on Thursday. Her parents were dining at a tapas bar within a Mark Warner resort about 100 metres from where Madeleine and her twin siblings were sleeping. There is a pool, a hedge, a wall and an alleyway between the bar and the apartment. Kate and Gerry McCann were checking the children at half-hourly intervals. Mr McCann checked at 9.30pm. When they returned at 10pm, Madeleine had gone.

How could a kidnapper have got into the apartment?

There are three likely routes. The bedroom where she was sleeping has a window with a plastic shutter, and a door leading on to a narrow car park and a quiet residential street. This side of the apartment cannot be seen from the bar. At the back of the apartment, which can partially be seen from the bar, are french windows. These were the doors the parents were using when they checked the children. They may have been left unlocked.

Were the doors or window forced?

Family members said the shutter on the street window was forced. Police have dusted the shutter for fingerprints. But the Mark Warner holiday firm has said there was no sign of a forced entry. A kidnapper could have come through the street window and left via the street door. It is unlikely he or she would have entered or left via the french windows as they face the bar and the complex.

Do the police have any suspects?

At the weekend the police appeared to say they had a suspect, but it became clear that this was not a named person but a man seen by witnesses acting suspiciously. This has been turned into a sketch but has not been published - normal procedure for local police. The sketch is not a clear image.

Why has so little information been published?

Police claim their judicial system makes it impossible to release information for fear of prejudicing any future case. But Madeleine's family are known to be frustrated by the investigation. It was their decision to make the direct appeal to any kidnapper and their decision to release details of what Madeleine was wearing. The police had not done that.

Has the search been thorough?

Many people, including some family members, believe not. Criticism that the police did not begin searching immediately, however, seems unfounded. Officers and members of the public did begin searching as soon as Madeleine was reported missing. But there is scant evidence of an organised, exhaustive search. Neither border nor marine police were given descriptions for many hours after she vanished. Officers have not been seen making extensive door-to-door inquiries.

What about the police investigation?

Again, it appears unsatisfactory. The scene has not been secured as tightly as it would have been in the UK. Passers-by are allowed to go right up to the shutters of the window that Madeleine's parents say were forced. The lack of appeals for help and information has upset the family and surprised police experts.    

   

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Ambassador John Buck, CEOP, Jim Gamble, Madeleine McCann

Family visited Donegal at Easter

9 May 2007
Belfast Telegraph
Brendan McDaid

The three-year-old, who was snatched from her bed as she slept in a holiday complex in Praia da Luz last Thursday, enjoyed an Easter break in the western coastal town of Dungloe.

It has also emerged that the family of Madeleine's father, Gerry, once ran a pub in St Johnston near Donegal town. Maddy, her father, mother and two-year-old siblings Amelie and Sean visited the pub during their trip.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Donegal, Joe Peoples, Madeleine McCann, McCann pub, St Johnston

Co Donegal villagers' thoughts with family

9 May 2007 
The Irish News
Seamus McKinney

Madeleine's disappearance has devastated her grandfather's home village of St Johnston in Co Donegal, a publican said yesterday. Joe Peoples, who took over a bar once owned by the three-year-old's grandfather, Johnny McCann, said the youngster and her parents visited the border village at Easter.

The McCann family have strong links with Co Donegal, where they still have many relatives. Maddy's paternal grandmother Eileen is originally from Crolly in the west of the county.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Donegal, Joe Peoples, Madeleine McCann, McCann pub, St Johnston

Star Ronaldo issues appeal for missing girl

9 May 2007
Irish Independent
Patricia McDonagh

Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo has recorded an appeal for the return of missing Madeleine McCann. Ronaldo filmed the appeal in English and Portuguese before travelling with the United squad to London for tonight's game against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Meanwhile, a close Irish family friend of the devastated English parents of missing Madeleine yesterday spoke of his shock at the tragedy.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, Donegal, Joe Peoples, Madeleine McCann, McCann pub, St Johnston

Desperate parents of missing girl take initiative

George Brooks / Burke

Desperate parents of missing girl take initiative and make direct appeal to her abductor:
Move reflects impatience over police response
Description of clothing when girl went missing
8 May 2007
The Guardian
Steven Morris Praia da Luz, Portugal

The mother of Madeleine McCann yesterday made a direct appeal to the person who snatched her "beautiful" daughter during a family holiday in Portugal.

Kate McCann begged the abductor: "Please, please do not hurt her. Please don't scare her. Please let us know where to find Madeleine, or put her in a place of safety and tell somebody where."

It is understood the family is becoming impatient with the response of the police in the Algarve to the disappearance of three-year-old Madeleine, who vanished from her bed on Thursday evening.

The decision to make the direct appeal was the idea of Mrs McCann and her husband Gerry, rather than the Portuguese police.

They also decided to release a full description of the pyjamas the little girl was wearing when she was taken as the parents dined in a nearby tapas bar. The police had failed to issue a description of what Madeleine was wearing, one of the first things a British force would have done if a child went missing.

Speaking in an apartment a few doors from where the family were staying when Madeleine vanished, Mrs McCann, a GP, said:

"We would like to say a few words to the person who is with our Madeleine or has been with Madeleine.

"Madeleine is a beautiful, bright, funny and caring little girl. She is so special. We beg you to let Madeleine come home.

"We need our Madeleine. Sean and Amelie [the girl's twin two-year-old brother and sister] need Madeleine and she needs us. Please give us our little girl back."

Mrs McCann, 39, still clutching Madeleine's cuddly toy that was left in her bed when she was taken, repeated the final plea in Portuguese: "Por favor, devolva a nossa menina."

As she made the plea Mr McCann, 38, a cardiac surgeon, leaned his head into his wife's neck, tears in his eyes. Afterwards Alex Woolfall, a spokesman for the Mark Warner complex in the seaside village of Praia da Luz from which Madeleine was snatched, confirmed that the idea to make the direct plea had come from the McCanns, though they had informed the police they were doing it.

He said: "They wanted to make a very direct appeal. Every day they are trying to do whatever they can."

The family, who are from Rothley, Leicestershire, said that the pyjamas she was wearing had white bottoms with a floral design on them and a pink, short-sleeved top with a picture of the Winnie the Pooh character Eeyore on them. They were bought from Marks & Spencer last year.

Meanwhile, the police investigation included patrols of a marina at the nearby town of Lagos and volunteers took part in searches on foot of the scrubby countryside a few miles inland from the resort.

There have been reports that a bald man was seen dragging a girl towards the marina. Police have checked the departure records of the pleasure boats that left the marine in the hours after Madeleine's disappearance.

At least two yachts left the harbour for other Portuguese ports the morning after the child was taken. A police launch was patrolling the marina yesterday.

Marques Pereira, a maritime police captain at Lagos, also became the first public official to admit that the Madeleine might be dead. He said that they were searching for clothes, shoes or a body. One of the sites they have been looking at are caves, which can only be accessed by canoe.

There was a swirl of other possible sightings of suspect and theories. One man from Liverpool, George Burke, said that he had seen a couple with a girl who fitted Madeleine's description eight hours after her disappearance, again close to the marina and the railway station at Lagos, which is a 10-minute drive from Praia da Luz. There were reports of yet another suspect handing out sweets to children near the marina.

Barra da Costa, a former inspector in the Judicial Police, PJ, claimed that his sources within the force believed that Madeleine's abductor could be from Britain.

Ex-pat and Portuguese volunteers continued to help with the search. A party of around 20 people searched forests and rough ground around the village of Espiche, just north of Praia da Luz.

Dave Felton, a Manchester man who lives in the village said: "I think people are still hoping that we don't actually find her and that she is safe and sound somewhere."

A picure of Madeleine attached to a sign on a beach in Luz, in the Algarve

Gerry and Kate McCann hold a picture of Madeleine during an appeal for her safe return.

Continue Reading... Labels: 2007, George Brooks, George Burke, Madeleine McCann