'Someone's holding back the truth'


George Brooks / Burke
Madeleine: 'Someone's holding back the truth'
29 November 2007
The Daily Express
Nick Fagge in Praia da Luz

Kate and Gerry McCann are behind a deliberate campaign of misinformation about the disappearance of their daughter, it was claimed yesterday.

In a thinly veiled attack on the couple and their private investigators, a high-ranking police source in Portugal rubbished recent "sightings" of Madeleine and accused them of trying to suppress the truth about events on May 3.

"Someone is trying to deviate attention about what really happened that night, " says the source in Portuguese daily newspaper 24 Horas yesterday.

It is claimed that detectives have spent weeks pouring over media reports of worldwide sightings, including Morocco and Bosnia.

And the report says the authorities now believe details of the sightings have been leaked to the British press by agents working on behalf of the McCanns to discredit the official police investigation. The source told 24 Horas:
"We have analysed all the information reaching the public. None of the reports indicating sightings of the McCanns' daughter have been confirmed. "And there's also someone who wants to bring down an investigation that has been carried out honestly and rigorously." 
The source close to the Policia Judiciaria (PJ) investigation countered claims that the Portuguese police are determined to "nail" the McCanns for their daughter's disappearance. He said:
"The PJ doesn't want an innocent person to be taken prisoner. It's just trying to find out the truth. And that's the direction it will continue working in." 
The latest "sighting" is from a British expat who says he saw Madeleine being dragged towards a marina by a "very suspicious" couple eight hours after she vanished.

Businessman George Burke says he saw a small girl resembling Madeleine being hauled along by a "vicious-looking" man and woman as he drove past Lagos marina – five miles from Praia da Luz – in the early morning of May 4.

Last week it emerged that a Portuguese lorry driver told police he saw a girl being handed over by a blonde woman to a man in the town of Silves on May 5.

Private investigators believe this was the moment the four year old was passed from her original kidnapper to a paedophile gang who whisked her to Morocco.

The trucker is said to have identified Michaela Walczuch, the lover of official suspect Robert Murat, as the blonde woman handing over the youngster on the country road.

Spanish tourist Isabel Gonzalez has claimed she saw Jehovah's Witness Walczuch, 32, in Morocco in June, just moments after she noticed a little blonde girl whom she is convinced was Madeleine. And a British nanny has identified expat property developer Murat, 34, as the man she saw trying to snatch a baby from the same holiday apartment that the McCanns booked six months later.

Murat and Walczuch both deny any involvement in Madeleine's disappearance. And Francisco Pagarete, Murat's lawyer, has accused the McCanns of trying to frame his client and his friends.

The official Portuguese police investigation continues to focus on the theory that Madeleine died in the apartment as the result of an accident, and that the McCanns hid the body and recruited friends into covering their tracks.

Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, vigorously deny being involved in their daughter's disappearance.
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£1million fund running out of cash


£1million fund running out of cash
Daily Express
29 November 2007
By Nick Fagge

The resources of the Find Madeleine Campaign are rapidly dwindling it emerged yesterday amid concern about how long the hunt for the missing four year old can go on.

Cash poured in during the first weeks after the youngster vanished from the Ocean Club apartment in Praia da Luz on the night of May 3.

And donations have now reached £1,095,223.50, according to the fund's official website yesterday. But a large proportion of that will be used to pay for the sixmonth contract with Spanish private detectives Metodo 3.

The Barcelona-based firm have signed a £50,000-amonth deal which will result in a final bill of £300,000.

This equates to about £2,000-a-day for a 25-day working month, including expenses.

McCann spokesman Clarence Mitchell told Portuguese newspaper 24 Horas: "The fund has been used to search for Madeleine. These things are not free.

"Kate and Gerry will use that money until it runs out." He added: "From the start they have been very optimistic of finding her. Metodo 3 director Francisco Marco has said he is convinced that his operation will succeed." Mr Mitchell confirmed that the flow of cash has dried up to a trickle, but he said there is enough for a further few months. Other expenses include poster campaigns in Spain and elsewhere.

There will also be more publicity in Portugal. And a new publicity drive is expected in Morocco, where detectives believe Madeleine is most likely being held.

The fund raised around £450,000 a month after its launch, but this is now around £30,000 a month.

There was a huge drop after the couple, both 39, were named official suspects in September. And there was another cash crisis in October after it emerged they had used donations to pay the £2,000 per month mortgage on their £600,000 home in Rothley, Leicestershire.

However, the salary of Mr Mitchell, former BBC presenter and Foreign Office press officer – said to be £75,000 a year – is being paid by millionaire benefactor, homeimprovement tycoon Brian Kennedy who has also offered free legal services.
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Police in make or break summit


Madeleine - Police in make or break summit
Daily Express
29 November 2007
By Nick Fagge in Praia da Luz and Martin Stote in Rothley

Portuguese detectives fly to Britain

POLICE flew to Britain yesterday to v iew evidence which could condemn or clear Madeleine McCann's parents of involvement in her disappearance.

The visit – dubbed a DNA summit – is crucial to Portuguese detectives who have accused the doctors of being directly involved in the four-year-old's death.

The decision by the team, which includes the second in command of Portugal's forensic science service, caught the McCanns and their lawyers completely by surprise.

The team want to be briefed on the precise methods used by the British scientists who analysed the forensic evidence which led to the McCanns being named as arguidos, or official suspects, in September, a police source revealed yesterday. He said: "The investigators are hugely anxious. It is hoped that the tests are conclusive this time.

"The meeting with UK forensic experts will enable investigators to see what's already been analysed and find out what information is already available from the results the English scientists obtained." The meeting, due to start first thing this morning, was expected to analyse in fine detail the implications of the results of DNA evidence from the couple's holiday apartment and hire car.

The strength of the evidence, which has been the subject of widespread speculation, will help detectives to decide if the McCanns have a case to answer.

The Portuguese prosecutor will rely on this heavily as he composes a letter to Leicestershire police, in which he may ask them to reinterview the McCanns and their friends, and explain the exact nature of the further questions he wants them to face.

The four-man team is made up of Inspector Ricardo Praia, a detective with the investigative Policia Judiciaria, two police forensic science experts and the vice-president of Portugal's National Pathology Institute, Francisco Corte Real.

They will meet senior officials from the Forensic Science Service laboratory in Birmingham at a secret location.

The team want to familiarise themselves with the pioneering methods used so that they can explain them to the investigating magistrate in the Algarve who will decide whether to charge or clear the McCanns.

The source added: "They are going to England to decode the results of the tests so we are not caught by surprise." He added: "The team that is going to the UK is going to examine everything microscopically to make sure the tests have not been manipulated by someone linked to the suspects.

"We want to be sure all the information that reaches us has not previously been interfered with." The meeting was also due to be attended by Detective Supt Stuart Prior, who is in charge of the Leicestershire police operation, working under the direction of the Portuguese force.

Last night Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns' official spokesman, said the couple from Rothley, Leics, had nothing to fear from the visit.

He said: "We have been informed by Leicestershire police that a meeting between forensic scientists from Portugal and the Forensic Science Service laboratory will be taking place.

"We understand there is no intention for the McCanns to be interviewed or indeed anybody else.

That such a meeting is taking place is not particularly surprising and we do not see this as a significant development."
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Taken by sea?


George Brooks / Burke
Taken by sea?
28 November 2007
Mirror
Martin Fricker

Note: 
The released McCann case files show no record of George Burke (aka George Brooks) approaching the Portuguese police in regard to this sighting. 
See: Apensos V, Vol 1 Page 5
The hunt for Madeleine 'Vital' sighting outside marina

A British businessman's sighting of Madeleine McCann near a marina eight hours after she vanished has convinced private detectives she WAS smuggled out of Portugal by sea.

George Burke insists he saw a vicious-looking man and a woman dragging a Madeleine lookalike along a road that leads to Lagos marina.

But investigators believe Portuguese police who interviewed the dad-of-two failed to take the sighting seriously.

A source said:
"The private investigators are now concentrating on Lagos and the marina.
"What Mr Burke saw could be incredibly valuable.

"He was concerned enough to call the police and they eventually followed up on his information.

"Now the investigators want to talk to Mr Burke. There is a strong chance Madeleine was taken by boat from the marina and is still alive somewhere."

George, who is from Liverpool but now lives in Portugal, saw the couple with the girl as he drove past the marina at about 6am on May 4. He said:
"It was very, very dark and it was hard to make out exactly what the couple looked like. But through the gloom I could see a very suspicious-looking man and woman, with a child who fitted Madeleine's description.

"Though there was nobody else on the road, they were hurrying across a road that leads straight to the train station and marina."

Kate and Gerry McCann have always believed the four-year-old was probably taken out of Portugal by sea to North Africa.

George contacted police as soon as he got home but border and port authorities were not alerted for another 12 hours.

NOTE:
From Michael Wright's statement:
As for additional information I would like to add that on Sunday, 6 May I went to the pizzaria in PdL and bought a large quantity of pizzas. I was attended by a girl from Liverpool. I explained to her my relationship to the McCanns and she told me that her father 'George' had seen a man carrying a child in his arms in the early morning of 4 May in the resort. I asked her if her father would speak about this to the Portuguese authorities. I don't know if the information was ever investigated.
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Madeleine 'seen at marina'


Madeleine 'seen at marina'
Daily Express
28 November 2007
Nick Fagge


A British expat says he saw Madeleine McCann being dragged towards a marina by a "very suspicious" couple, just hours after she vanished, it was reported last night.

Businessman George Burke says he saw a small girl resembling Madeleine being hauled along by a "viciouslooking" man and woman, as he drove past Lagos marina in the early morning of May 4, just eight hours after she vanished.

He said:
"It was dark and they were hurrying towards the marina. There was no one else around at the time and they looked very suspicious." 
Mr Burke, who is from Liverpool but lives in Portugal, reported the sighting to Portuguese police but said they did not take him seriously. He is now being quizzed by the McCanns' private detectives who say the sighting may be crucial.

The claims came as it was revealed that police in Portugal have carried out fresh searches for Madeleine's body – or a place she could have been hidden – in countryside surrounding Praia da Luz.

The Policia Judiciaria has refused to reveal the exact locations, and inquiries continue.

Detectives are believed to have identified a number of locations several miles away from the Algarve resort, in countryside between the towns of Lagos and Portimao.

Sources said the theory that Madeleine was killed by an intruder at the villa, who then disposed of her body elsewhere, was gaining strength at the centre of the investigation.
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How inept police let Madeleine's kidnapper get away


How inept police let Madeleine's kidnapper get away
27 November 2007
The Daily Express
Robert Downing Adapted by Virginia Blackburn


It is one of the biggest mysteries of all time. Ever since Madeleine McCann vanished from a Portuguese resort just before her fourth birthday, Britain and the rest of the world has been gripped by the question: what has happened to her? The search for her has ranged across continents.

Haunting images of her have appeared in newspapers and on TV screens and posters across the globe.The investigation into her disappearance has provoked unprecedented controversy.

Today, in the second part of our exclusive book serialisation exploring the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, we reveal how the Portuguese police left Gerry and Kate distraught as they missed vital clues, enjoyed long lunches instead of stepping up the hunt and even called in psychics when they had run out of ideas.

IT WAS nearly three weeks since Madeleine had disappeared from Praia da Luz but her family were determined not to give up. The appeal had spread to Westminster: as a fund was launched to help the hunt, some of Madeleine's relatives met the then Chancellor Gordon Brown, alongside then Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. It was a day of good cheer.

"Instead of a tidal wave of despair my brother Gerry is facing a tidal wave of hope, " said Philomena McCann, speaking outside Westminster. "Initially he was completely floored by what had happened and found it very difficult to cope. That was turned around by the support of the nation of Portugal, the support of Glasgow, the whole of Scotland and England."

Madeleine's parents felt they were going to start playing a more active role. The Find Madeleine Fund had been officially launched and Gerry started on what was to be the first of many trips around the globe in the search for his daughter when he flew back to Britain to consult advisers on how best to proceed. They would leave "no stone unturned" in the attempt to find their daughter, they said; nor did they want to leave Portugal without her. Support in Portugal and across the world was strong and on May 21 the nation observed a minute's silence to focus on attempts to recover the child.

The McCanns were comforted by the enormous wave of public support, the Church and a forthcoming visit to meet the Pope. Kate was constantly seen with Madeleine's Cuddle Cat, which had become something of a security blanket.

When asked if they thought Madeleine was still alive, Kate replied: "Absolutely." She then motioned to Madeleine's favourite toy and revealed: "It's something Madeleine has with her every night.

If she's upset or not well she has Cuddle Cat. It's provided me with a little bit of comfort, something of Madeleine close to me?" Back in Britain there was growing criticism of the Portuguese police. John Stalker, the former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, scathingly compared the handling of the case to the TV programme Life On Mars, in which a modern police officer finds himself in the altogether less professional world of the Seventies.

"British police are not perfect but they can never be accused of complacency when a three-year-old is reported missing, " he wrote. "In these cases they hit the ground running - which never happened in Portugal. From the moment Madeleine went missing Portuguese police moved too slowly. The feeling seems to have been that child abductions simply do not happen on the Algarve. Local police dealt with the inquiry during those precious first few hours when fastmoving investigations such as these are won or lost."

Doubts were growing about the competence of the Portuguese police, who now came under attack for not searching empty apartments close to Madeleine's. Many had metal shutters to keep the sun out which would have made it impossible to see if anyone was inside.

Michael Askew, 60, a British businessman who owns a two-bedroom apartment close to the complex, was astonished by what he saw as police ineptitude. "I'm amazed the police haven't searched my place, " said Mr Askew, who owns a building company in Derbyshire. "Soon after Madeleine was abducted I saw a TV interview with a Portuguese policeman who said they had master keys to all the nearby properties. He said they were going to be searched but mine certainly wasn't. My son Robert went out there this week for the first time since Madeleine went missing and it's obvious no one's been into the apartment. Neighbours say none of theirs have been searched, either. The complex managers say they haven't handed the master keys to anyone. I'm also surprised no one seems to have been asked whether they were staying in the apartments or who may have been renting them at the time. It makes you sceptical about how they have run their investigation."

Further evidence of ineptitude emerged when it became clear that a description of a man seen carrying a child on the night Madeleine disappeared was wrong - a mistake in the conversion from centimetres to inches put him three inches taller than the witness had described. It then emerged officers were turning to psychics and clairvoyants for help. While several said Madeleine had been taken over the border into Spain, the information rather suggested that police didn't have a great deal more to go on. "If there are indications there is enough to follow we will go, " said Chief Insp Olegario Sousa when asked about the danger of hoaxers. "If there aren't we cannot do anything."

It was not long before eyebrows were raised again by police behaviour, though this time the problem was a culture clash as much as anything else. The problem appeared to be lunchtime drinking. At the same time as the McCanns were facing that brutal press conference in Berlin, Sousa and detective Goncalo Amaral were pictured enjoying a two-hour lunch with drinks.

Sousa was defensive: "It is very, very sad but a person's free time is for lunch. That is a normal thing to do."

Worse still, the men were heard discussing the case in front of other diners. "If it were detectives from Scotland Yard there would be an uproar, " said Philomena McCann.

"But we have to let them get on with their work because that's all we have to rely on.

"We have to accept their approach because the British Government will not intervene. It is a different culture where they have lunches and siestas but we hope the work is made up at other times."

SHORTLY afterwards Philomena and a cousin went to Lisbon airport to put up "missing" posters (incredibly, none had been hung there, allegedly because of the Portuguese government's fear of damaging the tourist trade), and were expelled from the airport by gun-toting police. "They just don't want to admit a child was snatched in their country, " she said.

Amaral, one of the most senior detectives in the hunt, was revealed to be one of five officers formally accused of torturing a confession from Leonor Cipriano. She was alleged to have been attacked in September, 2004, after her nineyear-old daughter Joana had gone missing from the village of Figueira, just seven miles from Praia da Luz.

The parallels with Madeleine's case were eerie. The police had failed to seal off the house, allowed hundreds of police and friends of the family to trample over the crime scene and ended up accusing Joana's mother of the crime.

The body was never found but Leonor and her brother Joao were convicted of killing her. She later claimed police had beaten a confession out of her. Pictures showed her face and body covered in bruises, which police said occurred when she fell downstairs. She lodged a complaint which was taken up by the public prosecutor's office. Five policemen were said to be involved:

three accused of torture, a fourth for failing to stop the attack and a fifth for falsifying paperwork.

Amaral was one of the five yet he remained on the Madeleine case.

The McCanns said nothing publicly but they must have foreseen that the Portuguese police would try to implicate them. The investigation was a mess. Sousa decided to blame the family for allowing so many people into their apartment in the immediate aftermath of Madeleine's disappearance, as if the family wasn't desperate to enlist as much help as possible.

"The presence of so many people in the room where the little girl slept with her brother and sister could have complicated the work of the forensic team, " he said. "At worst, they would have destroyed all the evidence. This could prove fatal for the investigation." It looked very much as if he was trying to shift the blame for incompetence away from the police force.

While the McCanns remained silent, sources close to the family voiced their dismay. "It's insensitive, " said one. "Of course the family are going to search the apartment. If your child goes missing, you search under beds, everywhere."

Increasingly it seemed as if the McCanns were having to do the job of police. Attending a church service in Praia da Luz - Kate was still clutching Cuddle Cat - Gerry recalled that it was Father's Day back home. He had already had to undergo both his and Madeleine's birthday without her and thoughts of this occasion the previous year were too painful. "I can't think about how we spent it, " he said. "I can't think about anything except how to get Madeleine back."

The police investigation seemed to have stalled. There was widespread criticism when officers again searched the apartment from which Madeleine had gone missing - seven weeks after her disappearance. Why, observers asked, was there any doubt the crime scene had not already been properly searched?

ONE CRITIC declared: "It is astonishing that they are still at the stage of scouring the crime scene for clues. You would think that everything that could have yielded information had already been gathered up. It's a pretty damning sign that the investigation is going nowhere."

Towards the end of June arrests finally were made in connection with the case but they were not the arrests everyone was hoping for.

Rather, Italian Danilo Chemello and his Portuguese girlfriend Aurora Pereira Vaz were taken in by the police after a dawn raid on the Costa del Sol town of Sotogrande, on suspicion of trying to extort reward money from the McCanns.

It was thought that they had claimed to know where Madeleine was being held and wanted £2.5million to relay the information. It hadn't worked.

To pre-order a copy of Madeleine: A Most Heartrbreaking And Extraordinary Disappearance, by Robert Downing, £12.99 (Northern &Shell Publishing), published on December 10, with free UK delivery, send a cheque/PO payable to Express Bookshop to Madeleine book offer, Express Bookshop, PO Box 200, Falmouth TR11 4WJ or call 0871 521 1301 with card details or order online at www. expressbookshop. co. uk.
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Enigma / The Hope of the McCanns


CRONICA
Enigma / La Esperanza de los McCann
25 November 2007
El Mundo (Spanish)
Juan C. de la Cal
UN DETECTIVE ESPAÑOL PARA MADELEINE

BabelXL Translation:


**********


A Spanish Detective for Madeleine


WHY the McCann, compatriots of Sherlock Holmes, have hired a Spanish Agency to locate the missing girl?

Detective Marco, located at Paesa, said that says that she is in Morocco.

"Papa, you found Maddie?

Every night back home, at the time of approach to his son Nico, Francisco Marco faces the same question.

The six-year-old boy is repeated before the last kiss.

Because although he is learning to read, the little one knows that his dad, the best detective in the world, looking for that girl that appears both on TV and has almost his same age.

Francisco is the director of the detective agency of Método 3, hired by the McCann family two months ago to find their daughter.

Since then, the life of this Catalan lawyer for 35 years, criminologist and doctor of law, grandson of judge and son of another lawyer, it has become an eternal meeting, in a coming and by half the world, in a catch and hang continuous phones and computers.

The pressure is very great.

I have a waiting list of 60 interviews with media from around the globe and in the morning, when I go to have breakfast at the bar, I find some English reporter who wants to get me some detail.

And at night, at home, to my children or my wife that I never talk about work, I interview by the girl, ensures Marco.

The news caused some surprise as many wondered how it is that a Spanish Agency had been chosen to resolve the case more media in the world at the moment.

In the country of Sherlock Holmes, the spies of the cold war and more solvent secret services in the world, why were they the elect?

Because we were the only ones we raised them a coherent hypothesis about the disappearance of their daughter.

We believe that she is alive and that she has been stolen, not kidnapped, because nobody has asked a ransom for her.

We maintain the thesis that they have caught her following a concrete plan.

Our main line of research are pedophiles, ensures Francisco, who just passed one of the worst drinks of his life after seeing how paedophiles on the Internet.

It is brutal

I do not think that nothing there is worse in the world.

Watch I've seen hard things, but there is nothing worse.

I cried with rage when I turned off the screen, he adds indignantly.

The entry in scene of the Catalan detectives coincides with the rehabilitation of the figure of the parents.

This change was made possible by the intervention of the British magnate Brian Kennedy -EUR 350 million won by dint of reforms of the home- it injected with enough money to hire to the best of each House to clean up the image of the McCann

It is an incredible patriotic demonstration

The man told us he was tired of seeing vilification of two British parents who had left without her small daughter

He was the one who, after consulting with the best European agencies, we chose because we are the first on the continent in everything that relates to business fraud.

And, in addition, latinos, something fundamental for this case taking into account the scenarios that are shuffled on the fate of the small: Morocco, Portugal or Spain, ensures for her part Marita Fernández Lado, founder of Método 3 and mother of Francisco.

PIONEER

The woman, aged 58, one of the pioneers in our country in private research

I came from the world of fashion but I married a lawyer of criminologist and caught taste to the matter

I specialized in insurance, in demonstrating false physical damage.

I remember that the first case that I decided was that of a blind that wasn't

Her I recorded in video reading a book and presented the tape to the Court.

It was the first time in Spain a court admitted a video as evidence, recalls Marita.

Detectives ask whether Madeleine parents are innocent is almost as insulting them.

Yes of course.

Just spend half an hour with them, without televisions from through, to check that they are broken.

Before accepting the case I had a long interview where I did lawyer of the devil and asked them terrible things to see his reaction

Kate burst into tears when one of the twins entered and been embraced.

As a mother and grandmother who I am, it seems impossible that a woman who has had to go through artificial insemination to get descent, she wants in this way to their children, may have done nothing wrong to Madeleine, says Marita

The Agency has its headquarters on the first floor of a building of classic Court, in the area of the Ensanche de Barcelona.

Phones boiled anytime.

Receive, on average, a hundred calls a day from the four cardinal points of the planet.

Half a dozen translators are responsible for responding to those who called in their language: French, English, Portuguese, Arabic .

Each conversation is recorded on a tab.

And all data are crossed with each other.

There is who has been in Canada, in South America, in almost all European countries, in Morocco.

The partners profile is mixed: some people, crazy calling for rescue to bring it back, curious, mothers who cry for the distress of small and up to mediums.

In addition to being the first of the industry in our country, Método 3 has in its curriculum have found, three years ago, to Francisco Paesa, collaborator of the Spanish secret services, given up for dead for a long time.

They also boast of having located 23 missing children, mostly adolescents.

The detectives insist that does not do this for money.

We are talking about amounts of five cíceros, no more.

And almost everything is for travel in any countries where we have worked

The two dozen people who works exclusively in the case are on the payroll and our fees are almost symbolic.

Our unique client is Maddie, clarifies Marita.

Marco has just arrived from a two-week trip by Morocco, the country where more opportunities exist, according to him, to find Madeleine: In early October we got a track and we are following her.

The country is perfect to hide an abducted girl.

In fact there are several dedicated to child trafficking networks detected although still unidentified.

And, except in the North, where are the Spanish television, the rest do not know nothing of the matter .

Detectives were reaffirmed in what he declared this week to a British newspaper where they point to the first suspect in the case, Robert Murat, who was neighbouring and translator of parents in Praia da Luz, named to investigate further.

The tabloids put in our mouths claims that we have not done -complains Marita- But the police has been deliberately leaked the news.

We only think that Murat knows more than what he says and that Madeleine may be alive somewhere in Morocco.

Nothing more.

Nor nothing less.







CRONICA
ENIGMA / LA ESPERANZA DE LOS McCANN
JUAN C. DE LA CAL
25 November 2007
El Mundo
Spanish

ENIGMA / LA ESPERANZA DE LOS McCANN

UN DETECTIVE ESPAÑOL PARA MADELEINE

¿POR QUÉ LOS McCann, compatriotas de Sherlock Holmes, han contratado a una agencia española para localizar a la niña desaparecida? El detective Marco, que localizó a Paesa, dice que está en Marruecos

Papa, ¿has encontrado a Maddie?

Cada noche, de vuelta a casa, a la hora de acostar a su hijo Nico, Francisco Marco se encuentra ante la misma pregunta. El niño, de seis años, se la repite antes del último beso. Porque aunque está aprendiendo a leer, el pequeño sabe que su papá, «el mejor detective del mundo, está buscando a esa niña que aparece tanto en la tele y que tiene casi su misma edad.

Francisco es el director de la agencia de detectives Método 3, contratada por la familia McCann hace dos meses para buscar a su hija. Desde entonces, la vida de este abogado catalán de 35 años, criminólogo y doctor en Derecho, nieto de juez e hijo de otro letrado, se ha transformado en una eterna reunión, en un ir y venir por medio mundo, en un coger y colgar continuo de teléfonos y ordenadores.

La presión es muy grande. Tengo una lista de espera de 60 entrevistas de medios de comunicación de todo el planeta y por la mañana, cuando voy a desayunar al bar, me encuentro con algún reportero inglés que quiere sacarme algún detalle. Y por la noche, en casa, hasta mis hijos o mi mujer, que nunca me hablan de trabajo, me interrogan por la niña, asegura Marco.

La noticia causó cierta sorpresa puesto que muchos se preguntaban cómo es que una agencia española había sido elegida para resolver el caso más mediático del mundo en estos momentos.

En el país de Sherlock Holmes, de los espías de la guerra fría y de los servicios secretos más solventes del mundo, ¿por qué fueron ellos los escogidos?«Porque fuimos los únicos que les planteamos una hipótesis coherente sobre la desaparición de su hija.

Creemos que está viva y que ha sido robada, no secuestrada, porque nadie ha pedido un rescate por ella. Mantenemos la tesis de que la han cogido siguiendo un plan concreto. Nuestra principal línea de investigación son los pederastas», asegura Francisco, quien acaba de pasar uno de los peores tragos de su vida tras ver cómo funcionan los pedófilos en Internet.

Es brutal. No creo que haya nada peor en el mundo. Mira que he visto cosas duras, pero no hay nada peor. Lloré de rabia cuando apagué la pantalla, añade indignado.

La entrada en escena de los detectives catalanes coincide con la rehabilitación de la figura de los padres. Este cambio fue posible gracias a la intervención del magnate británico Brian Kennedy -350 millones de euros ganados a golpe de reformas del hogar- que inyectó el dinero suficiente para contratar a lo mejor de cada casa para limpiar la imagen de los McCann.

Es una demostración patriótica increíble. El hombre nos dijo que estaba harto de ver cómo se vilipendiaba a dos padres británicos que se habían quedado sin su hija pequeña. Él fue quien, tras consultar con las mejores agencias europeas, nos eligió porque somos de las primeras en el continente en todo lo que se refiere al fraude empresarial. Y, además, latinos, algo fundamental para este caso teniendo en cuenta los escenarios que se barajan sobre el destino de la pequeña: Marruecos, Portugal o España, asegura por su parte Marita Fernández Lado, fundadora de Método 3 y madre de Francisco.

PIONERA

La mujer, de 58 años, una de las pioneras en nuestro país en la investigación privada, fundó la agencia hace dos décadas tras trabajar un tiempo como comercial para otro detective.

Yo venía del mundo de la moda pero me casé con un abogado criminalista y cogí gusto al asunto. Me especialicé en seguros, en demostrar daños físicos falsos. Recuerdo que el primer caso que resolví fue el de una ciega que no lo era. La grabé en vídeo leyendo un libro y presenté la cinta al juzgado. Fue la primera vez en España que un tribunal admitió un vídeo como prueba, recuerda Marita.

Preguntar a los detectives si los padres de Madeleine son inocentes es casi como insultarles.

Por supuesto que sí. Basta pasar media hora con ellos, sin televisiones de por medio, para comprobar que están destrozados. Antes de aceptar el caso tuve una larga entrevista donde hice de abogada del diablo y les pregunté cosas terribles para ver su reacción. Katy rompió a llorar cuando uno de los gemelos entró y se la abrazó. Como madre y abuela que soy, me parece imposible que una mujer que ha tenido que pasar por la inseminación artificial para conseguir tener descendencia, y que quiere de esa manera a sus niños, pueda haberle hecho nada malo a Madeleine, dice Marita.

La agencia tiene su cuartel general en el primer piso de un edificio de corte clásico, en la zona del Ensanche de Barcelona. Los teléfonos hierven a cualquier hora. Reciben, de media, un centenar de llamadas diarias desde los cuatro puntos cardinales del planeta. Media docena de traductores se encargan de responder a los que llaman en su idioma: francés, inglés, portugués, árabe... Cada conversación es registrada en una ficha. Y todos los datos son cruzados unos con otros.Hay quién la ha visto en Canadá, en Sudamérica, en casi todos los países europeos, en Marruecos... El perfil de los interlocutores es variopinto: gente cierta, locos que piden rescate para devolverla, curiosos, madres que lloran por el desconsuelo de la pequeña y hasta médiums.

Además de ser la primera del sector en nuestro país, Método 3 tiene en su currículo haber encontrado, hace tres años, a Francisco Paesa, colaborador de los servicios secretos españoles, dado por muerto durante mucho tiempo. También presumen de haber localizado a 23 niños desaparecidos, la mayoría adolescentes.Los detectives insisten en que no hacen esto por dinero.

Estamos hablando de cantidades de cinco cíceros, no más. Y casi todo es para gastos de viaje en alguno de los países donde hemos trabajado. La veintena de personas que trabaja en exclusiva en el asunto están en nómina y nuestros honorarios son casi simbólicos. Nuestro único cliente es Maddie, aclara Marita.

Marco acaba de llegar de un viaje de dos semanas por Marruecos, el país donde más posibilidades existen, según él, de encontrar a Madeleine:

A principios de octubre nos llegó una pista y la estamos siguiendo. El país es perfecto para ocultar a una niña raptada. De hecho existen varias redes dedicadas al tráfico de niños detectadas aunque no identificadas todavía. Y, salvo en el norte, donde ven la televisión española, en el resto no saben nada del asunto».Los detectives se reafirman en lo que declararon esta semana a un periódico británico donde apuntan al primer sospechoso del caso, Robert Murat, que fue vecino y traductor de los padres en Praia da Luz, como nombre a seguir investigando.

Los tabloides ponen en nuestra boca afirmaciones que no hemos hecho. -se queja Marita- Pero la policía ha filtrado la noticia interesadamente. Nosotros sólo pensamos que Murat sabe más de lo que dice y que Madeleine puede estar viva en algún lugar de Marruecos. Nada más.Ni nada menos...
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Handcuffed, the McCann detective once held over phone tapping


25 November 2007
The Mail on Sunday
Daniel Boffey

The private detectives hunting for Madeleine McCann were once arrested in a phone-tapping scandal linked to leading politicians and businessmen. Five senior members of the family run firm Metodo 3 - including director-general Francisco Marco, who is liaising with Kate and Gerry McCann - were held amid claims of industrial and political espionage.
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East Lancs solicitor leads Madeleine hunt


25 November 2007
This is Lancashire
Catherine Pye

AN East Lancashire solicitor is leading a private investigation into Madeleine McCann's disappearance - and believes she is still alive.

Edward Smethurst is the in-house lawyer based in Clitheroe for double-glazing tycoon Brian Kennedy, who has pledged to bankroll Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann's legal and media costs.
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'Maddie is dead'


23 November 2007
The Sun
Veronica Lorraine in Praia Da Luz and Antonella Lazzeri

Portugal's top law chief delivers grim verdict

Portugal's top law chief yesterday admitted he believes Madeleine McCann is almost certainly DEAD.

Attorney General Fernando Jose Pinto Monteiro said any kidnapper would have murdered four-year-old Maddie because of the enormous publicity surrounding the case.

He told Portuguese current affairs magazine Visao:
"If it is an abduction, it is natural the abductor killed her. There is a greater degree of probability of the little girl being dead than being alive.

"Would an abductor, with the whole world having Maddie's photo, still demand a ransom?"
Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry, both 39, last night said they were "extremely distressed" by the claims.

Official spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "We still firmly believe that she is alive. Making these comments is entirely unhelpful. Our investigators have every confidence they will find her alive soon."

Portuguese cops have claimed the chance of finding Maddie alive is slim, but this is the first time a high-ranking source has been so blunt.

The comments were last night seen as the clearest sign yet that Portuguese authorities fear Madeleine will never be found alive and the people behind her disappearance in May will escape justice. But daily newspaper Diario de Noticias yesterday rubbished the reports that police were ready to give up on the case.

It claimed a team of officers would continue probing alleged "inconsistencies" in the original statements of Maddie's parents and their holiday pals.

The McCanns' friend Jane Tanner told The Sun this week how she watched the tot being taken away in a blanket.
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