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MADELEINE news updates - a new positive thread

1007 replies

littlemissbossy · 12/05/2007 12:26

For those of you who are interested - and don't want any arguing - the news update according to Sky

  • police are now looking for a man seen in a white van
  • they have an e-fit of him
  • also want to interview an american who lives locally who owns a white van and hasn't been seen for the last few days
  • reward of £1.5M has been offered by the News of the World
OP posts:
sarahinphuket · 13/05/2007 15:05

And I just read somewhere that police are now looking for the driver of a white van that was seen in the area on the night Madeleine disappeared. Apparently they have found the van and eliminated that from the enquiry, but not the driver. They also want to find an American who lives in the village but who has not been seen for several days. He also drove a white van...

sarahinphuket · 13/05/2007 15:16

Here are some different bits of info that I have found in the news just now.....

MADELEINE McCANN is believed to be still alive but in the clutches of a British paedo­phile identified to police by holidaymakers in Portugal.

That is the grim scenario the toddler?s traumatised family are trying to come to terms with as the kidnap hunt enters its 10th day today.

Police are also working on the theory that a gang may have been stalking Madeleine even before her family flew to the Algarve for their sunshine break.

Nine British tourists at the holiday complex where she was taken have been shown photos of child sex offenders known to have been in Portugal in recent months.

Now the search for Madeleine, who should have been celebrating her fourth birthday yesterday, is centred on one paedophile believed to have been picked out by the witnesses from a dossier of more than 100 police photos.

==============
Tourists at the Mark Warner holiday apartments in Praia da Luz have had their cameras and video recorders taken by detectives in the hope they may have inadvertently caught the kidnapper on film.

It emerged yesterday that Mad­eleine may have been bundled into a white van after being taken as she slept at her family?s ground floor apartment at around 10pm on May 3, while her parents were dining at a tapas restaurant 100 yards away. A police source revealed the small van was spotted several days in a row near the apartment complex. It was not part of the maintenance team and the vehicle has not been seen since the child was taken.

The same source told how detectives are working on a theory that Madeleine was ?marked? for abduction before she left Britain.

More than 100 people have now been shown CCTV footage of three suspects ? two men and a blonde woman ? seen with a small child at a petrol station near Praia da Luz on the night Madeleine vanished. The trio were driving a car fitted with British number plates and were heading east on the A22 motorway towards the Spanish border.
The number plates turned out to be false. One of the men seen at the filling station resembles a man wanted by Spanish police for the attempted rape of a 10-year-old girl in Gran Canaria last year.

One witness who has seen the CCTV images revealed the blonde woman is aged about 40 and has her hair tied in a ponytail.

One of the men is also 40, with short dark hair. The other man is in his mid-30s. Three days before Madeleine was snatched the same three suspects were spotted on the same beach as the McCann family. They were chased away by another holidaymaker after being caught taking photographs of young children.

MrsSpoon · 13/05/2007 15:38

Sounds like they are making some progress.

A couple of years back a man (who has on his own) took a picture of my DS2 on the beach, I was not best pleased (posted on here about it at the time) but now it makes my blood run cold thinking what his intentions may have been.

quietmouse · 13/05/2007 15:40

I can't believe they think she could have been targeted before leaving England. That sounds a little far fetched to me. How would they have known where she was going to be and that she was going to be alone, that far in advance??

DrNortherner · 13/05/2007 15:40

Great update sarah, thanks

sarahinphuket · 13/05/2007 15:43

quietmouse...I guess it would be quite easy to follow the family to the resort...and then it would just be a matter of waiting..

wannaBeWhateverIWannaBe · 13/05/2007 15:46

could be that it was someone known to the family? ie someone that had befriended Madeleine prior to them leaving the UK? I'd imagine that if you wanted to snatch a particular child, you might befriend that child or their family in order to get to know them and get to gain some knowledge about their movements. wouldn't be hard to register at same gp practice where Kate Mccann practices/go to same park as children/walk dogs in same place...

sarahinphuket · 13/05/2007 16:27

here is some more info

LilyLoo · 13/05/2007 16:44

Maybe private investigators may be the way forward. I suppose as a parent you would have to try everything possible. It seems as though they have been prepared for the possibility they may have to return home without her

BigPantsRule · 13/05/2007 16:56

I'm not convinced by the theory that Madeleine might have been taken by someone known to the family, since anyone seeing her up close would notice her distinctive iris and might decide that she would be too difficult to disguise. (And probably go on to target someone else instead.)

cutekids · 13/05/2007 17:00

mrsspoon..!how stupid d'you think i feel? About 3/4 years ago, i was sat with my youngest daughter (blonde,blue-eyed) when x 2 men (German/Dutch) who were getting on in years but who seemed friendly at the time, actually asked me if they could take a picture and what did i do...? i - although things did flash through my mind at that point- said "Yes,ok".!!!How stupid was I?

NurseyJo · 13/05/2007 17:01

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lissielou · 13/05/2007 17:10

can we use this thread not to discuss or speculate, merely to update. lets remember that at the heart of this is a scared little girl. also that madeleines mother could've been any one of us. for all we now she may have used mn on a regular basis. the last thing any of them needs is more speculation

BigPantsRule · 13/05/2007 17:14

Sarah - Thanks for the update, especially the bit which read "Tourists at the Mark Warner holiday apartments in Praia da Luz have had their cameras and video recorders taken by detectives in the hope they may have inadvertently caught the kidnapper on film." I actually suggested this earlier on a different thread but with reference to the people that were in the resort the previous week and would have returned last weekend (when the McCanns were due to return). If they only use the cameras from people who are there now, who presumably went for 2-week holidays, they could be missing out on some vital evidence. (But then surely someone will have realized that... )

NurseyJo · 13/05/2007 17:15

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lissielou · 13/05/2007 17:19

i wasnt critiscing nj, sorry if it came across like that. its just that every other thread on this topic has turned into a bunfight and i was just reiterating the ops intention. didnt mean any offence, read it back now and im sorry i seemed a bit abrupt

NurseyJo · 13/05/2007 17:25

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lissielou · 13/05/2007 17:27

lol, thats why ive been mainly lurking

lissielou · 13/05/2007 18:00

.

toomuchtodo · 13/05/2007 20:43

keep coming back to here, nothing positive yet

jambuttie · 14/05/2007 07:57

it's horrible this isn't it!!!!!!

The longer she's away the worse it looks

Callisto · 14/05/2007 08:42

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mumemma · 14/05/2007 09:03

I think he's just saying that until there is actual evidence, he won't believe she's been harmed. There just doesn't seem to be any evidence either way.

SwiperNoSwiping · 14/05/2007 11:08

I think what he was saying is they have to think like that to take the negatives away & stay strong, they want to keep believeing she is safe & being looked after.

I really felt for them this morning, they are show so much strength i admire them.

jambuttie · 14/05/2007 12:11

me too, i dont think i could be as strong as them.

My heart goes out to them

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