Madeleine McCann, a young girl
who disappeared from the holiday resort Praia Da Luz on May 3rd
2007. She was 3 years old when she disappeared. The disappearance of Madeleine
McCann today is still an ongoing investigation.
The investigation of the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann has involved the Portuguese police, British
police and private investigators.
Throughout this blog, we have
looked at the various and different team members who have important and
different roles and responsibilities within the case, the evidence that was
collected during the case and how those pieces of evidence were analysed and
the different procedures that were or were not carried out during the case. All
of these factors have an impact on the case which has resulted in at present,
the case being open. There has been no firm conclusion as to what happened to
Madeleine, as her whereabouts are still unknown and there are no firm suspects
in the case.
Looking at the procedures of the
case, we know that the scene was not cordoned off straight away by the first
attending officers and therefore various individuals had access to the crime
scene. This could have meant that individuals left traces of themselves at the
crime scene which could have resulted in contamination of evidence. Evidence
could have possibly been destroyed or damaged with those individuals having
access to the crime scene; also people would have had the ability to take
things that could have served as potential evidence. If this procedure was
carried out effectively and efficiently, people would have been stopped of
entering and exiting the scene. If this procedure was carried out could this
have resulted in more potential evidence giving the case more leads to go from?
Fingerprints were collected as evidence from the crime scene but where
unsuccessful in the case. Could this have been due to the presence of
individuals having access to the case? With there being no security of the
scene to stop individuals from entering, they could have accessed the scene and
came into contact with the crime scene leaving their fingerprints at the scene.
Another procedure that was not
carried in the Madeleine McCann case was the use of PPE (personal protection
equipment). This procedure was not carried out when the police officers were
collecting fingerprints from the crime scene. This has had an impact on the
case because this evidence could not be used and was contaminated within the
process of the evidence being collected. This evidence was insufficient
evidence within the case due to this procedure not being carried out. If this
procedure was carried out during evidence collection, this could have had a
different impact on the case because the evidence wouldn’t have been
contaminated and the evidence could have been analysed. This evidence could
have been analysed and could have possibly lead to a possible suspect or gave
the investigation team a lead to follow on.
Throughout the case, the
Portuguese police had listed suspects and investigations where made based on those
suspicions. This even included Madeleine’s parents; Gerry and Kate McCann.
The first suspect was made 12
days after Madeleine had been reported missing. This suspect was Robert Murat,
a local British-Portuguese property consultant who lived with his mother
150yards away from the apartment where Madeleine went missing from. This
conclusion was made when a British journalist reported to police that Murat had
been asking questions regarding Madeleine’s disappearance. Members of the Tapas
Seven (friends of Gerry and Kate McCann who were on the holiday with the
McCanns) claimed that they had seen Murat around the area of the apartment
Madeleine was reported missing but Murat and his mother whom he lived with
claimed that they were both home all evening. Following this lead, the
investigation team searched belongings of Murat which included a search of his
house, cars, computers and mobile phone. Following this search the
investigation team did not find any evidence that linked Murat to Madeleine’s
disappearance and proved that he had an involvement. The investigation team
cleared Murat as a suspect in 2008 and stated that it wouldn’t have been
unusual to see Murat around the location due to where he lived (150yards from
the apartment).
In 2007, the McCanns; Gerry and
Kate McCann, parents of Madeleine became suspects in her disappearance. This
was based on media coverage in Portugal when a German journalist and reported
asked the McCann’ whether they were involved with her disappearance. These
allegations were followed up in the UK which involved more suspicions with the
McCann’s. Following this the McCanns were interviewed various times where
inconsistencies between these interviews were identified which involved where
the McCanns had entered the apartment on the night of her reported
disappearance. The investigation team discarded these inconsistencies and based
them on translation problems within the interview. Questions were asked in
Portuguese by the Portuguese police whereas answers were answered in English.
An interpreter had translated these responses to Portuguese. A police statement
was then wrote in Portuguese by the police officers but had to be translated to
English in order for the McCann’ to sign. The investigation team concluded from
this that false information could have been misunderstood and misinterpreted
due to the translation process which could have encouraged inconsistencies.
Mark Harrison, a member of the
British National Policing Improvement Agency as a search advisor arrived in
Praia da Luz to help with the ground search of Madeleine. This included
involving Keela and Eddie, two spaniel sniffer dogs to help with the case.
Keela, a CSI dog trained to alert her handler to traces of human blood. Eddie
was an enhanced victim recovery dog trained to alert his handler of the scent
of human cadavers (corpse). Following the suspicions of the McCanns, these dogs
were taken to two beaches of Praia Da Luz, Robert Murats house and several
Ocean Club apartments including the apartment rented by the McCanns. This
investigation lead to the dogs only giving alerts to their handlers in the
apartment 5A rented by the McCanns. These alerts were given in the living room
of the apartment, and on and under the veranda of the parent’s bedroom. Belongings
from the apartment where then taken to be analysed by the two dogs including
Madeleine’s cuddle cat toy, suitcases of clothes belonging to the family and a
hire car rented 24 days after Madeleine went missing. These items where place
in a room and the car in a public underground for the dogs to examine. Eddie
gave an alert to his handler outside and inside of the McCanns rented car and
both dogs gave alerts to Madelein’s cuddle cat and clothing belonging to her
parents.
From this evidence and evidence
analysis, the investigation team had high suspicion that the McCann’s had an
involvement with Madeleine’s disappearance. The Sunday Times released a video
footage of the search carried out by the dogs which shows it is apparent that
the handler of the dogs was directing and leading the dogs to specific areas
and sports of the apartment and the McCanns’ hire vehicle. The investigation
team used this footage as a reveal that the dogs were influenced by the handler
making the evidence unreliable to use against the McCanns.
As of May 2008, it was concluded
by the investigation team that there was no evidence linking the McCanns and
Robert Murat to the disappearance of Madeleine and their status as suspects had
been lifted.
Witness statements played an
important role in this investigation. Witness statements were taken on the day
of the disappearance regarding men behaving oddly on the day she went missing,
and also men behaving oddly prior to Madeleine being reported missing. These
witness statements allowed Scotland Yard to construct facial images of possible
suspects involved in the case that were released in 2013. These images were
obviously released years after Madeleine being reported missing which would
make it possible for the individuals being described in the statements to have
changed physically and appearance wise. This could make these facial images an
unreliable source, but they could also give individuals a rough idea of who
they may be looking for.
Also if individuals of the
location had witnessed individuals of that description but not registered that
they could be involved, this could encourage people to come forward with
information.
The reliability of these witness
statements regarding possible suspects could also depend on the time these
witness statements were taken. If the witness statements were taken a while
after the incident, this could have encouraged peoples witness statements and
memories to change because the what they have saw would not be fresh in their
memories. The witness statements were taken within short time that she was
disappeared and an inquiry into the witness statements took place that year
(2007) and the following year before the case was closed.
Looking at the witness statements
and the conclusions that the investigation team concluded from these witness
statements suggest that all possible suspects are male and the facial
constructions produced by Scotland Yard show 4 males. This could be as fault to
the case because police and the investigation team might have only asked the
witnesses questions about males behaving oddly on the day of her disappearance
and before, this rules out women being possible suspects. This could be because
of the questions that the police were asking and those questions all being
tailored as if the suspect was a definite male and that’s who they were looking
for. This could have had an impact on the case because someone could have seen
a female acting suspicious around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance and
around the location of the apartment, but because the police were targeting males
as their suspects, this could have led to the individual not coming forward
with that information that they had witnessed.
Each of these factors has had an
impact on the case and have all contributed to the end conclusion of the case
or where the case stands now. And in the Madeleine McCann case, the case still
stands open today and is still under investigation and has no possible suspects
from the evidence collected at the time of the incident.
