Parents of missing Madeleine McCann refuse to give up

Calgary Herald

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/five+year+anniversary+Madeleine+McCann+disappearance+hunt+still+goes/6561457/story.html

After five years, parents of missing Madeleine McCann refuse to give up

Locals weary of lingering story, but parents of missing girl prompt new investigation





Kate and Gerry McCann hold a news conference to mark the 5th anniversary of the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine McCann, this week in London, England.
Photograph by: Dan Kitwood , Getty Images





PAIA DE LUZ, PORTUGAL -- The garden of Apartment 5A Rua Dr Agostinho da Silva, in the resort of Praia da Luz, is reasonably well maintained but, here and there, weeds poke up between the flowers. The property is unloved rather than neglected, preserved but not used, as if frozen in time.

Five years ago today, a little girl, nine days shy of her fourth birthday, disappeared from this ground-floor holiday flat in the Algarve. Madeleine McCann was, according to her parents, spirited away in the night by a kidnapper so bold that he, or she, was prepared to enter the property via a window as they dined with friends in a neighbouring restaurant.

Kate McCann, Madeleine’s mother, describes the moment of discovery in her book, Madeleine. Explaining how, during the meal, she, her husband Gerry and a friend took it in turns to check on Madeleine and her twin brother and sister, sleeping together in one of two bedrooms, she writes: “When I realised Madeleine wasn’t actually there, I went through to our bedroom to see if she’d got into our bed. That would explain the open (bedroom) door. On the discovery of another empty bed, the first wave of panic hit me. As I ran back into the children’s room the closed curtains flew up in a gust of wind. My heart lurched as I saw now that, behind them, the window was wide open and the shutters on the outside raised all the way up. Nausea, terror, disbelief, fear. Icy fear. Dear God, no! Please, no!”

No trace of Madeleine McCann has been found since that night, despite the expenditure of vast amounts of effort, time and money. Few disappearances have commanded such attention over such a long period of time. Like all great mysteries, it divides, between those who champion one explanation and those who favour another, darker one. It also occupies its own landscape: as the Kennedy assassination has the Texas Schoolbook Depository and the Grassy Knoll, so the Madeleine McCann disappearance has Flat 5A and the Ocean Club tapas restaurant, where Mr and Mrs McCann dined on that fateful night.

The people of Praia da Luz would prefer it otherwise. They have no wish to be a destination for ghouls — or journalists. For many of them, May 3, 2007 is a day they would rather forget, a blight on a resort known for being family-friendly and safe. Some residents retain the sympathy for the McCanns that was universal in Portugal before they were declared arguidos, suspects. Others are hostile, accusing the British couple of everything from neglect to concealment of a death.

Most, though, are simply apathetic, wanting it all to go away.

“It’s over,” says Paul Luckman, publisher of the English-language newspaper in the Algarve, the Portugal News. “It did have a short-term effect in terms of visitor numbers but this village has a long history of safety — nothing happened before and nothing has happened since. The shock factor has been replaced by apathy. Nobody is interested. The attitude is, ‘It’s gone, it’s over, can we please get on with our lives?’ ”

Over in Portugal, perhaps, but not in Britain. Pressure from the McCanns and News International, which is said to have donated $2 million to the Find Madeleine fund in return for exclusive access to McCann’s book, has led to a fresh inquiry by the Metropolitan Police. Authorised personally by the Prime Minister, Operation Grange has so far consumed $4 million and the services of 29 detectives and seven civilians. There is talk of 195 fresh leads and the possibility that Madeleine may yet be found alive. Abduction is the favoured theory and a new portrait of the missing girl as she would now appear has been circulated. And still the sightings come in.

The account of Antonio Castela, a taxi driver in the Algarve, is typical of the leads being pursued by Scotland Yard. He says he picked up a girl resembling Madeleine and four adults the night after her disappearance, driving them to a hotel near Faro, where they got into a blue Jeep. Castela contacted the police but was never questioned.

The authorities in Lisbon remain to be convinced by such accounts. They have undertaken their own review of the original investigation, widely criticized for its flaws, but as yet see no reason to re-activate it.

“The Portuguese police have been led down the garden path, with supposed new leads and red herrings,” says Luckman, who is on close terms with some of the officers involved in the original inquiry. “There have been sightings from Brazil to Belgium and nothing has come of them. They are not against re-opening the case for a valid reason. I can’t blame them for saying they have more valuable things to do.”

British criticism of Portugal’s handling of the case has left a bitter taste, he says.

“The people here are charming and friendly and they have taken a lot of stick. Everybody in this village turned out for the search and police worked overtime for no pay. Yes, mistakes were made, but they genuinely thought they were searching for a child who had wandered off.

“The main criticism aimed at the parents is that they left their children alone and uncared for. For Portuguese people, that is almost impossible to understand.”

The restaurant where the McCanns and their friends ate and drank that night is now a pizzeria. Stand by the swimming pool and look towards 5A and you are struck by how far away the apartment is. The view of its rear entrance is almost obscured and the three children were sleeping in the bedroom on the far side of the building. It is difficult to believe that a crying child could be heard from that distance.

The McCanns are not only pursuing the search for their daughter; they are also pursuing Goncalo Amaral, head of the original inquiry. His book, The Truth of the Lie, accuses the McCanns of complicity in their daughter’s death. The British couple are now suing Amaral for libel, claiming $1.6 million. The case, due in court in September, will not result in the couple being put in the witness box, however.

Isabel Duarte, the lawyer fighting the case for the McCanns, says: “My clients are no longer arguidos, they are not defendants in a criminal trial and have the right to be respected. Mr and Mrs McCann will not have to give statements because Mr Amaral did not ask for them.”

Amaral, who is reputed to have earned $480,000 from sales of the book after resigning from the police, is believed nevertheless to have declared bankruptcy. The McCanns have not pursued the option, available to them under Portuguese law, of mounting a criminal prosecution for libel against the former detective.

Praia da Luz is quiet now. The weather is still changeable and the British families and pensioners who flock here for the sun have yet to arrive in any numbers. The streets are almost deserted, lending the place a melancholy air.

The reputation of Apartment 5A goes before it. Put on the market by its owner, Ruth McCann (no relation to the McCanns), it was later withdrawn from sale. The flat’s proximity did not deter Lesley Peeke-Vout, from Newcastle, from buying a neighbouring ground-floor property.

“Very few people rent 5A,” says Mrs Peeke-Vout. “I haven’t seen anyone in it since last year. We bought 1/8our apartment 3/8 three years ago. I knew about what had gone on but it didn’t bother me. We like the position.”

She believes Madeleine’s disappearance has had a negative effect on Praia da Luz, but that the current problem for the resort is recession and cuts in family-holiday budgets.

“The locals don’t like to talk about what happened in 2007,” she says. “They think it damages their business.”

This evening, a vigil will be held in the resort’s Catholic church, Nossa Senhora da Luz, to mark the fifth anniversary of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Candles will be lit and prayers said at 9pm. The church is available to the Anglican community in the resort and Haynes Hubbard, the Canadian vicar who ministers to the area, will be attending. He and his wife became friends of the McCanns in the days after the disappearance of their child and are still close. The Rev Hubbard has no doubt about their innocence.

“Kate comes every six months or so. She needs to walk the streets she last walked with her daughter, to touch base, to look at the apartment and visit the church. She needs to know something is still here. Gerry comes less often — he is busy.

“We arrived from Canada with our young children two days after Madeleine was taken. It was absolute bedlam. We walked into their chaos. We were with people who had lost their daughter. They weren’t people who had done something to their daughter, they were looking for their daughter. They were driven then and they are driven now.”
© Copyright (c) The Daily Telegraph

Well done couple McCann, keep up the good work, we are all with you.

“It’s over,” says Paul Luckman, publisher of the English-language newspaper in the Algarve, the Portugal News. “It did have a short-term effect in terms of visitor numbers but this village has a long history of safety — nothing happened before and nothing has happened since. The shock factor has been replaced by apathy. Nobody is interested. The attitude is, ‘It’s gone, it’s over, can we please get on with our lives?’ ”

What, until the next child goes missing? Why they think sweeping everything under the carpet helps, I do not know.

Nothing ever happens there? It took me seconds to find this:

http://www.algarveresident.com/16470-0/algarve/arson-strikes-praia-da-luz

Arson strikes Praia da Luz
Updated: 14-Dec-2006


By RUTH SHARPE

ruth@portugalresident.com

POLICE ARE investigating the possibility that three arson attacks in the Praia da Luz area in the last month are linked.

Or this:

http://www.algarveresident.com/22139-15205/algarve/drug-bust-in-praia-da-luz

algarve

Drug bust in Praia da Luz
Updated: 18-Oct-2007

Why they insist on this pretence I do not know.

You´re wrong Paul Luckman, this is not over, this will not be over until the case about this abduction in PDL is solved, of this I assure you Paul Luckman, you may try to sweeping everything under the carpet, but, know this, your thoughts will not happen, this I assure you Paul Luckman, the more you Paul tries, the more we insist in contradicting you, be certain of this.

It's ridiculous, Pedro. Here's another one in this town where nothing happens:

http://www.algarveresident.com/0-31274/algarve/atm-stolen-in-praia-da-luz

ATM stolen in Praia da Luz
Updated: 23-Apr-2009

Baptista supermarket in Praia da Luz has become the latest target of cash machine thieves.

you´re right bb1, this Paul Luckman is ridiculous, he is in the realm of

This is my favourite Nothing ever happens in Praia da Luz story:

http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/detalhe/noticias/nacional/portugal/carga-de-haxixe-esbarra-na-luz

Load of hashish coming up in the Light
All movements of the traffickers were being followed in detail since a suspicious boat left a port in the Algarve, on Friday. And yesterday morning, the Judicial Police and the Maritime Authority of the South gave the final blow to business, to seize 1.5 tonnes of hashish in the act when the discharge was to be made in Praia da Luz, Lagos.

The beach in the Algarve, known as the disappearance of British child Madeleine McCann, was the scene of the operation triggered by the National Unit for Combating Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs of the PJ. Spanish citizens were detained four (three of Galicia and one of Cadiz), seized the vessel used of 8.5 meters, and two vehicles all-terrain.
According to the CM said a witness the landing, the boat with two engines of 250 horsepower "entered at full speed down the beach" and immediately "came a jeep and several men began to carry burdens for all-terrain". When they returned to the beach for the second time the police came by land and sea. When the CM was found, some of the elements fled, leading the authorities not to close the investigation.
The vessel, according to José Ferreira Leite, coordinator of the PJ criminal investigation, "left a port in the Algarve on day 22 and was immediately mounted a tight surveillance until returning to the Portuguese coast," which came to pass after a trip to North Africa, leading to the successful police operation.
The pleasure boat, named 'Esperanza', is fairly new and has Spanish registration. Was docked in the marinas in the Algarve.

SUPERVISION ON LAND AND SEA
The operation's success was due - if, above all, the sound relationship between research teams from the Judicial Police and the elements of the Maritime Authority of the South, who developed the action together and for several days.
Mounted surveillance on land and at sea after the vessel referred to have come from a marina Algarve, has been essential that all would go as planned, culminating in the seizure of large drug load, the first intercepted this year.
The choice of Praia da Luz for the landing, a beach open never before used for this purpose due to the high brightness of the area, have been "related to the good road access to an area for further flight of vehicles used to remove the hash of the vessel ", according to the commander of the Maritime Area South Ferreira Marques.

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Now, crime happens everywhere. But this business of pretending that it never ever happens on the Algarve in general, and PDL in particular, is ridiculous.

Especially when it involves huge quantities of drugs being siezed.