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Post by Admin on Oct 29, 2014 14:23:52 GMT
Detectives plan to do new tests on curtains which hung in the apartment where Madeleine McCann disappeared. They believe the fabric, which has been sealed in an evidence file since three-year-old Madeleine vanished in Portugal in 2007, may hold DNA which will identify to her abductor. Scotland Yard sent an urgent request to their counterparts in Portugal asking permission to re-examine the fabric. Forensic experts on the Operation Grange team want to use new techniques to analyse the curtains, which hung in the room where Madeleine was sleeping with her baby brother and sister. Officers are also set to re-examine 30 strands of hair found in the apartment in the Ocean Club resort in Praia da Luz using advanced genetic and biological testing procedures. A team led by Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood has asked for a quick response to the request. They think the curtains from apartment 5A will have been preserved well enough to hold traces of DNA from Madeleine’s captor. Portugal’s Public Ministry will now decide if they are willing to hand over the material, which is being kept at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine in the city of Coimbra. There have been significant new developments in DNA science since the initial investigation in 2007. The first murder conviction using DNA evidence was in 1988, when baker Colin Pitchfork was found guilty of killing Lynda Mann and Dawn Ashworth, both 15, in Narborough, Leics. Since then the UK has developed one of the largest “libraries” of DNA samples, which increases by more than 400,000 profiles every year. DNA samples can be taken from body fluids, but also from tiny quantities of human cells left on any surface, from cups and cutlery to cigarette ends. The increase of DNA samples being taken and stored has led to a rise in convictions, especially for crimes committed a number of years ago. The quality of DNA can now be “amplified” using complex chemical processes. A sample of DNA can also now be extracted from a single cell and laboratory robots are being used to speed up the process. Last week Francisco Brizida, president of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, where the DNA library is held, said: “Technology now allows us to go further than years ago.” But he said: “I wouldn’t like to be that ambitious and say the secret to unlocking the Madeleine McCann case lies in our lab.” A Portuguese police source said: “The best hope is to pass the sample to British officers.” Police digs in Praia da Luz and interviews with new suspects this summer ended in disappointment. The probe run by 30 officers in Operation Grange has cost £10million.
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Post by Admin on Nov 9, 2014 13:47:18 GMT
Scotland Yard detectives have been given permission to instigate a fresh set of probes by new prosecutor Ines Sequeira, who has finally approved a fifth international letter of request that was received by the state in August. It was initially believed that the people stated in the request would be questioned as witnesses only. But leading Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha reported today that some would be heard as 'arguidos', or suspects, because Operation Grange detectives believe they were involved in Madeleine's disappearance. The interviewees are said to include ex-workers at the Ocean Club holiday complex where Madeleine vanished in 2007, as well as locals living in Praia da Luz. This list, consisting of people who have never been questioned by British officers before, is also thought to include British as well as Portuguese nationals. It is believed that the interviews will take place before the end of this month. After being given the go-ahead, officers in Faro, Portugal, are now arranging the interviews for British police, which will take place at the same police station where four suspects were probed in July. It was thought three of the suspects would be given a new grilling when the Operation Grange team led by DCI Andy Redwood returned to Portugal. However, it is understood that Mrs Sequeira only authorised interviews with witnesses whom British police have never questioned directly. In their fifth letter of request, Scotland Yard opted out of asking for permission to reinterview the suspects, according to Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias. As happened when Operation Grange quizzed suspects and witnesses in July, Scotland Yard detectives will sit in on the interviews but they will be led by Portuguese officers who will ask questions on their behalf. Operation Grange, an investigative review by Met Police into the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance, was last in Portugal three weeks ago. A small team of three officers, including DCI Andy Redwood who is in charge of Operation Grange, met Policia Judiciaria bosses in Faro for an update meeting before visiting a lab where DNA samples collected after Madeleine's disappearance are held. British police told Portugal's Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences that they now want to retest some of the samples after it was found previous DNA tests carried out during the original investigation were incomplete.
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Post by Admin on Nov 13, 2014 14:30:52 GMT
The British nationals are among a group of seven people due to be quizzed as arguidos, leading Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reported. Four more will be interviewed as witnesses towards the end of the month at a police station in Faro. The seven suspects reportedly know each other and exchanged phone calls on the night Madeleine vanished on May 3 2007. They are also all familiar with Praia da Luz - the Algarve holiday resort where Madeleine was staying with her family. Some are also said to have criminal records and others are ex-workers of the Ocean Club holiday complex where Madeleine vanished from. It is not known how many of the group of seven, which also include Portuguese nationals, are British. British police are now in the process of formally asking for permission to sit in on the interviews, which will be led by Portuguese officers who will ask questions on their behalf. An official request was made in a fifth international letter sent by British police to the Portuguese authorities. Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann, both 46, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have never given up hope that their daughter will be found alive. They are being kept informed of developments by police. Members of Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange squad visited Portugal a month ago. A small team of three officers including Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood met Policia Judiciaria bosses in Faro. They also travelled to the university city of Coimbra - a five hour drive north - to visit a laboratory where many of the DNA samples collected after Madeleine’s disappearance are held. British police told bosses at Portugal’s Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences they want to retest some of the samples to try to crack the mystery of Madeleine’s disappearance. They are yet to send a sixth international letter of request which Portuguese prosecutor Ines Sequeira will have to authorise before Metropolitan Police forensics experts are allowed access to the lab or given permission to take samples to Britain to analyse them. The forensic material includes hairs and pieces of the curtains that hung in apartment 5A where Madeleine was staying with her family. Last month it emerged nearly 100 strands of hair tested during the original Madeleine McCann investigation were never DNA-matched. The Operation Grange inquiry is running in parallel with a new Portuguese probe, reopened in May - more than five years after the investigation was officially shelved. One of the suspects questioned in July was a former Ocean Club worker and another a 51-year-old schizophrenic drug addict. They both denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance.
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Post by Admin on Nov 19, 2014 13:19:42 GMT
Cops hoping for a breakthrough in the case of missing Madeleine McCann were dealt a blow after they were forced to postpone plans to quiz new suspects. Detectives put their trip to Portugal on hold after they failed to reached an agreement over the interview status of 11 people they were due to question. They had been given the go-ahead for the new round of interviews next week after a new criminal prosecutor in the case approved a fifth international letter of request. A British man and a woman were understood to be among those facing a list of questions over the night Madeleine McCann disappeared from her Algarve holiday resort. It is believed Operation Grange detectives cancelled their five-day trip to Faro over confusion about whether some of the people set to be interviewed would be questioned as arguidos - formal suspects in Portugal - or witnesses. Prosecutor Ines Sequeira is off sick and was unable to clarify the situation, sparking the suspension of the trip by DCI Andy Redwood and his colleagues. A new date for the interviews has not been set - and they are now unlikely to happen this year. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "We have never officially confirmed when we are going out and we're not going to give a running commentary on this case." The self-employed gardener and handyman was seen by British and Portuguese officers at a police station in Faro on Wednesday. The gardener, who has lived in Portugal for more than a decade, has strongly denied any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance. According to the official timeline of that night, dad Gerry left the meal to check on the children at apartment 5A at 9.15pm. During the original Portuguese police probe, the gardener said he left a bar at the same resort at around 7pm that night. The gardener, who lived with a companion in Praia da Luz until 2006, gave a mouth swab to Portuguese police when he gave his statement in 2007. In his original interview he denied seeing anything strange at the time of Madeleine’s abduction or having ever seen the family before the abduction. He has now been identified as one of seven new possible suspects – five men and two women – who detectives believe could hold vital information.
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Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2014 13:57:52 GMT
The Scotland Yard officers have analysed minutely events which happened just before, during and immediately after Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007 and appear to be seeking new information and clarification from important witnesses. Among those scheduled for requestioning is Silvia Batista, who ran the service and maintenance departments of the Ocean Club at Praia da Luz on the Algarve where the McCanns were staying. Shortly after the alarm was raised, Mrs Batista was contacted at her home in nearby Lagos and immediately went back to work. When she arrived at a reception area she saw Madeleine's father Gerry on his knees on the floor crying out for help and banging his hands on the floor. A few minutues later she entered the bedroom at apartment 5a and said that the shutters were down, the windows closed and the curtains slightly open. Kate McCann has said that when she arrived to find Madeleine gone, the shutters were partly open in the bedroom, leading her to believe that Madeleine had been taken through the window. In her statement Mrs Batista said Gerry told her he had closed the windows as their other two children, Sean and Amelie, then 18 months, were still asleep in separate cots in the bedroom. Mrs Batista, a former receptionist at the Ocean Club, worked closely with her husband Joao, who was head of maintenance and services. In the past year both were made redundant because of falling bookings at the Ocean Club, which have been blamed on the recession and publicity surrounding Madeleine's disappearance. Another facing requestioning is John Hill, manager of the Ocean Club. When he arrived at the club after receiving a call at 10.28pm from a colleague, some 100 people were already searching for Madeleine. He also spoke with Kate and Gerry that night in their apartment and helped arrange for photos of the child to be distributed. Scotland Yard detectives are also interested in claims that a set of keys to apartment 5a, kept in the maintenance section, went missing in the week that Madeleine vanished, first revealed by the Sunday Express last February when we reported that a former maintenance worker said the disappearance of the keys had not been reported to the authorities. Detectives also want their Portuguese counterparts to interview Mario Fernando, 47, who came forward last May to say he saw a suspicious man wearing sun glasses in a stairwell looking at apartment 5a 24 hours before Madeleine disappeared. The former Ocean Club laundryman was collecting sheets when he saw the man: "I saw the weird guy and we nearly bumped into each other. "He was embarrassed. He was nervous. He was walking out from the hole under the stairs and must have been much further inside but had taken several steps back after hearing me coming. "He had a really fat face and had two-tone sunglasses on." Last week it was revealed that Robert Murat was one of those on the Yard's list of people it wants more information from. Mr Murat told the Sunday Express he would be happy to cooperate but has not received anything official yet from the authorities. Portuguese police have to conduct the interviews but Scotland Yard officers can sit in during questioning. Some interviews were due to be held last week but they now look likely to be held in the New Year.
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