The Maddie Sightings - Nuggets and Dust or Fools Gold?

New File On Missing Madeleine Is 'Gold Dust' Sky News

Roddy Mansfield, Sky News Online

12:58pm UK, Wednesday March 03, 2010

A newly released file on the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is "gold dust" and could lead to a breakthrough, her parents' spokesman has said.

Clarence Mitchell told Sky News it was disgraceful that information about possible sightings of Madeleine has only emerged now after sitting in a box since 2008, when the case was closed by Portuguese police.

"The McCanns have been tearing their hair out for a long time, they're very frustrated this information has been sitting in a file since July 2008," he said.

"This information is gold dust to them. Kate and Gerry need all of it and they want a full review of all the information it contains.

"Our investigators are working at times with one hand tied behind their back.

"Our investigators will now work very hard and three years on it will hopefully lead to the breakthrough Kate and Gerry have been waiting for."

Some snipped examples of what is construed as 'gold dust'...

"She looked so sad and so alone."

"...described her as "very agitated and sobbing".

"...were stunned when she cried out as a "tubby" man hurried her away."

"The girl just stood staring at me. The look in her eyes conveyed a feeling of 'Help me'."

"The girl just stood staring at me, I would say for about 10 seconds."

"She was just very shy and afraid."

“She hardly spent any time with the family and didn’t sit with the people she was with at all.”

"She was about eight and seemed really airy-fairy, and in a world of her own."

"She did not seem to fit with the German couple or their two curly-haired toddlers."

Clarence Mitchell said these chicken nuggets would be passed to their crack private investigators.  As we've heard nothing more of this dust over the last two years, can we assume that nothing further has advanced and that they've been fully investigated and ruled out by Edgar and co?  Or is Redwood working on Edgar's cast offs?

As for all these scared, agitated, sobbing tadpoles... Those with children will have knowledge that the 'terrible twos' are an absolute fallacy.  The terrible twos appear before the second birthday and can continue indefinitely.  Children change like the weather and can go from a loving, bundle of fun to a wild, frenzied banshee in the blink of an eye.  

"I hate you"

"Help me"

"Leave me alone"

...are common phrases heard in the banshee state.  The banshee state can be caused by a number of things including tiredness, irritability. Simply not getting their own way is enough trigger an episode.  In addition to a lot of noise, it also propels the child to offer blocked resistance to the parent, sitting squarely on the ground or simply running away in the opposite direction.  As they age, children become wiser and know exactly how to play the weaker parent.  Common and normal.

It's also not out of the ordinary to see a child who looks different from her parents or siblings.  It's called the 'gene pool'.

No wonder these children hold the gaze of their intrepid 'spotters' and look frightened and shy.  YOU'RE A STRANGER - in the eyes of that child, the spotter is a complete and utter weirdo of the scariest realm and will freak the child out completely.  These children might not be the jolliest of children, but at least they were in the presence of their (different looking) parents and family.  Not something that happened very often in Praia de Luz.

I think that many of the above quotes could actually apply to Madeleine on that holiday in Praia de Luz.  Left in the creche all day, where the carers said she was a quiet, shy little soul.  And left night after night, alone in the apartment with her younger twin siblings.  On one reported occasion, crying for well over an hour.

And I wonder what a spotter's view of Madeleline would be in the presence of her parents on that holiday.  If they were lucky enough to be spotted together, that is.  Shy or lonely?  Agitated and sobbing?  Or just a normal airy fairy little girl, in a world of her own?  

New Maddie Leads - Bizarre, sick and twisted?

Police blitzed by odd Maddie claims Daily Star

By Daily Star Reporter

5th March 2010

THE case files reveal how police have been blitzed with bizarre, sick, and twisted information about Madeleine's fate from across the globe.

The wacky reports include:

An email from the Madeira Liberation Army who claimed to be holding Madeleine and had a video showing her in good health, but couldn't vouch for her safety unless the city of Funchal was granted independence.

A report she'd been snatched by secret service agents and was being held by "Mr Temple" in a safehouse in Dachau, Germany.

Claims by a Portuguese woman who had a "sixth sense" she had been taken by a dangerous man living nearby – really an ex-boyfriend she was trying to frame.

A Dutch voodoo priest's claim he had a psychic vision of where Madeleine was buried. He confessed it had happened after he'd drunk two bottles of white rum.

A Romanian woman insisted her beauty queen daughter Madalina was Madeleine's real mum who'd handed her to a Leicestershire doctor for adoption just before she died.

Police discovered Madalina died before Madeleine was born but the woman claimed her death certificate was forged.

AN Australian tipster claimed Madeleine was kidnapped into slavery and held in a cellar.

An Italian psychic said Maddie had been taken to England by a woman dominated by her tattooed husband.

A Spanish psychic claimed she had a vision the missing girl had been killed by a gardener and buried in a flowerbed with three other children.

None were true.

Old article... all apparently investigated and ruled out.  Surprise, surprise. If these are the cream of the crop, I wonder what bizarre, sick and twisted leads are left on DCI Redwood's desk... and why the McCanns' private investigators haven't already investigated them.

Thanks to McCann Files for article.

The Spinning Memory of Clarence Mitchell...

TAXI-DRIVER IS SURE THAT HE TOOK MADDIE IN HIS CAR

A taxi-driver from Vila Real de Santo Antonio, in the Algarve, believes he transported Maddie, Kate McCann and three men on the night of the disappearance of the English girl, in the 3rd of May of last year. António Castela Cardoso, 67 years, does not forget the hour or the details of the passengers.

Having been a taxi-driver for 17 years, António Castela has the habit of memorizing the face of his clients. That one particularly, “She was a girl with very pretty eyes and she called my attention because of the mark that she had in one eye and the twitch that she was doing with the chin”, he remembered. 

The clients approached and asked him to transport them to the Hotel Apolo, in Vila Real de Santo Antonio. On his side a man seated who was wearing “fine glasses”. “He was similar with the one that appears on television, like the third suspect”, says António, concerning Robert Murat – who is arguido in the case. In the seat behind, a woman “like Kate” sat down, between two men. The girl that the taxi-driver says was Maddie sat on the lap of one of them.

“She was wearing pink pyjamas. The mother had the hair tied and a yellow coat”, he remembers, with exactness. It was a silent journey. The passengers did not exchange one word; they did not show any emotions. On the arrival to the journey destiny, António pulled out the baby's chair (pram) of the luggage car. “It was the same as what the couple usually uses”, he affirms. The customers asked him, in English, how much the cab journey was. “I said that there were 3, 25 euros and they gave me five and then I thanked them”, he says.

The taxi-driver saw three men, the woman and the child move towards a metallic-blue, top-of-the-line Jeep “ I do not know if it would be a BMW, but I remember that the license plate was yellow and therefore was not a Portuguese one ”, he affirms. The vehicle was parked in the Hotel Apolo parking.

2008 

Four years later, the sighting is again making current headline news in the British media.  The McCanns lawyer in Portugal, Isabel Duarte, said Mr Castela's account is one of several important leads that the Portuguese police have failed to follow up.

However, way back in 2008, a source connected with the investigation guaranteed to Correio de Manha that the information given by António Castela were "investigated" and the “lead was proven false”. 

At that time, Clarence Mitchell responded publicly on behalf of the McCanns to this particular sighting...

Clarence Mitchell, reacted yesterday with amazement at the declarations of the taxi-driver. “The declarations of Mr. Castela are false. They are a perfect nonsense. He can only be mistaken when he says that at that time he transported Kate and Madeleine with three men”, he said.  Clarence doubts of the intentions of the taxi-driver. “It astonishes me that only now, ten months later, he talks about this. These are declarations that only cause pain to Kate and Gerry", he said, advancing that that the McCann's daughter has no facial twitches.  “The only sign to report is the one she has in the eye.”

2008

Today, Clarence Mitchell seems to have wholly changed his mind about the doubtful intentions of Mr Castela, saying it was "deeply shocking" that detectives never interviewed Antonio Castela about his possible sighting of the missing child.

"Mr Castela did absolutely the right thing at the time by reporting his sighting to the PJ.  It is clearly deeply shocking that he now tells us he has not been interviewed once by a detective in five years.  This is exactly the sort of thing that needs to be looked at in the investigative review now being carried out by the Metropolitan Police."

2012

Spot the difference?  I reckon there's about two million quids worth there... and a lorra lorra spin.

NB : All initial media accounts of this story in 2008 gave Mr Castela's account of 3rd May 2007 before Madeleine went missing.  However, current articles in the British media now inaccurately refer to the incident happening on the 4th May.  Something stinks and it's not just cadaver.

Madeleine McCann - Still Watching and Waiting...

"Sometimes people do things for reasons that even they cannot understand. An act of madness, an accident or sudden impulse can lead to consequences that people may never have imagined or intended. Faced with such a situation we believe any human soul will ultimately suffer torment and feelings of guilt and fear. 

If you have done something you regret, if you find yourself in a situation you never intended, it is not too late to do the right thing."

Watching and waiting

For a friend to play with

Why have I been alone for so long

Mole he is burrowing his way to the sunlight

He knows there's someone there so strong

Cos here there's lots of room for doing

The things you've always been denied

Look and gather all you want to

There's no one here to stop you trying

Soon you will see me

Cos I'll be all around you

But where I come from I can't tell

But don't be alarmed by my fields and my forests

They're here for only you to share

Cos here there's lots of room for doing

The things you've always been denied

So look and gather all you want to

There's no one here to stop you trying

Watching and waiting

For someone to understand me

I hope it won't be very long...

Dr O - conspicuous by his absence...

 Madeleine suspect accused of lying in confrontation with family friends

Earlier this month doctors Russell O'Brien and Fiona Payne, along with another friend, Rachael Oldfield, flew to Portugal to be questioned.  The meeting was arranged after members of Kate and Gerry McCanns' holiday party expressed doubts over the ex-pat's alibi.

As part of the process in Portugal, witnesses can challenge a suspect when there is doubt in the statements.

The friends claim they saw Murat, 33, on the night of 3 May when the four-year-old was snatched from her bed in the family's holiday apartment in Praia de Luz, Portugal.  The three key witnesses in the case are certain they recognise the suspect because of his distinctive lazy right eye caused by a detached retina.  One claims to have spotted Murat peeking into the McCann's apartment that night - which could destroy his alibi for the 3 May.  Murat insists he was dining with his mother before going to bed early.

Mr Murat's spokeperson, Tuck Price, says: "Robert found it traumatic. He could not understand how these people could sit there and accuse him of lying.  "It all seemed to revolve around them recognising his dodgy eye. "It was dark. How could they have seen?  Besides that, he was not there anyway."

In a leaked police report, Dr Payne and Mrs Oldfield claim they saw Murat at the Ocean Club resort at around 11.45pm.  Murat was spotted again - this time at 1am by Dr O'Brien.

Daily Mail, July 2007

Robert Murat sues McCann Friends 

Robert Murat is going to prosecute two friends of the McCann couple for perjury in a confrontation ordered by the judge.

Francisco Pagarete, Murat's Lawyer, does not know the evidence that the English gave during the investigation. However, he was present at the confrontation that - months after Murat had been constituted as arguido - was done between his client, Rachel Oldfield and Fiona Payne. The lawyer guarantees to SOL: "They lied in front of us, with the clear intention of incriminating my client".

Pagarete explains that, as soon as the case ends being under the secrecy of justice, he is going to consult 12 thousand pages of the process to find other evidences: "According to what I read in SOL, it was a British journalist who did the first accusation to the English Police. I will check if that is in the process".

Sol, 26 July 2008

I wonder what was said during that confrontation and why did Robert Murat make the decision to sue only two of the McCanns' friends (Payne and Oldfield) instead of the three that were present?  Did Dr O'Brien recant his accusations and indeed, could he be one of the friends who reportedly changed their statement?  Is the case still going ahead? Questions, questions.  Dr O'Brien has kept a low profile since - he was the only member of the group of friends not present on the High Court steps when the group accepted the out of court settlement from a number of newspaper groups.  His partner, Jane Tanner appeared in the McCann documentary alone.

In an interview Flash magazine conducted with Susan Healy, a source claimed...

At most the house in Rothley is visited by close family and three others of the group of seven friends who were with them in the Algarve when Maddie disappeared, that is David and Fiona Payne and Jane Tanner, as they are connected with them.

Conspicuous by his absence... just where is the good doctor?