MADELEINE: 'BODY THROWN INTO THE SEA'

Police fear that the body of Madeleine McCann will never be found and only a confession by her parents can convict them of killing her.

The startling revelations came as officers told of their worries that her body was dumped far out to sea in a bag weighted down with stones. Detectives are convinced she is dead and believe her remains are now gone for ever, a vital piece of missing evidence which seriously weakens their case against Kate and Gerry McCann.

For the first time, police chiefs in Portugal are admitting that the allegedly damning DNA evidence they have gathered in the couple’s apartment and hire car may not be enough to bring charges against them. A senior source in the Policia Judiciaria, which has led the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine on May 3, 135 days ago, said only a confession could now bring a conviction.

Investigators believe the body of the youngster, who would now be four years old, was most probably thrown off a British-owned yacht out at sea after being moved from a hiding place. They are now working on the theory that Kate and Gerry McCann, both 39-year-old doctors, received help from accomplices to move the body and cover up the crime, despite intense scrutiny.

The seven friends on holiday with the McCanns at the Ocean Club complex in Praia da Luz are expected to be questioned again by detectives investigating the accomplice theory. All the friends deny any wrongdoing.

The news came amid startling developments yesterday, including the apparent discovery of blood in an apartment next door to that used by the McCanns. Detectives believe the apartment holds the key to where Madeleine’s body could have been stored in the hours after she went missing.

The discovery was revealed after reports claimed that Madeleine died following an overdose of sedatives. Police are working on the theory that the youngster was repeatedly drugged by her parents – an allegation Kate and Gerry McCann vehemently deny.

Detectives have asked British forensic experts to look for evidence the toddler was given pills on the night she disappeared and earlier occasions.

As Kate and Gerry McCann left their £600,000 home in Rothley, Leics, for a meeting with their solicitors in London, a senior Policia Judiciaria officer told of his misgivings about the case. The officer, who declined to be named, revealed that the absence of a body meant detectives only had forensic evidence and information from interrogations to build a case.

The admission comes only two days after the McCanns went on the offensive after being named official suspects, issuing a challenge to detectives: “Find the body and prove we killed her.”

The senior officer in the Policia Judiciaria admitted that the McCanns’ stance could destroy the case because detectives have “nothing concrete”. He admitted officers were still struggling to piece together events on the afternoon and evening of May 3. In particular, detectives have so far been unable to uncover the chain of events from 2pm until 10.41pm when the police were eventually called after Kate McCann said her daughter was missing.

“There are a lot of clues, signs and indications, but without more elements it’s impossible for us to determine what happened in those vital hours,” the officer said. “Even if the blood and traces gathered in the car or the apartment were confirmed to correspond 100 per cent to the little girl’s DNA, that wouldn’t prove anything.

“Those elements could only confirm – and at the moment we don’t even have that – that the little girl was in the apartment, which is plainly obvious, and in the car. In either of the cases, nothing would prove homicide, just that the body of the little girl had been transferred in the vehicle.”

The officer admitted that a number of fundamental questions remained to be answered, confirming the views of the McCanns’ high-powered legal team that the Portuguese authorities are a long way from presenting a strong case.

The officer went on: “We don’t know if Madeleine is dead and, if she is, how it all happened. Was she strangled? Could she have been beaten? They are all questions only the parents could clarify in an eventual confession.”

Kate and Gerry McCann strenuously reject claims of being involved in Madeleine’s death and disposing of her body, and challenged detectives on Wednesday to find their daughter and prove they killed her. A close friend said: “The legitimate question to ask Portuguese police is: Where is the body? Where is the evidence that Madeleine is dead?”

The case against the McCanns detailed in a dossier now before Judge Pedro Miguel dos Anjos Frias appears to rest mainly on potentially damaging forensic test results. These are said to include Madeleine’s DNA in traces of bodily fluid, as well as a mass of hair, discovered in the McCanns’ hire car which was rented 25 days after she vanished.

Portugal’s attorney general has indicated the investigation still has some way to go and suggested stricter bail conditions could be imposed on the couple. On Tuesday public prosecutor Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses ordered the 10 police files in the case to go before the judge.

In an effort to find a body, it is expected that fresh searches will be ordered in Praia da Luz, focusing on areas where roadworks were taking place when Madeleine disappeared. Officers are also expected to begin searching several sea-front locations, including caves and grottoes.

Police have already investigated a vessel owned by an English sailor in Lagos, 15 minutes’ drive from Praia da Luz. A source close to the case said: “One of the most credible possibilities would involve the body having been thrown in a sack of stones from a yacht.”

The yacht which came under police scrutiny was investigated after a computer owned by the only other suspect, expat Robert Murat, 33, was analysed and found to mention the sailor. Other theories suggest Madeleine’s body was disposed of at one of several waste incinerators.

The McCanns have already been advised by their British lawyers that the Portuguese would have difficulty prosecuting them if they do not find their daughter’s body. Portuguese police admit they fear no judge will allow the case to go to court without that key piece of evidence.

Actually, they had plenty of free time and watching the news coverage, our best reporters were saying they did indeed have plenty of time alone.

The startling revelations came as officers told of their worries that her body was dumped far out to sea in a bag weighted down with stones.

How on earth could they have done this in so little time and with no witnesses? And in a foreign nation no less. I don't like these irresponsible creeps, but there is hardly any evidence here.

Well nobody knows.

Thats the tip of the iceberg as far as I’m concerned. It appears a good deal of her hair was found in the boot of the car which is the most damning evidence at all.

Apparently, there are going to be further tests on this because they will be able to tell IF the hair was attatched to a ‘living’ or ‘dead’ body at the time.

If friends helped them, then that would explain why the girl’s body wasn’t found during a search after the police were called.

Sorry but I can not buy this. Just think there is a knock on your door there is your friend he says
“buddie I just killed one of the kids can you hide the body till the police get through and if you can dispose of it.”
Now I would ask myself just how good of friends are we if I do him this favor and git caught I could go to jail for life or worse if I tell him hell no and call police I am in the clear. What to do what to do.

The plot is pure Agatha Christie.

A glamorous vacation resort by the sea in Portugal.....a missing child with an intriguing name......seven well-to-do friends dining in the resort's restaurant......some diners leave the table in the middle of dinner and are gone a while.......clews in a boot, and blood specks on a wall....

A laundered toy....cadaver dogs catch scent of death.....fellow diners defend parents......parents defend fellow diners.......parents angrily denounce police....seven diners questioned one by one and then there were none........parents return to London via the Orient Express.....oops, I think I'm getting carried away.

Paging Hercule Poirot.....Paging Hercule Poirot........

Leni

My brother is a detective and he has told me that you can test for drugs in hair, it stays in your hair longer than it stays in your blood stream. Did they check the other children for sedatives? Also it is reported that the windows and doors were not locked. Is it possible the so called sedative they gave the kids was Benadryl? If they used an antihistamine to get the kids to sleep, it doesn’t alway work. On some kids it has the opposite effect and it makes them wired. It is quite possible that she woke up from a sleep and went looking for the parents herself and was snatched. At 3 years old she knows how to open and close a door. And as someone said, these people are doctors, they know way more about DNA, bodily fluids, decomposition etc. then the average Joe.

"If friends helped them, then that would explain why the girl’s body wasn’t found during a search after the police were called."

Sorry but I can not buy this.

I agree, it's not probable - I don't have any friends that would do such a thing to help me - but it's plausible. Who knows what favors these friends have done for each other in the past? Maybe these people have been "partners in crime" with each other before.

A friend from long ago in my younger days & I used to joke, that we have to be friends forever because we know so much on each other. Maybe one of the other doctor friends was who supplied the narcotic or whatever might have been used on the children. Maybe that's why one of their children was "vomiting", according to the parent. Who knows?

You know, as a mother, that was one thing that jumped out at me too. I was just reading about this yesterday in a magazine and my immediate thought was ‘She WASHED the toy??? WHY??? It would have smelled like her daughter!’ I wouldn’t even need a psychologist to tell me that most mothers would instinctively want to keep that scent without even realizing it.

I have the sweater my dad wore to the hospital when he was admitted, right before he died. When we took his belongings home that day, my sister opened up the bag and burst into tears again, saying ‘It smells just like Dad.’ I haven’t washed the sweater and I don’t ever intend to. It’s his cologne, his scent, the smell I remember when I hugged him. Very powerful.

My youngest drank quite a bit of Dimetapp (which will also sedate) when he was about 3. He thought it was grape juice. He also swallowed a mouthful of bleach once. He also chewed through a glow necklace and got the glowing liquid stuff in his mouth, eyes, up his nose. There was never a dull moment with him.

Sedation for younger kids would most likely be in a liquid form, not injected and not in pills that would have to be swallowed whole. Geez, Dimetapp and Benedryl can knock a kid out, it wouldn’t even have to be a prescription drug. I agree that some kids will eat pills. Many look like Redhots or Sweetarts to a kid. And if you have one like mine, they’ll try anything.

but it’s plausible

plauseible
its plausible there is a honest democrat
its plausible thers is a honest used car salesman
its plausible there is a accurate weatherman

nope still cannot buy it

Geez, Dimetapp and Benedryl can knock a kid out, it wouldn’t even have to be a prescription drug.

From what some friends tell me getting prescription drugs through customs into a foreign country and getting them back into USA is quite the hassle if they brought a sedative in it would be recorded at customs I bet. If they got through a local doctor should be a paper trail.

I remember that! God, what those parents went through :(

Looking back, I think about all the times my ex and I took our young children camping. Bears, mountain lions, bikers, and gang bangers hang around Angeles National Forest campgrounds.

Something tells me that the Mc Canns had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.

They are ALL doctors. They can self-prescribe. Seven doctors, and not a one of the stupid asses thought to have babysitters for their little toddlers (all kids under four years of age) while they drank fourteen bottles of wine and partied!!!

I’ve seen some men (including my grandfather) deal with their pain by “moving on” as quickly as possible.
My grandfather didn’t even go to my grandmother’s funeral - he said it was too painful.

within a few months he was engaged to a woman who didn’t even like him - but she did like his assets.

He just wanted someone there, and didn’t want to deal with the pain of losing his wife.

“I have the sweater my dad wore to the hospital when he was admitted, right before he died. When we took his belongings home that day, my sister opened up the bag and burst into tears again, saying ‘It smells just like Dad.’ I haven’t washed the sweater and I don’t ever intend to. It’s his cologne, his scent, the smell I remember when I hugged him. Very powerful.”

well said...yes, it is very powerful.
I would think only the most anal retentive or germaphobic person would think to wash it away.

If the parents killed Madeleine, why wouldn't they kill her siblings?

Because her death was accidental, not intentional. The Portuguese police's theory is that the McCanns mistakenly overmedicated their daughter - not that they deliberately killed her.

UK, See post 85 disabusing me of that notion.

“Let justice roll thought the heavens fall.”

Altogether sad situation. Hope that the various investigators got it right.

The grandparents were babysitting the son of some friends.
The little tyke, age 3, hid from the grandparents and WOULD NOT come out. They were HYSTERICAL, CRYING, CALLING THE POLICE, by the time he showed himself. The grandfather almost had a heart attack. Needless to say, when the FATHER found out, a serious spanking ensued. This little one had rarely been spanked, so he was DISTRAUT and never hid from the adults again.

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