Criminologist Mark Williams Thomas has a thesis and his thesis is Madeleine was abducted after she left the apartment. He thinks this happened after Madeleine was wandering around the complex looking for her parents.

MWT has said that publicly available evidence leads him to believe three year old Maddie arranged her toys on her bed and left through the unlocked patio door.

He also questions, is it unreasonable to presume Maddie woke up and after neatly tucking up her toys went in search of her parents.

MWT came to this conclusion after reading through 10,000 documents amassed by P.J.

He went on to describe how an abductor would not have arranged the toys on the bed as he would be in a hurry to escape. Based on evidence provided by the files and a number of factors suggest that this the likely scenario.

MWT explains his thesis well and I have trouble understanding why the McCanns insist that Madeleine was taken from her bed. By their own admission the Patio doors were unlocked.

The McCanns have never spoken of toys only Cuddle Cat and Maddies pink blanket.

Where then did MWT come to the conclusion that there were toys on Madeleines bed. Who told him? He does not appear to have made this up as he claims there is evidence in the files to suggest this. He also claims that Madeleine tucked up her toys before leaving. Again, how does he know the toys were tucked up?

The first interview with the McCanns was May 4th. A young couple looking tense as Gerry McCann gave a short written speech. Kate, Madeleines mum ,clutched a soft pink toy we later learned was Cuddle Cat, Madeleines favourite toy.(was it ? or was it a PR prop)

Cuddle Cat, who played centre stage as this abduction unfolded. Kate was seen walking on the beach, standing on the balcony or evening posing for a photograph. Cuddle cat was always there, Kate used to inhale the sweet smell of her first born that lingered on the small soft toy. (The many times washed soft toy)

We now come to the night of May 11th. The eve of Madeleines birthday, what a terrible day this must have been.The McCanns attended a church service . The good people of Portugal prayed along with this poor couple for the safe return of their child. This night ,the McCanns looked tense and nervous. The candle too large for Kate to hold in her fragile hand. Cuddle Cat, Kates faithful companion had a little friend with him.A doll, a doll with long yellow hair. Could this be Rag Doll ?The doll that Kate had bought for Madeleines birthday. But why would this doll be in Portugal ?Madeleine would have been back home in Rothley on this special day had she not been abducted(allegedly). Madeleine would be enjoying her birthday party and her Dr.Who cake , opening her presents and seeing for the first time Rag Doll.

Could it be that Rag Doll was Madeleines favourite toy and not Cuddle Cat? Could it be that MWT referred to Rag Doll who Madeleine tucked up in her bed?

Did the McCanns manage to sneak away after the church service. Did the McCanns go to Madeleines secret hiding place and did her parents sit with her until the clock struck 12...Did Maddies parents take her truly favourite toy Rag Doll to be with her forever?

Could this explain the truly bizarre behaviour of the McCanns on Madeleines fourth birthday when leaving the church. We have all asked and been shocked by the sheer joy on their faces. More than any other photographs they have stayed in our minds. How can they look so happy when it should have been their daughters birthday.?

Much could be explained if the McCanns had spent time with Madeleine on her fourth birthday. If this did happen the McCanns took a big risk, a risk where they could have been followed and their secret revealed...luck was on their side.

The expression ,a picture tells a thousand words.How different the faces of the McCanns on eve May 11th to the following day May 12th. Madeleines birthday. If those pictures could speak what would they tell us?

Rag Doll 'her one and only appearance. But the date is of great importance.

If Madeleines remains are ever found, will we also unravel the mystery of rag doll   ?

One month later in th Sun `reports...

Was this rag doll given to Maddie by her captors? By ANTONELLA LAZZERI, in Portimao, Portugal

Published: 04 Mar 2010

THIS little girl's rag doll could have been given to Madeleine McCann by those who snatched her, investigators believe.

The cuddly plaything was among evidence suggesting Maddie was held at a remote house - but Portuguese cops abandoned the line of inquiry.

Private detectives hired by the missing tot's parents Kate and Gerry found the white bungalow in an orange orchard outside Silves, Portugal, after trailing a woman seen earlier with a Maddie lookalike.

They staked the place out and spotted the doll and a child's drawing.

Quizzed ... Yvone Albino Portuguese police on the Maddie case were tipped off, but the McCanns camp claim they did not fully investigate.

A source close to the McCanns said yesterday: "This is one of the strongest leads there's been in the hunt for Maddie.

"There was credible evidence at the orchard that needed proper investigation by the Portuguese - that never happened."

The private investigation began after British tourist Jean Godwin, 56, contacted the Find Madeleine hotline.

She reported seeing two woman with a girl she was "100 per cent sure" was Maddie in Carvoeiro on September 7, 2008.

Mrs Godwin, of Widnes, Cheshire, said the women were holding the hands of a "gaunt" little girl, who was wearing a "black wig to disguise her fair hair".

She was struck by the large irises in the girl's eyes - a feature of Maddie in photos.

Staked out ... the house in a Portuguese orchard When the women realised Mrs Godwin was looking they hid the child's face. She said: "I'm convinced it was Madeleine."

One of the two women was identified as holiday home cleaner Yvone Albino. She lives near Silves - which is 30 miles from the Praia da Luz resort where Maddie, three, disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Also a woman was seen passing a child in a blanket to a man in a car on May 5, 2007 - in Silves.

Retired care worker Mrs Godwin confirmed Mr Albino was one of the women she saw from a photo.

The photo was also shown to British witnesses who saw a couple acting suspiciously near the McCanns' holiday apartment. Several identified Mrs Albino.

Teacher Jorge Vitorino Cabral Martins - who was seen meeting Mrs Albino at the orchard property several times - was also placed in Praia da Luz by several witnesses.

Martins ... with girlfriend

McCann investigators saw Mr Martins discard a "child's drawing done by someone aged four to five". They also photographed the rag doll on the front seat of his white Citroen Berlingo van.

During a surveillance operation, Mr Martins was seen shopping for clothes and shoes for a little girl.

Neither he nor his girlfriend Maria Alice dos Santos Silveira have young children or grandchildren.

McCann 'tecs visited the Silves house pretending to be buyers. They were convinced the other woman seen with the girl was inside but no one answered.

Dave Edgar, head of the inquiry team, sent a report to Portuguese cops. It lies, with more than 50 other sightings of Maddie, in a dossier filed away at a police HQ.

It was obtained by The Sun and revealed yesterday.

Maddie ... missing since 2007

Cops confronted Mrs Albino, who denied being the woman Mrs Godwin saw. A police report states: "Nothing of interest was found."

Martins and Silveira denied having anything to do with Maddie's abduction.

He said the doll was given to him by his students. Mrs Silveira said the drawing had belonged to her 28-year-old daughter.

That was as far as the police took the matter. But the McCann team are still working on the lead. The child's drawing has been sent off for forensic analysis.

Kate and Gerry, both 41, of Rothley, Leics, insist they will never give up looking for their daughter.

The source added: "After Dave Edgar sent his report to the Portuguese police our investigators heard nothing more.

"It is now clear from the files that very little was done to rule these people out as suspects.

"But it was very significant information and remains an open investigation."

A WOMAN whose possible sighting of Maddie at a store in Dunedin, New Zealand, was revealed by The Sun yesterday has been interviewed again by police.

Checkout worker Taryn Dryfhout is angry she was not asked the questions before. She said: "They wanted descriptions of the people and how they paid. I'm sure it was Maddie. She was very afraid."

The girl was snapped on store CCTV in December 2007.

a.lazzeri@the-sun.co.uk

SUN-04-03-2010

In the depths of despair, the McCanns inspire awe with their renewed strength

By PAUL HARRIS

Last updated at 08:31 15 May 2007 

They held each other's hands and clung tightly to the one hope they have left. Somewhere, they believed, their little girl was safe. Somewhere, Madeleine was being looked after. Eleven days on, Kate and Gerry McCann summoned the strength to block out the unthinkable in this endless, fruitless search for their four-year-old daughter.

Then they shared their hope with the rest of the world - and told how they could not even consider going home until Madeleine is found.

By the time Mr McCann had finished speaking his knuckles were white in his wife's constant grip. His voice was beginning to falter and his eyes were screwed shut against the blinding sun.

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Determination is etched into the faces of Gerry and Kate McCann as they cling to each other and to hope

But he was determined to stay in front of the cameras until he was sure he had got his message across. Until he and his wife saw "concrete evidence to the contrary", he said, they would continue to believe that Madeleine was "safe and being looked after".

A few hours before last night's dramatic developments, anyone who wondered how this once-happy mother and father have been coping with what happened had only to share these few minutes with them.

They have become familiar faces in the cobbled streets of Praia da Luz and their appearance never fails to invite respect, sometimes applause, as they make their way silently and privately around the Algarve resort.

This was different, though. They were in command now and they were about to change the rules. Scores of distraught parents might have touched hearts with TV appeals over the years, but few have conducted themselves like the McCanns.

From the depths of despair - and from a tragedy that was visibly destroying them day by day - they emerged to take control. Not just of their emotions, but of the way they will now proceed at this crushingly-difficult time.

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The McCanns have sworn not to leave Portugal until they find their missing daughter Madeleine. Friends and family believe they will keep their wordA few moments before 8am, they strode side by side into the sunlight to stand within yards of the apartment from which Madeleine disappeared on May 3.

Hand in hand, they ducked under the police tape which still seals the area, and steeled themselves to face an audience which, they knew, would be watching around the world.

Mr McCann carried some handwritten notes but barely even glanced at them. In his role as a consultant cardiologist he must have prepared countless patients and relatives for difficult news, and he spoke with a clarity and straightforwardness which seemed almost professional. But bad news can never have been as hard as this, and certainly never so personal.

He told us how he and Kate, who are Roman Catholics, had drawn strength from the "spiritual outpouring" which continues to flood over them from family, friends, strangers and supporters.

Mr McCann candidly admitted that he and his wife, a GP, were deliberately ignoring the negative to concentrate on the positive.

They had been counselled by a trauma specialist, who, he said, "enabled us to utilise tools to help us look forward, to try to put the speculation out of our heads and channel everything into looking forward".

How were they coping? "It's been extremely difficult," he replied, with unintentional understatement. But the support they were receiving - and the fact that lawyers had now arrived to handle the everyday mechanics - had suddenly lifted a great burden. It had allowed them to focus, he said, "on our own physical and mental well-being, and that of our family".

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The strain has worked visible change on both Madeleine's parents, but Kate McCann in particular has appeared at times almost unable to stand - until yesterday We already had a flavour of how difficult that has been, and how heart-rending. The couple's two-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie, wave at the TV when pictures of their sister appear, and blow kisses at the posters which bear her image in every street and restaurant around the busy resort. Kate McCann is still buying treats for them in threes - three rag dolls, three ice creams ... and is seldom seen without Madeleine's favourite cuddly toy, often pressing it softly to her cheek. The first few days transformed the 38-year-old blonde from a happy, laughing mother in those family pictures to a gaunt, haunted figure who could not bring herself to eat or even sleep while her little girl was missing.

Yesterday, however, she appeared to have found renewed strength. Her head wasn't bowed now and her voice was clear. Someone asked how long she would stay in Portugal. "I can't even consider going home at the moment," she said. "Absolutely can't even let it enter my head."

Whatever happened over the weekend, and whatever help the trauma specialist offered, she was clearly fortified.

Back home in England, Madeleine's aunt Philomena McCann said: "They are being counselled on what to do for the good of their health, and that's helping them get through. But the couple are strong and have strength of character that is not apparent on a day-to-day basis. Kate is very strong. She will not give up - she will pursue Madeleine for ever if need be."

The previous 24 hours certainly seemed to be a turning point - you got the impression for the first time that they had been able to step back a little from the tragedy engulfing them, and to plan a strategy for survival.

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The change in the McCanns from an earlier press conference last week was notablePerhaps that is not surprising. In their jobs back home they are both used to organising people, taking the lead, and making difficult choices. Here, they have been virtually helpless, and it has massively increased their frustration. So speaking to the media in such raw detail yesterday, we were told, was the first part of that strategy. It was an idea which came from them, not the police. Likewise, it was the McCanns who decided they would take questions for the first time, rather than simply reading a statement.

Mr McCann was careful to praise the Portuguese police operation but said he could not discuss what they were doing. He also thanked the media for its coverage of the case, perhaps the only weapon the couple have in keeping public awareness high. They knew that even the tiniest detail, or triggered memory, could so easily lead to a breakthrough.

But it hadn't come yet - or if it had, the Portuguese police were being astonishingly relaxed about it. Quite how much information they were giving the couple about their investigation was unclear, although if it was anything like the detail they had been making public, it would be scant indeed.

At around the time the McCanns faced the media yesterday, Portuguese TV reported that police were "close to a conclusion" in the inquiry. Chief Inspector Oligario Sousa said: "We have two or three hypotheses and one in particular is very strong." He did not reveal what it was. A friend of the family summed it up like this: "We have a great many questions and not many answers." For the moment, therefore, the McCanns had just their positive thoughts to cling to. If only they could turn them to reality.
MAIL-15-05-2007