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THE exact words Kate McCann yelled moments after Madeleine
vanished were revealed for the first time yesterday.
A witness told how the frantic mum ran back to the tapas bar
where she had been dining with pals shouting: “Madeleine’s
gone, Madeleine’s gone!”
The account blows yet another hole in the crumbling police
case against embattled Kate and husband Gerry.
Portuguese cops claim she screamed: “They’ve taken her,
they’ve taken her!”
Their version suggests Kate cunningly implied from the
outset that the three-year-old had been abducted from the
family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz.
Detectives in the Algarve are still pursuing the theory that
Kate accidentally killed her daughter with an overdose of
sedatives and Gerry helped hide the body.
And they believe GP Kate’s first words signalled the start
of a clever cover-up.
But the British witness yesterday insisted Kate used
entirely different words as she ran from Maddie’s empty bed
in a blind panic.
The 36-year-old woman — who asked not to be identified —
insisted Kate looked so distraught it would have been
impossible for her to have killed the tot just a few hours
earlier.
Other witnesses have already described how the McCanns
looked perfectly relaxed and normal when dining at the Ocean
Club tapas bar. They laughed and joked with friends — at a
time when police suggest they had just killed Madeleine.
The source also provided crucial new information which could
switch the focus of the Maddie hunt back to original suspect
Robert Murat.
She revealed for the first time that the man spotted
carrying a child by the McCanns’ holiday pal Jane Tanner was
heading in the direction of the home Murat, 33, shares with
mother Jenny, 71.
Previous reports had said Tanner had seen the man heading
towards the seafront. Murat has always denied any
involvement in Maddie’s disappearance.
Police were reported to have reached an “impasse” in the
case yesterday.
Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias said sources
suggested detectives may now be returning to the theory that
Madeleine was abducted.
Prosecutor Luis Bilro Verao announced on Wednesday that no
new evidence had emerged to justify questioning the McCanns
again.
Gerry and Kate, both 39, were said to be “encouraged” by the
news after months of torment since Madeleine went missing on
May 3.
The couple, who held six hours of talks with their lawyers
in London yesterday, were allowed to go home to Rothley,
Leics, almost two weeks ago.
But they remain formal suspects — or “arguidos” — and could
be grilled again if significant fresh evidence is found.
Sources in Portugal, however, were yesterday still leaking
damaging new claims.
One rubbished theories that DNA linked to Maddie found in
the McCanns’ Renault Scenic hire car could have come from
the dirty nappies of the couple’s two-year-old twins Sean
and Amelie.
Forensics expert Antonio Amorim said: “A person’s DNA has
great diversity. It’s completely different even between
siblings.”
And in a bizarre twist, a Dutch criminal who runs a pet
cremation service using a furnace behind his mountain home
was yesterday quizzed over the case.
Ex-terrorist Eef Hoos, 61, who was jailed for planting bombs
in Holland but now lives in the Algarve, said cops swooped
on his remote villa and asked if he had met the McCanns.
The oddball said: “Three men were taking pictures. They
asked me three times if I had spoken to the parents. I said
I had not. They asked about the furnace.”
Cops have also questioned the Catholic priest who befriended
the McCanns in Portugal after Maddie vanished. Father Jose
Pacheco was asked why he gave them the keys to his church —
and is thought to have been asked if they made a confession.
But a friend of the priest said last night: “He would never
violate the secret of confession.”
A Portuguese police source yesterday accused the McCanns of
stoking up a political furore over the case to create a
smokescreen.
THIRTY travel agents are being treated to an all-expenses paid trip to
the Mark Warner resort where Maddie went missing to boost
bookings. Mark Warner boss Justin Coles said: “We felt we
could begin to move forward and help travel agents sell the
resort once more. |
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