| Praia da Luz revisited
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paramimtantofaz.blogspot.com |
| I first
arrived at Praia da Luz on May 11, 2007 and the ?circus? was
already settled. A week had gone by since the disappearance
of Madeleine McCann... |
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| What I remember the most
was the heat. Even for May it was terribly hot. One could
hardly think... |
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| The journalists where
gathered at the corner of the apartment at the Ocean Club,
next to the window where the supposed kidnaper had escaped.
It wasn?t necessary to be a regular watcher of policies
television serials to conclude that no more forensic
material was going to be collected at that particular area.
The ?contamination? was a nude fact. Journalists and
National Guard (GNR) officials of the K-9 section where in a
direct contact: ?What a show-off? - I thought. |
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| Anyway, if a kidnaper had
taken the child, he would then be long gone from the
Algarve. Even from Portugal. Maybe even from Europe.
Although, for those that then said the Portuguese border
with Spain had been closed too late, I must remember that
the most Eastern frontier of Portugal is - since we are in
the EU - now located in... Poland. Few people might know
this detail, but one of the most reliable newspapers in
Portugal, ?Di?io de Not?ias?, wrote just two days after the
disappearance the following title: ?This story isn?t well
told?. While the parents mentioned a break-in into the
apartment, the GNR?s disagreed... |
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Although there were
some the doubts, the press pointed at a kidnap theory and
the parents were then the victims. We were all sympathetic
to them.
?They?ve taken her. They?ve taken her?, it was the mother
shout the night her daughter went missing. The very first
article from the ?Sunday Times? printed that phrase. Some
months later, it would be analysed in order to understand
who indeed ?they? where... |
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| Ocean club playground
11 May 2007 |
| As I walked around the
touristic compound of the Ocean Club, I could see from a
street level the tennis courts where the parents and friends
used to spend their time. From there one could easily
observe the swimming pool and playground. It was a perfect
spot where a possible kidnaper could have made a look-out.
The only problem with, is that he could also be spotted and
arouse suspicions upon him. |
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| I watched one of the most
emotional moments of those early days when, on the night of
May 12, when the parents went to a night mass in order to
remember the birthday of her missing daughter...
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| The local priest talked
about hope... |
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FATHER JOSE
PACHECO |
|
11 MAY 2007 |
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| The case
was getting a lot of coverage in the UK, and immediately
spread to the rest of the world. One must also remember that
this coincided with the news that Tony Blair was leaving his
Number 10 seat and giving it to Gordon Brown... |
| Meanwhile I was obsessed
with a fact: next to apartment, at the end of the street
there was a big pyramid on a house garden. The pyramid was
squared with the street where the press was... |
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| It was impossible to
ignore it, but very few journalists went to visit the garden
where such a strange element was planted. If they had done
it -like I did -, then they would have seen this other
scenery just next to place where Madeleine had
disappeared... |
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| |
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| Then, on May 15, Robert
Murat was arrested. His house was on the opposite side of
the pyramid house? |
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| I had to return to
Lisbon on that day. I thought the case could be closed on
the following days. But that didn?t happen. There were no
sufficient evidences to point out Murat or his friends into.
Two months later, on July 2007, the new British
prime-minister received the Portuguese prime-minister, Jos?
S?rates, in London.. |
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| |
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| On about the same time the
McCann friend's went to the Pol?ia Judici?ia (PJ) in Portim?
to testify. The police was doing all they could on the
search, and even the father, Gerry McCann, thanked the PJ
for suspending their summer leave in order ?to ensure no
stone is left unturned? in finding his daughter... |
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| |
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| It was Jane Tanner
testimony that identified Robert Murat. She was walking
along this street from the restaurant to the apartment? |
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| She said she saw a man
walking into this street... |
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| My question was: Why walk
into a street full of light when you had a dark street on
the other end?... |
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| Then, 27
days after the disappearance, the parents went to Rome to
see the Pope... |
| They also
went on to travel into several cities in Europe. It was in
Berlin, on June 6, that they got a bad moment, when they had
to face a hard question? |
| It
wouldn't take too longer until the parents were to be found
suspects... |
| They were
questioned for hours into the night |
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| The evidences were never
conclusive and they managed to return into England... |
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| On that day, as they
arrived in England without their daughter, there was a
traditional religious ceremony at the Praia da Luz church |
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