US TV programme airs never seen before video footage of Kate and Gerry McCann
ShowbizSpy
November 18 2007
A US TV programme last night aired never seen before video footage of Kate and Gerry McCann in the early stages of the
hunt for their missing daughter.
The previously unseen clips, filmed by McCann family friend John Corner, was shown on the American investigative show
'48 Hours Mystery'. In the intimate footage Gerry can been seen working tirelessly on his computer putting together posters
and printing them in Spanish and Portuguese.
The video also shows Kate doing her best to cope and shows her washing the family's laundry. Independent producer Corner,
who is godfather to their two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, told CBS reporter Peter Van Sant that the family is doing everything
they can to find out more.
He said: "The first thing you notice is that Gerry never stops working from the moment he gets up. He's trying so hard
to find Madeleine. I don't know where he gets his energy from."
Corner also spoke of how Kate deals with the strain of losing her daughter.
He said: "Kate copes by doing the day to day normal tasks - but she suffers more. Gerry can cut out the pain through
working. Kate is able to face that pain head on and sometimes lets herself to be overtaken by it."
Gerry and Kate also told John on the video how they regret leaving Maddie alone in the apartment.
Gerry McCann said: "We're always left with the fact that Kate and I were not in the apartment when it happened, and we've
got to face up to that."
Kate added: "There's not a day that goes by that I think to myself why did I think that was okay? Was I wrong in thinking
that was okay? All I can think to myself is I know how much I love my children, and I know I am a responsible parent."
The CBS show last night aired an interview with key witness Jane Tanner who believes she was the last person to see Madeleine
alive. Marketing executive Tanner, 38, from Exeter, is the first out of the group of friends who were part of dinner party
with the McCanns on the night of May 3 to speak publicly.
She told the programme she saw a man possibly carrying the missing toddler away from the Portuguese resort of Praia Da
Luz.
She said: "I never in a million years thought it could have been Madeleine."
"I was walking up the road and this man was walking across the top of the road carrying a small child."
Tanner, who was one of the so-called 'Tapas Nine' - says she saw the man carrying a bare-footed child wearing pink pajamas.
She said: "The thing that I could notice the most was that I could see her bare feet and the bottom of her pajamas."
Tanner said she initially thought nothing of it, but is now certain that she saw the abduction in progress.
"When I first saw him I thought this man looks a bit odd. "At that point I didn't think it was Madeleine being abducted."
She revealed that she told police what she saw that same night.
"As soon as the police arrived, they were brought to the apartment and I told them what I'd seen. And then the CID people
arrived a little later, so I again told them exactly what I'd seen."
Her description led to the artist's impression distributed by the family a month ago Madeleine, four, went missing from
her family's apartment on May 3, while her parents dined nearby at a tapas bar.
The McCanns became prime suspects in the case when Portuguese police confirmed they were being investigated after Maddie's
DNA was reportedly found in their rented car. Kate's mother Susan Healy told the US programme that believes her daughter is
innocent, and has nothing to do with the missing toddler.
She said: "I know my daughter and know how much Madeleine meant to her. My daughter had nothing to do with the disappearance
of Madeleine."
Mrs Healy also spoke of how Kate had asked her if she would get more sympathetic press if she looked like an ordinary
mother.
Susan revealed: "She said to me 'mum I wonder if I was heavier, with a bigger bosom and looked more maternal if I would
get better press?' I think it's disgusting my daughter has had to answer those questions. She doesn't deserve this."
John Coroner also told of how he believes that evidence may be being planted and that when the initial DNA test on the
car was suggested the McCanns believed they were closer to finding their daughter.
He said: " When the Renault was being taken away to be forensically tested, Kate and Gerry were massively optimistic,
they thought they must have a clue or a lead. I am worried that evidence is being planted to incriminate them."
The show also featured US private investigator Joe Moura, a Portuguese speaker who went undercover for almost two weeks
at the Praia da Luz resort to discover the truth behind Madeleine's disappearance. The show also aired some of his undercover
footage he filmed while staying at the resort.
He explained how the McCanns were lying when they told the media that they could see the apartment door from where they
were sitting at the dinner table of the tapas bar.
He said: "It's impossible, there's a wall, there are some hedges on the way. They would have had absolutely no possibility
of seeing someone going in or out of that apartment from where they were that evening."
He also went on to explain their dinner routine, having spoken to staff that were working at the resort where the McCanns
were staying.
Moura said: "Their routine was similar. They arrived at dinner and stayed there till 12.30 and that routine was being
watched by someone who was fixated with Madeleine.
Moura goes on to add that he believes the McCanns are innocent, after speaking with staff, who observed that Kate and
Gerry were behaving normally and not like they had killed their daughter.
He said: "People say they killed their daughter, but they were able to have dinner with friends like nothing happened.
I'm not buying that - it's a crazy thought."
He added: "Whatever the parents are, they are not killers of their daughter. The child was abducted. It was a perfect
situation - a solid routine with the parents, an apartment that wasn't locked, easy access and an easy exit."
Franciso Marco, a Spanish private investigator hired by a wealthy supporter of the McCanns, also claims in the programme
to have answers that will explain the girl's disappearance.
He said: "We are 100 per cent sure she is alive. We know the kidnapper. We know who he is and we know how he has done
it."
When pressed for details, Marco would not reveal what he in fact knew.
He said: I cannot reveal anything because we are still working on this case."
In addition to the new footage, the show also featured interviews with John Ramsey, the father of murdered child beauty
queen, Jon Benet Ramsey. as well as Ed Smart, the father of Elizabeth Smart, who disappeared and was found nine months later,
in their first interviews about the McCann case.
Smart wept on the programme as he revealed how his own daughter's disappearance led to him being the subject of smear
stories in the media.
He said: "Many of the stories were so outrageous. It really was taking away from finding Elizabeth."
He also told how Gerry had called him and expressed his frustration at the Portuguese police investigation.
Smart said: "He said 'Ed as soon as they took whatever they thought they had in the car for DNA analysis, I felt like
the investigation came to a complete halt'."
And relating to how Kate's lack of tears and brave face had led to a whispering campaign, John Ramsey said: "Tell me
what a grieving parent looks like? I think any psychologist will tell you every person reacts differently."
The 48 Hours Mystery show was prepared in co-operation with the BBC and Portugal's SIC television.
