The Mysterious Disappearance of Madeleine McCann Takes A New Turn

From the onset, the whole scenario around the mysterious disappearance of Madeleine McCann six years ago on May 3 2007, which was almost two weeks shy of her 4th birthday on May 12th, has been very bizarre and tragic. She was asleep in her parent’s apartment at the Praia da Luz resort town in Portugal, when she was purportedly abducted, and a man was lurking outside their apartment at the time of her disappearance. The Portuguese file on her case, oddly enough, had a short lifespan, closing just one year after little Madeleine went missing…because the Portuguese police felt there wasn’t enough evidence to support an abduction scenario. Furthermore, the Portuguese police did everything in their power to hinder the investigation, whether intentional or unintentional, such as focusing exclusively on her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, as their primary suspects, rather than following promising leads. 

Madeleine's parents talking to reporters on Madeleine's birthday in 2012, courtesy of the Huffington Post

Indeed, a British vacationer had a weird experience on May 7^th at the city’s marina when a woman asked him if he was going to deliver her new daughter, that wasn’t investigated. In early May, a smart little girl who looked like Madeleine McCann walked into a shop in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and told a woman there that her name was Maddy, and that the people who she was with had stolen her from her real parents. No, no investigation there. The Portuguese police received several leads from Morocco, such as the tip from a Swedish lady who told the Portuguese police on May 10th, that she spotted Madeleine at a gas station in Marrakesh, but the Portuguese police obviously didn’t believe it was a valid tip. 

Tragically, the Marrakesh lead might have been the best one from May 2007. On his deathbed, long time Scotland Yard suspect and convicted pedophile, Ray Hewlett, wrote his estranged son a letter, confessing to knowing what happened to Madeleine McCann. According to the letter, little Madeleine had been sold to a gypsy gang from Morocco, who were in the business of selling children to childless wealthy couples. Though Hewlett initially denied his involvement in the kidnapping when he was questioned in 2009, he was in the perfect position to kidnap little Madeleine McCann, because he was vacationing an hour away in Algarve  on the day of her disappearance.

Convicted Serial Pedophile Raymond Hewlett

Suspect's renderings, courtesy of ESPN

Thank goodness the Scotland Yard and U.K. Metropolitan police are also involved in the investigation, breathing life into an otherwise dead case. However, I’m a bit puzzled by one of the tips from 2008 that the Portuguese police allowed them to obtain.  That tip was the subject of an intense examination this month on an English and German television show, and is one of the most unhelpful tips the U.K Metropolitan Police could examine. The tip, which they didn’t have access to until two years ago because U.K. investigators were not granted access to the Portuguese files until recently, concerns a white man aged 20-40 years of age, with a medium build, medium brown hair, and brown eyes who was seen carrying a blond girl in pajamas around the Praia da Luz. That description fits the average male on the planet, so it doesn’t narrow down the suspects one bit. Even a Portuguese artist’s renderings of the suspect, is a little vague. Nevertheless, the Metropolitan Police were able to narrow down the possible suspects to 38 people, 12 of whom are U.K. nationals, and the rest from various places in Europe.

Madeleine McCann Using Age Progression, Courtesy of the Telegraph

Perhaps the case is taking a positive turn for the McCanns, because a man at a house party in upmarket Manchester, England boasted to an anonymous barrister that he had been “introduced” to Madeleine McCann on a mediterranean island. The barrister’s testimony, for whatever reason, is said to be a highly credible one. In fact, he was  risking his own reputation to disclose this piece of information, and that’s all he’s disclosing to the Sunday Mirror, because he doesn’t want to compromise the investigation itself. The man who boasted about being introduced to Madeleine McCann has since been introduced to a pair of handcuffs that the Metropolitan police slapped on him. The Portuguese police have subsequently, and miraculously, decided to reopen this case. Perhaps Madeleine McCann will be found after all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyJwns_MTok&feature=share