By Mark Saunokonoko - May 21, 2019
It's remarkable to think
that a double PhD holder quietly living in Pittsburgh, USA, a man who
has never set foot in Portugal, could be the one capable of
triggering the biggest breakthrough in the Madeleine McCann cold case
in a decade. What's maybe even more
remarkable is that the UK's largest police force appear disinterested
in allowing world-leading DNA expert Dr Mark Perlin to intervene in
the Madeleine mystery.
The Madeleine McCann case
appears to have been stuck in a state of relative stagnation since
Portuguese police shelved their 14-month investigation way back in
2008 and Scotland Yard launched its own inquiry, Operation Grange, in
2011.
In early 2018,
nine.com.au passed an official forensic report from the McCann
investigation to American DNA scientist Dr Perlin. Following a review
of that document, Dr Perlin said he was confident that his advanced
computational testing methods could unlock vital forensic evidence
potentially loaded with clues about what happened to Maddie. The
chief scientist at Pittsburgh lab Cybergenetics is an acclaimed
expert with a proven courtroom record of solving some of the most
complex DNA samples on the planet.
As revealed in the
nine.com.au podcast Maddie, Dr Perlin informed Operation Grange he
would analyse the McCann DNA samples for free. The offer seemed even
more appealing with confirmation he could deliver those results in
less than 14 days.
Cybergenetics chief
scientist Dr Mark Perlin has pioneered tremendously powerful software
to solve extremely complex DNA evidence
Cybergenetics chief
scientist Dr Mark Perlin has pioneered tremendously powerful software
to solve extremely complex DNA evidence. (Supplied / Credit: Andrew
Rush)
Operation Grange have sat
on Dr Perlin's pro bono offer for over a year. DCI Nicola Wall, head
of Operation Grange, is yet to acknowledge Dr Perlin's formal
approach, which detailed his record of assisting UK law enforcement
since the early 2000s.
In the meantime, DCI Wall
has gone back to the UK Home Office reportedly requesting more than
$500,000 of tax payer funds to keep Operation Grange up and running.
Some former Scotland Yard officers who spoke to nine.com.au expressed
their concern over what they claim is a blinkered Operation Grange
remit.
Dr Perlin said his
testing methods can solve at least 18 DNA samples which were
frustratingly ruled inconclusive by a British laboratory, the
Forensic Science Service, in 2007. Those samples were taken from the
McCann living room, around and under a blue two-seat sofa, and inside
the boot compartment of a rental car which was hired 25 days after
Madeleine went missing.
Colin Sutton, a top
retired Scotland Yard detective, believes in light of Dr Perlin's
offer Operation Grange could be a sitting on "a real game
changer".
Since the DNA revelations
were first aired in nine.com.au's hit podcast Maddie, Dr Perlin's
offer has been heavily reported on by worldwide media. But despite
persistent reminding by the Maddie podcast, Scotland Yard’s only
response to date has been: "It will not provide a running
commentary" on the case.
Two years in the making,
the multi-episode Maddie podcast investigation quickly hit number 1
in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand iTunes charts. Since
its March release, Maddie has been downloaded almost 2 million times.
Dr Perlin and the
dramatic DNA revelations were undoubtedly one of the most significant
pieces of new information to emerge in Maddie.
But a sudden appearance
near the end of the series by Goncalo Amaral, the former Portuguese
detective who led the 2007 investigation for five months before he
was removed from the case, also produced some seismic allegations.
'Concealed' Police
Statements
In Mr Amaral's interview,
a rarity for English-speaking media, he claimed Scotland Yard's
Operation Grange was looking to wrap up its seven-year inquiry and
was targeting a German paedophile. Mr Amaral claimed the German, a
known child sex offender currently in prison, had not committed the
crime in his opinion and would be a "scapegoat". Mr Amaral also claimed
that in 2007 British police had initially buried some statements that
could have assisted his team's investigation. According to Mr Amaral,
Portuguese police had requested further information about a potential
person of interest, who may have had links to an international
paedophile ring. "The British police
said there was absolutely nothing [of importance related to that
person]," Mr Amaral said on Maddie. "Of course at the
time when the British police stated that they did not have any
information they already had the statements [which were allegedly
concealed from the Portuguese until late 2007]."
Mr Amaral said "it
would have changed everything" if his team of detectives had
been given those statements back in May 2007.
Both Leicestershire
Police and Scotland Yard refused to comment on Mr Amaral's
allegations that some UK police officers had withheld statements,
impeding the inquiry.
The former Portuguese
detective outlined a theory about what may have happened to Madeleine
in his controversial 2008 book.
The 22-chapter The Truth
of the Lie alleged Maddie died in apartment 5A, her abduction was
simulated and the body somehow disposed of. His book became the focal
point of a protracted and bitter legal feud with the McCanns. It was
a fight the McCanns initially won, then lost in the Supreme Court
after an appeal was lodged.
In Maddie, Mr Amaral also
revealed that, acting on a tip off, his team of detectives had been
trying to locate a mystery apartment somewhere in or around Praia da
Luz when he was pulled off the case in October 2007. A deep freezer
or fridge in the apartment could have been storing Madeleine's body
before it was hidden forever, Mr Amaral claimed.
Smith family movements
Two Significant Sightings
A US criminal profiler,
Pat Brown, explored a different theory in Maddie, that Madeleine's
body may have been moved two times before being disposed of in a
place nobody had ever discovered.
Ms Brown speculated a man
took Madeleine's body away from the apartment in a panic late on the
night of May 3 and placed it in a temporary hiding place, near the
beach. She theorised that same man may have returned to the body
before sunrise on May 4, to move it to a safer place, where it
remained hidden for some weeks and maybe even months.
In August 2007 a
specialist cadaver and blood dog team from England was sent for by
Portuguese police, which may have motivated the offender to move the
body one final time, possibly using a car. Madeleine's body could
have been taken into the remote countryside, or perhaps disposed of
in a dumpster somewhere in the surrounding area.
Ms Brown said the still
unidentified man an Irish family spotted at 10pm on the night of May
3, carrying a motionless, barefoot girl in pyjamas towards the beach
– which became known as "the Smith Sighting" - was, in
her opinion, the likely offender.
E-fit of man the Smith
family from Ireland said they saw on the night Madeleine McCann
vanished.
E-fit of man the Smith
family from Ireland said they saw on the night Madeleine McCann
vanished. (Supplied)
Gerry McCann, Jane Tanner
movements on May 3
The other significant
sighting from the night of May 3 came from Jane Tanner, a British
friend of the McCanns who was part of the group holiday. Ms Tanner
said she had witnessed a man carrying a girl away from the direction
of apartment 5A at around 9:15pm, on May 3.
Ms Tanner's sighting
reportedly occurred at exactly the same time she walked past Mr
McCann and another British holidaymaker, Jeremy Wilkins, a filmmaker
from London, on a quiet lane close to 5A.
Ms Tanner's sighting put
Mr McCann on the street at the same time a potential abductor was
walking away with his daughter, Madeleine.
The map Jeremy Wilkins
drew for police in 2007. Inside the red circle is the 'X' where he
said he stood with Gerry McCann.
The map Jeremy Wilkins
drew for police in 2007. Inside the red circle is the 'X' where he
said he stood with Gerry McCann. (Supplied)
The street view showing
the 'X' Jeremy Wilkins indicated on the map he drew for police, where
he claimed he met Gerry McCann on night of May 3.
The street view showing
the 'X' Jeremy Wilkins indicated on the map he drew for police, where
he claimed he met Gerry McCann on night of May 3. (Nine)
The Crime Scene
In the podcast, doubts
over aspects of Ms Tanner's sighting were raised several times by
various experts who have analysed or worked on the case. One of those
people was Joseph Moura, an American private detective hired in 2007
by US broadcaster CBS News to investigate the case.
Mr Moura said he
disregarded Ms Tanner's statement, and labelled it "erroneous".
As part of his CBS brief, Mr Moura worked undercover at the Ocean
Club Resort for a week, spending time with employees and especially
workers at the tapas restaurant where the McCanns and their friends
ate each night. Mr Moura claimed he had doubts about the entire
checking system the group said they operated on the night of May 3.
The McCanns said a
predator must have been watching them as they left the kids alone
while they ate dinner with their friends. An abductor snatched
Madeleine from her bed, they said.
Mr and Mrs McCann, both
doctors from Rothley, Leicestershire, have strenuously denied they
were involved in the disappearance of their daughter, and nine.com.au
does not suggest any involvement on their part.
Portuguese police
considered there appeared to be no forensic evidence of someone
breaking into 5A, and adding to the complexity surrounding the case,
Mr McCann's first two police statements gave differing accounts of
which door he used to enter the apartment, and which doors were and
weren't locked.
Mrs McCann said when she
checked on Madeleine and the twins, Sean and Amelie, at 10pm, she
found Maddie's bed empty and the bedroom window wide open. She
described the metallic window shutters up, and the curtains blowing.
Mrs McCann said a breeze blew the kids' bedroom door shut in her
face.
A former Nottinghamshire
police superintendent who appeared in the podcast described how he
visited apartment 5A and checked the bedroom window. Peter MacLeod
said the window was small, only 50cm wide. He claimed he "did
not think it was possible" for someone to climb out of the
window holding a small child.
A police photograph
showing the crime scene of Madeleine McCann's bedroom, including the
bedroom window. The cots of Madeleine's younger brother and sister
are also visible.
A police photograph
showing the crime scene of Madeleine McCann's bedroom, including the
bedroom window. The cots of Madeleine's younger brother and sister
are also visible. (Polícia Judiciária)
Wikileaks and Madeleine
In the first few days of
Madeleine going missing, reports began to appear in several UK
newspapers quoting friends and family of the McCanns claiming the
window shutters had been broken into or jemmied open. But Portuguese
police said that was not the case, and believed there was no damage
to the window or signs of forced entry. The only fingerprints they
said were found on the children's bedroom window were those of
Madeleine's mother, Kate.
British media were
generally very critical of the Portuguese police investigation and
the lead detective, Mr Amaral. The arrival of British police to
assist in the investigation sometimes caused further tension between
the two countries.
As documented in Maddie,
notable was the immediate deployment and intervention of a number of
British diplomats inside of 24 hours of Maddie going missing.
Although it had always
been widely assumed and reported the Portuguese had turned the
investigation towards Mr and Mrs McCann, a diplomatic cable from the
US embassy in Lisbon which was leaked in 2010 by Wikileaks appeared
to debunk that line of thinking.
Just two weeks after Mr
and Mrs McCann were declared arguidos, formal suspects, the US
ambassador to Portugal typed up a cable to Washington DC. The US
ambassador, Al Hoffman, stated that during a private discussion with
the UK ambassador he had been told "British police had developed
the current evidence against the McCann parents”.
The evidence that the
leaked US cable referred to largely reflected work carried out three
months after Madeleine vanished by a highly specialised search team
from the UK. That unit was comprised of Mark Harrison, the top search
expert advisor to all police forces in the UK, and a dog handler
named Martin Grime and his two dogs, springer spaniels Eddie and
Keela.
Diagram showing where
cadaver and blood dog alerted inside apartment 5A, where Madeleine
McCann's family stayed.
Diagram showing where
cadaver and blood dog alerted inside apartment 5A, where Madeleine
McCann's family stayed. (Nine)
The Dogs
Mr Harrison was called to
Praia da Luz by Mr Amaral and his team with a remit to build a report
solely focused on the increasing likelihood that Madeleine was dead.
They wanted the UK national search guru to assess where and how
someone could have disposed of Madeleine's body in or around the
coastal Algarve town.
There were a number of
locations Mr Harrison was interested in. He believed bringing Mr
Grime and his two dogs, Eddie and Keela, to Portugal would be
beneficial. During a week of intensive searches, the dogs, which
arrived with apparent stellar credentials, alerted numerous times in
the McCann holiday apartment, on several items of Mrs McCann's
personal items and, most controversially, in and around a rental car
hired 25 days after Madeleine was reported missing.
The work of cadaver and
blood dogs needs to be corroborated by additional evidence, such as
DNA or a confession. Forensic samples were taken from apartment 5A
and the boot compartment of the silver Renault Scenic. The now closed
Forensic Science Service in the UK tested the samples in late summer
of 2007. The vast majority of those samples were judged to be
"inconclusive".
Madeleine McCann, and the
family hire car searched by Portuguese police.
Madeleine McCann, and the
family hire car searched by Portuguese police. (Supplied)
In a final report,
British FSS scientist John Lowe wrote that his lab was unable to
solve most of the samples, including evidence from the car boot,
because it was "too complex and challenging" for his
testing methods, which are now viewed as outdated.
Dr Lowe's DNA report
suddenly cast doubt on the work of the dogs, and the investigation
limped on for almost another year before it was eventually shelved,
with no Madeleine, no arrests and no body. The McCanns ceased to be
considered formal suspects by Portuguese police, and the British
police considered they had been cleared of any involvement.
In the podcast, dog
handler Martin Grime stated the work of his dogs, Eddie and Keela,
had been misunderstood by many who claimed the alerts of his dogs had
been wrong.
"People are missing
the point," Mr Grime countered in Maddie. "The dogs'
responses were confirmed by the recovery of DNA samples. Just because
the analysis of those samples did not provide conclusive results you
can't just trash what the dogs do."
Colin Sutton is a retired
Metropolitan Police detective who caught serial killer Levi
Bellfield.
Colin Sutton is a retired
Metropolitan Police detective who caught serial killer Levi
Bellfield. (Supplied)
Mystery Phone Call
Former Scotland Yard
detective Colin Sutton was once tipped to lead London Metropolitan
Police's Operation Grange, the UK strike force launched in 2011 to
review and investigate Maddie's disappearance.
Mr Sutton solved numerous
homicides while working for London's Metropolitan Police and brought
serial killer Levi Bellfield and serial rapist Delroy Grant, known as
The Nightstalker, to justice.
In evaluating various
theories about what could have happened to Madeleine, from a stranger
abduction through to involvement by someone known to the family, he
said it was a truly bizarre and confounding crime.
"The difficulty that
I have with it, is whichever way you look at it you've got to kind of
believe something that is almost incredible," Mr Sutton said.
"[Each scenario] has
a degree of incredible facts mixed in with it and you've got to kind
of think to yourself, whichever of those it comes to be in the end
... the truth is actually a bit fantastic in this case. It is a
wholly exceptional set of circumstances."
Police photographs show
where floor tiles were lifted behind a blue sofa in the McCann
holiday apartment and DNA samples were swabbed.
Police photographs show
where floor tiles were lifted behind a blue sofa in the McCann
holiday apartment and DNA samples were swabbed. (Supplied)
Mr Sutton openly
questioned the remit of Operation Grange, which appeared to be
focused on an abduction of Madeleine, and not open to other possible
scenarios.
Around 2011, at the time
he was being touted as a potential candidate to lead Operation
Grange, Mr Sutton said he received a mysterious phone call from a
high-ranking figure inside London Metropolitan Police.
"I was privately
told by a senior officer that it was going to be an investigation
where you were told what things you could and couldn't look at,"
Mr Sutton said.
"The remit and the
focus of Operation Grange has been so narrow that it probably was
hobbled from the beginning and didn't really have a chance at
succeeding."
Jim Gamble, head of the
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, is pictured in 2009
leaving the policing board headquarters in Belfast
Jim Gamble, head of the
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, is pictured in 2009
leaving the policing board headquarters in Belfast (Getty)
Secret Scoping Report
However, Jim Gamble, the
one-time head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP)
agency, expressed his confidence in Operation Grange and defended its
remit. Mr Gamble, who was involved in the official 2007 investigation
through the deployment of CEOP behavioural analysts, said Madeleine's
parents had already been thoroughly investigated by the Portuguese,
and there was no need to go back over that ground.
It was a secret scoping
report of the Portuguese investigation written by Mr Gamble which
reportedly triggered the launch of Operation Grange, by the UK Home
Office. In Maddie, Mr Gamble said intelligence gathered from his
analysts in Praia da Luz indicated Madeleine's parents were not
involved in her disappearance.
He claimed the Madeleine
mystery, the world's most famous missing person case, would be
solved.
"I believe that in
my lifetime we will actually find out what happened to Madeleine
McCann," Mr Gamble said.
"There will be a
break, whether it is DNA, whether it is someone who was involved,
directly or indirectly, who has been struggling with their
conscience, who actually saw something on that night that they kept
to themselves.
"Maybe their
relationship with an individual has changed and they now reflect on
it, and their conscience is weighing heavily."
'Whitewash'
The world-renowned
testing methods offered by Dr Mark Perlin appears to fit the kind of
DNA breakthrough which Mr Gamble hopes could blow this 12-year-old
cold case wide open.
Despite numerous requests
from nine.com.au, Scotland Yard, the UK Home Office and UK Prime
Minister Theresa May's office has refused to comment on Dr Perlin's
pro bono offer. Ms May was the Home Secretary who launched Operation
Grange in 2011.
Nine.com.au have recently
contacted Portugal's police, the Policia Judiciaria (PJ), with
contact details for Dr Perlin and outlining how he could help the
investigation. Dr Perlin, who has assisted prosecutors and law
enforcement agencies worldwide, has sent formal offers to both
Scotland Yard and the PJ.
Retired detective Goncalo
Amaral said the PJ would likely ignore Dr Perlin's offer, just as
Scotland Yard appears to have done. Mr Amaral claimed Operation
Grange was a "whitewash" and an "image enhancement"
operation.
"When I was
dismissed from the investigation, the team that came in to replace me
was only dedicated to archiving, to shelving the case. They had only
had to go through the motions to achieve the archiving of the
process," Mr Amaral said.
It would have been
Madeleine's 16th birthday last weekend. It seems the only way of
moving the investigation forward is a DNA breakthrough, the discovery
of new evidence or a confession.
Nine.com.au is currently
exploring other avenues to shake loose the DNA data and place it into
the hands of forensic scientist Dr Perlin.
By Mark Saunokonoko -18.06.2019
'Maddie' explores what
many believe is the well-known story of the British girl's
disappearance. But this investigation could make you question
everything you thought you knew about the case. It has been more than 12
years since Madeleine Beth McCann disappeared.
Here are three questions
that could actually be answered very easily, if the will from police
forces and key people is there. Answering these questions
could reveal potential crucial information about what happened to
Madeleine on that 2007 family holiday to Portugal.
Why have Operation Grange
and Portugal's Policia Judiciaria not taken up a remarkable offer
made in the Maddie podcast to solve 18 inconclusive DNA samples? It seems so
straightforward. There are 18 DNA samples
potentially loaded with clues about what happened to Madeleine.
There's a scientist with a proven international track record for
solving precisely that kind of challenging and previously
indecipherable evidence. Give him the samples to analyse.
As exclusively revealed
in the Maddie podcast, one of the world's top DNA scientists, Dr Mark
Perlin claims he can have results back on those 18 samples in less
than two weeks. He's also offered to run those tests for Scotland
Yard at no cost.
Scotland Yard's Operation
Grange have sat on Dr Perlin's remarkable offer for over a year.
Portugal's Policia Judiciaria also appear disinterested, having
ignored Dr Perlin's approach for over a month.
Why?
Dr Perlin's advanced
testing methods, based on computational software called TrueAllele,
has overturned a number of wrongful convictions in the US. It has
been used successfully in US state and federal court, and around the
world.
In fact, for around 20
years Dr Perlin's lab Cybergenetics has been assisting the UK police
for 20 years; he has successfully analysed previously "inconclusive"
DNA evidence in major UK crimes.
So why not use Dr Perlin
in the case of Madeleine McCann?
Dr Perlin has told
Nine.com.au national crime labs are sometimes wary of his
groundbreaking DNA technology, as it can expose flawed tests and
mistaken results; those kind of revelations can be embarrassing for
national crime agencies and their reputations.
The 18 DNA samples
isolated by Nine.com.au and Dr Perlin were ruled inconclusive in 2007
because British testing methods at the time were inadequate and
lacked the necessary sophistication.
The DNA evidence relates
to key samples taken from inside apartment 5A and the boot
compartment of a rental car hired 25 days after Madeleine went
missing.
A cadaver dog team
alerted in both those locations, although there is controversy about
the reliability of cadaver dogs, which is why investigators consider
alerts must be supplemented by additional evidence.
It is hard to understand
why Operation Grange refuse to even acknowledge Dr Perlin's offer.
In the final episode of
Maddie, Gerry McCann and the official Find Madeleine campaign were
also notified of Dr Perlin's offer. There has been no reply, so far.
Kate McCann, the mother
of the missing British girl Madeleine McCann, looks at a poster
showing her missing daughter during a press conference on June 6,
2007 in Berlin.
Kate McCann, the mother
of the missing British girl Madeleine McCann, looks at a poster
showing her missing daughter during a press conference on June 6,
2007 in Berlin. (Getty)
Have Operation Grange
interviewed Kate and Gerry McCann or the Tapas 7? If not, why not?
In 2013, Scotland Yard
launched Operation Grange, a significant strike force to investigate
what happened to Madeleine in Praia da Luz.
Operation Grange have
remained firmly tight-lipped about the investigation, revealing
little to nothing about the leads they are chasing.
In 2017, Mark Rowley,
then Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, publicly addressed
questions about whether his detectives had ever formally questioned
Kate and Gerry McCann since the launch of Operation Grange.
No, was Rowley's reply.
Rowley added that the
Portuguese police had dealt with the McCanns and the Tapas 7 during
their original 14-month investigation, which started in 2007.
It is unclear if any of
the Tapas 7, including David Payne, the last person to ever see
Madeleine alive outside of her parents, and Matt Oldfield, who
entered apartment 5A 30 minutes before she was reported missing, have
ever been questioned by cops at Scotland Yard.
Former Scotland Yard
detectives and police officers that Nine.com.au spoke to in episode
nine of Maddie expressed some surprise if the McCanns had not been
questioned by Operation Grange police. They also criticised Operation
Grange's perceived failure to not begin its investigation with no
preconceived ideas about might or might not have happened.
The McCanns and their
friends may be able to help police catch the offender. Any
information from them may help advance the investigation, or help to
finally rule out aspects of the investigation. If they haven’t been
questioned already, they should be.
Last month it was
confirmed Operation Grange had been funded to the tune of another
$550,000 in tax payer funds, taking total funding to more than $20m.
Gerry and Kate McCann,
the parents of the missing 3-year-old girl Madeleine McCann, walk
with their twins outside their resort apartment on May 11 2007, in
Praia da Luz, southern Portugal.
Gerry and Kate McCann,
the parents of the missing 3-year-old girl Madeleine McCann, walk
with their twins outside their resort apartment on May 11 2007, in
Praia da Luz, southern Portugal. (AAP)
Why did a reconstruction
of May 3 not occur, and has still not taken place?
On a night of confusing
events, one thing is very clear - a reconstruction of all the
movements made by Kate and Gerry McCann and the Tapas 7 on the night
of May 3, when Madeleine was reported missing, could yield vital
clues.
As revealed in episodes
one and two of Maddie, from the early evening, there are so many
moving parts and people in play that it became very challenging for
police to establish if and how the accounts of key players stacked up
and held together.
According to the McCanns
and their friends, adults were leaving the dinner table at the nearby
tapas bar at 30 minute intervals, sometimes as regularly as every 15
minutes, to go check on the children.
The McCann's apartment,
at the end of a five-storey block, was at best one minute walk from
the restaurant. The other apartments were marginally further,
including one holiday unit (where the Payne family stayed) located up
a flight of stairs on the first level.
In April 2008, Portuguese
police tried in vain to run a reconstitution of the night of May 3 to
see if everyone's account of the night and various journeys they made
all matched up.
But negotiations failed.
By 2008 the McCanns and
their friends were all back in the UK. Documentation in the official
police files reveals a chain of emails that were sent back and forth
from the group to police. Concerns were expressed about flying back
to Portugal, about privacy, a potential press frenzy and Kate and
Gerry being named formal suspects.
In the end, what could
have been a vital reconstruction assisting the effort to find Maddie
never happened.
Portuguese police
appeared to have questions around Jane Tanner’s sighting of a
potential abductor with a child on the night of May 3; and how she
walked straight past Gerry McCann and another Englishman, Jeremy
Wilkins, without either man seeing her. These scenarios are explored
in detail in episode two of Maddie.
A reconstruction could
have helped answer some of this, as well as clarifying events earlier
in the day when family friend David Payne visited Kate and the kids
in apartment 5A.
Although there appeared
to be reluctance from the Tapas 7 to return to Portugal at the
request of police, Portuguese detectives must probably bear some
responsibility for not forcing the issue of a reconstruction much
sooner after Madeleine vanished, instead of the aborted effort in
April 2008.
Portuguese police were
also criticised for not separating and interviewing Kate and Gerry
McCann when they were first questioned by detectives in Portimao
Police Station.
