07 - NOV 16 - CBS Doc

CBS 48 Hours - 'Where's Maddie?'

New details and exclusive video in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Peter Van Sant reports on the case, aired on Saturday, Nov. 17, at 10 p.m. ET/PT

Footage same as provided by Jon Corner for Panorama documentary, although there are some new pieces shown.

November 16 2007

Holidaymaker Jane Tanner claims to have seen a man carrying the missing British toddler in his arms away from the Portuguese resort where she disappeared in May.

She has spoken exclusively to a US television show that has investigated the tot's whereabouts. The programme, 48 Hours Mystery, airs tomorrow / tonight (Sat Nov 17).

But in a preview shown in the States today (Fri Nov 16), she opens up about the sighting for the first time.

She said: "I never in a million years thought it could have been Madeleine.

"I just saw somebody walking across the top of the road, and that person was carrying a child."

Madeleine, now four, went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on May 3 while her parents Gerry McCann and wife Kate, dined nearby at a tapas bar.

The woman - one of the so-called 'tapas seven' - says she saw the man carrying a child wearing pink pyjamas, the same colour as Madeleine's.

Gerry McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, says in the programme:

"We will always live with the fact that Kate and I were not in the apartment when it happened and we have to face up to that.

"We're very much trying to focus on what can be done now, not what could have been done before because we did not do it."

The show will also feature never-before-seen video footage of the McCanns shot by a family pal over the course of a week. The intimate footage tracks the McCann family following their daughter's disappearance from their rented apartment in the Algarve region of Portugal.

The video also shows the family canvassing local neighbourhoods in the rented car where police say they found Maddie's DNA, subsequently causing them to name Gerry and Kate McCann as official suspects in the case.

48 Hours Mystery correspondent Peter Van Sant said: "It's very touching, very moving material.

"And you're going to hear facts that you've never heard on this case, including a conclusion by [undercover investigator] Joe as to what he believes really happened that night."

He added: "This woman is extremely important to the investigation.

"She was one of the 'tapas seven' - that's the seven friends who were at this bar at the resort.

"And she has come forward after six months to say she saw something that night.

"She believes that she saw a man carrying a child in his arms away from the resort.

"She saw the colour of the pyjamas down by the feet, which were pink, which were the colour of the pyjamas that Maddie was wearing that night.

"So for the McCanns this woman is extremely important.

"It's a world exclusive."

In addition to the new footage, the show also talks to 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 is expected to reveal a private conversation he had with Gerry McCann.

It also features private investigator Joe [Joseph] Moura, a Portuguese speaker who went undercover for almost two weeks at the Praia da Luz resort. He told The CBS Early Show in New York today (fri): "I was looking for some answers in reference to the storylines that we have read and heard about. "I felt that the people who worked there, the employees, would be the ones to tell us what the routines were, the timelines [were].

"I thought it would be critical to the investigation, that's why we went there."

"Everything you read in the press is nonsense, it's trash.

"That's why we went undercover.

"The employees did not want to speak to the media.

"They were fed up with the media. They were actually misleading the media with certain stories.

"With the story we went in with, we got to befriend some of these people and they told us what really went down, and specifically the routine of the 'tapas seven' and including the McCanns."

Van Sand said that Moura's ability to speak the language helped him uncover crucial new information.

Moura went on: "What's really important in this is that the Portuguese police is not allowed to divulge any information.

"When we work a story in the States we are able to get police reports and timelines.

"We have to establish a timeline.

"By establishing that timeline we certainly could make a determination of what could have happened and what could not have happened."

 Extrêmement mauvaise qualité (la vidéo originale n'est plus en ligne), écouter sans trop regarder !

Transcript :

“Voice over: While the McCanns admit they left their children alone in an unlocked apartment, they have always maintained there were frequent checks.

Gerry McCann: We actually checked on the children extremely regularly, we did not leave them alone…

Voice over: But Joe Moura’s investigation raises serious questions about that plan. He spoke with resort employees who served the group that night

Peter Von Sant: The McCanns claim they got up about every 30 minutes to go check on the kids, is that true?

Joe Moura: No. But the witnesses are saying that there was one male who did get up and walked in the direction of going to the apartment.”

From 15:33 to 17:51:

Joseph Moura (JM): …a lot of facts in this case are not available, those facts are held strictly by the police, but as an investigator and looking into this situation, there’s many ways to skin a cat, I mean you certainly…

Voice over (VO): Joe Moura, a Boston based private eye, has worked cases in Portugal.

JM: I was born in Portugal so I speak Portuguese fluently.

VO: 48 Hours hired Moura to go undercover at the Ocean Club.

JM (speaking to Tapas bartender): “Hello, a gente paga quando vem para trás, ok?”

VO: His assignment, determine if Maddie was abducted or if her parents were involved. He familiarised himself with the layout of the resort, the McCann’s apartment and its proximity to the Tapas bar, where the McCanns ate that night.

JM (speaking to Tapas waiter): “Hey, how are you?”

VO: He immediately discovered something that raised doubts about the McCanns original story.

Gerry McCann (GM): It’s a similar scenario to dining in your garden, we were very close…

VO: ‘Close enough’ the McCanns told authorities that they could watch the door of their apartment while at dinner.

Peter Von Sant (PVS): You sat at the very table where the McCanns were eating and drinking, correct?
JM: And more than once, yes.

PVS: Could you see those sliding doors?

JM: It’s impossible. There is a wall, there’s hedges on top of that wall. They would have absolutely no possibility of seeing someone going in or out of that apartment from where they were that evening.

VO: After befriending employees...

JM (speaking to the Tapas bartender): “…tavas, pá… tavas mais…”

VO: …Moura uncovered important details of the McCanns and their friends’ dinner routine… [here the video seems to have been cut off] …important details of the McCanns and their friends’ dinner routine.
JM: Their routine was similar, they arrived at 08:30 for dinner and then they would stay until 12, 12:30 am. We even know, for example, how many bottles of wine they had…

PVS: How many?

JM: Well, they had been reported in the media they had been drinking 14 bottles of wine but my sources say no, it was 6 or 7 bottles of wine routinely every evening.

VO: Joe Moura is not the only person focusing in on the McCanns’ nightly routine at the Ocean Club…

From 30:53 to 36:35

JM (speaking to Tapas waiter): “…relaxed and smiling today, how are you?”

VO: Throughout his time of working under cover for 48 Hours, no one at the Ocean Club ever discovered who Joe Moura really was.

JM: My strategy was to first build confidence, I had to infiltrate, you know what I mean?

VO: Moura focused on what happened at this dinner table on May the 3rd, where the McCanns and friends would meet.

JM: They had a table reserved for the nine of them every evening…

PVS: So night after night, this was the pattern… they, they did their things during the day and then all the adults would gather at that restaurant to eat and drink?

JM: That was the routine.

PVS: Was there ever a time that the kids were… were included?

JM: No, the routine was just adults.

VO: While the McCanns admit they left their children alone in an unlocked apartment, they have always maintained there were frequent checks.

GM: We actually checked on the children extremely regularly, we did not leave them alone…

VO: But Joe Moura’s investigation raises serious questions about that plan. He spoke with resort employees who served the group that night.

PVS: The McCanns claim they got up about every 30 minutes to go check on the kids, is that true?

JM: No. But the witnesses are saying that there was one male who did get up and walked in the direction of going to the apartment.

VO: But witnesses were serving others that night, so they may not have seen all the comings and goings.
JM: What the employees are saying is that you may think you’re checking every 15 minutes but when you’re opening… you’re pouring your wine, you’re having your after-dinner coffees, 15 minutes goes by awful fast, so you’re really not keeping track of what the real time is.

VO: Joe suggests that after 5 nights of going out and leaving the kids behind, the parents had developed a false sense of security.

JM: It’s a situation, there’s a pattern, there’s a habit, they did it once, they did it twice, there was no problem, they checked on their own children, again no problems, guess what, on the sixth night there was a problem.

VO: Employees also told Moura that the McCanns were acting normally that night, something he believes would not be possible if they had just killed their daughter.

JM: You’re saying that they killed their daughter, they were able to go join their… other friends, having dinner like nothing happened? I’m not buying it, it didn’t happen, that’s a crazy thought, and it’s ludicrous…

Reporter of unidentified TV station: Traces of the child’s DNA have been found in a car rented by the parents…

Voice of unidentified reporter: …reports of blood and hair samples…

VO: For months the Portuguese police and the McCanns have been waiting for the final results from DNA samples that were collected from their rental car, a Renault Scenic.

Jon Corner (JC): What’s ironic here is that when the Renault was, was taken away to be forensically tested and Kate and Gerry were massively optimistic, they thought ‘oh they might… they must have a clue, they must have a lead’.

VO: Family friend Jon Corner knows that car well…

Kate McCann: “Hi, Jon...”

VO: …he filmed the McCanns driving it when they were still in Portugal.

JC: That’s the vehicle that’s been used to not only move the kids around from place to place but also to get… get out to the airport to pick up family and friends. You’ve got a vehicle that’s clocked a lot of miles.

VO: Once their transportation, the McCann’s rental car has reportedly become a key part of the case against them. Numerous press accounts claim Madeleine’s DNA and fluid from a corpse were found in the back of the car. And what makes it so confusing is the fact the car was rented 25 days after Madeleine vanished.

PVS: There’s one theory that Kate and Gerry rented a car, drove to a place where they had stored Maddie’s body, either in a refrigerator or in a shallow grave, took her somewhere else and disposed of her. 

Susan Healy (SH): This is the daughter that Kate and Gerry waited years for, that Kate and Gerry idolised and that Kate and Gerry would have laid down their own lives for, it’s absolutely bizarre… I mean there’s no way that’s happened, there’s no way…

PVS: Are they worried that evidence has been planted?

SH: I worry that evidence has been planted.

VO: Independent DNA experts say that testing should have been completed long ago but police sources have told 48 Hours that the DNA is inconclusive and will not solve this case.

JM: If there was strong DNA evidence, strong forensic evidence, somebody would have been charged and… they would’ve gone to court with it. They don’t have it, is my opinion, if they had it, it would’ve come out.

SH: All I know is that Kate and Gerry tell me all the time ‘mum, there’s nothing that can come back’, everything, they say, can be explained by other means.

VO: Joe Moura agrees.

JM: Whatever they are as parents, whatever they are as human beings, they’re not killers of their daughter.

PVS: Based on your investigation, the real time spent at that resort, talking to the real people who work there and observed the McCanns, what is the truth?

JM: The child was abducted. It was the perfect situation, a solid routine by the parents, and an apartment that was not locked. Easy access, easy access… gone.

US TV programme airs never seen before video footage of Kate and Gerry MC

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.

Bombshell McCann Reports Disputed

Top Private Eye: No Way Woman Saw Abductor, Or Prober Hired By Parents Knows Who Has Her

2007 Nov 19

A leading private investigator who went undercover for 48 Hours Mystery takes issue with a woman's claim that she saw what may have been little Madeleine McCann being carried off by her kidnapper.

He also dismisses the assertion by an investigator hired by the 4-year-old British girl's parents that he knows who took Maddie and how, and where her abductor is now.

He went on to say he believes Maddie is dead, and it doesn't appear her parents were involved in the crime.

She disappeared at a Portuguese resort almost seven months ago when her parents left her alone in the family's suite while they ate dinner out.

48 Hours Mystery spent months probing the case, going undercover in Portugal, in search of the truth.

In a world exclusive, the show talked to a potential key witness.

Jane Tanner told the program, "As I was walking up the road, this man ... was walking across the top of the road, carrying a small child. And the thing that I noticed the most was he was holding her, and I could see her bare feet . . . and the bottom of the pajamas. ... It was just complete shock and complete horror that, you know, I might have seen Madeline being abducted."

After months of reported "Maddie" sightings, Francisco Marco, a Spanish investigator hired by a supporter of the McCanns, is asserting, "We're 100 percent sure that she is alive. ... I know the kidnapper and we know where he is. We know who he is. And we know how he has done it."

When pressed, Marco claimed he couldn't say any more while working the case.

Maddie' mother, Kate McCann, insists, "I strongly believe that Madeleine is out there."

But Joseph Moura, the private eye hired by 48 Hours Mystery says he disregards the claims from both Tanner and Marco.

On The Early Show Monday, Moura told co-anchor Hannah Storm he doesn't believe Marco, and described Marco's statements as "pretty ridiculous."

A member of the public claims to have seen Maddy two days after her abduction in central Portugal, in a van with a man and woman and, perhaps, another man.

Moura was also having none of that, saying it wasn't likely.

"The police had 160 police officers working on this case. If this was a set of facts consistent with the real case, they would have identified this person by now," Moura said.

But he indicated he doesn't feel Maddie's parents were involved in her disappearance.

"Having worked the case and been there to identify a timeline, which was the real important part of this case, the timeline -- was there a window of opportunity for these people to have committed some type of crime and then dispose of the body? We find that the timeline doesn't fit.

"They couldn't possibly have been involved, whether it was accidental or not, they would have had to dispose of the body and there just wasn't enough time."

Moura noted that Maddie's parents were out to dinner five nights in a row with the same people, saying, "They had set a pattern. Every night was 8:30 sharp that they had reservations at the restaurant, and they all went there to dinner, they had between six and seven bottles of wine, they had their dinner. So, when you start looking at that time element, looking at the waiters who served them, looking at the bartenders who brought them the bottles of wine, that's how you set up that timeframe we were talking about."

The McCanns weren't the only ones who left their kids alone at the resort at night, Moura pointed out -- all the people they dined with did, even though a babysitting service was available.

He sat at the same restaurant table the McCanns were at the night Maddie vanished, and their room isn't visible form there, Moura said, noting, "They had no visuals whatsoever."

Moura didn't think Kate McCann refusing to take a lie detector test mattered much. "I think a lie detector test is inconclusive," he said. "I wouldn't take one. I would never advise my client to take one. So, that doesn't necessarily bother me."

As for Jane Tanner, Moura told Storm she "gives a very inconsistent story. It's not a truthful story, and I'm not quite sure why she did it. I mean, the fact is that it would be impossible for all these people to be getting up, going to check on the children, going out for walks, when they had an hour-and-20-minute timeframe. They had their dinner, they had seven bottles of wine, they had their coffees. There's just not enough time to do all these things. She never left their table that night."