Читать книгу Missing - Every Year, Thousands of People Vanish Without Trace. Here are the True Stories Behind Some of These Mysteries - Rose Rouse - Страница 9

It’s Madeleine McCann’s fourth birthday, 12 May 2007. A white card with the words MUMMY, DADDY, SEAN AND AMELIE WILL SEE YOU SOON is tied to a pink balloon and released into the pale blue sky in Leicestershire, not far from the village of Rothley where the McCann family live. Her great uncle, Brian Kennedy, is responsible for releasing that balloon and the 39 others, which fill the sky with their pinkness and their prayers of hope.

The awful truth is that Madeleine isn’t actually with her mummy, daddy and twin siblings to celebrate this birthday because she was abducted nine days earlier.

The McCanns are a modern 30-something, middle-class couple with three children. Gerry McCann is a consultant cardiologist; Kate McCann is a GP. At home, they have a nanny because they both work. At the end of April 2007, they flew to the Algarve in Portugal with a group of friends and their children for a two-week holiday. They were all staying in apartments at the Mark Warner Ocean Club Resort at Praia da Luz. Everything was wonderful – the kids had activity clubs, there was a beach nearby, the adults could mix playing with their children and having some time on their own – until the unimaginable happened.

On Thursday, 3 May, the McCanns were eating dinner with their group of eight friends in the resort’s tapas restaurant, which Gerry described as ‘like having dinner in your garden’. What he meant was that the restaurant was a stone’s throw away from their apartment. As usual, the children – Madeleine and the two-year-old twins – were asleep in one of the bedrooms and the McCanns were checking to see that they were fine every half an hour. Just as they had done most evenings. Just as their friends were all doing. They had decided not to use the resort’s babysitting service because they didn’t want strangers to be involved with caring for their children. They also left the patio doors open, which allowed easy access to the bedroom where the children were all sleeping. Viewed retrospectively, this may appear to be a strange decision to make, but the McCanns thought they were in a secure haven and they considered it less of a fire hazard to leave the doors open.

At 9.30pm, Gerry checked on their three children and found they were all sleeping peacefully. However, at 10pm, when Kate went to check, Madeleine had disappeared. She was no longer in her bed. Gerry and Kate were immediately plunged into a terrifying new universe; a dark, dark place that they had never in their worst nightmares imagined. Their gorgeous little girl – who would become famous through the photograph released showing her blonde and smiling by the swimming pool, radiating happiness on the afternoon of 3 May – was missing and they had no idea where she was. They knew straight away that she had been abducted rather than wandered off on her own.

Within ten minutes, the police were called. Within 24 hours, the entire village, tourists and locals alike, were searching for Madeleine. Sniffer dogs were brought in and the border police with Spain were notified. Yet accusations that the Portuguese police were not doing enough quickly began to appear in the press. The media arrived in Praia da Luz realising that here was a story that would touch the hearts of people everywhere. At this stage, however, not even the journalists foresaw how big Madeleine’s story would become. There was something primordial about a stolen child – the story hit us at an emotional level that we can’t rationalise away. It encapsulates all our very worst fears.

The McCanns fell into uncharted waters where shock, anguish, fear and guilt were all horribly present. Somehow they managed to function throughout the terrible time. Both parents talked about their terror and despair. ‘The worst feeling was helplessness and being completely out of control of anything in terms of getting Madeleine back,’ Gerry explains. However, Gerry and Kate managed to garner ‘some strength from somewhere’.

Close relatives flew in to support them, including Madeleine’s godmothers and Kate’s parents, and they started to get thousands of messages of support from people – people that they didn’t know, but who cared passionately about their plight. People everywhere took the McCanns into their hearts and poured out feelings of love and empathy. This incredible support was to give the McCanns the strength to stay positive when it would have been so easy to sink into the mire of hopelessness. Of course, they knew that they had stay strong for the twins, plus they were practising Catholics so they drew hugely upon their faith for support too. The church nearby, Nossa Senhora da Luz, became a sanctuary for them and a place where the local community in Praia da Luz could show them love and support as well.

In those first few days, Gerry and Kate appeared on TV to make a brief but heartbreaking appeal to whoever had stolen Madeleine from them. Looking tired and emotionally drained, Kate sat by her husband as he said, ‘We would like to say a few words to the person who is with our Madeleine or has been with her. Madeleine is a bright, sunny and caring little girl. She is so special. Please, please do not hurt her. Please do not scare her. Please let us know where to find her or put her in a place of safety and tell somebody about it. We beg you to let Madeleine come home. We need our Madeleine. Sean and Amelie need Madeleine and she needs us. Please give our little girl back. Por favor, devolva a nossa menina.’

Family liaison officers from Leicestershire Police flew out to Portugal. Criticism was levelled at the Portuguese police by Madeleine’s aunt, Philomena, or Phil, who was Gerry’s sister and worked as a teacher. Phil was incensed that the police there seemed to have initially played down the disappearance and hadn’t released any details of a suspect. It transpired later that one of the McCann’s holiday companions actually saw a man carrying something that seemed to be a child on the evening of Madeleine’s abduction, but nothing had been done about it. The Portuguese system of investigation works in a completely different way. In the UK, the police give out as much information as possible in order to recover children quickly. Portuguese police have to abide by their country’s law of judicial secrecy, which means virtually no information can be released without risk of jeopardising a trial. This was very frustrating for the McCann family. Days afterwards, Gerry referred to the ‘void of information’ during the initial period as being very painful for them. There also started to be intimations in the press around this time that this could be an abduction by a paedophile ring.

On Sunday, 6 May, there was a Mother’s Day service at the local church and Kate broke down as she expressed her gratitude for the community’s support. On the Monday, the Portuguese press reported that the abductors were suspected to be British, then later on the police gave a press conference in which they said Madeleine was being held locally. There were requests for photographs from tourists who might have snapped Madeleine. A couple were reported to have been seen at a petrol station with a blonde girl.

Five days had passed since Madeleine had gone missing and more and more people were becoming involved. In her home village back in Leicestershire, people held a silent vigil with prayers for her safe return, and football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo made a TV appeal. Lots of supposed sightings of Madeleine were coming in and the British ambassador defended the Portuguese police’s investigation. After a few days, local searches in the surrounding countryside were wound down so that the investigation could focus on finding suspects. Trauma counsellors were flown out by the holiday company, Mark Warner.

Somehow the McCanns found fortitude and determination in the middle of the chaos. They decided to take charge of the huge media interest in a way which would really help them find Madeleine. They made up their minds that they had to stay positive so that they could get the best results. There was a distinct change in their approach and the change came about because Madeleine had not yet been found. The McCanns became focused on keeping their daughter in the news in the belief that this would increase the likelihood that she would be found. They were desperate, but they channelled their desperation into positive action.

This was something quite new. People in this kind of turmoil usually retreat behind closed doors, feeling too vulnerable to let their intense emotions be on show for the media. The McCanns courageously turned the standard approach on its head. Kate appeared again and again looking wan and distraught, always clutching Madeleine’s distinctive cuddly toy cat. She looked as though she was in another universe and she was. They allowed camera crews to follow them around because their mission was to keep their daughter in the headlines in order to find her. There was some criticism of them leaving their children alone but the media were mostly kind and more than willing to participate.

On 11 May, Gerry stated that their intention was ‘to leave no stone unturned’ in their search for their daughter. The quote headed their official website, www.findmadeleine.com, which went on to attract over 100 million hits within a few weeks. Every parent identified with their desire to find their daughter safe and well. And with their intention to do everything possible to make that happen. David Beckham made a television appeal: ‘If you have seen this little girl, please get in touch with the local authorities or police with any genuine information.’

Madeleine’s fourth birthday fell nine days after she was snatched from her bed. The evening before there was a poignant late-night vigil in the local church, with 300 people showing their support. The next day, the McCanns took the opportunity to ask everyone to redouble their efforts. Gerry also acknowledged the offers of support being made daily and said it was this ‘that keeps us strong and gives us hope. On Madeleine’s birthday, please keep looking, please keep praying, please help to bring Madeleine home.’ In Leicestershire, pink balloons were released in her honour, while in Portugal her parents took time privately with their twins to mark this special and tragic day. They had bought Madeleine a green doll – green being the colour that symbolises hope in Portugal. Every day, the McCanns could be seen wearing green and yellow somewhere; often, it was Kate’s hair ribbons and Gerry’s wristbands. They wanted the world to see they were making a demonstration of their feelings of hope.

Friend and fitness instructor Nicola Gill told the press that the McCann’s two-year-old twins Sean and Amelie blew kisses at the TV when they saw their sister’s face. They were too young to know what was going on but they’d noticed that Madeleine wasn’t around. They’d been told that she’d gone on a little trip. It also became apparent that the McCanns were not thinking of returning to England in the near future. ‘Today, Madeleine’s birthday, was their hardest day,’ says Nicola Gill. ‘They are not coming home unless Maddy is with them.’

Madeleine’s aunt, Philomena, had the brilliant idea of making a poster that could be downloaded from the internet. Ideas on increasing awareness about the abduction were coming in all the time. Much was made of Madeleine’s right eye, in which the black pupil runs into the blue-green iris. It was a distinctive feature clearly visible in photographs and appears on the website and posters. ‘We want to make the most of it,’ said her mother. ‘We know her hair could be cut or dyed.’

Her birthday emphasised the enormity of their loss, but offers of help kept arriving. Billionaire businessman Philip Green offered the use of his private jet plus money. A reward totalling £2.5 million was offered for information leading to her safe return, with Richard Branson, author JK Rowling and Simon Cowell among those contributing. Lawyers flew over from the UK and a fighting fund was started as well. Leicestershire locals tied yellow ribbons and soft toys to the railings of the war memorial in the McCanns’ home village of Rothley. This was a spontaneous outpouring of care and concern for Madeleine and the family. The war memorial was a sea of yellow and, comically in this anguish, a giant rabbit reigned over this mass show of support.

Even incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown expressed his sympathy and, at a later date, apparently contacted the Portuguese police to encourage them to release information about suspects. They did finally release the description of a suspect – although they got the height wrong – and then arrested a local English expat, 33-year-old Robert Murat. Hysterical newspaper headlines followed and the house that he shared with his mother was searched and a computer removed. Despite all the speculation, he was released without charge.

On 16 May, Gerry and Kate – who had been constantly photographed and occupying front pages, whether with pictures of them running, or playing with the twins – took questions from journalists for the first time. The information that they were keen to impart was that they believed their daughter to be alive, safe, well and looked after. It was crystal-clear that the Madeleine case was receiving unprecedented coverage, serving also to highlight how little coverage there is for the hundreds of other less media-friendly cases of missing teenagers and adults. The hope was that Madeleine’s case would bring more attention to the whole issue of missing people. ‘This case has raised awareness that “missing” is a social issue that could affect every one of us,’ said Paul Tuohy, the chief executive of Missing People. ‘We hope it has changed public perceptions. We now need the public to show support for all missing people and those left behind.’

The McCanns drew enormous wells of strength from their own prayers and those of others, as well as from the support of the media and the caring messages via the internet. They visited Portugal’s most important shrine, Fatima, where there was a special prayer service for Madeleine. Kate and Gerry were showered with hugs and kisses from the hundreds of ordinary people at the shrine. So many people shared their pain and showed they care – it was almost overwhelming. They spent an hour in one of the chapels praying on their own. Afterwards, people burst into spontaneous applause. They can’t help but be touched, but the reality is it was the 20th day that their darling daughter had been missing and, despite all the phone calls to the police and the supposed sightings, she still hadn’t been found.

On 25 May, Gerry and Kate gave their first media interview. Obviously striving to control their turbulent emotions and anguish, they admitted they felt guilty that they weren’t with her when she was abducted. ‘No one will ever feel as guilty as we do,’ they confessed, adding that they were also aware that thousands of parents also leave their children in similar circumstances. They told the interviewer that Madeleine was an extroverted, vivacious and lovely little girl who they believed will be found safe and well. They also said the holiday had been idyllic before Madeleine was taken and that she’d been having great fun with her twin brother and sister. ‘She might look like Kate,’ says Gerry, ‘but in terms of personality, she is more of a McCann. She is very fiery and often a little ringleader in the nursery and with her friends.’

They also talked about how difficult it was to have little information from the police in the first 48 hours. ‘It took us back to the darkest places, where we didn’t want to be and which ultimately didn’t help us,’ said Gerry. He talked about being ‘almost non-functioning’ for that period of time, but that communication channels had opened up since then. ‘Certainly, at the moment, we are happy about how information is conveyed to us,’ he said. They also added that it had helped tremendously when they had started to take control of the publicity around the case. Again, they stressed their thanks to all the people that they didn’t know who were doing so much to help. And they urged people to get in touch with information. ‘We believe the public will hold the key,’ he said. ‘Someone knows something.’

British police from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency had received more than 500 images, which they were cross-referencing against a database of pictures of UK paedophiles. There were reports of a sighting of a little girl seen in Morocco asking when she could see her mummy, as well as those reports of the couple at a petrol station with a little blonde girl. There was information but no clear leads. Behind the scenes, there was a lot of police activity, but the McCanns were having to plan how to find Madeleine and support themselves, not to mention their families and close friends.

They were invited to go to the Vatican and have an audience with the Pope. Being such committed Catholics, they seized the chance to receive such an important blessing and reinforcement of their own faith that Madeleine was still alive. They also realised that the world coverage of them in Rome would focus fresh attention on Madeleine’s story. Gerry and Kate took Philip Green’s offer of a private jet even though they had to leave the twins for the first time. It was difficult for them to separate, although the twins were with relatives.

In the Vatican, they were seated in the front line at the service and received a personal prayer and meeting with the Pope. They were very moved by the encounter. The Pope showed recognition when he saw their faces and he said he would pray to help them sustain their hope and determination to find Madeleine. He put his hand on the photo of Madeleine. It was 30 May, 26 days after their precious daughter’s disappearance, and they needed to gather strength all the time to nurture their determination to find her. In other circumstances, they would have relished seeing the Pope in such a private way, but their agony was too much for it to be a pleasure. They did, however, receive a tremendous lift in spirits from this religious experience.

The McCanns decided to extend their campaigning plans to cover other countries. There was a distinct feeling that Madeleine would have been taken out of Portugal very quickly. They set on visiting various places where her abductors might have taken her or where people might have returned after having been on holiday in Praia da Luz and seen something of relevance without realising it. They made their minds up to go to Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Morocco in order to increase awareness and to try to find out any additional information. Gerry stressed that it was not a tour but a series of brief visits with a purpose. It was a strange case for the public, who had never witnessed parents of the missing with such enormous resources at their disposal. It felt as if the search might turn into a global media circus. However, both parents maintained a very level-headed approach throughout.

They visited Spain straight after Rome and gave a press conference urging people to download pictures of Madeleine and share any information they had. The family of a seven-year-old boy who was abducted a couple of months earlier in Gran Canaria handed the McCanns a letter of support. Encouraged by the Spanish response to their search, they returned to the Algarve and their twins feeling as though the Spanish embraced them as if they were their own countrymen.

On the day marking a month since Madeleine’s disappearance, there was a special service in Praia da Luz. Kate broke down when a young Portuguese girl kissed her on the cheek as the congregation exchanged signs of peace. The Igreja Nossa Senhora da Luz church has been their sanctuary and the place local people have shown them enormous amounts of care, concern and love. Again and again, the McCanns returned to this church for strength and the courage to carry on. ‘It is incredibly difficult not having Madeleine here,’ said Gerry, ‘as every day and week becomes a month. We still believe she is out there and alive, and we remain positive and determined that we will find her with everyone’s help.’

Madeleine’s picture was also screened during the FA Cup final to an estimated audience of 500 million. Gordon Brown wore a yellow ribbon to demonstrate his solidarity. She has also been the cover story on scores of publications, including People magazine in the USA, where Oprah Winfrey invited the McCanns to appear on her talk show.

On 5 June, they appeared on Crimewatch in the UK, holding a pair of pink pajamas adorned with pictures of Eeyore the donkey from Winnie the Pooh, clothes identical to the ones that Madeleine was wearing when she disappeared. Kate said she hoped that Madeleine had been taken by someone who was ‘sad’ as opposed to ‘bad’ and who wouldn’t harm her. Gerry went on to give a detailed description of the suspect – seen by their friend – who had been observed carrying what was thought to be a child on the night that Madeleine disappeared. The suspect was about 35 with dark hair parted at the side and longer at the back. He wore a dark jacket.

They also appeared on TV in Berlin and were asked as part of the open interview by German journalists what they thought about the fact that more people seemed to be pointing the finger at them for the abduction. Slightly incredulous, Gerry and Kate calmly defended themselves but the accusation made headlines all over the UK. They repeated that it would only take one phone call for them to find their little girl, and encouraged people to do so. They then went on to Amsterdam to do a press conference there as well.

The Portuguese police gave the parents an update on the investigation. There were reports about DNA tests and forensic results but no conclusive news. The UK police reported 1,000 sightings and 15,000 calls.

It seemed that Gerry and Kate accepted the hunt for Madeleine might be lengthy. They intended to appoint a long-term campaign manager to maintain awareness of Madeleine’s plight. They also spoke of Madeleine’s abduction as being like a ‘bereavement’, or like ‘being diagnosed with cancer’, and admitted they had been forced to face the fear that their daughter might be dead. ‘There are a lot of mixed emotions and anger is one of them,’ said Gerry. But if you give up hope, you are basically saying she is dead. No parent would do that.’

Gerry and Kate organised some quiet time for themselves and the twins away from the glare of the media. Now they had a balancing act to achieve – keeping the semblance of normal family life going for the twins, while maintaining a focus on Madeleine until she was found. They scaled down their activities, leaving them time to expend some energy on how to develop the campaign effectively in the future.

On 22 June, balloons were released in countries all over the world from Afghanistan to South Africa to mark the 50th day of Madeleine’s disappearance. Hope was always the focus, but the police investigation and media attention brought all sorts of different difficulties and pain over the next few weeks.

Police dug up the garden belonging to the mother of suspect Robert Murat but nothing was found to link the man who had been the subject of media speculation. British detectives had flown over to join the investigation and the most disturbing development for Gerry and Kate was their discovery of blood traces in the apartment. It was flown back to the UK to undergo DNA tests.

Unfortunately, the Portuguese press leapt to the wild conclusion that Madeleine was killed there rather than abducted. Gerry and Kate found themselves the subjects of a heartless and absurd smear campaign in Portugal where they and their holiday companions were accused of being involved in Madeleine’s death. This caused unnecessary extra anguish for the devastated parents.

Amid all the cruel innuendos and crazy speculation, Gerry and Kate turned again to their faith for strength. On 11 August, to mark the 100th day of Madeleine’s disappearance, they did a series of press interviews and there was an hour-long service at Nossa Senhora da Luz. Locals and holidaymakers wore the now familiar yellow and green of hope, and Kate stood up and spoke movingly about her missing daughter. ‘Every day feels so hard without Madeleine. I could talk all day about how wonderful, how precious Madeleine is, but suffice to say we all miss her so much and our lives aren’t complete without Madeleine.’

They left the church to depressing news from the police. For the first time, the Portuguese officer leading the hunt for Madeleine admitted she could be dead. He was referring to the specks of blood found in the apartment.

No-one could possibly have foreseen what would happen to the McCanns over the next month. As reports of DNA investigations were leaked to the press, the McCanns themselves became the subject of intense scrutiny and accusation. Not just in Portugal, but in the UK as well.

On 6 September, Kate was questioned for 11 hours in Portugal and then named as an arguido (which translates as somewhere between a crucial witness and a suspect). the next day, Gerry was questioned for eight hours then named an arguido himself. It was reported that the McCanns had been under 24-hour surveillance for the previous month. The newspapers in the UK and abroad were full of speculation that Kate was shortly to be charged for Madeleine’s murder and that it was suspected that she accidentally gave Madeleine an overdose of sedatives.

The world seemed to have gone insane. What parents would put themselves through this kind of media circus if they had made this kind of tragic mistake? There were endless media reports about Madeleine’s DNA having been found under a rug in the back of the McCann’s Renault Scenic hire car (which they had hired 25 days after Madeleine’s disappearance). The implication was that they had used this car to dispose of her body. There were also reports of sniffer dogs reacting to the car, which implied that it had contained a dead body. In fact, there was a feeding frenzy of hysterical headlines.

In the midst of this media madness, the McCanns flew home to Rothley. At last, they were home. Without Madeleine, but at least they could start to return to some kind of normality with the twins.

Within four months, the McCanns had been transformed from the tragic parents of a beautiful, abducted daughter to her supposed murderers and the unprecedented coverage of this case started to show its dark side. Like celebrities who walk that difficult tightrope between adoration and decimation, the McCanns attracted the baying hounds of destruction. Indeed, Gerry announced as they returned, ‘We’ve been stitched up.’

The McCanns have now hired an impressive legal team to clear their names, as well as private detectives to keep looking for Madeleine. Richard Branson has stuck his neck out and put £100,000 into their legal fighting fund. By 20 September, the tide was turning yet again, this time in favour of the McCanns. The Portuguese admitted there was no new evidence that warranted re-interviewing them.

A new spokesman, Clarence Mitchell – who initially provided consular support – has left his job to join the McCann team because he believes so passionately in their innocence. Meanwhile, the McCanns are trying to refocus their ‘Find Madeleine’ campaign. They refuse to give up hope even now when logic is against it. They are Madeleine’s parents and, as long as there is no proof of her death, they will go on believing she is alive.

No doubt the headlines will continue. In the meantime, little Madeleine’s disappearance has touched so many different people in so many different places.

Gerry and Kate are hoping the spotlight will stay on their daughter, but will also reach out to include other missing children. They are well aware that they are not the only ones whose loved one is missing.