The Madeleine McCann case

Madeleine McCann

When Madeleine McCann's parents put her down to sleep and went out to eat with friends while on holiday in Portugal in at a tapas bar approximately 50 meters from their apartment, they never thought that their 3-year-old daughter would be snatched from their room. While the McCann's immediately reported their daughter's disappearance to Portuguese authorities, massive procedural errors including failure to secure the crime scene, contaminating the scene, and failure to collect evidence have impeded efforts to locate or determine if Madeleine was alive at the time of her disappearance. Portuguese and Scotland Yard continue to probe into Madeleine's disappearance six years after her disappearance as new evidence and eyewitness testimony surfaces.

Madeleine McCann's Disappearance

Madeleine McCann was less than a week from turning 4-years-old when she disappeared from the apartment her family was renting while on holiday in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007. The McCanns, on holiday from Rothley, Leicestershire, left their three sleeping children, Madeleine and her twin siblings, in their apartment while they dined with friends at a tapas restaurant 50 meters away from the restaurant (Grice, 2013). Although the McCanns periodically checked in on their sleeping children, when Kate McCann went back to check on them around 10:00 PM she found that Madeleine was missing. While there were several eyewitness accounts claiming that a man was seen carrying away a child matching Madeleine's description the night she disappeared, egregious missteps by the Portuguese police resulted in the loss of possibly valuable forensic evidence and delays in the investigation.

One of the largest errors committed by the Portuguese police was the failure to collect evidence and secure the crime scene immediately. It was revealed in November 2007, six months after Madeleine's disappearance, that "[d]etectives failed to send her bedding for analysis, even though an abductor could have left fibres, fingerprints or DNA on it" (Allen, 2007). Additionally, "[b]y the time officers returned to the Ocean Club apartment more than 24 hours after Madeleine's disappearance, cleaners at the holiday complex had washed the sheets, blankets, and pillowcase," effectively destroying any and all evidence that may have been left behind (Allen, 2007). Two days after Madeleine's disappearance, Portuguese authorities finally release a sketch of the suspect and "reveal they believe Madeleine was abducted but is still alive and in Portugal" (Madeleine McCann: timeline of her disappearance, 2013). In October, the McCanns release a sketch "drawn by an FBI-trained expert" based on Jane Tanner's eyewitness testimony (Madeleine McCann: timeline of her disappearance, 2013).

In addition to failing to recover or plan, police also failed to contain the crime scene and any viable or vital forensic samples were "contaminated with ash from officers' cigarettes" (Allen, 2007). Physical evidence that may have been collected was also trampled by upwards of 50 people, "who left shoe marks and fingerprints" at the scene, further contaminating it. The police also allowed the McCanns to remove their belongings, and any evidence that may have been collected from the room, to another room, further destroying the crime scene (Allen, 2007).

In August 2007, three months after Madeleine's disappearance and after another family had stayed in the apartment, British sniffer dogs found "the "scent of death" and microscopic traces of blood" (Allen, 2007; Gammel, 2007). On the 100th day of Madeleine's disappearance, police spokesman Chief Inspector Olegario Sousa "went on television to reveal Madeleine could be dead -- without telling her family first" (Gammel, 2007).