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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...
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…
References
Allen, V. (2007, 16 November). Madeleine: How the police ruined the forensic evidence in her bedroom. The Daily Mail Online. Accessed 19 August 2013, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-494203/Madeleine-How-police-ruined-forensic-evidence-bedroom.html
Gammell, C. (2007, 5 September). Madeleine police handed forensic evidence. The Telegraph. Accessed 19 August 2013, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1562217/Madeleine-police-handed-forensic-evidence.html
Grice, E. (2013, 15 April). Kate McCann: 'It's dreadful living with this void.' The Telegraph.
Accessed 19 August 2013, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/9995377/Kate-McCann-Its-dreadful-living-with-this-void.html
Accessed 19 August 2013, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/madeleinemccann/timeline/10159772/Madeleine-McCann-timeline-of-her-disappearance.html
(2007, 11 September). Fox News. Accessed 19 August 2013, from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,296371,00.html
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