IS THIS THE MAN WHO SNATCHED HER?

MADELEINE MCCANN: IS THIS THE MAN WHO SNATCHED HER?




Madeleine McCann: The man Jane Tanner saw and, right, stranger on
the beach/Pic: Jamie Jones

Sunday May 16,2010

By James Murray

THIS is the sensational picture of a suspicious man on the beach which could lead to a breakthrough in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.

Snapped inadvertently in the background of a holiday photo, the mysterious man strolls along after a rain shower,
staring out to sea at Praia da Luz.
The picture was taken at the Portuguese resort days before Madeleine, then three, vanished during the evening of May 3, 2007.

Briton Gail Cooper was having lunch with family and friends in a beachside cafe and taking photos when she saw
him wandering along the beach, apparently in a world of his own.

“It was odd to see him walking around the beach alone in showery, cold weather.” she said.

Mrs Cooper, 53, added that a few hours after the snap was taken, the same man visited her at her rented villa
20 minutes’ walk from the beach. The £2million holiday property was in a quiet road near the Mark Warner complex where Madeleine and her family were staying.

During a tense conversation on the doorstep, the man sought cash with what she called “an obviously made-up story” that he was collecting money for an orphanage in a nearby town, where the children of Britons killed in a
car crash were being cared for. Just under a week after the unnerving encounter, when Mrs Cooper had returned home to Britain, Madeleine was taken from her holiday apartment.

Alarmed,
Mrs Cooper contacted British detectives because of her ­concerns about the man on the beach and handed over the photograph, taken by a ­member of her holiday party. Months later private investigators working for Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry McCann asked Mrs Cooper to work with an FBI-trained artist to create a drawing of the man she had seen at the beach and villa.


She described him as having protruding teeth, a handlebar moustache and wind-blown dark hair. In the photo the man is ­turning slightly towards the sea, so it is not possible to tell whether he has a moustache.
However,he does appear to bear a resemblance to a man the McCanns’ friend, Jane Tanner, saw walking with a child in his arms at about the time Madeleine disappeared.

Ms Tanner saw him crossing a road yards from the McCanns’ apartment and it is widely believed that he was the man who abducted Madeleine. She also worked with an artist to ­create a drawing of the man she saw. It did
not include facial features as she did not see his face.

The man Ms Tanner saw, ­walking in the glare of an orange street light, was wearing light coloured trousers and
a dark top and appears to have slightly hunched shoulders.

The man in the photo was also wearing light coloured trousers, a dark top and appears to have slightly rounded
shoulders. Mrs Cooper, of Newark, Nottinghamshire, said last night: “I am 98 per cent certain the man in the photo was the same man who made the strange visit to our ­holiday villa. His hair looks neater in the photo, but he is quite far in the background.” The picture was given to detectives in Leicestershire who are liaising with detectives in ­Portugal, but Mrs Cooper said she was never told whether the man had been identified.

“I believe it would be useful for the investigation if he was to come forward,” she added. Kate and Gerry McCann, of Rothley, Leicestershire, are hoping that new Tory Home Secretary Theresa May will call for a review of all the evidence in the case.


If you can identify the man in the photograph please call the Sunday Express on 0208 612 7073 or contact the website
­Findmadeleine.com.


http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/175407/Madeleine-McCann-Is-this-the-man-who-snatched-her-/

‘I saw Maddie in pyjamas the day after she disappeared’



A DRAMATIC sighting of missing Madeleine
McCann the day after she vanished is being urgently followed up by
private investigators.

A man has reported seeing a girl he is now sure was Maddie lying in the back of a van.



Missing ... Madeleine McCann


She was wearing pyjamas identical to the pair Maddie had on when she was abducted.
The vehicle was white - and other witnesses have recalled seeing a white van near the holiday apartment in Portugal from where she was taken. A child in pyjamas was also seen being carried by a man at the resort.

New witness Carlos Moreira, 65, has told investigators the little girl he saw was with a man and woman who looked like gipsies.

When shown a previously-unpublished e-fit of a suspect, he identified it as being the van's driver.



E-fit ... drawing of
previous suspect



A source close to Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry said last night the sighting was "highly significant" and added: "It could be a key breakthrough." Maddie, of Rothley, Leics, was three when she disappeared on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, on the Algarve, on May 3 2007.


Portuguese Mr Moreira said he only recently connected his sighting with the Maddie hunt because it was 160 miles from where she vanished. He was driving from Carregado, near Lisbon, to Alentejo on May 4 when he stopped at a snack bar in the Benavente region at 8am.


He told The Sun: "I saw a white van with the back door open. I saw a girl, lying on a pile of clothes in the back.
She was wearing a two-piece pyjama set, pink and white, or yellow. I saw her back, I could see her hands and feet.


"She moved one of her fingers but she was deeply asleep. When the van door was opened, she did not wake up, as if she was drugged." "This girl was blonde and looked around four. A woman came out of the back of the van. I noted that a strong and tall man, wearing a suit, was in front of the snack bar.


"He looked like a gipsy. He was with the woman from the van, he was younger than her. He told her off for leaving the van."


Mr Moreira said the experience stuck in his mind - but he only realised it could be useful when he saw a cop being asked on TV why roads to the north or to Spain were not blocked after Maddie vanished. He explained: "The road I saw the van on was such a route."


He said the man he saw was clean-shaven, aged 40 to 42, fat but good-looking. The woman was 60 to 65, fat with grey hair.

He contacted the private investigation team employed by Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, last week.


The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell said: "His account is being looked into. He has done the right thing in coming forward."


‘I saw Maddie in pyjamas the day after she disappeared’


Also see:
McCanns Launch Missing Child Alert System On International Missing Children's Day