Maddy McCann missing in Portugal

[tammyy2j]

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/view...FIND-OZ-WOMAN/

A worldwide hunt was under way last night for a Posh Spice lookalike who cops believe could be linked to Madeleine McCann’s kidnapping.



Three days after Maddie was snatched, the pretty Aussie asked a Brit stag night reveller in a Barcelona bar: “Have you got her? Have you got the child?”

Investigators believe the woman could have mistaken the innocent tripper for Madeleine’s abductor.

They are working on the theory there was a plot to kidnap the child in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz and taken by yacht to the Spanish port 880 miles away.

They also believe the photofit woman they are searching for could be linked to the yachting community who use the area where she was spotted.

This woman was seen pacing nervously up and down on the quayside outside the El Rey De La Gamba seafood restaurant in Barcelona’s trendy Port Olimpic district at 2am.

A 41-year-old businessman on his brother’s stag break approached her concerned by her “agitated state’’.

Detectives believe she mistook him for someone else and then started the bizarre conversation.

The married man kept quiet about their encounter for more than two years, fearing a row with his wife for chatting up another woman.

He was described as a “professional in a senior role” and even swore to secrecy a pal who witnessed the scene.

But six weeks ago he broke his silence and contacted private eyes hired by Madeleine’s doctor parents Kate and Gerry.

The detectives travelled to Barcelona but were unable to unearth an innocent explanation for the mysterious conversation.

Last night they made a worldwide appeal to find the woman they believe could hold the key to the mystery, which started when Madeleine vanished on May 3, 2007, days before her fourth birthday.

The mystery woman was also seen having a “heated conversation” in fluent Spanish with another person who bumped into her chair in the Irish Sailing Club bar.

When the McCanns saw an e-fit of the suspect they were stunned by her similarity to Posh. They even consulted the Beckhams before taking the decision to release the image.

Last night 35-year-old Posh’s spokesman Jo Molloy said it was “inappropriate’’ for her to comment on the investigation because it was “nothing to do with the Beckhams’’.

But pals said the celebrity couple would “do anything they could’’ to help find the missing child.

A friend said: “As loving parents themselves, they can only imagine the pain that Madeleine’s mum and dad must be going through with every passing day.

“They didn’t want to stand in the way of what could be an earth-shattering development in the case and could help bring Madeleine home.’’

Last night the Daily Star circulated posters showing the e-fit across Barcelona in the hope someone will recognise the woman.

The image was also flashed across news bulletins in Australia.

Retired police chief David Edgar, who heads the McCanns’ investigative team, urged: “Please, please contact us if you know this woman.

“She is a very significant individual. We need to speak to her urgently. It is a very strong lead.

“It was a significant conversation. I wouldn’t be doing this if not. The witness had been drinking but wasn’t drunk.

“There were other people in his group who had had more to drink than he had.

“However he had spent a lot of time with her and was able to give us a good description.

“The witness did not come forward earlier for personal reasons and I’m satisfied with those personal reasons.

“It’s a long time but this witness is very credible.

“I think he recognises he should have come forward before.”

Mr Edgar said he and colleague Arthur Cowley made urgent inquiries in Barcelona after the witness came forward but “it didn’t lead to anything’’.

Kate and Gerry were now “praying that this is the piece in the jigsaw” which helps lead them to their daughter, family spokesman Clarence Mitchell told a London press conference.

He said the couple, both doctors aged 41 from Rothley, Leics, were “fully aware’’ of the latest lead.

But he added: “They have learned from bitter experience not to get their hopes up or down with a potentially very significant lead.’’

He said the couple, who have four-year-old twins Sean and Amelia, have vowed “to continue to search for Madeleine with every breath they take”.

A spokesman for the Australian Federal Police said they would join the hunt for the woman if asked.

[Siobhan]

an another new lead that comes out 2 years later.. was this man living under a rock???

[Kim]

Couldn't agree more Siobhan. Maybe if this woman is involved and the man had come forward earlier, Maddie could have been found alive. Odds are against that now.

[Katy]

i canlt see how this will help now, had the man come sooner then maybe. Why wait two years,

[di marco]

i cant see why he waited 2 yrs, surely his wife wouldnt have minded if he was only talking to this woman?

[Hannelene]

I wonder if we will ever know what happened to her?

[Hollie-x]

Sydney woman comes forward over Maddie suspect
6 hours 22 mins ago

Print StoryAn Australian has come forward claiming to know the identity of a woman being sought by investigators probing the disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann, police in Sydney said on Saturday.

The woman spoke to detectives after a widely-publicised call for information about a woman, thought to be Australian, who is believed to hold vital clues to the case.

"On Friday afternoon, a Sydney woman provided a formal statement to detectives at a Sydney police station," a police spokesman said.

"She claims to know the identity of the woman being sought by the private investigators attached to the McCann family."

The information would be passed on to Australia's national police for investigation, he added.

Detectives told reporters in London they were seeking a "Victoria Beckham lookalike" with an Australian accent who spoke to a British man outside a bar in Barcelona three days after Madeleine vanished in 2007.

She allegedly asked him whether he was "here to deliver my new daughter," before realising he wasn't the man she was looking for, Australian media reported.

McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said hundreds of people had called investigators, both in Britain and Australia, since an identikit sketch of the woman's face was released to the press on Thursday.

Madeleine was nearly four when she went missing from her family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, a resort in the Algarve, on May 3, 2007 while her parents dined with friends nearby.


From BT homepage.

[Abigail]

I wonder if we will ever know what happened to her?

Probably not. I don't think her body will ever be found, and I say body because I realistically don't think she's still alive.

As no ransom was ever demanded for her, she was either stolen to order (paedophile gang possibly) or kidnapped with the idea of posting a ransom but something went wrong and she was killed.

[Hannelene]

I can't understand why did her family leave her home alone in that kind of way? You wouldn't do that in the UK so why do it on holiday?

[Kim]

i cant see why he waited 2 yrs, surely his wife wouldnt have minded if he was only talking to this woman?

Exactly. And whatever the man's wife's reaction was when he did tell people that he had seen the woman, I'm sure it will have been the same whether he'd said what he'd seen from the off or waited until now. If he'd been open about what he'd seen back then too then surely people would have had higher opinions of him, especially if his information had resulted in Maddie being found; now he just looks like a coward.