Madeleine McCann: the couple who heard a child crying at night and went to help
IN “WHO SOOTHED WEEPING MADDIE, the Daily Express leads with a Madeleine McCann “exclusive”. It adds: “Police seek couple who entered McCann apartment when Madeleine was crying.”
This becomes:
Mystery couple seen going into McCanns’ flat on night before sobbing Madeleine disappeared
The night before? A couple of strangers walked into the McCanns’ apartment where a child was crying the night before that child vanished? How does the Express know it was Madeleine who was crying? Three children were in the McCanns’ apartment.
SCOTLAND YARD detectives are trying to find a middle-aged couple said to have entered Madeleine McCann’s holiday apartment to comfort her because she was crying, we can reveal today.
This looks like new news. James Murray adds:
It is believed they entered the bedroom on May 2, 2007, the evening before Madeleine disappeared from the Ocean Club at Praia da Luz on Portugal’s Algarve.
Believed? By whom? Who did they tell?
The tip-off was given by two key witnesses who were reinterviewed as part of the Yard’s two-year, £4.5million investigation.
It is already known that Pamela Fenn, who lived directly above apartment 5a, heard a child, believed to be Madeleine, crying for about an hour on the evening of May 2.
She was so concerned she rang a friend in the village to ask what to do and considered ringing Portugal’s Policia Judiciaria.
At the time, Madeleine’s mother Kate and father Gerry were dining with friends at a tapas bar some 50 yards from the apartment.
Had she only have rang the police things may well have been different for Madeleine.
An unnamed source tells the Express that a couple also heard the crying and went to help.
Pamela Fenn has since died. In 2007, The Daily Mail reported:
Pamela Fenn, 81, lives above the apartment where Madeleine disappeared and is reported to have told police she heard Madeleine screaming below. But yesterday she broke her silence to say it was “absolute rubbish” she had made any such claims to police. Mrs Fenn said: “I didn’t even know that family was in there.”
So. What Murray says is “already known” is “rubbish”.
Murray then does have some news. He says a couple, presumably the aforesaid “key witnesses” who had been staying in the same block as the McCanns, gave police a statement back in February. British police had previously spoken with them. Murray reproduces extracts from that statement. He also says the couple were never formally interviewed by Portuguese detectives. The statement tells us:
“I stood on the balcony at about 9.15 with a whisky.
“I saw people eating at the tapas bar and children in the play area. We went to bed at 10pm-ish. We were woken up by our bell ringing at 11.30pm. It was a friend of the McCanns, saying that a little girl had been abducted. The friend asked if we had a computer so they could get the media involved in the search.
“Two police were on the corner of our block, one lady said that off-duty police had come and were searching. We did see single men on mobiles while we were out who could have been police…
“We walked back up towards our apartment, a group had gathered on the corner. The McCanns were in bits, he was crying on the shoulder of a friend. She was screaming: ‘The f*****g bastards have taken her’. Finally, at around 4am, we said: ‘Is it OK if we go to bed?’ We directed this comment towards a man in a white shirt and jeans, who seemed to be authoritative.”
The couple had not seen anything suspicious:
“We have one of the best views of the whole block. We are sure of the timings. If we had seen anyone we would have remembered. We will continue to answer the Yard’s questions. We have given our fingerprints and DNA. We were happy to assist. They should be left to get on with their inquiries.”
Such are the facts…
Posted: 19th, May 2013 | In: Madeleine McCann, Reviews Comments (6) | TrackBack | Permalink
