WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.859 If you were anywhere near a newsstand, a television 00:00:02.859 --> 00:00:06.900 set, or even a water cooler back in May of 2007, 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.039 you don't just remember the story we're covering 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:14.080 today. You lived it. You really did. It wasn't 00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:16.480 just another news cycle. It was, well, it was 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:19.269 a cultural saturation event. It was the kind 00:00:19.269 --> 00:00:21.429 of story that stopped being about the individuals 00:00:21.429 --> 00:00:24.989 and started being about us, how we parent, how 00:00:24.989 --> 00:00:27.390 we travel. How we consume media, for sure, and 00:00:27.390 --> 00:00:29.929 how we define safety. Absolutely. It really was 00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:31.469 a defining moment. You look back at the late 00:00:31.469 --> 00:00:33.969 2000s. In this case, it just stands out as this 00:00:33.969 --> 00:00:36.630 singular event. The Daily Telegraph called it 00:00:36.630 --> 00:00:38.570 the most heavily reported missing person case 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:40.990 in modern history. And you know what? Honestly, 00:00:41.130 --> 00:00:43.579 looking at the stack of files we have here. That 00:00:43.579 --> 00:00:45.299 might actually be an understatement. It was a 00:00:45.299 --> 00:00:48.240 global obsession. It really was. We are, of course, 00:00:48.259 --> 00:00:49.780 talking about the disappearance of Madeleine 00:00:49.780 --> 00:00:51.799 McCann. And I want to set the ground rules for 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:54.079 this deep dive right up front. OK. We are not 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:56.759 here to rehash the tabloids. We aren't here to 00:00:56.759 --> 00:00:58.780 go down those rabbit holes of Internet conspiracy 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:01.200 forums where, you know, people are analyzing 00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:04.500 pixels and grainy photos. No. Our mission is 00:01:04.500 --> 00:01:06.980 to cut through all of that noise. Exactly. The 00:01:06.980 --> 00:01:09.980 noise is what has made this case so difficult 00:01:09.980 --> 00:01:13.719 to understand for. what, 18 years now? We want 00:01:13.719 --> 00:01:15.439 to strip all that away. So where are we getting 00:01:15.439 --> 00:01:17.739 our information from? Well, we're basing this 00:01:17.739 --> 00:01:20.549 discussion on a... pretty comprehensive stack 00:01:20.549 --> 00:01:23.849 of primary sources. We have summaries of the 00:01:23.849 --> 00:01:26.430 original Portuguese police files, the massive 00:01:26.430 --> 00:01:29.909 British review known as Operation Grange, forensic 00:01:29.909 --> 00:01:33.650 reports that were often very badly misreported 00:01:33.650 --> 00:01:35.930 at the time, and the chilling details that have 00:01:35.930 --> 00:01:38.390 emerged more recently from the German investigators. 00:01:38.769 --> 00:01:41.670 So our goal here is to reconstruct the timeline, 00:01:41.950 --> 00:01:45.530 hour by agonizing hour. We want to look at where 00:01:45.530 --> 00:01:48.290 the investigation failed, both the investigative 00:01:48.290 --> 00:01:50.890 failures on the ground and the cultural clashes. 00:01:51.129 --> 00:01:53.969 Which were huge. And we really need to examine 00:01:53.969 --> 00:01:56.329 the scientific evidence or sometimes the lack 00:01:56.329 --> 00:01:58.549 of it that turned this into a mystery that, well, 00:01:58.650 --> 00:02:00.909 that still haunts the world. And to do that, 00:02:00.909 --> 00:02:03.090 we have to start by setting the scene. Because 00:02:03.090 --> 00:02:05.170 context is everything here. If you don't get 00:02:05.170 --> 00:02:07.569 the location, you don't get how this could have 00:02:07.569 --> 00:02:10.349 happened in the first place. Right. Let's go 00:02:10.349 --> 00:02:14.860 back to May 2007. We are in Praia de Luz, Portugal. 00:02:15.699 --> 00:02:17.719 Now, if you haven't been there, paint a picture 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:20.199 for us. This isn't some bustling, gritty city. 00:02:20.360 --> 00:02:23.500 Oh, far from it. Praia de Luz is a small village 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.099 in the Algarve region. At the time, the population 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:28.919 was only about 1 ,000 people. It's sleepy. It's 00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:31.919 sunny. Redress. Totally. Whitewashed buildings, 00:02:32.259 --> 00:02:35.460 cobblestones. But crucially, it had a nickname 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:38.159 back then. They called it Little Britain. Little 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:41.400 Britain. That says a lot about the vibe right 00:02:41.400 --> 00:02:43.500 there. It does. It was incredibly popular with 00:02:43.500 --> 00:02:45.520 UK tourists. You could walk down the street and 00:02:45.520 --> 00:02:47.379 just hear English being spoken everywhere. You 00:02:47.379 --> 00:02:49.159 could get an English breakfast at the cafes. 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:51.639 It felt familiar. And because it felt familiar, 00:02:51.759 --> 00:02:54.280 it felt safe. That's the key. It's the kind of 00:02:54.280 --> 00:02:56.460 place where you instinctively lower your guard 00:02:56.460 --> 00:02:59.419 because it feels just like home, but, you know, 00:02:59.479 --> 00:03:01.819 with better weather. That false sense of security 00:03:01.819 --> 00:03:04.039 is really so central to the beginning of this 00:03:04.039 --> 00:03:07.599 story. So into this scene, enter the McCann family, 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:10.680 Kate and Jerry, both physicians from Leicestershire. 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:12.599 Yeah, they're there on a spring break holiday. 00:03:12.939 --> 00:03:15.500 They arrived with a group of friends, seven friends 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:17.680 to be exact. This group would later be dubbed 00:03:17.680 --> 00:03:20.340 by the media as the Toppa Seven. Right. It was 00:03:20.340 --> 00:03:22.360 a large party, multiple adults, eight children 00:03:22.360 --> 00:03:25.280 in total. The McCanns had their three kids with 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.280 them. Madeline, who was three, just days away 00:03:28.280 --> 00:03:30.699 from her fourth birthday. Almost four. Yeah. 00:03:31.099 --> 00:03:34.300 and her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, 00:03:34.340 --> 00:03:36.919 who are two. So they're staying at the Ocean 00:03:36.919 --> 00:03:40.360 Club Resort. And specifically, they're in apartment 00:03:40.360 --> 00:03:45.159 5A. Now the core mystery, the fact that it's 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:48.159 driven 18 years of speculation, documentaries, 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:51.939 podcasts, everything, is chillingly simple. It 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:54.800 is. A three -year -old girl vanishes from a ground 00:03:54.800 --> 00:03:56.699 floor apartment while her parents are eating 00:03:56.699 --> 00:03:59.400 dinner 55 meters away. 55 meters. We're going 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:00.939 to come back to that distance a lot. It's nothing. 00:04:01.139 --> 00:04:02.860 It's the length of a swimming pool, basically. 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:05.000 It's the distance between a nice dinner with 00:04:05.000 --> 00:04:08.669 friends and a lifetime of regret. Let's unpack 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:12.110 the geography of Apartment 5A. Because when you 00:04:12.110 --> 00:04:14.030 read the files, the layout of this place, it 00:04:14.030 --> 00:04:16.730 just matters so much. It's absolutely crucial. 00:04:16.949 --> 00:04:20.629 So Apartment 5A is a ground floor unit, and it's 00:04:20.629 --> 00:04:23.350 on a corner of the middle block. That corner 00:04:23.350 --> 00:04:25.490 location is vital because it means there's public 00:04:25.490 --> 00:04:28.050 access from two sides. There's a front door that 00:04:28.050 --> 00:04:30.470 opens onto the street, and then there are patio 00:04:30.470 --> 00:04:32.910 doors at the back that lead out towards the pool 00:04:32.910 --> 00:04:35.189 and the restaurant area. And the layout inside. 00:04:35.470 --> 00:04:37.480 Where were the kids sleeping? The children's 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:39.420 bedroom was at the front of the apartment right 00:04:39.420 --> 00:04:41.620 next to that street side door. The parents' bedroom 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:44.620 was at the back. Now, on the night of May 3rd, 00:04:44.620 --> 00:04:47.199 the parents kept the front door, the street door 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:50.839 locked. Which makes sense. Of course. But, and 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:52.740 this is the detail that has been debated in living 00:04:52.740 --> 00:04:55.620 rooms for nearly two decades, they left the rear 00:04:55.620 --> 00:04:59.199 patio doors closed but unlocked. Unlocked. Well, 00:04:59.339 --> 00:05:02.329 in today's world. Saying that out loud sounds 00:05:02.329 --> 00:05:05.649 insane. Yeah. But in 2007 in Little Britain in 00:05:05.649 --> 00:05:09.149 a family resort. Why did they do that? It was 00:05:09.149 --> 00:05:11.410 purely about logistics. It was about access. 00:05:11.629 --> 00:05:14.029 The McCann's were dining at the resort's open 00:05:14.029 --> 00:05:15.949 -air tapas restaurant. That's where the Tapas 00:05:15.949 --> 00:05:19.529 7 nickname comes from. And they had this checking 00:05:19.529 --> 00:05:22.149 system set up with their friends. They didn't 00:05:22.149 --> 00:05:24.050 want to have to carry a set of keys and walk 00:05:24.050 --> 00:05:26.089 all the way around the block to the front door 00:05:26.089 --> 00:05:28.009 every time they did a check. They just wanted 00:05:28.009 --> 00:05:29.949 to be able to slip in and out easily. Exactly. 00:05:30.610 --> 00:05:33.290 Slip in through the patio doors, check the kids, 00:05:33.509 --> 00:05:36.029 and slip back out to the dinner table. It was 00:05:36.029 --> 00:05:38.949 the path of least resistance. So the unlocked 00:05:38.949 --> 00:05:42.069 door was about convenience for them. Yes, it 00:05:42.069 --> 00:05:44.829 was convenience. Yeah. And tragically, it may 00:05:44.829 --> 00:05:46.610 have been the path of least resistance for someone 00:05:46.610 --> 00:05:49.069 else, too. Let's talk about this checking system. 00:05:49.660 --> 00:05:51.939 They're at the restaurant. You said it's 55 meters 00:05:51.939 --> 00:05:54.699 away as the crow flies. Right. If you walked 00:05:54.699 --> 00:05:57.279 it, because of the winding path and the landscaping, 00:05:57.319 --> 00:05:59.199 it's more like an 80 meter walk. It took about 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.879 a minute or so. They specifically requested a 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:04.639 table at the restaurant that had a view of the 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:06.720 apartments. But they couldn't actually see their 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.519 door, could they? No. And that's a common misconception. 00:06:09.939 --> 00:06:12.160 They couldn't see the specific doors of apartment 00:06:12.160 --> 00:06:15.100 5A from their table. There was a hedge and a 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:17.379 wall in the way. They could see the block of 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:19.810 apartments, but not the door itself. So they 00:06:19.810 --> 00:06:22.050 aren't watching the door. They can't see if someone 00:06:22.050 --> 00:06:25.110 goes in or out. They are relying entirely on 00:06:25.110 --> 00:06:27.920 these physical checks. Roughly every 30 to 40 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:29.899 minutes, one of the parents from the group would 00:06:29.899 --> 00:06:32.720 get up, walk back, check their own kids, maybe 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:34.980 listen at the window or go inside, and then come 00:06:34.980 --> 00:06:37.600 back. It sounds organized. It does. It sounds 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:39.040 like a routine. And it was a routine they'd been 00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.100 using. It was. It was a system they had used 00:06:41.100 --> 00:06:42.720 for the previous nights of the holiday without 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.819 incident. And on the night of May 3rd, that routine 00:06:45.819 --> 00:06:49.540 started at 8 .30 p .m., 20 .30. The children 00:06:49.540 --> 00:06:51.759 are asleep. And we know what Madeline was wearing. 00:06:52.060 --> 00:06:54.500 We do, from the reports. She's in those pink 00:06:54.500 --> 00:06:57.019 and white Eeyore pajamas, short sleeves, frilled 00:06:57.019 --> 00:07:00.060 hems. She has her favorite soft toy, Cuddle Cat, 00:07:00.259 --> 00:07:02.759 and a pink blanket on the bed with her. Okay, 00:07:02.779 --> 00:07:05.879 so 8 .30 p .m., the parents head to dinner. When 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:09.199 is the first check? The first check is at 9 .05 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:12.639 p .m. Jerry McCann goes back. He enters through 00:07:12.639 --> 00:07:14.939 the unlocked patio doors, goes into the bedroom. 00:07:15.160 --> 00:07:17.339 Everything looks fine. The children are asleep. 00:07:17.459 --> 00:07:21.290 But he notices something a little... A detail 00:07:21.290 --> 00:07:23.649 that didn't seem important at the time but becomes 00:07:23.649 --> 00:07:27.189 huge later on. Exactly. He specifically remembers 00:07:27.189 --> 00:07:29.230 leaving the children's bedroom door slightly 00:07:29.230 --> 00:07:33.230 ajar, just a crack, maybe 45 degrees, to let 00:07:33.230 --> 00:07:35.569 a bit of light in from the living room. And when 00:07:35.569 --> 00:07:38.430 he walks in. When he walks in at 9 .05, the door 00:07:38.430 --> 00:07:41.810 is wide open. Okay. So knowing what we know now, 00:07:41.889 --> 00:07:44.009 that's the first red flag. That's a huge red 00:07:44.009 --> 00:07:46.709 flag. In hindsight, yes, it's massive. But at 00:07:46.709 --> 00:07:48.649 the moment, he thinks, oh, maybe Madeline got 00:07:48.649 --> 00:07:51.189 up to use the bathroom or maybe a giraffe blew 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:53.709 it open. He doesn't panic. He just pulls the 00:07:53.709 --> 00:07:55.569 door nearly shut again, leaves the apartment 00:07:55.569 --> 00:07:57.750 and goes back to the tapas bar. He goes back 00:07:57.750 --> 00:07:59.529 to his wine and his friends thinking everything 00:07:59.529 --> 00:08:03.139 is fine. Correct. Now we are entering the critical 00:08:03.139 --> 00:08:06.139 window. This next hour is where the timeline 00:08:06.139 --> 00:08:08.759 gets incredibly messy and where the investigation 00:08:08.759 --> 00:08:11.680 arguably got derailed for years. You're talking 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:13.959 about the Jane Tanner sighting? Yes. Jane Tanner, 00:08:14.060 --> 00:08:16.279 she's one of the top of seven. She leaves the 00:08:16.279 --> 00:08:19.040 restaurant just after 9 .0 p .m. to check on 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:23.040 her own child. At roughly 9 .15 p .m., she's 00:08:23.040 --> 00:08:24.839 walking past the junction near the apartment 00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:28.000 and she sees something. She sees a man. She describes 00:08:28.000 --> 00:08:31.029 a man carrying a small child. The child is wearing 00:08:31.029 --> 00:08:33.389 pink pajamas, she says, with a floral pattern. 00:08:33.669 --> 00:08:36.450 And the man is walking away from the resort area 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:39.470 into the darkness. For a long, long time, this 00:08:39.470 --> 00:08:41.330 was the lead, right? This was the moment everyone 00:08:41.330 --> 00:08:44.110 focused on. Oh, it was the smoking gun. It shaped 00:08:44.110 --> 00:08:47.269 the entire early investigation. Police sketches 00:08:47.269 --> 00:08:49.409 were drawn up based on Tanner's description. 00:08:49.590 --> 00:08:53.730 A man with dark hair, beige trousers. They were 00:08:53.730 --> 00:08:55.950 looking for this man. They believed this was 00:08:55.950 --> 00:08:59.149 the moment of abduction, 9 .15 p .m. They were 00:08:59.149 --> 00:09:01.230 certain of it. But, and this is the part that 00:09:01.230 --> 00:09:02.950 just drives you crazy when you look at the files 00:09:02.950 --> 00:09:05.230 and realize how much time was lost. Yeah. This 00:09:05.230 --> 00:09:07.710 was a massive red herring. It was a monumental 00:09:07.710 --> 00:09:11.429 distraction. It took years, literal years. But 00:09:11.429 --> 00:09:14.529 Scotland Yard, under Operation Grange, eventually 00:09:14.529 --> 00:09:17.480 identified that man. And who was he? He wasn't 00:09:17.480 --> 00:09:20.559 a predator. He wasn't a kidnapper. He was a British 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:23.500 tourist named Julian. He was returning to his 00:09:23.500 --> 00:09:26.600 apartment from the resort's night crash. Oh, 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:28.659 wow. Carrying his own daughter, who just happened 00:09:28.659 --> 00:09:31.100 to be wearing pink pajamas. So the police spent 00:09:31.100 --> 00:09:34.070 crucial time hunting a phantom. They were looking 00:09:34.070 --> 00:09:36.070 for a dad putting his kid to bed. They were. 00:09:36.149 --> 00:09:38.190 And the invitations of that are huge because 00:09:38.190 --> 00:09:39.750 it means the timeline they were working with, 00:09:39.830 --> 00:09:42.330 that the abduction happened at 9 .15, was just 00:09:42.330 --> 00:09:44.789 wrong. Completely wrong. That window was false. 00:09:44.970 --> 00:09:47.309 The abductor wasn't leaving then. The abductor 00:09:47.309 --> 00:09:48.909 might have still been in the apartment or maybe 00:09:48.909 --> 00:09:51.350 arrived later. The whole focus was in the wrong 00:09:51.350 --> 00:09:53.730 place. So let's go back to the real timeline. 00:09:54.070 --> 00:09:58.830 9 .05, Jerry checks. The door is open. He closes 00:09:58.830 --> 00:10:02.610 it. 9 .15, the false sighting happens. But nobody 00:10:02.610 --> 00:10:05.529 knows it's false yet. What happens next? 10 .00 00:10:05.529 --> 00:10:08.909 p .m. This is the moment. Kate McCann gets up 00:10:08.909 --> 00:10:11.169 to do her check. She enters through the patio 00:10:11.169 --> 00:10:14.009 doors. She walks toward the bedroom. And immediately 00:10:14.009 --> 00:10:16.129 she notices the door is wide open again. The 00:10:16.129 --> 00:10:19.230 same thing Jerry saw. Yes. But this time, as 00:10:19.230 --> 00:10:22.070 she walks towards it, a draft slams the door 00:10:22.070 --> 00:10:25.450 shut. That stops her in her tracks. A draft means 00:10:25.450 --> 00:10:28.289 air is moving violently through the room. She 00:10:28.289 --> 00:10:30.610 opens the door and looks inside. The curtains 00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:33.379 are blowing. The window is wide open and the 00:10:33.379 --> 00:10:35.620 exterior shutter, which is a heavy metal shutter 00:10:35.620 --> 00:10:37.600 that operates with a strap and should have been 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:40.019 locked down. Yeah. It's raised all the way up. 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:43.879 And the bed. Empty. Madeline is gone. Cuddle 00:10:43.879 --> 00:10:46.559 Cat is still there on the bed. The twins are 00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:49.100 still sleeping soundly in their travel cots. 00:10:49.419 --> 00:10:52.580 But Madeline is gone. God. I can't even imagine 00:10:52.580 --> 00:10:55.240 that feeling. The stomach drop. The absolute 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:58.139 panic. She runs back to the restaurant. Witnesses 00:10:58.139 --> 00:10:59.879 say she was just screaming, Madeline's gone. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:02.000 Someone's taken her. Someone's taken her. So 00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:04.879 right from that first second, she knew it wasn't 00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.480 a case of her wandering off. The open window 00:11:07.480 --> 00:11:10.200 and the raised shutter convinced her instantly. 00:11:10.620 --> 00:11:12.700 A three -year -old can't raise a heavy metal 00:11:12.700 --> 00:11:15.399 shutter. It's physically impossible for a child 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:17.840 that size to operate the strap mechanism to lift 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:20.720 it. Someone else did that. Okay. Now, just around 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.350 this same time, 10 .00 p .m. There is another 00:11:24.350 --> 00:11:27.049 sighting. And unlike the Tanner sighting, this 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:29.230 one didn't get debunked. In fact, it became much 00:11:29.230 --> 00:11:32.230 more important years later. Right. This is the 00:11:32.230 --> 00:11:35.350 Smith sighting. An Irish family, the Smiths, 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:37.730 are on holiday in Praia da Luz. They'd been out 00:11:37.730 --> 00:11:39.590 in the town for the evening. They're walking 00:11:39.590 --> 00:11:43.230 home at around 10 .0 p .m. And they see a man 00:11:43.230 --> 00:11:46.090 carrying a young blonde girl in pajamas heading 00:11:46.090 --> 00:11:49.309 down towards the beach about 500 yards away from 00:11:49.309 --> 00:11:51.289 the apartment. And their description of this 00:11:51.289 --> 00:11:54.360 man was... Different from the Tanner sighting. 00:11:54.379 --> 00:11:56.480 Very different. They said he didn't look like 00:11:56.480 --> 00:11:58.980 a typical tourist. He didn't look like a loving 00:11:58.980 --> 00:12:01.620 father comforting a child. The girl wasn't wrapped 00:12:01.620 --> 00:12:03.200 in a blanket, despite it being a chilly night. 00:12:03.259 --> 00:12:05.519 She was just hanging there in her pajamas. And 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:08.460 the man himself? He seemed uncomfortable, awkward, 00:12:08.639 --> 00:12:11.039 like he was carrying a load he didn't want to 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.539 be seen with. And the sighting lines up perfectly 00:12:13.539 --> 00:12:15.980 with the time Kate discovers Madeline is missing. 00:12:16.159 --> 00:12:18.840 Exactly. If the abduction happened right before 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:22.500 10 .00 p .m., this man fits the geography and 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:25.100 the timing perfectly. This is now considered 00:12:25.100 --> 00:12:27.580 by many investigators, especially in Operation 00:12:27.580 --> 00:12:31.440 Grange, to be the actual observation of the abductor. 00:12:31.559 --> 00:12:34.240 So we have a missing child, a frantic mother, 00:12:34.460 --> 00:12:38.259 a potential sighting. That brings us to a concept 00:12:38.259 --> 00:12:40.659 that every detective knows. But in this case, 00:12:40.740 --> 00:12:42.700 it seems like it was totally forgotten. The golden 00:12:42.700 --> 00:12:46.200 hours. The golden hours are everything. In a 00:12:46.200 --> 00:12:48.799 child abduction case, or any homicide really, 00:12:48.980 --> 00:12:51.539 the first hour, the first three hours, the first 00:12:51.539 --> 00:12:54.759 24 hours, that is the ballgame. That's when you 00:12:54.759 --> 00:12:56.879 solve it. That is when the trail is hot. That 00:12:56.879 --> 00:12:58.960 is when the abductor is still moving, still vulnerable. 00:12:59.399 --> 00:13:01.720 That's when witnesses remember faces clearly. 00:13:02.100 --> 00:13:04.679 That's when forensic evidence hasn't been trampled 00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:07.919 by rain or wind or, well, people. And looking 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:10.139 at the logs from that night, the golden hours 00:13:10.139 --> 00:13:13.340 weren't just lost. They were squandered. It was 00:13:13.340 --> 00:13:15.960 a catalog of errors that is just painful to read. 00:13:16.059 --> 00:13:18.679 The GNR, the local rural police, they arrived 00:13:18.679 --> 00:13:21.980 at 1110 p .m. So that's already an hour and 10 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:24.139 minutes after Kate raised the alarm. OK, so they 00:13:24.139 --> 00:13:26.580 arrive. Do they lock down the village? Do they 00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:28.899 close the roads? No, they notify the judicial 00:13:28.899 --> 00:13:31.460 police, the serious crimes unit, but the border 00:13:31.460 --> 00:13:33.840 police, the people who watch the crossings into 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:36.080 Spain, they weren't notified for hours. And Spain 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:38.659 is, what, an hour's drive away from there? Less, 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:41.659 if you drive fast on the motorway. You could 00:13:41.659 --> 00:13:43.659 be in another country in a different jurisdiction 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:45.940 before the alert even went out. Unbelievable. 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:49.240 Furthermore, there were no immediate house -to 00:13:49.240 --> 00:13:52.679 -house searches. And roadblocks. Roadblocks to 00:13:52.679 --> 00:13:54.679 stop cars leaving the village weren't set up 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:57.799 until 10 a .m. the next morning. That's 12 hours 00:13:57.799 --> 00:14:00.200 later. Exactly. You could be in Lisbon. You could 00:14:00.200 --> 00:14:01.980 be in Madrid. You could be anywhere by then. 00:14:02.120 --> 00:14:04.220 The net wasn't just full of holes. It wasn't 00:14:04.220 --> 00:14:06.440 even cast until the fish had long swam away. 00:14:06.779 --> 00:14:09.240 What about the apartment itself? I mean, Crime 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:11.919 Scene 101 says you seal the scene, you put up 00:14:11.919 --> 00:14:13.940 the yellow tape, you don't touch anything. The 00:14:13.940 --> 00:14:16.179 report suggests that Apartment 5A was treated 00:14:16.179 --> 00:14:18.580 less like a crime scene and more like a train 00:14:18.580 --> 00:14:21.379 station waiting room. Before it was sealed off, 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:23.899 nearly 20 people had been inside. 20 people. 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.320 You had the friends looking for Madeline, looking 00:14:26.320 --> 00:14:28.700 under beds, opening cupboards. You had resort 00:14:28.700 --> 00:14:31.440 staff wandering in and out. You had local police 00:14:31.440 --> 00:14:34.320 officers walking through. That destroys any fiber 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:37.179 evidence, any footprints, anything. It gets worse. 00:14:37.340 --> 00:14:39.820 We have accounts of police officers arriving 00:14:39.820 --> 00:14:41.899 and dusting for fingerprints without wearing 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:45.059 gloves. You're kidding. Without gloves. In 2007. 00:14:45.700 --> 00:14:48.870 That sounds like something from the 1950s. It 00:14:48.870 --> 00:14:51.730 suggests a profound lack of forensic discipline 00:14:51.730 --> 00:14:54.090 at that initial stage. They were adding their 00:14:54.090 --> 00:14:55.990 own DNA and prints to the scene they were trying 00:14:55.990 --> 00:14:59.190 to process. But the detail that shocks most people. 00:14:59.610 --> 00:15:01.289 The one that makes modern investigators just 00:15:01.289 --> 00:15:03.230 put their heads in their hands is what happened 00:15:03.230 --> 00:15:05.330 to the apartment later. I read this in the notes 00:15:05.330 --> 00:15:06.950 and I just couldn't believe it. They rented it 00:15:06.950 --> 00:15:09.429 out. They did. The police released the crime 00:15:09.429 --> 00:15:11.789 scene and about a month after the disappearance, 00:15:12.029 --> 00:15:15.149 the resort rented apartment 5A to tourists again. 00:15:15.490 --> 00:15:17.789 Wait, wait. So people were holidaying in the 00:15:17.789 --> 00:15:20.409 room where a child was abducted while the investigation 00:15:20.409 --> 00:15:23.490 was still officially ongoing? Yes. Families were 00:15:23.490 --> 00:15:26.440 staying there, sleeping in those beds. It was 00:15:26.440 --> 00:15:28.820 only sealed off again in August, months later, 00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:31.139 when the police decided they wanted to do more 00:15:31.139 --> 00:15:34.080 intense forensic tests. So think about that. 00:15:34.179 --> 00:15:36.620 When we talk about DNA evidence found later, 00:15:36.799 --> 00:15:40.940 you have to ask, whose is it? Who else stayed 00:15:40.940 --> 00:15:43.299 here? Who sat on that sofa? Who cleaned that 00:15:43.299 --> 00:15:45.519 floor? The chain of custody is practically non 00:15:45.519 --> 00:15:48.539 -existent. It's a disaster. That is mind -boggling. 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:51.820 It essentially renders the crime scene useless. 00:15:52.509 --> 00:15:54.629 for any kind of sophisticated testing down the 00:15:54.629 --> 00:15:57.250 line. It severely compromised it, yes. It created 00:15:57.250 --> 00:15:59.669 this massive opening for defense attorneys later 00:15:59.669 --> 00:16:02.029 on to say, well, that DNA could belong to anyone. 00:16:02.409 --> 00:16:05.470 So early on, the police are scrambling. They've 00:16:05.470 --> 00:16:07.769 missed the golden hours. The media is arriving 00:16:07.769 --> 00:16:10.330 in droves. Satellite trucks are parking on the 00:16:10.330 --> 00:16:12.649 beach. They need a suspect. They need a win. 00:16:12.850 --> 00:16:15.399 And they land on Robert Murat. Who is this guy? 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:17.940 Robert Murat was the classic local eccentric 00:16:17.940 --> 00:16:20.779 suspect. He was a British Portuguese property 00:16:20.779 --> 00:16:23.480 consultant. He lived in a villa called Casa Liliana, 00:16:23.639 --> 00:16:26.940 which was just 150 yards from apartment 5A. OK, 00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:30.440 so he's close. But why him? Did he have a record? 00:16:30.539 --> 00:16:32.980 Did he act suspicious? No, he didn't have a record. 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:35.639 He became a suspect essentially because he was 00:16:35.639 --> 00:16:38.120 there and he was helpful. He spoke fluent English 00:16:38.120 --> 00:16:40.159 and Portuguese. In the chaos of the first few 00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:42.039 days, he was translating for the police, translating 00:16:42.039 --> 00:16:44.059 for journalists. So he inserted himself into 00:16:44.059 --> 00:16:46.679 the investigation. He did because he wanted to 00:16:46.679 --> 00:16:50.340 help. But to a cynical detective, that can look 00:16:50.340 --> 00:16:53.159 like perpetrator returning to the scene behavior. 00:16:53.360 --> 00:16:55.700 Right. The guy who's a little too helpful, a 00:16:55.700 --> 00:16:58.009 little too involved. Exactly. And you have to 00:16:58.009 --> 00:17:00.870 remember the Tanner sighting, the one that turned 00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:04.430 out to be false. That sighting showed a man walking 00:17:04.430 --> 00:17:07.609 in the direction of Murat's house. So geographically, 00:17:07.630 --> 00:17:10.509 he fit the profile they had built on bad data. 00:17:10.730 --> 00:17:13.089 So they went after him hard. They dismantled 00:17:13.089 --> 00:17:15.710 his life. They raided his home. They drained 00:17:15.710 --> 00:17:18.190 his swimming pool looking for a body. They tore 00:17:18.190 --> 00:17:20.509 apart his cars. They confiscated his computers. 00:17:20.950 --> 00:17:23.569 They searched the crawl spaces under his house. 00:17:23.869 --> 00:17:26.109 The whole nine yards. And what did they find? 00:17:26.369 --> 00:17:29.400 Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not a shred of fiber, 00:17:29.559 --> 00:17:32.660 not a drop of DNA, not a single witness testimony 00:17:32.660 --> 00:17:34.839 that linked him to Madeline. He was innocent. 00:17:35.160 --> 00:17:37.559 But the media didn't care about innocent until 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:40.839 proven guilty. Oh, the British tabloids destroyed 00:17:40.839 --> 00:17:42.880 him. They practically convicted him on the front 00:17:42.880 --> 00:17:45.440 page. They called him an oddball. They implied 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:47.680 he was a pervert. It was a complete character 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:50.099 assassination. They sued them, didn't he? He 00:17:50.099 --> 00:17:52.839 did. He eventually sued for libel and won £600 00:17:52.839 --> 00:17:55.920 ,000 in damages, one of the largest payouts in 00:17:55.920 --> 00:17:57.960 British legal history because the coverage was 00:17:57.960 --> 00:18:01.700 so defamatory and utterly baseless. This Mirat 00:18:01.700 --> 00:18:04.440 situation really highlights a friction in this 00:18:04.440 --> 00:18:06.539 case, doesn't it? You have the British media, 00:18:06.779 --> 00:18:09.160 the British family and the Portuguese police. 00:18:09.400 --> 00:18:11.940 It feels like a massive culture clash. It was 00:18:11.940 --> 00:18:15.039 a collision of protocols, of cultures, of legal 00:18:15.039 --> 00:18:17.880 systems. The British police and media were incredibly 00:18:17.880 --> 00:18:20.420 frustrated because the Portuguese legal system 00:18:20.420 --> 00:18:23.099 relies on judicial secrecy. Explain that. What 00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:25.140 does that mean in practice? In Portugal, the 00:18:25.140 --> 00:18:27.559 law states you don't share details of an ongoing 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.019 investigation. You don't hold press conferences 00:18:30.019 --> 00:18:32.099 every day. day giving updates the investigation 00:18:32.099 --> 00:18:34.700 is secret to protect the integrity of the case 00:18:34.700 --> 00:18:37.819 so the british press sees silence and things 00:18:37.819 --> 00:18:41.559 incompetence or cover -up meanwhile the portuguese 00:18:41.559 --> 00:18:45.400 police the policia judiciaria or pj they felt 00:18:45.400 --> 00:18:47.440 totally patronized you had british officials 00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:49.980 flying in and one officer later described the 00:18:49.980 --> 00:18:52.460 british attitude as acting like a colonial power 00:18:52.460 --> 00:18:55.119 like step aside the british are here to solve 00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:58.029 it Exactly. And there was a technological gap, 00:18:58.109 --> 00:19:00.890 too. The British were used to these huge computer 00:19:00.890 --> 00:19:03.849 databases like Holmes, too, that cross -reference 00:19:03.849 --> 00:19:07.089 clues, phone numbers, names. The Portuguese police 00:19:07.089 --> 00:19:09.990 in that region were literally piling paper reports 00:19:09.990 --> 00:19:12.369 into cardboard boxes. They were speaking different 00:19:12.369 --> 00:19:14.730 languages in every sense of the word. So the 00:19:14.730 --> 00:19:17.750 investigation into Murat dead ends. The pressure 00:19:17.750 --> 00:19:19.990 is mounting. The parents are keeping the story 00:19:19.990 --> 00:19:22.710 in the news every single day. And then about... 00:19:22.970 --> 00:19:25.009 Four or five months in, the investigation takes 00:19:25.009 --> 00:19:28.130 a really dark turn. The police stop looking for 00:19:28.130 --> 00:19:30.130 an abductor. They turn around and look at the 00:19:30.130 --> 00:19:33.210 parents. This is the shift to the Arguido status. 00:19:33.849 --> 00:19:36.910 By August 2007, the lead Portuguese detective, 00:19:37.269 --> 00:19:39.990 Gonçalo Amaral, he developed a new working theory. 00:19:40.230 --> 00:19:42.410 He convinced himself there was no abduction. 00:19:42.690 --> 00:19:44.549 So what was his theory? What did he think happened? 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:47.359 He believed Madeline died accidentally in the 00:19:47.359 --> 00:19:49.900 apartment. Perhaps she fell off the sofa or perhaps 00:19:49.900 --> 00:19:51.700 the parents gave her too much sedative to help 00:19:51.700 --> 00:19:54.259 her sleep and she overdosed. Wow. And he theorized 00:19:54.259 --> 00:19:56.799 that the parents panicked, hid the body and then 00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:58.980 faked the entire kidnapping to cover up their 00:19:58.980 --> 00:20:02.819 negligence. That is that's a massive accusation 00:20:02.819 --> 00:20:06.039 to go from victims to villains just like that. 00:20:06.099 --> 00:20:08.660 What evidence do they have to support this? It 00:20:08.660 --> 00:20:12.720 hinged largely on two things. Dogs and DNA. And 00:20:12.720 --> 00:20:14.740 this is where we need to be really, really careful 00:20:14.740 --> 00:20:17.519 with the science because it was widely and very 00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:19.880 badly reported incorrectly. Okay, let's break 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:23.160 it down. First, the dogs. The British police 00:20:23.160 --> 00:20:25.940 sent over two highly trained Springer Spaniels. 00:20:26.480 --> 00:20:28.759 Eddie and Keela. Now, these aren't your average 00:20:28.759 --> 00:20:32.619 sniffer dogs. Eddie was a cadaver dog, trained 00:20:32.619 --> 00:20:35.880 specifically to smell the gases released by human 00:20:35.880 --> 00:20:38.559 decomposition. Right, a death scent dog. Exactly. 00:20:38.859 --> 00:20:41.640 And Keela was a blood dog, trained to find human 00:20:41.640 --> 00:20:43.819 blood, even if it had been scrubbed clean. So 00:20:43.819 --> 00:20:45.859 what did the dogs do? Where did they find something? 00:20:45.980 --> 00:20:48.400 They brought them into apartment 5A. The dogs 00:20:48.400 --> 00:20:50.779 alerted, meaning they barked or froze to signal 00:20:50.779 --> 00:20:53.509 a scent behind the sofa in the living room. They 00:20:53.509 --> 00:20:55.930 also alerted to the curtains. But the most damaging 00:20:55.930 --> 00:20:57.549 alert, the one that made headlines around the 00:20:57.549 --> 00:20:59.750 world, was when they inspected the McCann's rental 00:20:59.750 --> 00:21:02.930 car. Through an arsenic. Right. The dogs alerted 00:21:02.930 --> 00:21:05.029 to the key fob and, crucially, to the trunk of 00:21:05.029 --> 00:21:07.750 the car. Okay, so the police think, uh -huh, 00:21:07.789 --> 00:21:10.170 we've got them. They move the body in the car. 00:21:10.509 --> 00:21:13.250 But there's a huge timeline problem here, isn't 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:16.190 there? A massive one. The McCanns hired that 00:21:16.190 --> 00:21:19.349 rental car 24 days after Madeline disappeared. 00:21:19.710 --> 00:21:22.710 Almost a month later. Exactly. So for the police 00:21:22.710 --> 00:21:25.509 theory to hold any water, Kate and Jerry would 00:21:25.509 --> 00:21:27.910 have had to hide a decomposing body somewhere 00:21:27.910 --> 00:21:30.730 in the resort for three weeks while the world's 00:21:30.730 --> 00:21:33.190 media was watching their every move, filming 00:21:33.190 --> 00:21:34.950 them walking to church, filming them walking 00:21:34.950 --> 00:21:37.730 to the shops, and then somehow dig it up or retrieve 00:21:37.730 --> 00:21:39.839 it, put it... in the car and dispose of it later. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:42.940 Which sounds, well, it sounds physically impossible. 00:21:43.380 --> 00:21:45.500 It stretches credulity to the breaking point. 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:47.880 Also, we have to talk about what a dog alert 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:50.319 actually means in a court of law. It's not proof. 00:21:50.619 --> 00:21:53.099 It's not proof. Cadaver dogs are screening tools. 00:21:53.299 --> 00:21:55.759 They are not evidence in themselves. A dog can 00:21:55.759 --> 00:21:58.400 alert to residual scent. If someone had a cut 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:00.640 finger a month ago and sat on the sofa, the dog 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:03.299 might alert. If a previous tenant had a nosebleed, 00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:05.640 the dog might alert. Or if the scent transferred 00:22:05.640 --> 00:22:07.559 from clothing. I mean, they're both doctors. 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:10.480 Exactly. Scent transfer is a real phenomenon. 00:22:11.059 --> 00:22:13.539 Experts say if you touch a dead body in a morgue, 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:15.740 which as doctors, they have likely been around 00:22:15.740 --> 00:22:18.180 death in a professional capacity, and then you 00:22:18.180 --> 00:22:20.579 touch your car keys, the dog might pick that 00:22:20.579 --> 00:22:22.759 up. It's not proof of a crime at that location. 00:22:23.099 --> 00:22:25.559 But the police took it as proof. They took samples 00:22:25.559 --> 00:22:28.119 from a car and sent them to a lab in Birmingham. 00:22:28.559 --> 00:22:32.039 And this led to that infamous headline, 100 % 00:22:32.039 --> 00:22:34.819 match. This was the leak that just poisoned public 00:22:34.819 --> 00:22:38.119 opinion against them forever. A Portuguese newspaper 00:22:38.119 --> 00:22:41.400 ran a story saying the lab found a 100 % DNA 00:22:41.400 --> 00:22:43.480 match to Madeline in the trunk of the rental 00:22:43.480 --> 00:22:46.740 car. But that wasn't true. It was a gross, irresponsible 00:22:46.740 --> 00:22:50.180 misrepresentation of the science. The lab, the 00:22:50.180 --> 00:22:52.880 forensic science service in the UK, was using 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:55.400 a very specialized technique called low copy 00:22:55.400 --> 00:22:58.859 number DNA analysis, or LCN. Okay, let's unpack 00:22:58.859 --> 00:23:01.500 that. What is low copy number DNA? So imagine 00:23:01.500 --> 00:23:03.799 regular DNA testing is like reading a whole book. 00:23:03.880 --> 00:23:05.460 You have plenty of pages. The text is clear. 00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:08.059 You know the story. Low copy number is like trying 00:23:08.059 --> 00:23:10.359 to reconstruct that same story from a handful 00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:12.400 of shredded confetti you found on the floor. 00:23:12.740 --> 00:23:15.279 So you're dealing with a tiny, tiny amount of 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:18.279 material. Exactly. A few cells. It's used when 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:20.440 you have a microscopic amount of genetic material. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:23.640 It is highly sensitive, but it's also very prone 00:23:23.640 --> 00:23:26.079 to contamination and complexity. So what did 00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:27.799 the lab actually say? What was the real result? 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:30.900 The forensic expert, Dr. John Lowe, wrote an 00:23:30.900 --> 00:23:33.259 email that later became public. He explained 00:23:33.259 --> 00:23:35.619 that the sample from the car was a complex mix 00:23:35.619 --> 00:23:37.759 of DNA from at least three different people. 00:23:38.180 --> 00:23:40.640 And he specifically said the results were, and 00:23:40.640 --> 00:23:42.599 I'm quoting here, too complex for meaningful 00:23:42.599 --> 00:23:44.900 interpretation. So he couldn't say it was Madeline. 00:23:44.980 --> 00:23:48.440 He explicitly stated, we cannot answer the question, 00:23:48.559 --> 00:23:51.859 is the match genuine? Or is it a chance resemblance? 00:23:52.200 --> 00:23:54.500 He said it was just as likely to be a random 00:23:54.500 --> 00:23:57.220 partial match as it was to be Madeline's DNA. 00:23:57.359 --> 00:24:00.599 That is a million miles away from a 100 % match. 00:24:00.779 --> 00:24:03.380 It's night and day. But the nuance was lost. 00:24:03.619 --> 00:24:06.380 The headline ran. The narrative shifted. People 00:24:06.380 --> 00:24:08.759 started looking at the McCanns differently. Why 00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:10.880 aren't they crying more on TV? Why do they look 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:14.579 so cold? Well, the DNA proves it. And based on 00:24:14.579 --> 00:24:17.400 this shaky evidence, dog barks and inconclusive 00:24:17.400 --> 00:24:20.440 DNA, the police decided to squeeze them. In September 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:23.960 2007, they formally named Kate and Jerry Arridos, 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:27.279 which means formal suspects, and the police played 00:24:27.279 --> 00:24:29.660 hardball. They essentially tried to break Kate. 00:24:29.839 --> 00:24:32.299 I read about the plea deal. It sounds like something 00:24:32.299 --> 00:24:34.839 from a movie script, not real life. It's horrific. 00:24:35.059 --> 00:24:37.700 They sat her down and they told her, if you admit 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:39.599 that Madeline died accidentally and you hid the 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:41.619 body, we will give you a lighter sentence. Maybe 00:24:41.619 --> 00:24:44.740 two years, you can go home. Imagine being a mother. 00:24:45.130 --> 00:24:47.349 Your child is gone. You're in a foreign country 00:24:47.349 --> 00:24:49.670 where you don't speak the language. And the police 00:24:49.670 --> 00:24:51.829 are saying, just say you did it and we'll go 00:24:51.829 --> 00:24:55.250 easy on you. It's an impossible, coercive situation. 00:24:55.690 --> 00:24:58.630 If she confesses to a lie, she goes to jail and 00:24:58.630 --> 00:25:01.569 the search for Madeline stops forever. The world 00:25:01.569 --> 00:25:04.950 assumes she's dead. If she refuses, she risks 00:25:04.950 --> 00:25:07.789 a murder charge and decades in prison. What'd 00:25:07.789 --> 00:25:10.869 you do? She refused, point blank. She said, I'm 00:25:10.869 --> 00:25:13.230 not going to lie. But during her interrogation, 00:25:13.230 --> 00:25:15.009 she did something that people criticized her 00:25:15.009 --> 00:25:17.430 for heavily at the time. She refused to answer 00:25:17.430 --> 00:25:21.430 48 questions. The no comment strategy. Yes. She 00:25:21.430 --> 00:25:23.930 sat through an 11 -hour interview and, on the 00:25:23.930 --> 00:25:26.230 advice of her lawyer, refused to answer direct 00:25:26.230 --> 00:25:29.519 questions about the night. Why? You can see why 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:32.339 people would ask. If she's innocent, why not 00:25:32.339 --> 00:25:35.160 just talk? Because of legal advice. Her lawyer 00:25:35.160 --> 00:25:36.859 told her the police weren't looking for information. 00:25:36.880 --> 00:25:39.119 They were looking for confirmation. They were 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:41.700 trying to trap her, to twist her words to fit 00:25:41.700 --> 00:25:44.460 their theory. So she exercised her right to silence. 00:25:44.640 --> 00:25:47.059 But of course, to the public watching on TV, 00:25:47.299 --> 00:25:49.660 silence looks like guilt. But eventually this 00:25:49.660 --> 00:25:52.859 theory, the parents did it. It just collapsed, 00:25:53.099 --> 00:25:54.859 right? It did. The evidence just wasn't there. 00:25:54.980 --> 00:25:57.920 In July 2008, the Portuguese attorney general 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:00.220 took the pretty significant step of archiving 00:26:00.220 --> 00:26:02.660 the case. They admitted there was no evidence 00:26:02.660 --> 00:26:05.359 linking the McCanns or Robert Murat to any crime. 00:26:05.559 --> 00:26:07.839 The Arguido status was lifted. So they were cleared. 00:26:08.220 --> 00:26:10.960 Legally, yes. Emotionally and reputationally, 00:26:10.960 --> 00:26:13.680 the damage was permanent. And Consolo Amaral, 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:15.680 the detective who was removed from the case, 00:26:15.900 --> 00:26:18.619 he went on to write a book called Maddie, The 00:26:18.619 --> 00:26:21.539 Truth of the Lie. Unbelievable. He doubled down 00:26:21.539 --> 00:26:24.160 on his theory. The McCanns spent the next decade 00:26:24.160 --> 00:26:26.440 fighting him in libel courts just to stop the 00:26:26.440 --> 00:26:29.059 book from being sold. So the police case is shelved 00:26:29.059 --> 00:26:32.319 in 2008. The parents are cleared but scarred. 00:26:33.259 --> 00:26:35.400 This brings us to a period I call the wilderness 00:26:35.400 --> 00:26:39.130 years. The official investigation stops. But 00:26:39.130 --> 00:26:41.490 the search doesn't. Right. This is roughly 2008 00:26:41.490 --> 00:26:44.829 to 2011. The McCann set up Madeline's Fund. They 00:26:44.829 --> 00:26:47.069 were desperate. The police had given up, so they 00:26:47.069 --> 00:26:49.670 had to hire private investigators. And this opens 00:26:49.670 --> 00:26:52.730 the door to a really murky, difficult world. 00:26:53.180 --> 00:26:55.539 Private investigators. Yeah. It sounds like a 00:26:55.539 --> 00:26:57.880 noir novel, but in reality, it seems like it 00:26:57.880 --> 00:26:59.980 was a mix of well -meaning pros and total sharks. 00:27:00.279 --> 00:27:03.259 It was chaotic. You had firms like Control Risks, 00:27:03.299 --> 00:27:05.500 which is a legitimate corporate security firm. 00:27:05.559 --> 00:27:07.339 They did what they could. But then you had these 00:27:07.339 --> 00:27:09.759 other agencies like Meta to Three, a Spanish 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:11.819 outfit. What was their deal? They were flashy. 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:13.920 They held press conferences. They claimed they 00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:15.900 knew who the kidnapper was and promised to have 00:27:15.900 --> 00:27:18.240 Madeline home by Christmas. It was baseless. 00:27:18.380 --> 00:27:21.160 It was cruel optimism. They found nothing and 00:27:21.160 --> 00:27:23.240 charged a fortune. And then there were the outright 00:27:23.240 --> 00:27:25.740 scams. I wanted to ask you about the matter orientation 00:27:25.740 --> 00:27:29.180 system. This just sounds bizarre. Oh, Danny Krugel. 00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:32.240 This is a prime example of how desperation makes 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:34.680 you vulnerable to anything. Krugel was a South 00:27:34.680 --> 00:27:38.000 African former policeman. He claimed he had invented 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.160 a device, some mix of quantum physics and GPS, 00:27:41.339 --> 00:27:43.920 where he could take a strand of hair and locate 00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:46.839 the person anywhere in the world. That is, that's 00:27:46.839 --> 00:27:49.680 not science. That's magic. It is junk science. 00:27:49.900 --> 00:27:53.230 Complete and... Utter nonsense. But the McCanns 00:27:53.230 --> 00:27:55.289 were desperate. They were grasping at any straw 00:27:55.289 --> 00:27:57.150 they could find. They gave him hair samples. 00:27:57.369 --> 00:27:59.650 He went to pry to lose, walked around with his 00:27:59.650 --> 00:28:01.910 little machine, pointed at a spot on a beach, 00:28:01.930 --> 00:28:05.130 and said, she's here. They dug. There was nothing. 00:28:05.630 --> 00:28:07.829 It's heartbreaking. It just illustrates the vacuum 00:28:07.829 --> 00:28:10.329 left when the official authorities stepped away. 00:28:10.509 --> 00:28:12.269 The parents were left to fend for themselves 00:28:12.269 --> 00:28:15.190 in a tank of sharks. Exactly. But the official 00:28:15.190 --> 00:28:17.839 authorities didn't stay away forever. In 2011, 00:28:18.079 --> 00:28:20.640 the momentum shifted back to the UK. Why 2011? 00:28:20.980 --> 00:28:25.339 What happened? Politics and the press. The Sun 00:28:25.339 --> 00:28:28.240 newspaper ran a massive campaign urging the British 00:28:28.240 --> 00:28:30.819 government to get involved. The McCanns wrote 00:28:30.819 --> 00:28:32.900 an open letter to the Prime Minister, David Cameron. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:35.579 And the Home Secretary at the time, Theresa May, 00:28:35.759 --> 00:28:37.859 ordered a review. And this birthed Operation 00:28:37.859 --> 00:28:40.059 Grange. That's right. This is the Scotland Yard 00:28:40.059 --> 00:28:42.900 investigation. And... The scale of this thing 00:28:42.900 --> 00:28:45.240 was just massive compared to what the PIs were 00:28:45.240 --> 00:28:48.960 doing. Huge. By 2024, the cost of Operation Grange 00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:52.660 had topped 13 million pounds. At its peak, they 00:28:52.660 --> 00:28:55.609 had dozens of detectives. Their job wasn't just 00:28:55.609 --> 00:28:58.329 to search. It was to reanalyze every single scrap 00:28:58.329 --> 00:29:01.250 of paper from the thousands of pages in the Portuguese 00:29:01.250 --> 00:29:04.069 files. They translated everything, cross -referenced 00:29:04.069 --> 00:29:06.250 everything, and strategically they shifted the 00:29:06.250 --> 00:29:08.190 focus right back. They said the parents are innocent. 00:29:08.369 --> 00:29:10.589 Let's look for an intruder. Right. They concluded 00:29:10.589 --> 00:29:12.670 the accidental death theory didn't stack up. 00:29:12.710 --> 00:29:15.230 They focused on abduction by a stranger or a 00:29:15.230 --> 00:29:17.779 burglary gone wrong. This is when they went back 00:29:17.779 --> 00:29:19.539 to the Smith sighting, the Irish family we talked 00:29:19.539 --> 00:29:22.240 about earlier. In 2013, on the TV show Crime 00:29:22.240 --> 00:29:25.880 Watch, they released those e -fits. Yes. They 00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:29.279 finally publicly said, forget the Tanner sighting. 00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:31.299 That was a tourist. Look at the Smith sighting. 00:29:31.539 --> 00:29:34.500 They released these new sketches of the man the 00:29:34.500 --> 00:29:37.299 Smith family saw. Did it lead anywhere? It generated 00:29:37.299 --> 00:29:40.140 thousands of calls, but no specific suspect at 00:29:40.140 --> 00:29:42.579 the time. They also did massive digs in 2014. 00:29:43.579 --> 00:29:46.160 If you remember the news footage, police in white 00:29:46.160 --> 00:29:48.779 suits raking through the scrubland around Praia 00:29:48.779 --> 00:29:51.140 da Luz. I do remember that. It looked very dramatic. 00:29:51.220 --> 00:29:53.619 It was thorough, but it was fruitless. They found 00:29:53.619 --> 00:29:56.000 nothing. It felt like Operation Grange was winding 00:29:56.000 --> 00:29:57.740 down after that, like it was becoming just another 00:29:57.740 --> 00:29:59.519 cold case unit. The funding was being cut every 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:03.319 year. And then 2020 happened. The German lead. 00:30:03.579 --> 00:30:05.740 This is the most significant development since 00:30:05.740 --> 00:30:08.920 the night she disappeared. In June 2020, seemingly 00:30:08.920 --> 00:30:11.779 out of absolutely nowhere, German prosecutors 00:30:11.779 --> 00:30:14.059 in Braunschweig made a stunning announcement. 00:30:14.339 --> 00:30:16.019 What did they say? They said two things. One, 00:30:16.180 --> 00:30:19.680 we have a prime suspect. And two, we have concrete 00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:22.220 evidence that Madeleine McCann is dead. That 00:30:22.220 --> 00:30:23.960 just hit the world like a ton of bricks. Who 00:30:23.960 --> 00:30:26.180 is the suspect? His name is Christian Bruckner. 00:30:26.279 --> 00:30:28.259 He's a German national. And when you look at 00:30:28.259 --> 00:30:30.440 his profile, it is chilling. He isn't an eccentric 00:30:30.440 --> 00:30:34.000 local like Marat. He is a predator. What's his 00:30:34.000 --> 00:30:36.750 history? He is a convicted sex offender. He has 00:30:36.750 --> 00:30:39.230 multiple convictions for child sexual abuse. 00:30:39.329 --> 00:30:41.509 He was also a drug trafficker and a burglar. 00:30:42.319 --> 00:30:45.279 But crucially, he was living in the Algarve in 00:30:45.279 --> 00:30:47.440 Praia da Luz at the time of the disappearance. 00:30:47.819 --> 00:30:49.960 Living how? Did he have a house there? He was 00:30:49.960 --> 00:30:52.640 a drifter. He lived in a camper van, a distinctive 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:55.720 VW Westfalia with a white and yellow paint job. 00:30:55.900 --> 00:30:59.180 He also had a rundown farmhouse nearby. And his 00:30:59.180 --> 00:31:01.359 way of making money was breaking into holiday 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:03.680 apartments and hotels. Breaking into apartments. 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:06.779 That fits the burglary gone wrong theory perfectly. 00:31:07.079 --> 00:31:09.839 It does. And the technology, the phone data, 00:31:09.940 --> 00:31:12.980 links him to the scene. His cell phone, a Portuguese 00:31:12.980 --> 00:31:15.519 number, pinged a cell tower that covers the Ocean 00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:19.720 Club Resort between 7 .32 p .m. and 8 .02 p .m. 00:31:19.720 --> 00:31:21.700 on the night of the disappearance. So he was 00:31:21.700 --> 00:31:23.299 right there, right when the parents were at dinner, 00:31:23.339 --> 00:31:25.440 before they even went. He was in the immediate 00:31:25.440 --> 00:31:27.980 vicinity. And shortly after the disappearance, 00:31:28.220 --> 00:31:30.920 he changed the registration of his car, a Jaguar, 00:31:31.079 --> 00:31:34.400 into someone else's name. He fled back to Germany 00:31:34.400 --> 00:31:37.940 soon after. All very suspicious behavior. Was 00:31:37.940 --> 00:31:41.170 there a confession? Or something close to it. 00:31:41.250 --> 00:31:44.250 There was a bragging session. This is what tipped 00:31:44.250 --> 00:31:47.329 the police off. Years later, in a bar in Germany, 00:31:47.609 --> 00:31:50.049 Bruckner was drinking with a friend. A report 00:31:50.049 --> 00:31:52.849 about Madeline came on the TV. Bruckner allegedly 00:31:52.849 --> 00:31:55.609 got emotional and made comments implying he knew 00:31:55.609 --> 00:31:57.960 what happened. What kind of comments? One witness, 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:00.279 a friend of his, claims he said she didn't scream. 00:32:00.500 --> 00:32:02.839 She didn't scream. God, that makes your skin 00:32:02.839 --> 00:32:04.779 crawl. Another witness, a former girlfriend, 00:32:04.980 --> 00:32:07.259 said he told her he had a horrible job to do 00:32:07.259 --> 00:32:09.440 and pried to lose the night before Madeline disappeared. 00:32:09.759 --> 00:32:12.240 So we have motive, which is burglary. We have 00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:14.420 opportunity. He was there. We have a criminal 00:32:14.420 --> 00:32:17.559 history of sex offenses. And we have these admissions. 00:32:17.819 --> 00:32:20.319 Why hasn't he been charged with murder? That 00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:22.720 is the tragedy of the no body case. The German 00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:24.720 prosecutor, Hans Christian Wolters, has been 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:28.039 very open about this. He says he is 100 % sure 00:32:28.039 --> 00:32:30.380 Bruckner killed her. But in the German legal 00:32:30.380 --> 00:32:32.839 system, without a body or a forensic link that 00:32:32.839 --> 00:32:35.279 proves death -like a video of the crime or DNA 00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:38.259 from the murder itself, a murder charge is incredibly 00:32:38.259 --> 00:32:40.700 hard to make stick. They need that final piece 00:32:40.700 --> 00:32:43.000 of the puzzle. They do. They searched a reservoir 00:32:43.000 --> 00:32:45.940 recently, didn't they, in 2023? Yes, the Array 00:32:45.940 --> 00:32:49.740 Dam. It's about 31 miles from the resort. Bruckner... 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:52.160 reportedly called this place his little paradise. 00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:55.000 Police spent days digging there. Divers went 00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:57.680 in. They found some items, mostly rags and scraps, 00:32:57.940 --> 00:33:01.180 but no body. And where is Bruckner now? Is he 00:33:01.180 --> 00:33:03.619 walking free? No, thankfully. He is currently 00:33:03.619 --> 00:33:05.740 in a German prison serving a sentence for the 00:33:05.740 --> 00:33:08.319 rape of a 72 -year -old American woman. And where 00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:10.779 did that rape happen? In Praia de Luz in 2005. 00:33:11.140 --> 00:33:13.640 Two years before Madeline. In the same village. 00:33:13.900 --> 00:33:17.019 In the same village. breaking into a home. It 00:33:17.019 --> 00:33:20.640 establishes his pattern, his MO, perfectly. However, 00:33:20.900 --> 00:33:24.480 there is a legal clock ticking. He was recently, 00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:28.279 in late 2024, acquitted of other unrelated sex 00:33:28.279 --> 00:33:31.039 offenses due to lack of evidence. So once his 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:33.779 current rape sentence ends, if they haven't charged 00:33:33.779 --> 00:33:36.119 him with Madeline's murder, he could walk free. 00:33:36.519 --> 00:33:38.880 That is a terrifying prospect. It is the race 00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:41.019 against time that is happening right now in Germany. 00:33:41.240 --> 00:33:43.319 I want to zoom out a bit here. We've talked about 00:33:43.319 --> 00:33:46.460 the clues, the timeline, the suspects. But you 00:33:46.460 --> 00:33:48.680 can't talk about Madeleine McCann without talking 00:33:48.680 --> 00:33:51.140 about the media. It was a phenomenon. I mentioned 00:33:51.140 --> 00:33:54.099 Princess Diana earlier. This had that same level 00:33:54.099 --> 00:33:56.500 of global obsession. It really became the first 00:33:56.500 --> 00:33:59.920 true trial by media of the Internet age. The 00:33:59.920 --> 00:34:02.519 parents were criticized so heavily for marketing 00:34:02.519 --> 00:34:04.880 the tragedy. I remember the wristbands, the balloon 00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:07.099 launches, the posters in every shop window. They 00:34:07.099 --> 00:34:09.300 were, but you have to look at it from their perspective. 00:34:09.480 --> 00:34:11.320 The official police investigation wasn't happening. 00:34:11.480 --> 00:34:14.280 The only tool they had was visibility. They argued 00:34:14.280 --> 00:34:16.000 that if people stopped looking, you never find 00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:17.760 your child. They had to keep her face in the 00:34:17.760 --> 00:34:21.349 public eye. But the blowback. It was fierce. 00:34:21.590 --> 00:34:24.610 It was vicious. The media monstered them, particularly 00:34:24.610 --> 00:34:27.389 Kate. They analyzed her appearance relentlessly. 00:34:27.710 --> 00:34:30.809 There was this really ugly, misogynistic undertone 00:34:30.809 --> 00:34:33.389 to it. They said she didn't cry enough on camera. 00:34:33.469 --> 00:34:35.710 She looked too controlled. She was cold. It's 00:34:35.710 --> 00:34:37.650 that classic trope. If a woman doesn't grieve 00:34:37.650 --> 00:34:40.309 exactly how we expect her to, messy and loud, 00:34:40.469 --> 00:34:42.869 she must be guilty. Precisely. If she cried, 00:34:43.010 --> 00:34:45.070 she was acting for the cameras. If she didn't 00:34:45.070 --> 00:34:47.309 cry, she was a cold -hearted monster. She couldn't 00:34:47.309 --> 00:34:50.869 win. And the tabloids... Well, they just started 00:34:50.869 --> 00:34:53.070 making things up. Give us an example. The Daily 00:34:53.070 --> 00:34:55.889 Express and Daily Star in the UK published over 00:34:55.889 --> 00:34:58.389 100 stories that were completely false, just 00:34:58.389 --> 00:35:01.469 fabricated. Headlines like, Maddie sold my heart 00:35:01.469 --> 00:35:03.690 up McCann's. It was pure fiction designed to 00:35:03.690 --> 00:35:05.610 sell papers. Did they face any consequences for 00:35:05.610 --> 00:35:08.469 that? Eventually. The McCann's sued. The newspapers 00:35:08.469 --> 00:35:11.650 had to pay 550 ,000 pounds in damages and print 00:35:11.650 --> 00:35:14.429 these big front page apologies. But by then, 00:35:14.469 --> 00:35:16.909 the stories had been read by millions. The seat 00:35:16.909 --> 00:35:19.150 of doubt was planted. And then came social media. 00:35:19.690 --> 00:35:21.449 Twitter was just starting to take off around 00:35:21.449 --> 00:35:24.570 2008, 2009. It was the accelerant. It was like 00:35:24.570 --> 00:35:27.030 throwing gasoline on the fire. It allowed conspiracy 00:35:27.030 --> 00:35:30.010 theorists to bypass any kind of editorial filter. 00:35:30.309 --> 00:35:32.510 And people started abusing the family directly. 00:35:32.769 --> 00:35:34.889 There were death threats against the twins, Sean 00:35:34.889 --> 00:35:37.789 and Amelie, who were just toddlers. The McCanns 00:35:37.789 --> 00:35:39.909 testified about this, didn't they? At the Levison 00:35:39.909 --> 00:35:42.880 inquiry into the press. Yes. Kate McCann gave 00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:45.800 this incredibly powerful testimony. She described 00:35:45.800 --> 00:35:49.400 feeling mentally raped by the coverage. She talked 00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:51.760 about how a newspaper published her private diary, 00:35:52.019 --> 00:35:53.900 her most intimate thoughts about her missing 00:35:53.900 --> 00:35:56.860 daughter without her permission. It really holds 00:35:56.860 --> 00:35:59.599 up a dark mirror to us as consumers, doesn't 00:35:59.599 --> 00:36:02.420 it? Because we devoured this content. We bought 00:36:02.420 --> 00:36:05.079 the papers. We clicked the links. We did. It 00:36:05.079 --> 00:36:07.460 turned a family tragedy into a spectator sport. 00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:10.119 We treated it like a crime drama where we were 00:36:10.119 --> 00:36:12.440 all entitled to a neat end. rather than a real 00:36:12.440 --> 00:36:15.199 horrific event happening to real people. So where 00:36:15.199 --> 00:36:17.780 does that leave us today? Operation Grange is 00:36:17.780 --> 00:36:20.659 funded through 2026, but it really feels like 00:36:20.659 --> 00:36:23.079 the end of the line is approaching. It is winding 00:36:23.079 --> 00:36:25.380 down. The British police are essentially just 00:36:25.380 --> 00:36:28.079 supporting the German investigation now. The 00:36:28.079 --> 00:36:31.019 entire case rests on the German prosecutors finding 00:36:31.019 --> 00:36:34.079 that one piece of physical evidence, a photo, 00:36:34.280 --> 00:36:37.400 a scrap of DNA, a witness who finally breaks 00:36:37.400 --> 00:36:41.019 their silence to link Bruckner definitively to 00:36:41.019 --> 00:36:43.380 Madeline. It's a tragedy of errors, isn't it? 00:36:43.610 --> 00:36:45.630 When you look back at the whole 18 years. It 00:36:45.630 --> 00:36:48.289 is a perfect storm. You had a moment of opportunity 00:36:48.289 --> 00:36:51.230 for a predator, an unlocked door, a 55 meter 00:36:51.230 --> 00:36:54.349 walk. You had a botched initial response by police 00:36:54.349 --> 00:36:56.429 who lost the golden hours. You had a cultural 00:36:56.429 --> 00:36:58.969 clash that derailed the investigation for years. 00:36:59.050 --> 00:37:01.489 And you had a media frenzy that generated so 00:37:01.489 --> 00:37:04.610 much noise, the signal was completely lost. And 00:37:04.610 --> 00:37:07.559 at the center of it all. a little girl who is 00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:10.179 still missing. And parents who, 18 years later, 00:37:10.280 --> 00:37:12.920 still keep her room ready. While the German prosecutor 00:37:12.920 --> 00:37:15.340 is certain she is dead, until there is proof, 00:37:15.679 --> 00:37:18.860 the McCanns wait. They live in that agonizing, 00:37:18.920 --> 00:37:21.239 unending limbo. It really makes you think about 00:37:21.239 --> 00:37:23.820 the fragility of safety. You go on holiday, you 00:37:23.820 --> 00:37:25.519 think you're in Little Britain, you think 55 00:37:25.519 --> 00:37:27.880 meters is close enough. It challenges our most 00:37:27.880 --> 00:37:30.750 basic assumptions about risk. We all want to 00:37:30.750 --> 00:37:32.849 believe we are in control, that if we are good 00:37:32.849 --> 00:37:35.750 parents, our kids are safe. But this case reminds 00:37:35.750 --> 00:37:39.030 us that sometimes chaos only needs a window of 00:37:39.030 --> 00:37:42.389 a few minutes and an unlocked door. That is a 00:37:42.389 --> 00:37:44.610 terrifying thought to end on, but a necessary 00:37:44.610 --> 00:37:46.889 one. We will be watching the German investigation 00:37:46.889 --> 00:37:49.570 closely. If there's a break in a case, if that 00:37:49.570 --> 00:37:51.789 final piece of evidence is found, we'll be back 00:37:51.789 --> 00:37:54.010 to unpack it. Until then. Thanks for listening 00:37:54.010 --> 00:37:57.349 to this deep dive. Stay safe. Stay curious and 00:37:57.349 --> 00:37:58.050 stay critical.