Praia da Luz revisited

I first arrived at Praia da Luz on May 11, 2007 and the “circus” was already settled. A week had gone by since the disappearance of Madeleine McCann...



What I remember the most was the heat. Even for May it was terribly hot. One could hardly think...


The journalists where gathered at the corner of the apartment at the Ocean Club, next to the window where the supposed kidnaper had escaped. It wasn’t necessary to be a regular watcher of policies television serials to conclude that no more forensic material was going to be collected at that particular area. The “contamination” was a nude fact. Journalists and National Guard (GNR) officials of the K-9 section where in a direct contact: «What a show-off» - I thought.



Anyway, if a kidnaper had taken the child, he would then be long gone from the Algarve. Even from Portugal. Maybe even from Europe. Although, for those that then said the Portuguese border with Spain had been closed too late, I must remember that the most Eastern frontier of Portugal is - since we are in the EU - now located in... Poland. Few people might know this detail, but one of the most reliable newspapers in Portugal, “Diário de Notícias”, wrote just two days after the disappearance the following title: «This story isn’t well told». While the parents mentioned a break-in into the apartment, the GNR’s disagreed...



Although there were some the doubts, the press pointed at a kidnap theory and the parents were then the victims. We were all sympathetic to them.
«They’ve taken her. They’ve taken her», it was the mother shout the night her daughter went missing. The very first article from the “Sunday Times” printed that phrase. Some months later, it would be analysed in order to understand who indeed “they” where...




As I walked around the touristic compound of the Ocean Club, I could see from a street level the tennis courts where the parents and friends used to spend their time. From there one could easily observe the swimming pool and playground. It was a perfect spot where a possible kidnaper could have made a look-out. The only problem with, is that he could also be spotted and arouse suspicions upon him.



I watched one of the most emotional moments of those early days when, on the night of May 12, when the parents went to a night mass in order to remember the birthday of her missing daughter...



The local priest talked about hope...



The case was getting a lot of coverage in the UK, and immediately spread to the rest of the world. One must also remember that this coincided with the news that Tony Blair was leaving his Number 10 seat and giving it to Gordon Brown...




Meanwhile I was obsessed with a fact: next to apartment, at the end of the street there was a big pyramid on a house garden. The pyramid was squared with the street where the press was...



It was impossible to ignore it, but very few journalists went to visit the garden where such a strange element was planted. If they had done it -like I did -, then they would have seen this other scenery just next to place where Madeleine had disappeared...




Then, on May 15, Robert Murat was arrested. His house was on the opposite side of the pyramid house…



I had to return to Lisbon on that day. I thought the case could be closed on the following days. But that didn’t happen. There were no sufficient evidences to point out Murat or his friends into. Two months later, on July 2007, the new British prime-minister received the Portuguese prime-minister, José Sócrates, in London...





On about the same time the McCann friend's went to the Polícia Judiciária (PJ) in Portimão to testify. The police was doing all they could on the search, and even the father, Gerry McCann, thanked the PJ for suspending their summer leave in order “to ensure no stone is left unturned” in finding his daughter...





It was Jane Tanner testimony that identified Robert Murat. She was walking along this street from the restaurant to the apartment…



She said she saw a man walking into this street...



My question was: Why walk into a street full of light when you had a dark street on the other end?...



Then, 27 days after the disappearance, the parents went to Rome to see the Pope...



They also went on to travel into several cities in Europe. It was in Berlin, on June 6, that they got a bad moment, when they had to face a hard question…






It wouldn’t take too longer until the parents were to be found suspects...



They were questioned for hours into the night...



The evidences were never conclusive and they managed to return into England...



On that day, as they arrived in England without their daughter, there was a traditional religious ceremony at the Praia da Luz church.



It marked a final tune to this story…