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The first page of the report reveals nothing special. It is the traditional cover sheet for all police reports. The classification of the offence is found here: Abduction. The date of the events is here, 03/05/07, the file number, as well as the squad that intervened, the 4th squad. Finally, in addition to the names of the inspectors, there is a brief run-down of the facts.

Disappearance of a minor. The Praia GNR patrol were informed of the disappearance of a child, sex female, nationality English. According to GNR officers the call was made at 22.40 and the little girl disappeared from a ground floor apartment at the Ocean Club where a family with children was staying. The layout of the apartment comprises two bedrooms, a kitchen, a lounge and a bathroom. The apartment has easy public access. During dinner, the couple visited the children's bedroom several times. During one of these visits, the mother noticed that her daughter wasn't there and raised the alarm in order to find her. Faced with these facts and by higher decision, the PJ's duty team was advised, and they immediately started on various avenues of research.

Volume 1 - Page 2

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This is the start of the police report itself. The PJ will identify the parents and give a brief outline of the evening's course of events.

The first part of the document clearly identifies the parents, giving their full names, their dates of birth, their passport numbers, their telephone numbers, as well as their exact address. You will understand that these records cannot be published. No one needs to know the parents' telephone number.

The report continues: The missing minor is identified as Madeleine Beth McCann, born 12/05/2003. In addition to the missing minor, the couple have two other children, twins aged two years. The two children were also in the bedroom where the missing minor, Madeleine, was sleeping. In our conversation with Mr Gerald Patrick McCann, it was possible to establish that: The family had been at the Ocean Club since April 28th 2007 for a week. From 29/04/2007, they began to dine ( he and his wife) at an Ocean Club restaurant while their children remained a few metres from the restaurant, in their bedroom. They had the habit of dining in the said restaurant with friends, three couples. On the date of the events, they got up at 07h30 in the morning and had breakfast in the apartment.

09.00: They left the apartment and left their children at the Ocean Cub creche where the Ocean Club staff looked after the children until 12.30.

After lunch, towards 14.40, they again placed the children in the said creche, where they stayed until around 17.00.

Towards 17.30, the parents bathed the children, gave them something to eat and towards 19.30 the three children were put to bed in the same bedroom of the apartment.

 

At 20.30 the couple headed for the restaurant.

Towards 21.05/21.15 GERALD (the father) went to see the children in their bedroom. He saw the door half-open. He found that strange. He had the idea that he had closed it properly. Nevertheless, he went in and he saw the three children. The shutters were closed.

At 21.20, JANE, a friend, passed close to the apartment, at the side of the building and saw a person with a child in his arms going down the main road. However, she did not recognise this person, or the child. She could only say that the man must have been between 30 and 40 years old and that he had dark hair and light-coloured trousers.

At 21.30, a friend, MAT, only went to the rear of the apartment towards the lounge window. He didn't go in and only saw the twins asleep. He did not notice anything strange.

At 22.00, KATE, the mother, was confronted with the disappearance of MADELEINE BETH MCCANN. She noticed that the window, as well as the shutters, was wide open.

Then, the report, via the Ocean Club's director, identifies the employees on duty. The report also states that the police have a copy of the register of comings and goings of children at the creche on 03/05/07. The report states that:

It is advisable to report that before the arrival of the police patrol, various people were already in the apartment. People who could have contaminated that space. It

is also to be noted that the GNR officers carried out various searches around the

apartment in order to locate any missing person. However, these searches were fruitless. A photographic report was done. The parents gave a photo of the minor: MADELEINE BETH MCCANN.

End of part one

 The photo of Madeleine given by the parents is intended to show the little girl and to allow clear identification. The photo used is shown on left.