Kate McCann - mother of missing four-year-old Madeleine - will be formally declared a suspect by the Portuguese police, the family has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6982969.stm

To be honest I think the portuguese police have just botched this and are looking for someone else to take the heat :shrug:

I think the thing is, we assume that an aguido is the same thing as a suspect, and I don't think it is. The police want to ask her certain questions which they can't without giving her legal representation and the right to remain silent, to do that, they have to make her an 'aguido.' Unfortunately, the English translation of the word is 'suspect' but I don't think it has the same meaning really - well, from what I can understand from media reports.

And tbh, I don't know that the Portuguese police have botched anything - i think our media likes to make that out because they don't like the Portuguese law that says they can't say anything about the case. I don't think we know enough about what's going on behind the scenes to be able to make a decent judgement of what the police have been doing because they work so differently over there from over here.

BBC seem to think she is a suspect.. :unsure:

Must be awful for them if they are truly innocent. being accused of having something to do with your own daughter' disappearing.

I dunno, reading the various articles about it today, it doesn't seem that she's a 'suspect' in terms of "she definitely had something to do with the disappearance." more that she's a 'suspect' in terms of "this is a change in her legal status." :shrug: that's my thinking anyway......

in terms of the actual case, we don't have all the information the police have, so its difficult to have much idea about what's going on.....

well as I said in the original thread, as much as I don't want to be suspicious of the parents, I have grown to be. It's mainly because of the immense amount of media work they have done from almost immediately after the disappearance. And i've barely seen them break down all the way through. Maybe they are just amazingly strong, but I am slightly inclined to be pessimistic having remembered Soham...

let's :pray: Madeleine will return soon anyway

It is a very sad story as I cannot imagine her being alive now with those blood marks found. My suspicions about the parents came rather from the story itself as it is quite a freaky incident to have their girl being abducted in her bedroom while the parents went to a nearby restaurant. Someone should have known there were kids in the appartment alone.

But anyway...innocent until proven guilty.

I am in utter shock at this latest turn of events as I have been following the story on Sky News for the last few months.Its a very f*cked up world we live in!

I completely agree- it's all to do with the difference in Portugese law to here.

I for one, cannot believe that they had anything at all to do with her disappearance.

An arguido/a is a formal suspect - no arrests made, but she'll be treated as more than a witness. Now that Kate McCann has arguida status, she can request a lawyer present and retain her right to silence. It's not quite the same as the English definition of the word suspect - there are a few technical differences which boil down to the differences between the English and Portuguese legal systems. Apparently she will receive arguida status due to several discrepancies in her account of the night.

I haven't followed this case too closely, so someone shut me up if I've missed out an important detail, but was Madelaine left on her own while her parents ate at this tapas restaurant? If she was, that makes another part of the story very suspicious. Namely, when sniffer dogs and special lighting managed to find these tiny specks of blood in her room, with evidence of an attempt to clean them. I find it hard to believe that any kidnappers would stay around for a spring cleaning session, assuming that they had no knowledge of when the girl's parents would return.

I haven't heard that bit about the blood trying to be wiped off. From what I gather nothing has been announced regarding the results of the forensics on the blood etc so everything else is just rumour.

Also, we don't know whether those specks blood were there previously. You never know...they could have simply come from a nosebleed but the police still have to check them out.

:o Are you a lawyer Wise? That's a very good point.

It's very interesting. I myself find this all rather suspect. Certain footage I've seen on TV of the parents i.e. I think it was about a week or so after the kidnapping the parents were walking hand in hand in front of the cameras on their way to the Police Station and smiling as if they were going to an awards ceremony and not going to the Police Station. Obviously I'm not blaming anyone but that situation did put some thoughts in my mind. :unsure:

The reports of the attempts to clean the blood were in the Portuguese newspapers - although they didn't cite their sources and I'm certainly not one to count the media's word as gospel.

Considering the blood was on the wall, a nosebleed is an unlikely explanation, but there are other ways it could have been accidental I suppose.

I'm not trying to accuse anyone here, but she would not have been given arguida status unless there was some good reason - and there are suspicious elements which I've noticed just from reading newspaper accounts. It certainly doesn't mean she's guilty, as Robert Murat was made an arguido as well, but has been effectively ruled out now.

Well i've always though, in a very perverse sort o way, they've been revelling in this - maybe it's subconscious I don't know.

I just remember that Ian Huntley tried to lead the appeals when the Soham girls went missing...

As a child, my sister used to get nosebleeds that literally went everywhere and resembled a murder scene so you never know!

I guess we'll just have to wait and see what the police say but I have a feeling that this case will never be solved...

I mean i'm pushing the boundaries of wild speculation here now, but does anybody think that her parents may have killed her, but as a result of an accident, not intent?

In Swiss radio it was reported that DNA evidence found traces of a dead body on Kate McCann's clothes and on the stuffed toy which belonged to Maddie and which Kate McCann is always pictured carrying on photos...

:o :o OMG!!!

Like I said before, I just can't believe that this is true but with all the new twists and turns I'm sure more people will start to believe it.

:( It would be a terrible terrible thing if the parents had anything to do with it..... A real crying shame :(

I'm being a bit ignorant here...but how can you find traces of a dead body on someone?

I hope they didn't do anything to her..

What became of all these sightings of her? i thought there was one in a Belgian Cafe somewhere that had officials convinced she was alive?

I think this just shows how rumours/accusations jump from one thing to another and all need to be taken with a pinch of salt until proven.

No, some woman took the glass the girl had been drinking out of and gave it in to police... but the DNA didn't match Madelaine's.

How many blonde four year old girls are there in Europe though?

Wasn't her - they DNA tested the cup the girl was using and it wasn't her.

It looks very much like something in the forensic tests have meant that the police have changed their focus. It's interesting that the police asked that they interview the mother first and without her husband. It's also quite intriguing that the family are currently putting out statements saying how awful it is that she's been made a suspect, and how the police should be focusing on other lines of enquiry. :shrug:

That is scary, I really hope that isn't true...

it's alright - i don't understand that either? any scientists around??? :unsure:

But if that stuffed toy was an essential piece of evidence surely it would have been confiscated by the police??!

Well,I'm not a forensic expert,but apparently specially trained sniffer dogs detected the odour of a corpse in the flat some weeks ago and forensic scientists can detect traces (perhaps hair ?) of bodies.

I don't know whether it has?

True..
I have always thought them as innocent and more that the Portugese Police and the resort have had enough of the whole incident and have been persuing the wrong line of enquiries.

Haven't all the British Detectives been %100 behing the family?

Hope she is found alive eventually but as time goes on... although what about the Austrian girl who had been held captive for about 8 years but escaped not too long ago..

Not many with an eye like Madeline's...
If she was walking the streets surely somebody would have recognised her. Surely CCTV would have captured someone leaving the country with her too you would think.

Anyway, I think we can throw all sorts of speculative comments in here, but at the end of the day it's not our place to do that. I have my suspicions and have had for a couple of months, but it means nothing.

Let's see how it all unfolds. :pray: that Maddie will be back home alive and well soon

If it has, then it's been confiscated a considerable time after the event and I don't see how that can be used as reliable vidence.

I think the DNA rumours and "scent of a dead body" rumours have been going round for weeks now. i've heard all sorts of different variations - doesn't mean it's true :shrug:

Also, there are statistics somewhere which (contrary to what the media would have you believe) suggest that in cases such as murder and kidnap, it's much more likely to be someone you know, than someone you don't. It's natural that the police should question the family - it would actually be negligent of them not to. I think it's possibly the timing of the questioning which is making people suspicious :shrug:

How easy is an eyes to pick up really though? People aren't going to follow small blonde girls around europe looking for a sighter of her eye!

Exactly.

True.

that is one of the only hopes though of people recognising her if she was to be walking the streets in Europe..
her image is everywhere so there is hope still, although I guess because her image is everywhere her abductors wouldn't be walking around the streets with her.

I just read that the McCanns were meant to be heading home on Sunday so maybe this is a last ditch attempt by the police to make some inroads?

:) :) You can from Biochemical analysis ... forensics use all kinds of dating methods and cell decay rate process...to determine the time of death.... how long ago..... etc..... they are quite good at it now.....
its all in the tissue structures .. unfortunately,,there are no dead bodies or anything so you can''t use body organ tissue samples and no maggots or other decaying matter parasites......

Too much CSI: crime series watching...thats what you get :)