The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Episode 1: The Beneath Truth

The first episode of Netflix’s “The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann” opens up with a message encouraging viewers with any information to come forward. Kate and Gerry McCann were a happy couple who had seemingly the perfect life prior to May of 2007. Gerry worked as a cardiac consultant in a hospital while Kate was a doctor. After having children, Kate took a step back from her career and decided to only work part time. The happy couple decided to take a trip to Praia da Luz, Portugal in April of 2007 with a group of nine friends and their children. While Kate was apprehensive about the trip, they decided to go anyways. The large group stayed at the family friendly Ocean Club located in the South of Portugal. The documentary labels the resort as a social atmosphere designed for middle class families. The club boasted nine pools, tennis courts and self serving apartments. They also had a kiddie club where children could spend the day, allowing them to socialize while their parents relax. Madeleine who was three at the time, not only attended the club but thoroughly enjoyed it. She even befriended a little girl who was close to her age. On the day Madeleine disappeared, May 3rd, 2007, the kiddie club took the children out on a sailboat ride. While out at sea, Madeleine’s new best friend dropped her hat in the ocean. Being the type of girl Madeleine was, she quickly jumped into the water to retrieve it, much to the dismay of the club employees. But, that’s who Madeleine was, a sweet and helpful young girl. At 5:30 P.M., Kate picked up Madeleine from the kiddie club and took her back to their suite.

While at the suite, Kate began putting her three children to bed while Gerry got himself ready for dinner. This specific nighttime routine involved reading a children’s storybook about animals to the tired Madeleine and her young siblings. It was not long after Kate finished her story that Madeleine was asleep. After having a glass of wine, Kate and Gerry left the apartment at 8:30 P.M. to have dinner at Seven Tapas restaurant, 100 yards away from their room. Each member of the group with children left them in their room, similar to the McCanns. The resort offered a night creche, a nighttime nanny service. The McCanns declined this service because bringing the children there would require putting them to sleep too early and pick them up too late. The group created a system in which every 20 minutes, one person from the group would leave to check on their respective kids, not all of them. Praia da Luz was a safe place, the family had no reason to worry. Later in the episode, this specific system was discussed shortly. This was a common practice amongst British parents. It was quite commonplace for parents to leave their children asleep in their suite while they went out to dinner. Meaning, what the McCanns did was normal for them and the people they know. Albeit, this system sounds weird to Americans.

Family friend, Matt Oldfield, arrived to dinner shortly after the McCanns around 9:00 P.M. Upon his arrival, he shared with Kate and Gerry that he passed by their room on his way there and heard no noise. Approximately five minutes later, Gerry checked on the sleeping children. After sneaking through the patio door they left unlocked, he stood in the bedroom doorway and had what he described as a “proud father moment”. Staring adoringly at his children, he remarked how lucky he was to be their father. You see, the McCanns struggled with fertility for years before trying IVF. It was upon trying this fertility treatment, the couple became pregnant with Madeleine. When she was one years old, the couple gave birth to twins Sean and Amelie. While every parent is grateful for their children, the McCanns felt a different type of gratitude for their children. Gerry crept back out of the room and returned to dinner with his wife and friends.

Around 9:25 P.M., Kate got up to check on her children. Matt Oldfield told her not to worry, he would check on Madeleine and the twins for her. Matt Oldfield went into the McCann’s suite shortly after to check on the children. However, he did not enter the bedroom in which the siblings slept. He saw a little light coming from the room followed by the sound of what he believed was one of the twins rolling over. This was enough for Mr. Oldfield to believe the children were okay and left satisfied.

35 minutes later, Kate had her turn to stop in the suite to make sure her children were okay. When she entered the apartment, she was surprised to see more light coming from the children’s room than expected. before she could enter, the door slammed shut from a gust of wind. Panicked, Kate entered the room to see that not only was the window open with the shutters raised, but Madeleine was not in her bed. Kate began running through the resort while screaming that her daughter had been taken. Gerry and friends quickly sprung into action to find Madeleine. It was not long that people in the resort began to catch wind of the child’s disappearance. After hearing the news, vacationers and hotel staff began scouring the resort to find the missing girl. The group begins begging with whoever they can find to close the borders and set up road blocks in an attempt to find the missing toddler before whoever had her got too far. The hotel staff called the police about the missing child, they never came. Later in the evening, Gerry and an unnamed companion march into reception to beg them to call the police once more. This time, two local officers arrive at the resort.

In Portugal, there are two main branches of police. The GNR and the Policia Judiciaria. The two officers who first arrived were part of the GNR. This is the American equivalent of a small town police department, according to the documentary. They believe that Madeleine probably wandered off and fell asleep under a bush. A ridiculous theory that prevented them for treating the disappearance with urgency. Kate did not entertain this possibility. She maintained from the beginning that Madeleine had been abducted. She did not believe for a second that Madeleine left on her own accord. Eventually, a group of people pile into a car with more members of the GNR and traveled North of the resort. This was done so they could start from there and work their way South towards the beach to find the little girl.

With pressure mounting, the GNR decided to call in the Policia Juciciaria, or the P.J. This is Portugal’s major crimes unit. Goncalo Amaral was chief of the P.J. at the time. On the evening of May 3rd, Amaral was out to dinner when he was notified about Madeleine’s disappearance. Instead of investigating himself, he sent an inspector and investigator to the resort to aide in the search. When these two men arrived at the resort, they were horrified to see that the room in which the McCanns were staying in, apartment 5A, was in shambles. Meaning, any evidence that might have been left could no longer be recovered. Present day, Amaral comments on this. He says that the GNR got involved too late and subsequently called him too late. This wasted crucial time in which the P.J. could have searched for Madeleine or preserve any evidence in the room.

However, it is hard to know if any evidence was in the room due to the way the initial investigators searched the scene. Amaral describes their initial check of the room was carried out using a method meant for investigating robberies. Consequently, a thorough search of the room was not conducted. At least not soon enough.

During the frantic search, Jane tanner, part of the large group vacationing with the McCanns, recalls something odd she saw earlier in the evening. Something that may prove crucial to the case. Around 9:15 P.M., Jane recalled seeing a man holding a young blonde girl in light colored pajamas, wearing no shoes, being carried by a man near apartment 5A, the McCann’s suite. Assuming the timeline of the evening is correct, this would be around the same exact time that Madeleine was discovered missing. Around 10 P.M. the same night, a tourist on vacation with his family claims to have seen the same thing. Except, he claims that the man was walking briskly. Both of these statements convinced the family and the public that Madeleine’s abductor had been seen by at least two people.

One narrator recalls a story she heard about Madeleine on the day she disappeared. Before dinner that night, Madeleine turned to her mother and asked, “Mummy, why didn’t you come last night when Sean and I were crying?” This story has led to much speculation about why Madeleine and her brother Sean were crying the night before. Many theorize that the abductor had been in the room that night, scaring the children. Then for an unknown reason left the room and returned the next night for Madeleine. Sadly, this is a question we might never be able to answer.

At 4 A.M. on May 4th, the McCanns arrived back to their room to try and rest. Two hours later when the sun began to rise, they were out searching yet again for their little girl. Before police arrive again, they scoured beaches and greenery in a desperate attempt to find Madeleine.

At this point in the documentary, the audience is introduced to freelance journalist, Jon Clarke. A British citizen contacted by three different papers to cover the case of a young British girl missing in the Algarve (Praia da Luz). Like many other people tuning into Madeleine’s disappearance, Clarke believed that by the time he arrived in the Algarve, that the toddler would have already been recovered safe and sound. But like everyone else who thought the same, he was wrong.

The documentary also interviews Portuguese citizen and reporter, Sandra Felgueiras. Similar to Mr. Clarke, Sandra believed that she would be in the area covering the search for two days before Madeleine would be found alive. Sandra, like many of the locals, describe this Portuguese city as safe and comfortable. As a child, Sandra would vacation in the Algarve. She remembered the area as a place where she felt safe and secure. She remarks that it was an excellent place to grow up, she loved it there.

As of 2007, the Algarve had become a popular destination for British vacationers. But, this was not always the case. Prior to the commercialization of Praia da Luz, the city was struggling. Fishing was the main source of income for many, but when the sea was rough, no fishing could be done. Many citizens struggled to make money during this time. Eventually, resorts started opening up across the city, creating many job opportunities for the locals. Slowly but surely, the town began to flourish.

But, nothing is ever perfect. The Algarve is known as a hot spot for drugs across Portugal. Only two and a half hours away from Morocco, a cannabis hub, Praia da Luz had a large drug trafficking problem. In fact, out of all hashish (a form of cannabis)\ seizures across the country, 80% of them were done in the Algarve. As a result, the main focus of police was drug trafficking. Although, Amaral, says that like many cities, Praia da Luz did experience frequent violent crimes. Mainly, homicide and robberies. He also notes that due to the drug trafficking throughout the city, many European gangs began popping up in the city, trying to get their hand in the lucrative drug trade.

The day after Madeleine disappeared, a local man, Robert Murat, heard the news and Madeleine through another local. During this conversation, Robert learned that the McCanns were having a very hard time communicating to the police because of the language barrier, and visa versa for the police. Thinking about how he would feel if his own daughter, close to Madeleine’s age, Murat knew he had to do something. He decided that he could do his part by being a translator for the McCanns and the police. He quickly headed towards the station to offer his services. Murat accompanied police on small interviews with witnesses. These were not full on interrogations, but small accounts from people who thought maybe they had seen something important. Nothing ever came of these statements. He also went with police door to door, asking residents if they had seen Madeleine or anything suspicious.

It was not long before the Portuguese police began facing heavy criticism for how they conducted their investigation. Jill, a family friend of the McCanns, shares with the documentary producers that the police quickly stopped trying to help. According to her, they were quick to become lazy and haphazard with the investigation. Jon Clarke substantiates this by sharing what happened when he went to apartment 5A when he arrived at the resort. A small perimeter of the room was created with police tape and a sign instructing people not to pass that point. No officers to ensure this, no real attempt to keep people away from the crime scene. To prove this, Jon recklessly passes the tape and tries to open the patio door. While this was a stupid decision to make, it prove that police were not vigilant of the scene. It is unlikely that Jon was the only person to get so close to the “protected” crime scene.

To understand the reasoning behind this, one must have a basic understanding of crime and punishment in Portugal. Goncalo amaral explains that in Portugal, a disappearance itself is not a crime. Therefore, it does not lead to an investigation. Kidnapping is a crime, but there was no evidence that Madeleine was abducted. Meaning, the police did not have to investigate since no crime was believed to have been committed. Although it does not excuse their lazy behavior, this was their logic behind it.

On May 4th, gerry and Kate arrive at the local police station to give their statement to police. While Mr. Amaral did not participate in the questioning, he was present during the interviews. he ensured Kate that he would do everything in his power to find her babygirl. Kate relays the story Jane told her about the man holding a young girl to the police. Insisting that Madeleine had been taken, she did not wander out of bed and get lost. It was during this initial interview that the tumultuous relationship between the McCanns and Portuguese police began to form.

Jon Clarke, a father to a two year old himself, began doing what he could to aide in the search. He takes a stack of flyers with Madeleine’s picture on it being circulated around town, and begins taking them to local resorts. He shows whoever will listen the flyer, and asks if they had seen her. Unfortunately, Clarke finds nothing. As mentioned earlier, Clarke shares that it is very common British practice to leave your children sleeping alone in a hotel room. He recalls a time where on vacation with his family, he went to dinner in the hotel, leaving his children alone in the room. While unheard of in the states, this appears to be a common thing to do where the McCanns were from.

It seemed as if the whole city was out looking for Madeleine. Airports were notified along with borders. Search dogs scoured the resort in an attempt to find any evidence or trace of Madeleine. While there was a lot of effort from locals, almost everyone believed that Madeleine was going to be found soon. Outside the city, Algarve had many wells. People began to fear that if Madeleine had made it out of the city, that she may have fallen into one of them. Or more sinister than that, some wondered if she had been put there.

The episode transitions into an interview with a man who helps run the national and international Center for Missing and Exploited Children. If I asked you to name one other child from a different country that went missing, there is a good chance that if you could even name one, it would take awhile to think of one. This is what that man is here to talk about. There is no other missing child case in history that gained as much publicity across the world as Madeleine McCann. There is one main factor that contributes to how viral a case will go. This is relatability, or how much the average person can identify with the circumstance of abduction. The infamous American case of Etan Patez is mentioned. Etan Patz was a six year old boy who went missing in New York City on his way to the bus stop. It was the first time his mother had let him walk there alone. She did not know he had been abducted until that afternoon when he did not come home from school. This particular circumstance is something almost every parent can relate to. Thousands of children take a school bus, many of those children take it alone. Parents begin to think about how by the grace of God, that it did not happen to them. Adam Walsh, another little boy who’s abduction became national news, also went missing under relatable circumstances. While shopping in a store with his mother, Adam went into a different aisle to play video games while his mother looked at lamps. When his mother went to find him, Adam was gone. Nobody had seen who he left with or knew what happened. Devastatingly, Adam’s head was discovered in a drainage canal, 100 miles from where he was abducted. Yet another circumstance that left thousands of parents across the country scared and confused. A majority of them let their children wander off in stores, how had this not happened to them?

As the case became international news, Robert Hall from BBC rushed to Portugal to cover the case. He wonders how if Madeleine had in fact wandered off, how had nobody in the nearby populated apartments seen her? How could this little girl seemingly disappear without anybody seeing anything? When he arrives at the resort, reporters were already camped outside, waiting for any news about the missing girl.

After being relocated within the resort, the McCanns waited restlessly in their new room for news of their daughter. They felt helpless not being able to do anything. Almost 24 hours after Madeleine was discovered missing, the distraught couple finally made their first public statement. The look of pure heart break and torment plastered both faces. Kate stayed silent whole clutching Madeleine’s bear. Gerry spoke to the public, begging them to come forward with any information, big or small, that might help them find their beloved daughter. He then aimed his speech to whoever took her, pleading with them to please return Madeleine to her family. He finished his statement with asking the public to please respect the couple’s privacy so they could continue to search and cooperate with the police.

The emotion amongst the crowd was tangible. Everybody was heartbroken for the grief stricken couple. They were living everyone’s worst nightmare. Their miracle baby was gone without a trace. No leads, no suspects, their nightmare had just begun.