With two futile
weeks of ground searching and the questioning of four unlikely suspects still
fresh in the memory, a former Scotland Yard commander had a new idea. In a
report in the Mail on Sunday he urged detectives to examine an abandoned well
“just 875 yards from the apartment where Madeleine McCann vanished.”
The newspaper
carried an aerial view of the location and also a close-up photo of the supposed
well.
“The Mail on Sunday has established that the
uncovered shaft is on scrubland used as a campsite by Roma Gypsies – and has
been overlooked by Portuguese police,” according to the paper.
The aerial view
indicated that the well was located on land behind the property of a well-known
resident of Praia da Luz. He told us that in his 28 years of living there he
had never seen Roma Gypsies camping in the area.
But the Mail on
Sunday’s claim could not be lightly dismissed because the former commander had
served 27 years with the Metropolitan Police and as Commander of Specialist
Operations had dealt with serious crime, from murder to rape and human
trafficking.
“It [the well] is
clearly known to locals and possibly to local criminals as a place to discard
evidence from petty crime, such as handbags and other unwanted stolen items,”
said the ex-commander.
The local
homeowner was bemused by this. “Before they tossed the handbags into the well,
I hope the Roma Gypsies checked to see if they were Gucci,” he said.
Of course the
ex-commander was not just talking about petty crime. He quickly came to his
main point: “Whoever abducted Madeleine knew the local streets, alleyways and
scrubland and used that knowledge to avoid detection.”
Not one to shirk
a challenge even on a formidably hot summer’s day, our source in Luz went to check
out the ex-commander’s hunch.
The first problem
was a two-metre high fence. With difficulty he managed to find a hole in the
wire only to be confronted by a six-metre wide boundary of thick vegetation.
Eventually he emerged prickled, sweating and swearing into a recently mowed hay
field.
“I felt relieved
that if I were now to be attacked by irate Roma bandits, at least I could see
them coming and hopefully make a hasty retreat,” said our intrepid explorer.
“I walked all
over the hay field but was not able to discover a well. I was relieved to be
able to return to the gap in the fence and depart with no loss of either wallet
or handbag.”
Asked about a
circular object that can be seen in the middle of the area on Google Earth, our
source in Luz said, “it could be an
alien landing pad, but more likely a
flat round area for threshing corn. It’s certainly not the well shown in
the paper.”
He concluded with
dismay that tourism-dependent Luz had once again been portrayed as a lawless
place – and certainly not the sort of place to go on holiday.
If Detective Chief
Inspector Andy Redwood and his team decide to take the ex-commander’s advice
and go searching wells, they had better come prepared for a long stay. There
are many hundreds of wells dotted all over the Algarve . Fortunately, most of the
others are fairly easy to find.
3 comments:
Alien Landing Pad? you've cracked it, Len.
Best ring that nice Mr Mitchell so's he can spin it to the press before ordering Deadwood out to Portugal for another holiday
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.” Gandhi ....... when will this circus end ? poor Maddie <3
Aliens? That's one abduction theory that hasn't been tested - don't tempt them
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