TIMELINE of events 2008

2008


January 20
The McCanns release sketches of a man they believe may have abducted their
daughter. The drawings are based on a description by a British holidaymaker
of a “creepy man” seen at the resort.
February 4
Divers search a remote Algarve lake for Madeleine after being hired by a
Portuguese lawyer who believes her body has been dumped there.
February 15
Dutch student Melissa Fiering claims to see Maddie with a ‘tall, swarthy man’,
at the L’Arche motorway service station restaurant in the south of France.
French police, after examining CCTV evidence, decide the girl is not Maddie.
Retired civil servant Alan Cameron claims Madeline was with a Portuguese
couple who came to his door in Dorset. It is the UK’s first reported
sighting.
March 17
A sighting is reported in the Sydney central business district of a
middle-aged man carrying a blonde girl. It turns out to be a false alarm.
A witness reports seeing Madeleine on a plane flying to São Paulo, in late
March. Five earlier reports had been investigated and discounted.
March 19
The McCanns accept £550,000 libel damages and front-page apologies from
Express Newspapers over allegations they were responsible for Madeleine’s
death.
April 7
Portuguese police fly to the UK to sit in on interviews conducted by
Leicestershire Police of the so-called “Tapas Seven”.
April 14
Portuguese police deny leaking details of statements given by the McCanns
early in the investigation. Spanish television broadcasts quotes, including
some made by Kate, supposedly telling officers Madeleine had been upset the
night before she disappeared that her mother had not come to her when she
cried.
May 3
A tearful Mrs McCann urges people to “pray like mad” for Madeleine
as the family mark the first anniversary of the little girl’s disappearance.
May 7
Portuguese prosecutors are examining several charges against the McCanns,
including abandonment of a child, abduction, homicide and concealment of a
corpse
Alípio Ribeiro, the Portuguese police chief criticised for his handling of the
Madeleine McCann case, resigns.
He also fires the police officer who earlier headed the investigation, Goncalo
Amaral, for comments he made to the media.
May 27
A reconstruction of the night Madeleine McCann disappeared does not happen
after friends her parents dined with that evening decline to take part.
July 1
Portuguese police say they have submitted their final report on the case,
which the attorney general says “will be the object of careful analysis
and consideration”.
July 7
Leicestershire Police agreed to disclose the content of files related to
sightings and tip-offs. They hand over 81 pieces of information to
Madeleine’s parents.
July 15
British expat Robert Murat accepts a £600,000 damages settlement over
allegations in 11 UK newspapers he was involved in Madeleine’s
disappearance.
July 21
The Portuguese authorities shelve their investigation and lift the “arguido”
status of the McCanns and Murat.
July 24
Ex police chief Goncalo Amaral publishes a book about the case, entitled The
Truth of the Lie, in which he alleges that Madeleine died in her family’s
holiday flat.
August 4
Thousands of pages of evidence from the Portuguese police files in the
exhaustive investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance are made public.
They reveal details of the lines of inquiry pursued by detectives, witness
statements and a 14-volume annexe of previously unknown sightings of the
little girl across the world.
The release of the Portuguese police case files reveals a possible sighting in
Amsterdam, Netherlands, in early May 2007. Anna Stam reported to Dutch
police a girl of three or four years of age, who resembled Madeleine, had
come into her shop and had told her that the adult she was with was “a
stranger” who “took me from my mummy” while she was on
holiday. She added her name was “Maddy”.
November
The Truth of the Lie sells 180,000 copies