Tuesday 17 April 2012

Duarte Levy - Maddie: new book, but still no solution to the mystery

....
.
"Don't expect a miracle. This is still just promotion," warns a Portuguese PJ inspector.

Approaching the fifth anniversary of their daughter's disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann, little Maddie's parents, are preparing to launch a new version of their book, "Madeleine."

Thanks to promotion and a rapid decrease in the initial cover price, the original version of "Madeleine," sold 280,000 copies in the United Kingdom alone.

The "new," work, in paperback format, will be released in the United Kingdom on May 10th and includes a new epilogue which is supposed to reflect the work of the British team which is busy analyzing the the original investigation.

What's more, it's the confidence the McCanns claim to have in this team that has been put forward to justify the return of the case to the pages of the British tabloids.

After five years and a few million Euros up in smoke - 2.2 million in 2011 alone - , a team of 36 detectives and civilians would be under pressure to find the solution to the Maddie mystery.

According to a source - always the same - quoted by the Sunday Mirror tabloid, "the London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard) would have invested a great deal of resources in the examination (of the investigation) and they want results."

According to the Sunday Mirror, the work of the British police will result in a "full report with a series of recommendations," for the Portuguese PJ.

Astonishingly, the source quoted by the tabloid also provides statements from the McCanns and details of Kate's work in the writing of the new epilogue.

The information disclosed by several British tabloids, also makes clear that Chief Inspector Andy Redwood's team anticipate that their report could lead to the reopening of the investigation in Portugal.

As a reminder, a PJ team in Porto, in the north of Portugal, is also proceeding with a re-examination of the facts from the original investigation - a kind of "Cold Case," Portuguese version.

Pressure, but no miracles.

A long way away from the communication experts and the promotion of the new version of "Madeleine," the Portuguese team views the case with a lot less enthusiasm.

"Unfortunately, we can't expect a miracle because it's still only promotion," a PJ inspector close to the team directed by coordinator Helena Monteiro warns.

According to this inspector, "the method adopted by the English is flawed by a mistake: at the beginning, they threw out all possibilities with the exception of abduction by a stranger to the group."

"I am not accusing the parents, but there were other people and for certain there are still doubts. And the only way to take up the investigation again would be to start with the reconstruction," states the same inspector, stressing that "pressure is on collaboration," at the expense of quality.

Decoding

One month before the publication of this "new" book - a sort of rehash of the first version - it is important from a commercial point of view, to make a new appeal to the British media.

It is incidentally interesting to stress that it's the same English tabloids that the McCann clan condemn every time the subject of Maddie's disappearance is approached from an angle that is not orchestrated by their public relations machine - and I'm referring to Clarence Mitchell.

Astonishing coordination between the British media, usually miserly in their collaboration, who, for some unknown reason (sorry for this utter sarcasm), have all published similar information.

Information worthy of a communications expert....did I mention Clarence Mitchell?!

I am not even talking about the Portuguese media ...because there we talk about the "parrot," effect.

Duarte Levy 17th April 2012/