Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 440 - The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Episode Date: February 3, 2025

On the night of May 3rd, 2007,  three year-old British girl Madeleine vanished from her bed in her parents villa at a Portuguese vacation resort. What follows will be what The Daily Telegraph will describe as "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history." Listen to find out why.Visit CrimeWaveatSea.com/SCARED  to claim your fan code in order to register and join us November 3rd-7th, 2025!!! Merch and more: www.badmagicproductions.com Timesuck Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious PrivateFacebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" to locate whatever happens to be our most current page :)For all merch-related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard? Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcast.Sign up through Patreon, and for $5 a month, you get access to the entire Secret Suck catalog (295 episodes) PLUS the entire catalog of Timesuck, AD FREE. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch.

The disappearance of Madeline McCann is one of the most high-profile missing child cases in the history of the world. That is not an exaggeration. The Daily Telegraph once described her disappearance as the most heavily reported missing person case in modern history. Her case was definitely the most heavily reported missing person case in the history of the UK. Madeline was just three years old, nine days away from turning four, Madeline was just three years old, nine days away from turning four, when she disappeared on what had been up to the time of her disappearance, an idyllic family vacation at a resort in a southern Portuguese beach town. And what a salacious whodunit her disappearance would set motion. On the night of May 3rd 2007, her parents Kate and Jerry McCann and some of their friends went

out to a tapas restaurant on the property of the resort they were staying at. The group chose to leave their children in their respective apartments and implemented a rotation system to check on their kids throughout the night. Around 10 p.m. it was time for Kate McCann to check on her kids. She got up and left the table. A few minutes later she opened a bedroom door and discovered a scene that is every parent's worst nightmare. Her twins were sleeping peacefully in their beds, but Madeline's bed was empty and the window was open.

And little Madeline was nowhere to be found. Kate and Jerry, their friends on vacation with them and other resort guests and staff, began a frantic search for the little girl. The police were called and they would try to reassure Madeline's parents that she probably just wandered off as children sometimes do and that she'd soon be found sleeping somewhere close by. But then hours passed and the little girl still wasn't found. Hours turned to days, days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, months turned to years. Where is she? What happened on the night of May 3rd, 2007? Has this case finally been solved? Do we know what happened to her?

Today I'll share how a seemingly normal family was thrust into the international spotlight following one of the worst tragedies a family could ever endure. An investigation full of continual twists and turns and oh so many disturbing suspects. In this week's mysterious true crime why were so many dirtbags all in the same little Portuguese town all at the same time, hug your kids and hold them tight edition of Time Suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck.

Well, happy Monday and welcome to the Cult of the Curious. I'm Dan Cummins, Succinator 5000, Suckleberry Finn, and you are listening to Time Suck. Hail Nimrod, hail Lucifina, praise be to good boy Bojangles, glory be to Triple M, Michael motherfucking McDonald. Did you know that Michael McDonald and his son Dylan recently sang on Brian Owen's release of Bob Dylan's Forever Young? Oh, check it out on Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, wherever you listen to new music, very soulful. You still got it.

Also, I didn't know Bob Dylan wrote that song. I thought Rod Stewart did. After watching Dylan's biopic, A Complete Unknown, I realized I do love Bob Dylan. Early Bob Dylan. Early Bob Dylan. So many amazing songs. And now one Bad Magic announcement before we get into the story. For the first time outside of Wet Hot Bad Magic summer camps and virtual live shows, Lindsay and I will be performing Scared to Death

live this fall. Just for one show. One show like this. Join us November 3rd to the 7th this year for Crime Wave at Sea, the inaugural sailing. In addition to Scared to Death, there's going to be last podcast on the left, Sinister Hood, True Crime Campfire, Housewives of True Crime. There are very limited tickets to this, not just for Scared to Death fans, but for the entire crews. It's a block of rooms, not the entire ship so if you want to be there with us you'll need to act fast and use our fan code. Visit crimewaveatsea.com slash scared to claim your fan code in order to

register. The on sale date is February 7th so this week noon Eastern time I'll be shocked if it doesn't sell out in days or in the first day. Again it is November 3rd to the 7th, 2025. There will be live podcasts, panels, discussions, live discussion, you know, Q&A's, more. One ticket covers accommodations, dining, entertainment, festival events, additional services, you know, like specialty beverages, alcohol, Wi-Fi excursions, etc. You purchase those directly from Royal Caribbean. The ship will be stopping at various Caribbean destinations.

It's gonna be fucking sunny! The on-sale- I think it's gonna be sunny. Not likely, statistically. The on-sale date is February 7th again. Noon Eastern time. I'll be shocked if it doesn't sell out almost immediately. Visit crimewave at seed.com slash scared to claim your fan code in order to register and get there. And that's all I got for now and now for a fucking crazy crazy disappearance tale. Not much context needs to be established before digging into an investigation full of a disturbing cast of characters. I'll share some stats on missing children in Europe and then we'll jump into a pretty robust

timeline of Madeline's disappearance and the subsequent investigation. I'll start with a disclaimer about the stats. If you visit ten different sites presenting statistics regarding missing, kidnapped, sexually trafficked, or murdered children you are likely to get ten different sets of numbers. That being said, the number that comes up most often when talking about how many kids go missing every year worldwide is approximately 8 million. An alarming number. Also a misleading one. For example, in the US the most reliable stats I can find say that 97.8% of missing children are eventually found. So most of the missing kids have either been, you know,

taken by a parent violating a custody agreement or they've run away from home and they'll be found again soon. But still, even if 97.8% of missing kids were not taken by some nightmarish bogeyman and are eventually found, that still leaves 176,000 kids who are not found a year. That's still a very alarming number. There are kids who, you know, these are kids who may have been killed, may have been, you know, the victims of human trafficking. Also, scary estimates indicate

that there are between 12,500 and 25,000 kidnappings worldwide each year of children. According to the website, missingchildrenEurope..eu at least 250,000 kids go missing on that continent each year and I bet the real numbers quite a bit higher but according to the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the sister organization of the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, some countries in Europe don't keep stats on missing kids. Looking at you Romania! What's going on over there?

Over 112,000 children are reported missing each year in the UK. And the UK represents just 9% of Europe's total population. Which would mean that if the rest of Europe had the same percentage of their kids go missing, around one and a quarter kids will go missing in Europe every year. And if following that number of 97.8% of kids, you know, being returned in the US who have gone missing, that would mean that over 27,000 kids who go missing in Europe each year are not found each year. Again, how alarming? Well, that number doesn't elicit the same clickbait shock and alarm reaction of 8 million.

That is still to me an incredibly disturbing amount of kids disappear each year. Where the fuck do they go? And why don't we hear more about their cases? When Madeline McCann disappeared, a lot of people wondered why her, why did her case receive so much widespread international attention while the overwhelming majority of missing kids receive little to no media coverage? And I have the answer, but I don't think you're gonna like it. It's your mom. Yeah yeah I know it's a tough pill to swallow. Your mom.

Your mom is the reason. Her case receives so much extra attention. Your mom, let's fucking talk about it. She's old and she's racist and frankly she has a creepy fixation on cute little white girls and it grosses me out and you need to talk to her about it now. Press pause. Call her. Don't stand for any evasiveness. Don't let her fucking laugh her way out of this shit.

Come on, Nancy! Yeah, your mom's named Nancy now. Anyway, maybe the answer is in your mom. I still think it's weird how much your mom loves little white girls though. One of the most commonly cited real reasons is the combination of Madeleine's race and her family's social status. The New Zealand Herald wrote about how Madeleine's family was initially perceived by the public saying quote, they were working professionals while their daughter was an innocent blonde white girl. They were the very people that western media thought they were speaking to, white middle-class families. It pulled at the heartstrings of millions

of families around the world who can't imagine their toddler could disappear into thin air. And I agree with that assessment. This case very reminiscent to me of the John Benet Ramsey case that happened, you know, a few years earlier, she was murdered instead of going missing back in 1996. Weird and sad that for many, you know, the race of a missing kid should matter when it comes to a child being murdered or missing, but apparently it it seems to I wonder if that's even a conscious choice Maybe people just maybe people are just drawn to stories and evolve people who look you know more like them or like members of their family Even here on time suck over the years

I've noticed that true crime episodes involving white women victims download better a lot better actually than episodes involving either male or non-white female victims. And media coverage studies have also shown that if the victim or victims were a cute white girl or girls or an attractive white woman or women, ratings go up. More papers are sold, online articles get more clicks. When it comes to missing person cases, specifically social scientists have even coined a term for this phenomenon, missing white woman syndrome. Specifically social scientists have even coined a term for this phenomenon, missing white woman syndrome. And some supporters of this phenomenon posit that it encompasses disproportionate media attention to females who are not just white, but also young, attractive, upper middle class

helps as well. Following the analysis of media coverage of six cases involving the disappearance and murder of three indigenous women and three white women, a 2010 study observed that white women received on average six times the media coverage than the indigenous women and three white women, a 2010 study observed that white women received, on average, six times the media coverage than the indigenous women. And there's a lot of studies similar to that one. And if you're thinking, well, why don't you, Mr. Fuckhead Suckmaster, cover more cases of non-white missing victims? Well, I have an answer for you. I am incredibly racist. I'm probably the most racist person I've ever met. No. Please don't run around spreading that rumor. No, the easy answer

is I'm not an investigative journalist. If I was, I would only kick out a small handful of podcast episodes a year, not nearly 150. I'm a storyteller who relies on the investigations of others, who combs over a large amount of sources to draw out. Come on of sources to draw out, come on, mouth to draw out. Why was that combination hard? Extrapolate, synthesize, provide the most cohesive and robust narrative I can to share the story with you

in around three hours or less. And if I don't have good source information to lean on, well, then I don't have enough information to share and comment on to build out an episode. I mean, there's been so many stories I've wanted to share after reading a quick headline over the years, only to then realize I would run out of details in about 15 minutes if I tried to turn that subject

into a full episode. So that is why I'm part of the problem, I guess. Just a few more stats now pertinent to today's subject, and then we are off to the races. Madeleine went missing at a vacation resort in an area that was advertised as being very safe, very family friendly. That also makes for eye-catching headlines. You know, what's the point of being able to afford to take your family to a luxurious supposedly safe and secure resort? Some bougie little spot if somebody, some fucking boogeyman can still snatch your child.

Also, the New Zealand Herald reported that over 10 million British people travel to Portugal for vacation each year and the UK media has always been especially interested when a British citizen is the victim of a major crime in a popular resort area. Which I get. Right? Don't most families dream of being able to take their kids on some big vacation overseas someday? And they do just that if they can afford it and they obviously want to do it in someplace, you know, someplace safe. What's the point of making and saving that money? That kind of vacation costs if you can't relax, enjoy it, knowing that everyone is safe.

And for families who can't ever afford it, don't they still likely daydream of how great it would be if they could, how magical? So a story about this dream scenario turning into such a nightmare is gonna be very relatable to a whole bunch of people in some way. And thus, that's a story that's gonna sell well.

Adding to all of this, Madeleine's parents also launched an extensive, highly professional, very expensive media campaign to keep her case in the public eye. All of these factors have contributed to why Madeleine McCann's disappearance got so much media attention for so long, still a lot of media attention but I miss this story when it happened so all of today's information was actually new to me and I wonder how many of you it'll also be new for and if even if you have heard it before though I hope I'm able to provide some new details maybe some recent details you haven't heard I found the story morbidly fascinating not because of who disappeared to be honest But because of what the investigation uncovered regarding who else was in the area when Madeline went missing

Have you ever been out in public? Maybe a coffee shop or a music festival the grocery stores or some local farmers market Just whatever and just wondered as you look around who the fuck are these people really like all these strangers around me Who are they really which ones are dirtbags? How many of them are dirtbags? Why are they here? What are the real stories behind these unfamiliar faces? Investigation into Madeline's disappearance has been so immense so thorough It was able to reveal the real stories of damn near everyone it seems who was in the area when she disappeared around the time she disappeared a

Beautiful supposedly very safe upscale area a place where you think that your kids would be safe You'll be so wrong. There were some monsters Hanging out in paradise Now let's dive in. Madeleine Beth McCann, born on May 12, 2003 in Leicester, England. Madeleine's parents are Kate and Jerry McCann. Kate Mary Healy was born in 1968. And she grew up in Heighton, a small city of around 30,000, about eight miles from Liverpool. An old town.

Settlements been there since the seventh century CE, if not earlier. Kate comes from a working class Catholic family. She was an only child. She attended Catholic schools all throughout her childhood and went to mass every Sunday. Her religious beliefs remained a very important part of her life. When she became an adult she leaned on these beliefs after her daughter would go missing. Both of Madeleine's parents were ambitious, wanted the finer things in life and thanks to being driven and being supported by their families they were

able to build financially successful lives for themselves through pursuing careers in the medical field. Kate graduated from the UK's University of Dundee in Scotland with her medical degree in 1992. She first specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, then anesthetics, and later became a general practitioner. Very smart sharp meat sack. practitioner. Very smart sharp meat sack. Madeline's father Jerry McCann was born in 1968 in Glasgow Scotland and he is dumb as fuck. Opposite the track you know. No he's also very smart. Jerry is the youngest of five children. His father Johnny had to give up his own college education in order to support himself and his younger brother because his parents and an older brother had all died before he

was 16. Damn. Because of that he wanted all his kids to go to university. While growing up for a time, Jerry's large family lived in a one-bedroom tenement building in Glasgow. For Jerry, this was normal. There were many large families in the building in the same financial situation, which was not great. Like Kate, Jerry was successful in school, partially because he was competitive. Wanted to outdo his siblings. Sibling rivalry can be a very good thing for you sometimes

Jerry earned both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Glasgow He first earned a degree in physiology slash sports science in 1989 It just took him a couple years to get his doctorate. He would get that in 2002 So a little gap there. He took a little break according to Kate McCann's book Madeline, our daughter's disappearance and the continuing search for her. There's some disagreement on how the two met. Jerry says they met in 1992 and they were interviewed for a job that neither one of them got. Kate writes they met in 1993, the year Jerry initially qualified in medicine in Glasgow University.

So he really was going to school there for a while. Funny guess he noticed, it was greatly intrigued by the hot young doctor and she did not notice yet another dude checking her out. She was just focused on trying to get a job and you know not who was in the waiting room. And I guess yeah sadly Kate will later be torn apart on social media partially because she appeared too attractive following her daughter's disappearance. Pretty ridiculous. Like the stress of it should have immediately made her ugly or something. Never a shortage of assholes

and just complete morons posting on social media. Jerry and Kate did not work together before they dated but they quote moved in the same circles and crossed paths often at social events. Kate did eventually notice Jerry. Thought he was good-looking and confident but also heard he was known for being a quote, bit of a lad. Which means he was a flirt, guy not real serious about having a real relationship, but instead somebody like to party and sleep around. Maybe that's why it took him so long to get his doctorate compared to hers. Maybe he just yeah he was more interested in just having a good time than his career early on. She soon learned that they had a lot

in common though and that they both came from working-class families. Still, Kate was hesitant to get involved in a relationship with Jerry because of his reputation, but they started to talk, started to see each other, looked like they were going to become a couple after all. Then in 1995, Kate applied for some jobs in Australia and New Zealand. I'm so jealous of people who grew up or who grow up in Commonwealth nations in this regard. There are 56 different nations in the Commonwealth, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire from which the Commonwealth developed. There's over 2.7 billion people in Commonwealth nations and for the most part if you're a citizen of one of these nations it is much easier to

establish residency in another Commonwealth nation or get a work visa than if you are not a citizen within the Commonwealth. Makes exploring the world outside of taking, you know, short vacations just a lot easier. When you're looking for a job so much the world is open for you to explore. Come on America, join it! Say your big dick lone wolf alpha male energy aside. Just fucking sign us up already. Kate accepted a neonatal consultant position in Auckland. She was excited about this opportunity, but at the same time worried about losing contact with Jerry, whom she had started to fall for.

But her worries were for nothing. Jerry was also making plans to work abroad, considering New Zealand as well. He decided to accept a job offer in New Zealand to be with Kate. So the Scottish playboy seemed like he was done playing. He wanted something only Kate was selling. Her sweet, sweet pussy that he said smelled like quote a basket of clean sheets fresh out of the dryer with a bundle of fresh lavender stalks and a ripe tangerine resting atop them end quote. Or he loved her as like a whole person and respected her mind and drive

and didn't just lust after her or you know something boring like that. Whatever exactly drew him to her. The two worked in New Zealand for a year and then returned to Glasgow in September of 1996 where they continued to work as doctors. And then Kate and Jerry got married in Liverpool in December of 1998. They wanted to start a family as soon as possible, but Kate had trouble getting pregnant. Too much lavender, tangerine, not enough ovulating or something. In 2000 Kate and Jerry moved to Britain's Leicestershire County so Jerry could train in cardiology. Around that time Kate was diagnosed with endometriosis oh my gosh, endometriosis. There we go. It's not hard after a second. A condition where tissue grows outside the uterus and maybe smells like lavender

and tangerines. I don't know what it smells like. She had surgery though and underwent hormonal injections to treat this but still could not get pregnant. Next, she and Jerry decided to try IVF in vitro fertilization, where an egg is removed from the woman's ovaries and fertilized with sperm in a laboratory, then implanted in her uterus. And that is actually how my son, Kyler, was conceived. And it, years later, would be what would lead his little sister, Monroe, to give him the nickname of Lab Rat.

I mean, I shouldn't laugh at that, but I definitely do every time. Because it's so fucking funny to me. I love you, Lab Rat. Jerry and Kate went through multiple rounds before Kate became pregnant with Madeline. The day Madeline was born was one of the happiest days of their lives.

Kate wrote, after years of longing for this day, here we were, parents. There can surely be no greater moment in anyone's life. I couldn't take my eyes off of Madeline. I thank God over and over again for bringing her into our lives. Every time she looked even vaguely in my direction, the tears welled up. I'd never known before that it was possible to love someone so much. A year after Madeline was born in 2004, Kate and Jerry decided to grow their family. They did another round of IVF and found out she was pregnant with twins this time. Sean and Amelie McCann were born February 1, 2005, two years and two months younger than their big sister. That same year, Jerry started working as a cardiology consultant at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester. Then in the spring

of 2006 the family moved to Roathley, a posh little village in Civil Parish, more of an affluent neighborhood than a town in the county of Leicestershire, England. Roathley about six miles north of Leicester. Roathley one of the most affluent areas in Leicestershire County based on the number of houses worth more than a million pounds. When checking videos for how to pronounce Roethlie, I found mostly videos from realtors showcasing small estates worth several million pounds. Beautiful estates. Clearly is a very highly desirable, bougie area that looks like the perfect place for

raising a family. The Kans led a very happy, charmed life in the village. Kate wrote that at first, Sean and Madeline were the closest, uh, you know, of the siblings. Then as they got a little older, Madeline and, uh, Amelie began enjoying doing, uh, girly things together. Madeline was a confident and independent toddler, intelligent, perceptive, and look at the photos. Just so fucking cute. Just an adorable little kid. Looks like a very happy little kid. to Kate entering a room full of people She wouldn't just rush in obliviously as toddlers tend to do and make a beeline for me or Jerry Instead she would be weighing up what was going on apparently analyzing everything in every one before asking intelligent and sometimes very pointed questions

Before they became internationally known figures the McCann seemed to be living a beautiful dream of a life. They held the socially esteemed position of being doctors. They were high earners, lived in a beautiful home in a very exclusive neighborhood, and they were raising three beautiful children. Kate wrote, before May 3rd 2007, I was Kate Healy, a GP married to a consultant cardiologist and the mother of three children We were a perfectly ordinary family boring even since settling down to bring up our long four babies Jerry and I had become such strangers to the fast lane that we were off in the butt of good nature teasing from our friends We would give anything to have that boring life back now and

Just like millions of parents all over the world the McCanns liked to go on family vacations and they had the means to go to some high end places. On January 1st, 2007, the family discussed going on vacation in Portugal with some of their friends who were doing well also, who also had children. Jerry had been to Portugal before, but Kate had not. At first, she was unsure if they should go, hesitant about the idea of flying

with their three small kids, but then her friends talked her into it. Little Madeleine was pumped about riding on an airplane for the first time. The little three-year-old girl talked about her trip at school with her teachers and friends, I guess preschool rather than school. They all thought this was going to be a fun spring trip

where they could make some new happy family memories, but clearly that would not end up being the case. I mean I'm sure they made some before it all came crashing down. This trip would turn into a nightmare. The McCanns could have never expected. The McCanns left the UK for Portugal April 28th 2007. They had planned to be on holiday. I love that term much more than vacation. Sounds's not so sweet going on a holiday For seven nights in total there were nine adults amongst the group eight small children and the McCann's companions sound a little Suspicious I have to say I don't love who they were traveling with their friends who went with them were the Hamburglar

Snidely whiplash Gargamel Baphomet, Cobra Commander, Dr. Claw, and maybe worst of all, Skeletor. You overgrown alley cat, you pathetic pair of pitiful pinheads. You tin-tongued dolt, I'm talking about my patients, not my party. Doults, halfwits, bungers, brainless idiots. You couldn't even beat a motley group of gnomes. Why would you want to take that guy anywhere?

No, of course, that's a bunch of nonsense. Those are a bunch of fictional villains, mostly from old cartoons I watched as a little kid. The McCann's companions were David and Fiona Payne, Matt and Rachel Oldfield, Russ O'Brien and his partner Jane Tanner, and Fiona Payne's mother Diane Webster. Six of the nine adults were doctors, including Kate and Jerry, a seemingly very responsible group. The cans were sent into place. It's still there called the Ocean Club, a nice resort in a little seaside community of Praia da Luz, which translates to Beach of the Light. It sounds just so nice. It looks so nice. Pra Deluge is located in the

Portuguese municipality of Lagos, which is part of the coastal Algarve region in the southernmost part of the country. There are 16 municipalities in the Algarve. Oh my god, Algarve in total. In 2011, when the last census was taken, Pride Deluge's population of permanent residents was only around 3,500. The Algarve region has a permanent population of more than 400,000 and then that population will swell to more than 1.2 million at certain times of the year due to an influx of tourists. And a lot of them are British tourists. Maybe the biggest group that travels there.

Pride and Deluge is super cute. Very relaxing looking resort town. Started off as a fishing village. The British newspaper The Telegraph has described it as quote, a typical seaside resort with a community feel. Let's show a little more fucking enthusiasm. Telegraph, it's nicer than that. I watched snippets from some travel vloggers

and it looks incredible. Sandy beaches, wild looking rock formations out and beautiful warm inviting crystal clear aquamarine water. Palm trees, tons of little shops, lots of cafes and green spaces a lot of excursions you know like jet boats bikes snorkeling etc I love a seaside town right they're so fun also so romantic to me I can easily see why they wanted to visit this one and it looks safe in addition to being so scenic tourism the biggest industry in the entire Algarve region. 75% of the jobs are concentrated on the coast and over 80%

of the population works in either agriculture or in tourism services. And the dependency on tourism makes the region's economy a little vulnerable at times. For example in the years following the disappearance of Madeleine McCann a number of shops hotels and other businesses would close down. A lot of jobs would be lost due to a significant decline in visitors. Now let's zoom in on the resort where the McCanns were staying. The Ocean Club was run by a company called Mark Warner and it catered almost exclusively to British tourists in an area with a very large British expat population.

Mark Warner is an independent British tour operator founded in the 1970s. Company initially specialized in ski holidays in Switzerland and since has expanded into a number of resort holidays. The Ocean Club consisting of a number of apartments and small villas, one of several resort complexes in Praia de Luge. I checked it out online, looks like I expected it to. Huge pool area, on-site bar and restaurant. Sits just 1,600 feet from the beach, close to a bunch of other bars, restaurants, shops, etc. It's like a great place to relax. Unlike a lot of resorts, each apartment at the Ocean Club is privately owned. Back in 2007, the Ocean Club had four pools, some tennis courts, a kiddie club that

offered daycare services. It was advertised as a family-friendly resort and even offered a nighttime daycare, obviously appealing to young couples with little ones. However, according to journalist Robin Swan, co-author of Looking for Madeline, the McCanns and their companions decided not to use that service. Kate and Jerry thought they would have to put the kids to bed too early, pick them up too late if they did, and that would disrupt disrupt their and the kids schedules. The McCanns were staying in apartment 5A. Kate would write, ours 5A was on the corner of the block. It was lovely, much nicer and larger in fact than we had expected. Later we were told by the

British police that the ground floor location, access to roads front and side, secluded entrance and partial tree cover made our apartment a prime target for burglars and other criminals. Never once did this occur to us when we arrived. As far as we were concerned, we were in a safe, family-oriented holiday resort. Damn, yeah, I mean, I would not think of that either if I'm just showing up at a place like that. Maybe now I might, but not before this. Kate thought that they had a well-balanced group for their trip. The adults could enjoy each other's company.

Kids wouldn't get bored because there were other kids to play with and a bunch of activities. Little Madeline was having a blast at the kids club. Neil Berry, another British tourist, said that his daughter Jessie befriended Madeline and the two girls played together. During a kids sailing activity, Jessie lost her little hat in the ocean. Sweet little Madeline jumped into the water to grab it. The staff quickly then grabbed her, put her back in the boat, avoiding a major mishap. That's the kind of kid she was. May 3rd 2007 was the sixth day of the McCann's vacation and also the day their lives changed forever for the worse. And before diving into this next heavy section of the episode, let's take this week's first of two mid-show sponsor breaks.

Okay, now we return to May 3rd, 2007, the day the McCann family's lives changed forever. Madeleine disappeared the evening of May 3rd while her parents and their friends were having dinner at a nearby tapas restaurant. At 5.30 p.m. local time time Kate McCann picked up her kids from the kiddie club. Madeline was exhausted from the day's activities. She'd asked her mom to carry her back to their apartment. I remember those days with both kids pick me up pick me up. Her parents took a photo of her that day before she went to the kiddie club where they had her shag balls for them while they were playing

tennis. She couldn't have looked happier. Big beaming smile. You know, tan from all of being out the sun, Madeline and her young siblings of twins sleeping in the same room in apartment 5A. Kate read all three of her kids a bedtime story which they apparently barely made it through before they all fell asleep. And then Jerry came into the room during the story to tell his kids good night. After she got the kids settled Kate started getting ready for the rest of the evening and had a glass of wine. Most if not all the kids in the group were drinking that night.

Kids are getting fucked up. Part of the reason the kids were sleeping so hard is because they were hammered. No, most if not all of the adults in the group were drinking that night. Sources did not report that Kate and Jerry drank excessively. And they both will deny being drunk. By 8.30 p.m., Kate and Jerry were walking down to the resort's topest restaurant, sitting down to eat. The McCanns were among the first of their group to arrive that night.

They'd been there before. They'd had a standing reservation at this restaurant for multiple nights of their stay. The restaurant was located fairly close to apartment 5A, separated by a pool. The distance, only about 100 yards, apartment 5A, separated by a pool. The distance only about 100 yards if you took the route alongside the pool. I guess if you swam you might be able to cut off a few yards. Because the adults were not using the babysitting service, they left their children sleeping alone in their respective apartments while they went to eat and drink. Jerry McCann said in a later interview, it seemed a fairly natural thing to do. It was so close you

can actually see the apartment. It didn't feel that different to do. It was so close. You can actually see the apartment It didn't feel that different to dining out in the back garden Try not to judge him but it's human nature to judge isn't it? I Have always been Admittedly here. This is not bragging. This is not always a good thing I've been more protective more more of a worrier than the average parent definitely sometimes to a fault So maybe I'm overreacting here, but I would just never do this. I never did this with my kids. I never let them stay alone in the house, hotel room, whatever by themselves,

while they were under, excuse me, probably 11 or 12 actually. Which was a lot different from my own childhood. I know that's not an option for everybody. I was a latchkey kid for a few years, starting when I was in first grade. You know, walking myself an option for everybody. I was a latchkey kid for a few years, starting when I was in first grade, you know, walking myself home from grade school. We lived in Anchorage, Alaska for a little bit. And I understand that financially, you know, sometimes this cannot be helped. Uh, couldn't be helped when I was a kid.

Both my parents had to work as did their friends and you know, my grandparents, we weren't living by them at that time. And so they, you know, they couldn't afford a sitter, but it could have been helped here. Uh, when my kids were little and I would take them on vacation, never left them alone to go hang out with the adults. You know outside of an actual like daycare, but I will say even even on vacation I'm fucking so paranoid I wouldn't put my kids when they were that age in like that kind of daycare. Like not on vacation. Just freaked me out. If there's a daycare, I didn't even like the ones by the house, but I could scope them out at

least. Definitely fucking mean mug. Some of the some of the people I thought like might seem a little weird to me like don't you fucking touch I'll fucking kill you touch my kid trying to give that vibe. Um I don't know and maybe maybe that's too much but one of the main reasons I never left them alone same reason I also made Kyler wear a fucking weird teddy bear backpack with a literal leash attached to it for a while When he was about five and prone to wandering off in public But because I just didn't want to entertain even a tiny chance that some sick motherfucker could get a hold of him And these little McCann kids all under the age of four

They were not super close to their parents in proximity. They were a hundred yards away That's a considerable distance in a noisy area if they started to scream their parents would not be able to hear them I doubt you know above the noise of them having drinks you know listening to music being played at the bar, loud conversation, animated conversation with friends and again not trying to cast blame but I just don't like this decision at all and a lot of people would criticize this. The adults did decide to implement a rotating check to be fair every 20 to 30 minutes somebody would get up from the table go check on the kids. Sometimes they pop in to check on another couple's children as well. I still

don't like it. Right? Too much can happen in a half hour. I just don't understand like why not just have one adult stay with the kids each night the whole time and then rotate that adult. Not gonna be the same adult every night. Right? You know you fucking you do your duty.. You don't get to hang out and have drinks tonight You gotta hang out with all the fucking kids Around 9 p.m. Group member Matt Oldfield reported to the McCann's that all was quiet when he passed by the outside of their apartment when He went to check on the kids But he didn't actually go check in on the McCann kids at 9 o'clock

I've Jerry got up from the table to do the first check on his own children It had been 35 minutes approximately since they'd left. He said he entered the apartment through the unlocked back patio door, checked on the kids in their room. Jerry recalled that he stopped for a moment, thought about how lucky he felt in that moment. Poor bastard man. He then returned to the restaurant, sat back down with the group. Kate got up to go check on the kids less than 20 minutes later at 9.25 but then her friend Matt Oldfield told her to sit down he'd be happy to check for her. He entered apartment 5A through the back patio door

but did not fully enter the kids bedroom. Didn't check. Right? Said he heard what sounded like one of the kids rolling over and that was good enough for him. He didn't hear anything else to note so he just thought it was good and left the apartment. Don't like that! If you're gonna check, fucking check! It was Kate's turn to then check the kids at 10 p.m. So now it's been almost an hour since somebody actually looked at them, made sure they were all in the room. Kate entered the apartment through the back patio door. Immediately she noticed a few things that seemed off.

First she saw more light than she expected coming from the bedroom, and the bedroom door was open wider than she recalled. Then when she approached the door she said the wind slammed it shut, which was surprising. She then opened the door fully and her stomach sank. Madeline's bed was empty. And to her growing horror the window was wide open and the shutters were raised. Fuckin' this exact scenario. One of the reasons I've always been a bit of a head case when it comes to checking on the kids. Madeline was gone. Kate later said in an interview,

I then just went flying down to the tapas restaurant shouting someone's taken Madeline and that's when the nightmare started. And truly what a nightmare. Kate said she repeated not Madeline over and over again. She was reportedly howling because she was so distraught. Yeah, but it felt like somebody had scraped out her fucking insides and just thrown them in the trash. According to journalist Anthony Summers, the second author of Looking for Madeline, a book published back in 2014 about all this, Kate and Jerry became increasingly agitated, of course they did,

and they ran back to the apartment while others searched for the little girl outside. After they were certain their daughter was not hidden in the apartment, Jerry and a friend went to the Ocean Club's reception office, asked them to call the police. A couple of officers from the National Republic Guard, aka the GNR, described as a small town patrol unit, soon arrived on the scene, and the officers tried to calm everybody down. They assured the McCanns that children were not kidnapped in Pridealouche. That kind of thing didn't happen in that little resort community.

They assumed that Madeline must have wandered off on her own, was probably sleeping somewhere within the resort or in a nearby area. Kate, not calm by this, she was insistent Madeline would never have wandered off on her own. She was certain her daughter had been abducted. When Madeline was not immediately located near apartment 5A, the local head of the GNR called the Judicial

Police aka PJ the law enforcement organization has a major crimes investigative unit the Judicial Police Similar authority to the FBI in the US The lead investigator was a man named Gonzalo Amaral Amaral was eating dinner at the time and when he was contacted he sent an inspector and an investigator to the McCann's apartment. He's got to finish his meal first. You're not gonna like this guy. In his interview years later for the 2019 Netflix docu-series, the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Amaral said, we came as soon as it was communicated to us.

He paused and he says, well not right away. I gotta finish my fucking dinner, right? This ceviche's not gonna eat itself! He said, we arrived after the National Republican Guard, the GNR, who also got there late. The GNR were notified late. This lateness triggered a delay to the sequence of events. So, is he passing the buck there? Did he think the McCanns waited longer than they should have to notify the police?

I don't know. According to Amaral, when the inspectors made it to the resort, they noticed a lack of potential crime scene preservation. The McCanns had torn their place apart rather than let investigators look for clues, which I do understand though. I said the McCanns apartment was messy with clothing and strewn all about and they and their friends had been in and out of the apartment searching for Madeline. They'd opened various doors and cabinets before investigators ever arrived. And then Amaral said that the judicial police fucked up and inspected the apartment as if a robbery had occurred, not a kidnapping, with a robbery inspection being quote the most minimal inspection in terms of detail. It's weird that he's talking

about the judicial police here fucking up as if he was not in charge of the judicial police. So he fucked up. Not including the law enforcement around 60 staff members and guests all searched the resort that night. Border police and airport staff were given notice of the disappearance along with Madeline's description that first night to help catch anyone trying to leave the country with her. Hundreds of volunteers would join the search efforts

in the following days. Jane Tanner, a member of the McCann's friend group would speculate about the first possible suspect during the first hours of the search. Around 9.15 p.m. on her way back to the Toppest restaurant from checking on her kids, she said she saw a man crossing the road at the corner by the McCann's apartment. He was carrying a small child who was wearing light-colored pajamas similar to or the same as Madeleine's pajamas. Jane said she didn't think it was strange at first because it was very common to see parents

carrying their tired kids around the resort at night, especially those who had just picked their children up from the nighttime babysitting service. But she did notice that the child had no blanket and that the man was walking very fast, which if not seeming nefarious at least stood out to her. She thought the child was a girl because of the pajamas, which appeared to be pink, but she said she never saw the child's hair. Hours later, she realized she may have seen the man who was abducting Madeline. Kate and Jerry went to bed at 4 a.m. that night. Can you imagine how fucking horrified and upset they were? If they didn't do something to their

child that is, like kill them in an accident and then try to cover it up, which investigators will later accuse them of? And then they woke up to continue searching a few hours later at first light, May 4thth 2007. Later that morning Kate and Jerry went to the nearby beach community of Portimao to give statements or Portimao to give statements to the police and they made sure to emphasize their friend Jane Tanner's sighting of the man carrying the child. Gonzalo Amaral watched them give their individual statements and told Kate to quote take it easy because they were gonna do everything they could to find Madeline. Take it easy? Why would you ever fucking say that to the parents of a missing child? Hey take it easy. It's almost as

bad as relax it's not that big of a deal or or worse take a chill pill come on take a chill pill. Can you imagine if your kid went missing and then some cop was like easy chief let's take a chill pill. In an interview in in 2019, Amaral would say about the initial investigation, quote, the initial approach, I wouldn't say it was done badly, but inadequate. Why in Portugal, the disappearance of a human being, the disappearance itself is not a crime. It can't be punished. So the judicial police can't trigger any kind of investigation or, or use certain

techniques and procedures like wiretapping for instance, or surveillance, et cetera, otherwise it would be treated as a crime. Disappearance continues to be considered in Portugal as merely something to be investigated. The McCanns are very frustrated by the initial police response and asked their friends and family to reach out to media and political connections back in Britain to help them. Some British medialists told them that the Portuguese police do not give out much information while cases are ongoing which is meant to protect the investigation. But a bunch of media from Britain would show up in Portugal.

The McCanns would also quickly learn that sadly closed circuit TV, aka security cameras, not common in Portugal, except at gas stations at that time. Madeleine also disappeared during the height of tourist season when thousands of people are coming and going every day further complicating the search. Eventually in the coming days the police would ramp up their search efforts. They would conduct water and land searches, establish roadblocks and vehicle checks, and conduct apartment searches in Pride Luce. So they would kind of treat it like a crime. The police also soon looked into Interpol's list of British and German pedophiles who were registered sex offenders. We'll meet some of these dirtbags soon.

In addition to being a popular UK tourist destination, the area was also very popular with Germans. Interpol, the International Criminal Police Organization, is an intergovernmental organization that facilitates police cooperation and crime control around the world. On May 5th, two days after their daughter went missing, the McCanns issued a public plea for Madeline's return. Jerry McCann said in a televised statement, We cannot describe the pain and anguish and despair we are feeling as parents of our beautiful daughter Madeline. We requested anyone with information relating to Madeline's disappearance.

No matter how trivial, contact the Portuguese police and help us get her back safely. Please, if you have Madeline, let her come home to her mommy, daddy, brother and sister. On the same day, the Portuguese police gave the McCanns hope when they announced that they had a suspect in mind and believed Madeleine had been abducted but was still alive. May 7, 2007. It's now been four days since three-year-old Madeleine went missing. For three nights, that poor little girl has been best case sleeping in some strange bed. For three nights her parents have been trying to sleep knowing that

some fucking maniac and or pedo might have her. I can't think about how I would feel in a situation for too long because it just makes me feel sick. A witness named Gail Cooper, a 50 year old grandmother and fellow British tourist in the area, now makes a police report. She said that a man came to her door claiming he was collecting money for a local orphanage. He mentioned that three British children were being kept in the orphanage because their parents had been in a car accident. Cooper was staying just a few hundred yards from the McCann's vacation apartment.

She said she had seen the man wandering around the area of the resort before. She helped create a sketch and witnessed Jane Tanner, that friend of the McCann's who said she had seen a man carrying away a child that night, who might have been Madeline near the night of her disappearance, said that Cooper's suspect bore an 80% likeness to the person that she had seen. Also investigators found out that the week before the McCann's arrived in Pry- Deluge, another family who was staying in apartment 5A, the McCann's apartment, had a similar encounter to Gail Cooper. The father of the family spoke with a man who claimed he was a

charity collector for an orphanage, but he couldn't provide any information about that orphanage. He did not match the description of the Cooper report though. Sounds less like kidnappers and more like some dudes running a shitty scam to me here. People trying to get you know other people to feel sorry for some supposed orphans who I doubt exist to get free money. Investigators determined that on the day of Madeline's disappearance there were four reported incidents of charity collectors asking for money for an orphanage in Pride Louche. And in one report from just before the disappearance a man approached a mother's home in Pride Louche. The woman was troubled because the man spoke about orphanages and he creepily stared at her daughter while he did so. Then the next day she was

upstairs doing laundry she came down she found this son of a bitch in her house with her daughter even worse he ran away when he saw her and her daughter was just three years old same age as Madeline. So maybe a scammer and also a kidnapper slash pedo here. Hope that guy got run over by a fucking bus right after he bolted out of the apartment. May 10th 2007. Now it's been a full week, seven days since Madeleine has disappeared. The McCanns have remained in Portugal. Now a Norwegian tourist named Marie Olli calls the police to report that she saw a girl who looked like Madeline at a gas station in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh almost 700 miles away. And the little girl was with a man.

Marie described the girl as having a pretty face, long blonde hair, green eyes, and a sad look about her. And she said the girl asked, can I see mummy now? Shortly after that encounter, Marie and her partner Ray returned to their home in Spain and then saw news coverage about Madeline McCann. She immediately believed that the girl that she saw at the gas station was Madeline. She said she tried to call both Spanish police and Portuguese law enforcement, but originally no one seemed very interested in her tip. And then authorities did look into it. The CCTV tapes had been recorded over, unfortunately though. May 12 2007,

Madeleine's fourth birthday. It's now been nine days since she vanished. Her father Jerry, still in Portugal, pays a tribute to Madeleine at a Catholic mass in Praia do Luz saying, today we should be celebrating the fourth birthday of our daughter Madeleine. Instead we have had to remember what a normal, beautiful, vivacious, funny, courageous, and loving little girl that we are missing today. I like to think about the effects of Madeleine's abduction from us nine days ago like a tidal wave. The devastation affects everyone we meet here in the resort and has affected this community.

Fucking terrible. Jerry and his wife Kate still trying to keep it together for the sake of their own twins throughout all of this. Man. May 15th. Now been 12 days since Madeleine disappeared. And now Portuguese police named their first official suspect, British citizen Robert Muret. In Portugal, an official suspect is called an erguido. The suspect is not charged with the crime at this point, but their status gives them the right to remain silent and or have a lawyer present during police interviews. Robert had been on police's radar from the very beginning. He was currently staying in Portugal with his mom in a villa within the Ocean Club called

Casa Liliana, just 150 yards from apartment 5A where the McCanns were staying. In his interview for The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, the 2019 Netflix docu-series, Robert said his mom told him about a missing child in Praia do Luz. He said they then discussed looking around their garden because they had low fences that a kid could potentially climb over. They looked, they didn't find anything. Robert then spoke to another British person at the resort

who told him that the missing child was just three years old and that her parents were having problems communicating with the police. So Robert said he decided to help. Being a full-time resident of Pride Luge at that time, fluent in Portuguese, he decided to talk to the family and offer his assistance. His own daughter, who was living in England with her mom at this time, very close in age to Madeline and that made him feel more compelled to

help. And his eagerness would lead to him, you know, being read as suspicious by local law enforcement. They didn't like how he seemed to know a lot of important details about the case despite the fact that he was a stranger to the family. Robert explained in his Netflix interview many years later that he knew certain details such as the color of Madeline's pajamas because her parents had just fucking told him those details as he started to help them. Assuming he is innocent, which I think he is, this poor bastard, imagine going out of your way to help some strangers and being repaid for your kindness

by being named the prime suspect in the disappearance of a little girl. Robert started to wonder if he was being considered as a suspect by the police and also by the media before he was officially named. Moon Rat said his first inkling came when he was speaking to reporter Laurie Campbell from the Sunday Mirror, a British journalist.

Many of them had swarmed Pride Deluge shortly after Madeleine's disappearance and during their conversation he noticed someone taking pictures of him and then he found this was because Campbell was suspicious of him. Later that night Murat went out for dinner, noticed a car following him, ended up following the suspicious car, then he stopped by the nearest judicial police office to speak with the police about it. No one was there, so he called the inspector in charge, explained what happened, and the inspector told him it was probably just some journalists. And that had nothing to do with the police, but Robert didn't buy it.

He later saw the same car, recorded the registration, called the inspector again, and now Robert was asked to meet some investigators for a drink. Alarm balls, alarm balls, some alarm balls went off. You know how that happens when you're like, hey, something's weird here. I got alarm balls going off my head. No alarm bells went off. Robert said, but I do kind of like alarm balls. And he's suspected they wanted him to get drunk so he would start talking loosely and reveal incriminating information. But Robert doesn't drink, not alcohol. You know, he has water, that kind of stuff. You get, uh, just, and he just drinks some coffee. Lead investigator Gonzalo Amaral later said of Robert, Robert Murat started as a translator for some witness statements that were collected in Pride and Luge. After that

someone indicated that he could be involved in the child's appearance. We had a surveillance team following Robert Murat. We tapped his phones, even his house was under surveillance. Robert Murat. We tapped his phones. Even his house was under surveillance. Robert Murat's house was scanned with a radar device to attempt to determine how many people were inside the house. That's a pretty fucking cool device. I've never heard of using a radar kind of gun of some sort to figure out how many people are in somebody's house. I wonder if you would need a warrant to do that in the US. May 15th, the day he was named an official suspect, Robert received a call from the judicial police

informing him that there had been a breakthrough and they needed him to help translate. He said he went to his gate, saw officers outside, who immediately executed a raid on his house. They tricked him. Meanwhile, Robert was taken to the judicial police headquarters for some questioning. He told right away officers wanted him to confess. He claims he was interrogated for a very long time with no food or no water. The Telegraph reported he was questioned for 19 hours straight.

Around that time possibly while he was being questioned, the police identified a second potential suspect, a 22-year-old Russian local computer business owner named Sergey Malinka, a Portuguese resident who was designing a website for Robert Murekht. In his interview for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in DocuSeries, Sergey said the police approached him, took his phone and keys, and put him into one of their cars. He thought maybe he was being arrested for a parking or traffic ticket, or that he might have downloaded some kind of legal software on accident. He later learned they were holding him in the car while waiting for a warrant to search his apartment. When he found out, he tried to tell the police that some of the equipment they were seizing

was not his, that belonged to his clients, but they took it anyway. Sergey was asked a whole bunch of questions about Robert Murat. He emphasized that Robert was just a random customer. He didn't know shit about the guy's personal life. He said the more exhausted he became, the more frustrated by their questions, the more aggressive the police acted towards him. One officer allegedly slapped him on the back and said, at one point, I will put this little girl on the back and said, at one point, I will put this little girl on your back.

Detective Consolo Amaral asked him about a phone call he received from Robert Murat, 1130 PM, the night Madeline went missing. He claimed he could not recall that phone call, which made investigators more suspicious of him. In his later interview, Murat said he never denied making the phone call, but noted he can't remember making it because he didn't talk.

He theorized it was a pocket dial. Sergey said the police told him they found porn on some of the computers they took but it wasn't illegal porn and they did not specify which computer it was found on though he wasn't sure if they were referring to like one of his computers or a client's computer. We do know yet none of the computers had child porn in them because he was never charged with that crime. After it was reported that Sergei was questioned in connection to the case, the media began to publicly label him a pedophile, a sexual predator, a human trafficker, and his local reputation was permanently ruined. Again, assuming he was innocent. How fucked?

Imagine just being some fucking dude who happens to live in a little town where a girl goes missing somebody you know who you who you just have happened to done business with and you've been with a lot of different people that Guy gets named as a suspect and then because you've worked with them in some just you know Adjacent way now you're questioned and then the next day you open up the local paper and there was an article with a giant picture Of you accusing you of being a pedophile. I'll be so fucking furious. God, that would suck so bad. You just have to leave town. That fucks you forever. Right.

You got to leave town. And when you get to the next town, don't tell anybody why you've moved there. Perhaps get a new name. Oh, oh my God. I get like, if you told people that you're like, Hey, I just had to move here because, you know, I've randomly accused being a pedophile. They'd be like, uh-huh Still fuck away from my kids weirdo

In late May authorities learned that a critical possible sighting of Madeline occurred 10 p.m The night of May 3rd just minutes after she went missing when an Irish tourist named Martin Smith and his family were walking back to their accommodations after dinner Smith would give a statement on March or on May 26th 23 days after Madeline's disappearance. It's been over three weeks now. Smith said that he and his family were less than 300 meters south of the Ocean Club when Smith saw a man carrying a little girl in pajamas. He was carrying the girl towards the beach about 150 meters away. Said the man was walking normally seemed to fit in, you know, very common again to see people carrying their kids around during tour season. He described the man as white, 5'7 to 5'9, 35 to 40 years old, with a thin but average build and brown hair.

Four days later, May 30th, 2007, Kate and Jerry McCann met with Pope Benedict XVI, who promised to pray for Madeline. Kind of weird that he just didn't pray, right then and there, though, right? I mean, why not just say a little prayer in front of the parents to make them feel better? Why be like, you know what? I'm gonna pray so hard for your fucking daughter. Later. Throughout the month of May, the McCanns had been receiving worldwide sympathy and support with their sad quest to find their little girl. But then on June 3rd, 2007, exactly a month after she disappeared, there was a sudden

shift in public perception. That day, a famous Portuguese journalist named Felicia Cabrita published an article titled Pact of Silence. Cabrita had previously done a piece on a well-known pedophile case. It kind of broke the case open involving Casa Pia in Lisbon. Casa Pia is a state-owned institution that provides shelter and education to impoverished children. In the early 2000s, Cabrita discovered that numerous American millionaires were allowed

to travel to Portugal to sexually abuse these kids, and that the abuse went all the way back to the 70s. Yeah, so that fucking happened. An employee of the institution ran a male child prostitution network involving around 100 boys. A number of high-ranking Portuguese politicians, lawyers, a famous Portuguese TV presenter and radio host, will be sent to prison over this. It's a fucking crazy story full of so many pieces of shit who should be exterminated. Cabrita had just

started investigating the Madeleine McCann case. She was three weeks late to the party and she thought it was strange how the police were not focusing on the family at all because in most cases when something happens to a kid the perpetrator is either a family member or a friend of the family. On a day when the local Catholic church in Pride, Duluth was holding an important mass, Cabrita decided to go to the Ocean Club Resort while most people in town were distracted. The staff allowed her to choose her table so she sat at the table where the McCann group was eating the night of May 3rd. If you recall, Jerry McCann said the distance between the table and apartment 5A

felt similar to having dinner in the back garden of your house while your kid slept inside. And he said that quote, it was so close you can actually see the apartment. However, both Felicia Cabrita and Detective Gonzalo, excuse me, Gonzalo Amaral will say that there was like low to zero visibility of the apartment from where the family ate because there was this plastic barrier behind the table obscuring the view. Cabrita said she noticed this when she sat at the table and now she wanted to know why the parents had, according to her at least, lied. She started digging around and found out that witness statements differed amongst the group

at the restaurant on May 3rd. The statements also differ from employee statements about the group's movements. In some cases, there was an hour's worth of disagreement regarding when important events took place. According to Robin Swan, author of that 2014 book, Looking for Madeline, the friend sat down, wrote out their timeline, then revised it 24 hours later. And in his first statement, Jerry said he had entered the apartment through the front door, but in a later statement, he said he entered through the back door which he normally left open. Detective Gonzalo Amaral also noted that

Kate said she peeked under the bed when she was looking for Madeleine inside the apartment which he said was not possible because the mattress went all the way to the floor. However that's not true. I looked at a photo of the room published by the Daily Record, a Scottish tabloid newspaper. There is a small gap between the bed and the floor, and I can definitely see a frantic parent looking under the bed. Gonzalo, again, maybe shouldn't have been a detective, as you'll see as we go forward. Kate also said that when she entered the room and realized Madeleine was gone, the window was open, the shutters were raised all the way up. According to Amaral, the issue was

whether they were open from the outside or not. When Jerry McCann entered the apartment, he lowered the shutter, went outside, then realized the shutter could be open from the outside. However, according to Amaral, one member of the McCann's group tried to open them and could not. Amaral added that when the police arrived, the room was not as Kate had described it because the group had looked for Madeline and moved the windows positioning and he found this to be suspicious. Finally Amaral claimed that the only print on the window was Kate McCann's right palm print on the interior glass. Because of all this the police considered the possibility that

the scene had been staged and when journalist Felicia Cabrita learned of all this she thought Madeline's parents might be the true villains in this story. And she published an article saying as much. Which led to others starting to wonder if the McCanns were not who they appeared to be. Around this time, first official suspect Robert Murat, still the only official suspect, is questioned again in a local judicial police building. He was there with three of the McCann's friends who were still in Portugal a month after they were supposed to have returned home. Those are some good ass friends.

The officers asked a group questions and the McCann's friends said they saw Murat at the resort on the night of the abduction. Murat denied this. Towards the end of the interview, one of the group members said they knew they saw him because they recognized his distinctive eye. He's blind in one eye.

Murat said in his Netflix interview, the fact is the people who do know me were there that night. The police were there that night and none of them saw me. The only person who saw me were these three people and that for me is strange in itself. He believes that these statements were intentional. So why would they lie? He thinks because they also faced suspicion, especially Jane Tanner, the woman who claimed she saw a man carrying a girl on the night of Madeline's abduction, that friend of the McCann's. Detective Amaral said, just like we say the wine from Porto gets better with time, that statement got better over time. There were more and more details in Jane Tanner's statement, so much so it lost so much credibility because she kept adding so many details, even saying that she knew the person describing what the baby was wearing, describing Tanner's statement. So much so it lost so much credibility because she kept adding so many details.

Even saying that she knew the person describing what the baby was wearing describing what the kidnapper was wearing. I don't know what's going on here with her statement. I will say uh you know memory is a funny thing. It's notoriously unreliable actually and sometimes the more you think about something the more your brain will start to add details to the initial memory, details that were never there. Neuroscientists have shown that each time we remember something we reassemble the event from little traces in our brain and all the little traces do not always add up to a complete story but our brains are wired to want to construct complete storylines and so the brain will add what it thinks

happened or what likely or probably happened but not necessarily what did happen to complete holes in the narrative. Studies have also shown that we suppress memories that are painful or damaging to our self-esteem. Memory is adaptive, reshaping itself to accommodate new situations we find ourselves facing so it's notoriously flexible which is not helpful when it comes to investigations. And before returning to this investigation, I'm going to take today's second of two mid-show sponsor breaks. Thanks for listening to those sponsors. And now let's return to the summer of 2007. While some media outlets, almost all of them Portuguese, now began to point the finger at Madeleine's parents, the British media was criticizing the Portuguese investigators. This criticism worsened on June 17, 2007, when Chief Inspector Olgareo Sousa admitted

that important forensic clues may have been destroyed because the crime scene was never properly protected. In June, the McCanns hired a PR advisor named Justine McGinnis, who told them they needed to treat their efforts to find their daughter like a political campaign. The McCanns, with Justine's help, now held a series of press conferences throughout Europe to appeal for the public's help. Well, this PR campaign will backfire. The McCanns come across now as too professional, too robotic and emotionless, which will lead to more people thinking they might be guilty. Kate and Jerry will later say that they only decided to control their emotions in public because they've been advised to do so. They were told they could

jeopardize metal and safety if they showed extreme reactions. How terrible would that be? If you truly believe that crying for your missing daughter in public could lead to her, if she was still alive, being harmed further for some reason, so you fight to appear stoic. You know, you just try and do the right thing. And then because you're stoic now, more and more media outlets start to accuse you of being involved in your daughter's disappearance, which in addition to enraging you, I would imagine also embarrasses you and worst of all, leads to more and more people no longer

trying to help find your daughter's real kidnapper. Because they don't think she was kidnapped. They think that you did something. And it leads to people talking all kinds of horrible shit online too. Now in addition to your daughter still being missing, strangers are convinced you killed her, you're an asshole a cold bitch etc. The McCants could not go anywhere without reporters following them having their every move scrutinized the entire world is watching them and no longer just supporting them

or feeling sorry for them but now also judging them. Madeline's case occurred during the early days of Facebook and Twitter's popularity which fueled rumors and speculation and accusations in the case. Tabloid headlines are being taken as truth, which is sadly now the norm for the world we live in. Additionally, the Portuguese media began to grow more and more critical of all the attention Madeleine was receiving when there were literally thousands of other missing kids cases and missing Portuguese children not receiving nearly the same time and resources dedicated

to them. So now more and more Portuguese citizens are starting to resent Jerry and Kate, continuing to try and find their daughter, which is so fucked, but I get it on some level. In late July of 2007, nearly three months after Madeline went missing now, the British police send a cadaver dog and a blood-sniffing dog to assist the investigation. The handlers portrayed these dogs as being extremely accurate. Assisting the British police were Portuguese judicial police who searched the McCann's apartment again, also the rental car, which they started to rent 25 days

after Madeleine had been abducted. The first search took place at apartment 5A, July 31st, 2007. The cadaver dog goes in first, picks up a scent in the corner of the bedroom, also on the sofa in the living area. The blood sniffing dog also picks up the scent of blood on the sofa. The dogs are then taken to the villa where the McCanns have been staying since Madeline

disappeared as apartment 5A was still an active crime scene. And the cadaver dog now alerts investigators to Madeline's favorite stuffed toy, which Kate has often been carrying around with her. And according to Detective Omaral, I thought that the child's doll may have come into contact with the dead body. There was someone who was always going around with that doll and that person was a child's mother. As such it can indicate that the mother may have been in contact with her daughter's corpse. Simply that. So did the McCanns accidentally kill their daughter and then try to cover that up with allegations of a kidnapping. The dogs, that's what you know,

more and more people are starting to think. The dogs are searching cars used by the McCann's. Their friends, others involved, the team allegedly did not know whose car was whose during the search so they wouldn't be biased. Both dogs alerted investigators to the driver's side door of the McCann's rental car and the blood dog also alerted them to the trunk of that car. Hanlon Martin Grimes said his dogs would not mistakenly give a signal so the police now seize boxes of the McCann's belongings and bring the dogs in once again. And now the cadaver dog alerts investigators to certain pieces of clothing, most of them belonging to Kate.

And because of that, the Portuguese authorities initiate a detailed forensic examination and collect a bunch of samples, which are then sent to Britain for testing. The Portuguese investigators Kate McCann is looking more and more like an official suspect in her daughter's disappearance, but they haven't named her that yet. August 3rd, 2007, exactly three months after Madeline's disappearance and the McCanns are still staying in Portugal. Now authorities in Belgium are investigating a reported sighting of Madeleine in the city of Tongarin, nearly 1,500 miles away. The police released a drawing of a Dutchman who was seen with the girl and an English-speaking woman at a table outside of a pub, but false alarm.

DNA tests are conducted on a milkshake bottle from the pub that the girl drank out of and Madeleine's DNA not on it. What an emotional roller coaster for Jerry and Kate. August 11th, 2007 marks 100 days now since Madeline has gone missing. Her ever being found alive is obviously looking more and more unlikely. And the police announced that new evidence has prompted them to consider the strong possibility that Madeline is dead. But they don't say what that evidence is.

Again, this roller coaster for these parents. August 30th, 2007, a Portuguese national newspaper claims that judicial police officers found a syringe with tranquilizer medication on a bedside table in the vacation apartment of the McCanns. But the paper does not report when the syringe was found. The judicial police allegedly have now theorized that Madeleine and the twins were all sedated with cowlapal, a common fever and pain medicine for children. According to this theory, Madeleine is given too much and she overdoses and dies and then her body is first hidden in a fridge, not sure where this fridge was supposed to be, then finally transported to a location to be buried in the

McCann's rental car which they rented weeks after she died. Seems pretty far-fetched that they would just hide her body in a fridge and all these investigators wouldn't find that fridge for several weeks. Not impossible, I guess. Seemingly in support of this theory was the fact that Madeline's siblings Sean and Amelie continued to sleep through the night that Madeline disappeared even when there were people in and out and lots of noise and chaos. Yeah, but they're like, like not even two. The McCanns admitted that they had given their children cow-ball but denied giving them stronger medication or so much that they could have overdosed and they would very likely know what was a dangerous amount since they're both fucking doctors. This theory will be eventually discredited. August 31, 2007, now nearly four months since Madeline disappeared and the McCanns launched

a libel action against the Portuguese paper Tal and Qual which claimed that the police believed they killed their daughter. More bullshit for them to deal with. Following month of September will mark another significant turn in the investigation. And it again will not be one that favors Kate and Jerry McCann. September 4th. The initial British lab report on the samples taken from the McCann's apartment and the trunk of their rental car is sent back to Portugal.

The initial report found 70 to 90 marks equal to Madeleine's blood in her parents' rental car, a car rented weeks after her death. How could this be? It looks real bad for Madeleine's parents. This information is then leaked to the press, they theorize it was leaked by the police, and more media organizations, especially in Portugal, now accuse Kate and Jerry of murdering their daughter. Two days later, September 6, Kate McCann is called to the police station for an interview.

She will be at the station for 11 straight hours with her attorney. Kate is offered a plea bargain. The investigators want her to plead guilty to concealing a body, her daughter's body, in exchange for a two-year prison sentence. Based on the blood report coming back, they think she accidentally killed her daughter and then tried to hide that from the police. She refuses to accept this plea deal. The next day, September 7th, detectives announced that Kate and Jerry McCann are nerd Erguidos, or again, official suspects. Kate is required to come in for more questioning, along with Jerry.

She does. She declines to answer every question following the advice of her attorneys. According to Detective Gonzalo Amaral, Jerry was shown the videos of the sniffer dogs searching the apartment in the car. But he said this was irrelevant. He didn't see anything that he thought would help find his daughter. Two days later, Kate and Jerry returned to the UK. September 9, 2007. Over four months after their daughter had gone missing, how fucking gut-wrenching it must be again if they're innocent,

to have to leave the area where their daughter went missing. They'd planned to stay in Portugal much longer and continue the search. But left to the advice of British authorities who said if they stayed, they were probably going to be taken into custody. When they return to the UK, they start working with a man now named Brian Kennedy, wealthy businessman listed as one of the UK's 500 richest people who now becomes their benefactor. He had been following their story closely. He had seen how the world was seemingly turning against the McCanns. He did not think they had hurt their daughter and he wanted to help them. And since he had the financial resources to do so and he's a fucking really nice guy apparently,

he did. An AI assisted web search I should add that I conducted said that Brian is Madeline's great uncle but I can't find a single credible seeming source that repeats that claim. Even when Brian is interviewed and asked directly why he chose to help he never to my knowledge mentions being a relative so I'm just saying that if you've seen that, if you're familiar with this case, I don't think he's related. He first helped the McCanns hire a Portuguese lawyer to provide legal protection so they could not be forced to return to Portugal for questioning. Kennedy also helped fund the McCanns PR campaign and the hiring of private investigators.

Also Martin Smith, that Irish witness who said that he and his family had seen a man carrying a little girl on the night of Madeline's disappearance. Well, he watches news footage of Jerry McCann walking off the plane carrying one of the twins when he flies back to Britain and calls investigators in Portugal and the UK. Smith is now claiming that he is 60 to 80 percent sure that the man he saw carrying the child on the night of May 3rd, 2007 was none other than Madeleine's dad, Jerry McCann. So now even more people will think that the McCanns killed their own daughter, even though numerous witnesses were with Jerry the whole night and this that doesn't fucking make sense that he would have just been able to sneak out and do that because he's around people the whole time. But anyway, the day after the McCanns land in England, September 10th, a deputy of Detective Consolo Amaral back in Portugal issues a report that will become the basis of the case against the McCanns.

The report highlighted the DNA evidence and the sniffer dog alerts and also outlined inconsistencies in the testimony of the McCanns and their friends about the timeline of May 3rd, 2007. The report concluded with three ominous words. Everybody is lying. The Portuguese police received the final British DNA report when they were getting ready to submit their case filed to prosecutors. Again, the samples were collected from the living room of Apartment 5A and the trunk of the McCann's rental car. The report found the DNA samples to be, quote, too meager, too complex, inconclusive, unable to be satisfied. So maybe not a smoking gun after all. There were actually, after all that shit, after all the supposed evidence, DNA evidence,

is pointing to the McCanns, is you know murdering their daughter, there was zero identical matches to Madeline's DNA. No blood was identified to be from fucking anyone related to this case. In his Netflix interview, Gonzalo Amaral said however this was a quote manipulation of the results but actual fucking scientists will disagree with him. Author and journalist Robin Swan and her associate would later get these DNA samples submitted to a team with 60 years of combined you know experience and one member of the team an actual scientist said the forensic evidence quote amounted to a whole lot of nothing and this

is the problem with scientific evidence like this you need smart people to interpret it you need scientists not this random dipshit investigator otherwise it can you know seem to incriminate someone who has nothing to do with the crime being investigated people have been put on fucking death row for improper dna evidence interpretation. Swan explained that there were three main specimens, two from the living room, one from the rental car. The first sample matched Madeline's DNA at certain points, but that doesn't actually mean it was her blood. It actually doesn't mean it even was blood. Swan said it was impossible to conclude with certainty that what type of bodily fluid even produced a sample. The second sample,

too complex, Madeline's DNA not present. The DNA from the trunk of the car matched Madeline's DNA at 15 points, but 20 matches would be needed to be declared a actual match. And it was noted that the DNA could have belonged to her parents or siblings, which obviously shared multiple DNA points with Madeline. But the Portuguese authorities, seemingly employing a whole bunch of confirmation bias in their investigation into Madeline's parents, just didn't seem to want to admit this. Or, I don't know, some of their investigators weren't fucking smart enough to figure that out. Finally, there were 37 components in total in the sample, meaning at least

three DNA profiles were mixed up together. So in the end, the blood and cadaver dogs seem to have led investigators on a wild goose chase. All this hype about the dogs, people like, oh, they never miss. They do fucking miss. In 2007, Brian Kennedy, that rich guy who decided to help the McCann family simply because he felt bad for him, wanted to help him, had the means to do so. Now he hires a premier Spanish private investigation company called Metodo Tres to work on behalf of the McCanns. And quickly these private

investigators claimed that they had uncovered evidence that human trafficking spotters were likely operating in Pride Alluge at the end of Madeleine's disappearance. They speculated that Madeleine may have been hidden, then given to a child trafficker two days after she disappeared, and then was transported to Morocco. Remember how that Norwegian tourist named Marie Ali had called investigators back on May 10th just a week after Madeleine disappeared saying that she saw a girl who she thought looked just like Madeleine was Madeleine at a gas station in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh. Now investigators discovered that there was another possible sighting

in Morocco's Atlas Mountains. A Spanish couple photographed a woman carrying a child who looked very similar to Madeeline. And now Brian Kennedy, crazy how fucking helpful this guy is, how invested he is. And his son Patrick, well now they travel to Morocco to check out this tip, hire a local to take them out into the mountains, and are surprised to see a significant number of blonde kids in the area. They locate the woman and the child from the photo, sadly confirm definitely not Madeline. Meanwhile, the Metodo Trace investigation team continues to explore other possible leads. This team is being led by a private detective named Julian Pervanyes.

Metodo Trace set up a tip line and they also took a second look at early suspects. First official suspect Robert Murat and his Russian website designer Sergey Malenka. Murat or Murat I think the emphasis is on the first syllable chose to speak with the investigators and then found out later they were secretly recording the meeting. He also will find out they had put trackers on his car. The PIs also followed Sergey and at one point offered him some money for more information they thought he was hiding from them but he continued to say like I have nothing to give you I fucking barely know this guy. Perebañas will soon come to believe that neither man is involved in the disappearance.

Francisco Marco, director of Metado Trace, will soon say they have a description of a woman and man they think are involved. They believe that Madeleine is still alive, that she was given by this mystery man and woman to another person in Portugal. Julian started diving into deeper web chats, pages to find anything related to Madeleine. He met some anonymous person who suggested Madeleine's abduction was connected to a Belgian pedophile ring. And then that possible lead goes nowhere.

And then there's some infighting amongst the private investigators. What a fucking mess. Julian tells the McCanns that his director, Francisco Marco, said he actually still didn't know shit about what happened to Madeline, that it was just him and the Kennedy's making progress, working the case. And then Brian Kennedy fires Matato Trace. Back to square one.

October 2nd, 2007. Now it's been almost exactly five months since Madeline went missing. Lead detective Gonzalo Amaral gets fucking fired from the case after criticizing the British police. Not only does he get fired, he gets demoted from his position of chief of police in Portomile. The day before Amaral had been interviewed for a local news outlet and he accused British detectives of only investigating leads that Kate and Jerry McCann wanted them to follow up on. He specifically said the British police have only investigated tips and information developed and worked on for the McCanns, forgetting that the couple are

suspects in the death of their daughter Madeline. He's a real hard-on for them being the people who did it. Amra will actually completely retire from police work altogether a few months later in 2008. And I say retire, I think he was heavily pressured to leave police work behind him. Largely because of his mishandling of this investigation that I think exposed him as being incompetent. This case, how he handled it, seemed to have cost him his career. While he's no longer part of the investigation, the investigation is of course far from over. And we will hear more from former lead inspector Amaral later.

Another important witness will be revealed in December of 2007. A British tourist named Jane Jensen, who was staying at the resort with her sister. The Daily Mail reported that on the day of the abduction, 54-year-old Jane and her sister Annie Wiltshire saw two blonde men in their 30s standing on the balcony of an empty apartment just a couple doors away from apartment 5A. They said the two men were standing outside the patio doors of a ground floor apartment and were looking into the family's swimming pool and restaurant area. They had not seen the men before.

It seemed like they were scoping the place out. Years later in her Netflix docu-series interview, Jane said, it was quite clear that nobody was living in the apartment at the time, or it wasn't rented out. There were leaves on the terrace. And you know, the general closed up for the winter kind of look. But when the chaps were there, the gate was slightly ajar and the leaves were exactly where they were.

The curtains were drawn exactly where they were. So they hadn't come through the front door, which was obviously on the other side where the car park is so they had to have come up through the gate and onto the terrace because I knew subsequently obviously is from that terrace you can look straight over the wall and into the ocean club swimming pool area and the tapas bar the sister reported that they contacted the police and port the Portuguese police within hours of the disappearance, but were then allegedly ignored for six months.

They said they'd also given statements to investigators from Moutoto Trace before they were fired from the case. Finally they claimed they saw Robert Murat outside the McCann's apartment a half hour after Madeleine was reported missing. At the time, Jane was helping with the search that occurred minutes after Kate discovered that Madeleine was missing. She went to the night nursery, saw a man standing on the street corner opposite to the McCann apartment smoking a cigarette. Another man of the complex said he spoke to Jane Jensen at the time,

at that time, and also saw Robert Murat. Jane claimed that Murat introduced himself to her and her sister the following day. She said she was not conducting a witch hunt against Robert and only realized her information could be important after he was made in Erguido. Okay, now let's move on to the next calendar year. At the start of 2008, the McCanns have now gone seven months without seeing their daughter. Can you imagine? Assuming that they had nothing to do with her disappearance, they had just been a hundred yards away having drinks and tapas with friends one moment enjoying a wonderful vacation full of sugary drinks, delicious food, lots of sunshine, perfect weather, swimming in the pool or in the ocean, and then they're overcome with panic. After Kate returned to their room

to check on the kids finds Madeline just gone, the window open, and then panicked hours turn into anguished days wondering whereering where she could be who could have her what's being done to her then those days turn to exhausted Despondent weeks then months of crushing helplessness and depression trying to hold on to hope that somewhere the now four-year-old girl is still alive Not being horribly abused in some way But you got no fucking idea where she is no way way to help the child that you imagined, I would think, is desperately wanting her parents wondering why they are not helping her. My god! How many years of that kind of stress just take off your life? I can't imagine how sick I would feel all the time. How hard it would be to function on just any level. January 20, 2008, the McCanns

released sketches of a new suspect based on a description from yet another British vacationer who saw a quote, creepy man at the Ocean Club Resort, and this leads exactly fucking nowhere. Back to the drawing board again. Two months later, March 19, 2008, the Daily Express and the Daily Star both tabloids print apologies to the McCanns as part of a one million pound settlement in a libel case. They acknowledged there was zero evidence to support any claims they had anything to do with Madeline's disappearance or death, if she's even dead. Also in early 2008 the McCann family started working with more private investigators. They

began working with an American investigation company called Oakley International now. They were told that Oakley employees were all former FBI, CIA, and MI6 agents. Oakley established a tip line, sent some of their detectives to Pride and Deluge. They contacted Martin Smith, that Irish witness. Martin's that guy who back on May 26 2007, 23 days after Madeline's disappearance, said he and his family were walking back to their accommodations after dinner. He said that they were less than 300 meters south of the Ocean Club when he saw a man carrying a little girl in pajamas towards the beach. He's also the guy though who said that that was probably like the girl's dad.

He described the man as white, 5'7 to 5'9, 35 to 40 years old, thin but average build and brown hair. And now Oakley works with him to help create a sketch of the suspect. So I guess he's like, ah, maybe it wasn't her dad. And then that circulated through the Portuguese media. This sketch will help the company identify other potential suspects, including the man who lived in his van near the Ocean Club Resort. However, once again, this all leads fucking nowhere.

And for good reason, this time. McCanns then fire Oakley, saying that they were not satisfied with the job they were doing, and then check this shit out, Kevin Halligan, the man in charge of Oakley, starts to threaten to expose information about the McCann family unless rich guy Brian Kennedy, who is funding the investigation, just like he'd funded the previous one, pays him more money he says he is owed. But then the McCanns investigate the investigators and they learn that this Halligan is a fucking con artist. And the tips Oakley received? They weren't even being investigated. It was all bullshit.

This guy has a serious low life. Halligan claimed at one point he had access to restricted satellite photos of Portugal, and then he sent the family some fucking Google Earth images. They could have just gotten five minutes on their laptop. Also claimed he sent a man and woman to Portugal with a child similar to Madeleine to act as bait. Nope. On another occasion, he claimed he hired an undercover priest to work with investigators. Bullshit. Halligan's whole fucking identity is a lie. He's actually an Irishman pretending to be an American investigator.

Halligan will publicly deny claims that he used the family's money improperly, but then in 2013 he will plead guilty in a fraud case in the US. And there's more evidence that he is a motherfucker. Kevin was once hired by a company in the Netherlands to help free two executives who were arrested on the Ivory Coast. He stole the money, did nothing to secure the hostages release. He took a $2.1 million payment from this company, bought himself a $1.6 million house the next day. Halligan was sentenced to 41 months in prison for that shit and ordered to leave the US. On top of all that, Halligan already married but then fell in love with an American attorney, had a wedding ceremony in which the minister was a hired actor, unbeknownst

to her. Halligan told his new wife they couldn't actually get officially married because he was a spy. No. That fucker died in 2018 from a brain hemorrhage. Good riddance. Couldn't have happened to a better guy. I got this family after all they've been through they get taken for a fucking ride by that piece of shit. May 3rd 2008. It's now about a year since Madeleine's disappearance. Now after being scammed by one fake private investigation company, after another group of PIs does nothing but waste their time, after being maligned in the press in both Portugal and in the UK and I'm sure many other countries, after people on social media have accused them of not caring about their daughter because a PR company told them to hide their emotions in interviews because of their child kidnapper might get off on that.

The McCanns are still no closer to finding their daughter than they were the night she disappeared. If anything, they're further away. Two months later, July 1st, 2008, the Portuguese police announced they have submitted their final report on the case. So more bad news. Portuguese law enforcement will still be investigating Madeleine's disappearance, but it will not be given nearly the same attention. Later that month, July 15th,

former suspect Robert Murat, OG suspect, suspect number one, accepts a 600,000 pound settlement over allegations in 11 different papers that he was somehow involved in Madeleine's disappearance. His reputation has been destroyed, just like the reputation of his Russian web designer, even though there is not a single piece of evidence connecting them to Madeleine's disappearance. July 21st, 2008, the Portuguese authorities paused their investigation entirely and lift their erguido status of Kate and Jerry McCann, as well as for Robert Murat.

status of Kate and Jerry McCann, as well as for Robert Murat. July 24, 2008, Consolo Amaral, the former lead detective who was fired months earlier, publishes a book titled The Truth of the Lie, where he alleges that Madeline's death was an accident and that Kate and Jerry McCann staged the abduction and hid her dead body. So now the McCanns get torn apart in the press all over again and they will soon wage a new libel lawsuit. Jumping ahead to 2009, the McCann family still being helped by wealthy patron Brian Kennedy. They hire a third group of private investigators, David Edgar and Arthur Cowley and they will discover this team, this duo, a report from a British detective who recalled an incident that occurred in Barcelona, Spain, some 800 miles from where Madeline went missing shortly after she disappeared.

Every time I see Barcelona, I want to say, Barcelona. Kind of how you're supposed to say it. This is like a little bit of a lispy accent in that part of a, I think it's Catalonian. I think my son Kyler trying to convince us that we had to say, it's Barcelona. No, not if you're from America. You don't say it that way. Around 2 a.m. this man said that a woman approached him and asked if he had come to deliver her new daughter to her. Then she quickly realized he was not who she thought he was. And she walked away.

So very strange, right? The detective said the woman looked like former Spice girl and model Victoria Beckham. He didn't say she was Victoria Beckham. It'd be weird if she got thrown into the story. Uh, but he said, it looked like she looked like Victoria Beckham and had an Australian accent. But unfortunately again, this lead goes nowhere. Might have just been a weird fucking moment. But then the investigators uncover another important witness, 71 year old British tourist Carol Trenmer, who was visiting her aunt in the apartment above 5A at the Ocean Club Resort.

If she's 71, how fucking old is her aunt? Her 90s 100 Living in a Portuguese resorts. Oh man. That's what I want to be doing at that age When looking below her balcony She said she saw a man come out of the McCann apartment and closed the gate quietly Then he moved stealthily as if he didn't want to be caught as if he was up to some shit She said the sighting occurred on the afternoon of May 3rd 2007 hours before Madeline went missing.

So was this guy casing the apartment? Once again though, this lead will unfortunately lead nowhere. Two more potential suspects will be identified by this third PI Group's investigation though. 64-year-old Raymond Hewlett was a convicted pedophile living in Portugal at the time of Madeline's disappearance. He'll be interviewed in 2009, but then he'll die of cancer the next year in 2010 without ever facing charges Before he died he wrote a letter to his son claiming that Madeline had been stolen to order Quote stolen to order by a Belgian gang

Fucking Belgians coming up again. What's going on over in Belgium? Second potential suspect was Yoclides Montero he was once employed by the Ocean Club but fired for theft shortly before Madeline disappeared and he was suspected of sexually abusing five girls at the vacation resort in various homes between 2004 and 2006. Strangely his name was missing from the list of current and former employees given to the police. Montero was supposed to be questioned after detectives identified suspicious phone records, but then he never got interviewed because fucking Tractor ran him over in 2009. That's a weird way to go. Get fucking run down by Tractor. But you know what? Good. Montero will be cleared of any involvement by DNA evidence after his death. Two years

out, no real progress is being made. Other than that, Tractor mowed down a probable pedo. So that's kind of some overall progress just with the world. The McCanns will spend the next few years mainly fighting various legal battles with the primary one involving former lead investigator Gonzalo Amaral. May 16 2009 the McCanns are finally ready to sue Amaral over comments he made to the media and the shit he wrote in his book. November 3rd 2009 the British Child Exploitation and Online Protection Center releases new images of Madeline that have been aged two years. These enhanced photos so important in missing persons investigations involving young children because you know their appearance changes dramatically. If Madeline is still alive at this point she's not gonna look you know like she did when she was a toddler. In April of

2010 Madeline's dad Jerryann, publicly states that it was quote, incredibly frustrating that the Portuguese and UK police had not been actively searching for Madeleine for a long time. November of 2010, the McCann sign a publishing deal to write their own book about Madeleine's disappearance, tell their side of the story. The book titled Madeleine, Our Daughter's Disappearance and the continuing search for her will be published May 12th, 2011, which would have been Madeline's eighth birthday.

She has now been gone for five years. Well, I really more like four years, little over four years, but still, and they're holding on to hope that she's somehow still alive. The book was referenced earlier in the timeline. Kate will say she wrote this book for two reasons. First and foremost, she wanted to raise more funds to continue with search efforts and second, she wanted to write a truthful account of the events for her twins to someday read if they wanted to know more about the aftermath of their sister's disappearance. Kate said in an interview with BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour,

we know there's no evidence at all that she's come to harm. There's many cases of missing children who disappear off the radar for really long periods of time and are still found alive. I feel that she's still out there. There's nothing telling me to stop or slow down. I truly believe she's out there. And if we can get the help we need, we can find her and bring her home. Man, I feel bad for her.

Man, for years she has been consumed with trying to figure out where the fuck her daughter is. That is a fate I truly would not wish on my fucking worst enemy. I might wish for somebody to die a horrible death, right? Looking at you, pitos. But I would never want their kid to go missing. Well, actually, if it is a pitot, I'm talking about, I actually would want their kid to go missing. But only if they're then quickly found later by a non-pedo and then never returned to their pedo parent who is run down by a tractor. You get what I'm trying to say.

On the book's release date, the McCanns wrote a letter to be published in the Sun newspaper asking the British government to please launch an independent review of all information in the case. Their letter said they had, quote, tried in vain to get a formal inquiry. The McCanns continued, It's not right that a young, vulnerable British citizen has essentially been given up on. The benefits of pooling together different bits of evidence can be enormous. One call might be all that is needed to lead to Madeline and her abductor. To this end, we are seeking a joint, independent, transparent, and comprehensive review of all information held in relation to Madeline's disappearance. Thus far, there has been no formal review of the material held by the police authorities.

It is fundamental for any major incident that a case review is undertaken to identify all the avenues that could be explored that might lead to new information coming into the inquiry. On May 13th, the very next day, UK Prime Minister David Cameron writes to the family telling them that the Home Secretary will be in touch with them for quote new action Involving the Metropolitan Police so good for the McCann's. I mean seriously man talk about the squeaky wheel getting the grease They just will not quit trying to find her and no part of me believes that By the way, if they had accidentally killed her and hid the body They would still be pushing this hard to try and

find her. If they had done something well they got away with it. They're no longer suspects they haven't been for some time. No one would blame them with assuming that their daughter at this point is probably dead. No one will be mad at them for moving on but they're not moving on. They're still devoting so much energy to try to find her which leads me to believe that she was definitely abducted and I already thought that but this seals it for me. Prime Minister Cameron asked the Met, aka the Metropolitan Police, responsible for law enforcement and crime prevention within Greater London, to bring their expertise to the case.

And the Met then initiated a two-year review of the case called Operation Grange. It was supposed to be two years. You'll see it will last a lot longer than that. September 9, 2011, British detectives reviewing the investigation had their first face-to-face meeting with Portuguese police. Seven months later, April 24, 2012, Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood, lead of Operation Grange, tells producers

for BBC's Panorama, an investigative documentary series, that his team is seeking to bring closure to the case. The following day, the police released a computer-generated image of Madeleine at age 9 now. On April 26, the Portuguese police said that they would not be reopening the investigation, which might sound heartless, but Madeleine is but one of thousands of missing kids in Portugal. They can't just keep dedicating manpower towards finding her when there are hundreds of cases that are more recent now,

with kids more likely to still be alive and Portuguese kids at that who just don't happen to be getting written about in the tabloids all the time. May 17th, 2013, it's now been six years since she went missing. UK detectives reviewing the case say they have identified a number of persons of interest and then giving some hope to the McCanns. Now after so many years of hopelessness on July 4th, 2013 the British police announced that the status of Operation Grange has been upgraded from a review to an active investigation. The Met said it still believed there was a chance that Madeleine was

alive and investigators were looking into 38 separate persons of interest now after reviewing the evidence and a dozen of those individuals are British sex offenders. By this point, Operation Grange has reviewed 30,500 documents from Portuguese private detective in British files. Then a few months later in October, the Met announced that it had identified three more potential suspects for a total of 41. Also that October, BBC Crime Watch, a TV show focusing on unsolved crimes, publishes computer-generated images of a man who was seen carrying a blonde child between the age of three and four in Pride and Lose around the time Madeline went missing.

Back on May 3rd, 2007, 10.45 p.m., possibly less than an hour from when Madeline was taken, a British witness said they saw a car with the woman in front looking in the back of the car, like she was looking at a kid. The witness recognized the saw a car with the woman in front looking in the back of the car like she was looking at a kid. The witness recognized the couple knew that the woman was unable to have a child of her own. The couple was driving towards the marina in Lagos just a few miles away. Then at 6 a.m. the following morning man named George Brooks who ran a pizza shop in Pride Alluge was heading to work. He said that at the marina in Lagos his lights shone on a couple who were carrying a toddler. They seemed distraught that they'd been seen.

He made this report early on, but it was not followed up on for a year. Kate McCann, who is now reviewing all of the police files, part of the initial investigation, said she saw the restaurant's booking records that had their group reservation. And there was a note next to the reservation stating that the reason they wanted to eat at that time every night was because their kids were alone in the apartments and that book had been left out in plain sight in the restaurant and she thought that could have been a green light to any potential abductor. October 24th 2013 interestingly the Portuguese judicial police now reopen their investigation into Madeline's disappearance six and a half years after she's gone missing.

She's now been missing roughly twice as long as she had been alive before she went missing. Who was the investigative or yeah, who why was the investigation reopened? Well despite investigators finding out that the man seen by witness Jane Tanner, the friend of McCann's, on the night of Madeleine's disappearance might have been a British tourist carrying his own daughter. Despite coming to the conclusion that the girls' pajamas were most likely similar to Madeline's pajamas because her parents had purchased them from the same kid store as the McCanns, a new suspect has emerged. In 2013, the Portuguese police identified a suspect who was seen in the area at the time of the disappearance as evidenced by cell phone data. Suspect's name

not made public, not arrested at this time. Later that year, news will come out that this man was suspected of sexually assaulting five young girls in Portuguese resorts from 2004 to 2010. Two assaults took place in Praia do Luj. Most of the victims were British tourists. In one case, the parents were asleep in their room, and 11 and 7 year old daughters were sleeping in the next room. And this shady fuck snuck into their vacation home, laid down on the bed of the younger child. He's wearing a medical mask to hide his face.

The kid asked him if he was her dad. He said yes, but she noticed he had a different voice. He was described as having tan skin, short black hair. In four of the five cases, children were sexually assaulted and the victims were between seven and ten. Madeline again, just days away from turning 4 when she disappeared. Over the next two years, no real progress though is made in this case. A few suspects are again questioned.

Areas near where Madeleine disappeared are searched again, but no important clues are found. And whoever that suspect was, must have been eventually ruled out. April 28, 2015, a Portuguese judge awards the McCanns 500,000 euros now in their liable suit against Amaral for the shit the former lead investigator into Madeline's disappearance wrote in his book regarding accusing the McCanns of murdering their child. Five months later on September 16th, the UK announced that the Madeline McCann investigation had cost the British government over 10 million pounds.

This of course does not count how much the investigation cost the Portuguese government, how much wealthy good UK citizen Brian Kennedy spent, or how much the McCanns have spent. In October, the British police reduced the number of investigators working on the case from 29 all the way down to four. We're back to looking like it's just not gonna happen. Like everyone's about to give up. Also the McCann's legal battle not over yet. April 19th, 2016, a Portuguese appeals court

overturned the libel verdict, meaning Gonzalo Amaral no longer owned, or excuse me, no longer owed them a half million euros. So that sucks. Amaral's book, The Truth and the Lie, had been banned for six years leading up to this judgment. Now it's for sale again. It was originally published eight years earlier, coming out a year after Madeline disappeared. Year later, April of 2017, four ar-guidos, official suspects, from July of 2014 are now

officially ruled out. But senior officers said they are pursuing a new significant line of inquiry. So the shit is still on over. It's like it'll just dip and also no no no no now. We think we have a good lead May 1st 2017 Gonzalo Amaral just two days away from being a full decade since Madeline disappeared the former lead investigator man fired from the investigation Appears in a TV documentary based on his book He said he believed Madeline's body was hidden in another woman's coffin who was then cremated. Amaral said quote, we had information for three figures who went into the church via a side door at night. They had a box there was a to be a cremation of a British woman. It is possible

the child's remains were in this box and cremated as well. The parents did have the key to the church. Okay, I mean maybe, but again, why would they still be pretending to look for their daughter all these years later if that's what they did? I mean, anything's possible. People do shit all the time that makes zero fucking sense to me. That seems like quite the stretch. This guy feels like a opportunistic, exploitive tool just trying to sell more copies of his book, trying to get a movie or something. The documentary aired just two, just hours after McCann's promise to take this guy back to court over his claims

In an interview with BBC soon after this air Jerry McCann said they would continue their legal battle with Amaral because the last judgment was terrible Jerry also spoke about how their life had changed because of all this He said that he and his wife were forced to face quote a new normality without Madeleine. Kate added, what people do say is that you don't realize how strong you are until you have no option. And I think that's very true. Obviously, massive events like this cause a lot of reaction, a lot of trauma and upset, but ultimately you have to keep going. And especially when you have got other children involved. Some of that is subconscious, I think. Your mind and body just take over to a certain extent. But if you can't change something immediately, you have to go with it and do the best you

can. Kate and Jerry also address social media hate over the years with Jerry saying, I'm sure it is a very small minority of people who spend their time doing it, but it has totally inhibited what we do. Personally, we don't use social media, although we have used it in Madeleine's campaign. Again, these poor bastards. On the 10th anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance, May 3rd, 2017, Met Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley

said they hoped they could provide answers. When asked if they were closer to solving the case, Rowley said, I know we have a significant line of inquiry which is worth pursuing, and because it's worth pursuing, it could provide an answer, I know we have a significant line of inquiry, which is worth pursuing. And because it's worth pursuing, it could provide an answer, but until we've gone through it, I won't know whether we are going to get there or not.

He noted that there was no definitive evidence as to whether Madeline was alive or dead, and there was no reason to suspect Kate and Jerry were involved in her disappearance in any way. Kate and Jerry also published a letter to mark the 10-year anniversary. It said, 10 years. There's no easy way to say it. Describe it. Accept it. I remember when Madeleine first disappeared, I couldn't even begin to consider anything in terms of years.

Sean Hornbeck abducted and kept hidden for over four years. Natasha Campuche for over eight years. And I couldn't go there. And now here we are. Madeline. Our Madeline. Ten years. Most days are similar to the rest. Another day. May 3rd, 2017. Another day. But ten years. A horrible marker of time. Stolen time. We are bracing ourselves for the next couple of weeks. It's likely to be stressful and painful. And more so given the rehashing of old stories, misinformation, half-truths, and downright lies, which will be doing the rounds of the newspapers, social media, and special edition TV programs. Media appearances are draining and on occasion unhelpful to the only thing we want, finding Madeleine. They need to have a purpose. We could spend all our time and energy trying

to defend ourselves by correcting inaccuracies and lies, but then we would have no strength left to look for Madeleine, look after our other children, and to live our life. I truly hope that those reporting on the quote story over the next couple of weeks will have a conscience. Even if little consideration for Jerry and me is shown, they will at least bear in mind the effect such unfounded and unwarranted negativity could have on our children. And of course Madeline. Excuse me, could have on our other children.

And of course, Madeline. Thankfully, there is on our other children, and of course Madeline. Thankfully, there was an active police investigation to try and find Madeline and bring her abductor to justice. There are no new appeals that the police wish to make at this moment in time, and so we are keeping any media involvement marking this unwanted milestone to a minimum. The two themes that seem most appropriate to me

as we reach this 10 year mark are perseverance and gratitude. We will go on, try our hardest, never give up, and make the best of the life we have. We consider ourselves immensely fortunate to have received the love, solidarity, and support from so many kind and decent people over the last decade. There have been many challenges and low points along the way, but the warmth, encouragement, and positivity we have experienced from the quiet majority has undoubtedly sustained us and maintained our faith in human goodness. And while that is there, there will always be hope. Thank you so much from all of our family, Kate and Jerry.

Well, that was a fucking beautifully written statement about such a horrible thing. Man, ten years. Ten years of living with the hell that is thinking your daughter is somewhere out in the world alive. to live with the hell that is thinking your daughter is somewhere out in the world alive but you have no way of knowing if she's safe if she's being hurt has been hurt no way of helping her and no matter how optimistic you are your mind has to entertain the possibility that she is dead moments that she's been dead for a long time right the next few years will bring no credible leads no new hope for the mccans when it comes to ever finding out what the fuck happened to their daughter. In June of 2019, the UK government announces it will stop funding Operation Grange in March of 2020. It's looking more and more like the McCanns will never get the answers they're searching for. But then

after years of so many false leads and dead ends, the biggest breaks in this case have actually occurred within the past five years. On June 3rd of 2020, German authorities announced they had identified a serious suspect in Madeleine's disappearance. This really is a serious one and that they presumed that the suspect sadly had murdered her many years earlier. A German man who'd been convicted of a 2005 rape in Portugal. The suspect was identified by German authorities as 43-year-old Christian B, a man who was 30 years old at the time of Madeline's disappearance. He was described as a white male with short blonde hair and a slim build. Media outlets soon identified him as Christian Bruckner. The government had not released his full name because of privacy laws, but the tabloids were like, ah, fuck it. We'll say it.

Bruckner had been previously convicted of sexually abusing children back in 1994 when he was still a teenager. Then in 1995 he had fled Germany, made it to Portugal with his girlfriend to avoid his sentence. Then he returned in 1999 to serve that sentence, then went back to Portugal in the early 2000s once he was out of prison. He lived in the Algarve region on and off between 1995 and 2007, the year of Madeline's disappearance and at one point he had lived near Pride Alluge where Madeline and her family were staying according to a German state prosecutor's office. He had several jobs in the Algarve region mainly working in the restaurant industry.

There were indications he was likely involved in a number of burglaries that targeted hotel resorts and apartments in the region as well as he did some drug dealing. The UK's Metropolitan Police will now release details of two cars associated with this suspect. One of them an early 80s Volkswagen camper van with a white upper body and yellow skirting. Of course, fucking pedo driving a van. And he drove that van in the Pride and Luge area from April to May of 2007. So right around the time Madeline went missing. Then he drove that van in the Pride and Luge area from April to May of 2007. So right around the time, Madeline went missing. Then he and his van fucking left right around when Madeline went missing. So that's a little suspicious.

Making it much more suspicious, his second vehicle was a 1993 British Jaguar XJR6 with a German license plate registered in the in Bruckner's name. But then he re-registered it into in a different name May 4th 2007 the morning after Madeline's disappearance. At the time of their announcements German prosecutors made it clear that they thought he was the guy found after all these years but that they didn't believe they had quite enough evidence to convict him in court of murdering Madeline. Prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters said, based on the knowledge we have, we assume that Maddie McCann is actually dead. We of course understand that the parents, at least until the

body is found, for example, have the hope that the girl is actually still alive somewhere, but there is actually from our point of view, no knowledge that would even begin to support that. Wolters also added, we do not know in detail whether this is a matter of British victims or of German or possible other nationalities, but we are very sure that there are more victims. Authorities said that they had been aware of the suspect for years. They started receiving tips about him back in 2013 when Madeline's case was featured on a German Unsolved Crimes TV show. Then in 2016, investigators conducted searches of an abandoned factory in the woods of Saxony

that was once owned by Christian Bruckner This is part of a they investigated as part of a broader investigation into child pornography Investigators found some USB drives containing pictures and videos of kids being sexually abused and how extra creepy is this? Those drives were found buried beneath a fucking dead dog Then in June of 2017 Bruckner was found and arrested and sentenced to 15 months in prison for the sexual abuse of a child. Uh, he was briefly homeless after he was released. Bruckner eventually traveled to Italy, arrested in Milan in September of 2018

for the rape of a 72 year old American woman. Uh, Jesus. He had raped this woman near where Madeleine went missing back in prior to lose Portugal in 2005, convicted in December of 2019 for this crime since the seven years in prison. British officers tipped off about Bruckner back in 2017, but there was not sufficient evidence to launch a formal investigation into Madeleine's murder. German lead investigator Christian Hopper said it was unclear how Madeleine's abduction occurred, but it was

possible the perpetrator broke into the apartment for a burglary, then spontaneously decided to abduct Madeline after noticing the child. Further incriminating Bruckner, he took a call on his Portuguese cell phone from another Portuguese number close to the time of the abduction, revealing he was in prior to lose the time of the call. And there will be much more damning evidence pointing to this piece of shit coming soon. In response to the initial German announcement about it, the McCanns thanked the police issued the following statement. All we've ever wanted is to find her, uncover the truth, and bring those responsible to justice. We will never give up hope of finding Madeleine alive,

but whatever the outcome may be, we need to know as we need to find peace. On July 29, 2020, pursuing their investigation into Bruckner, his possible murder of Madeleine McCann, the German police searched a garden outside of Hanover, Germany. The plot of land was in a rural region 40 miles from Braunschweig, where he had listed his last address. Authorities believed he sometimes stayed in a small house on this rural property. his last address. Authorities believed he sometimes stayed in a small house on this rural property because of this new suspect. The Met will extend Operation Grange, their investigation into Madeleine's disappearance until March of 2023 now. On April 21st, 2022, Christian Bruckner named in a Guido or Erguido, an official suspect by Portuguese authorities. Around that same time,

and this is what makes me think that Bruckner very very likely almost certainly kidnapped and killed Madeline, German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters was interviewed on a show called Sabato, where he said that German investigators found fibers that came from the pajama pants Madeline was wearing the night she disappeared inside of Bruckner's van. The van driven by that sex offender in the tiny little Portuguese beach town around the time she went missing. The van driven by a guy who re-registered his Jaguar to a different name the morning after she disappeared. And the guy who split town for good right after Madeleine disappeared. Right when press coverage exploded regarding her disappearance. A guy whose

cell phone records revealed he was near where Madeleine disappeared right when she did disappear. Christian Wolter said quote, it's not forensic evidence but evidence and because of our evidence we are sure he is the murderer of Madeleine McCann. We are sure he killed Madeleine. While charges are not brought against Bruckner he is at least still incarcerated this time for previous crimes. September of 2022 the McCann's appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. Their appeal is thrown out. They had argued against the decision by the Portuguese Supreme Court to throw out their libel case against Gonçalo Amaral.

Gonçalo's accusations that the McCanns killed their daughter look even more ridiculous and disgusting considering the new evidence that has emerged pointing to German rapist and pedophile Christian Bruckner. Speaking of Bruckner, October 11th, 2022, German public prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters announces new charges against him. He's now charged with three counts of rape, two counts of child sexual abuse, all unrelated to Madeline's case. It's a fucking animal. Just out of control. These crimes were committed in Portugal between December 28th, 2000 and June 11th 2017.

Regarding the charges of raping three women, one of the victims was an Irish teenager named Hazel Behan who had been raped in Bruckner's apartment in Praia da Roca in 2004. That's a little beach town just 30 minute drive from where Madeleine went missing. The circumstances of this case similar to the rape of 72 year old Diana M in 2005, for which Bruckner was convicted. Hazel was only 14 years old when she was raped. Bruckner tied her to a wooden pole in the living room in his house in Praia da Luz, beat her with a whip, and forced her to perform oral sex on him, allegedly. Hazel realized who her attacker was thanks to the

investigation into Madeline when new reports about Bruckner surfaced in Portugal. In 2020, she would tell The Guardian, My mind was blown when I read how he attacked a woman in 2005. Both the tactics and the methods he used, the tools he had with him, how well he had planned it out. The identities of the other two rape victims were not revealed. Prosecutors in this trial will lean on the testimony from two of Bruckner's former associates, Manfred Seiforth and Helga Busching, who used to commit petty crimes with Bruckner. In 2006, they stole a camera, some tapes from Bruckner's house, that's what they said.

And on those tapes, they said that Bruckner recorded himself assaulting two other women between December 28, 2000 and April 8 8 2006, but then the tapes disappeared In regards to the other charges of child sexual abuse on April 7 2007 Bruckner allegedly accosted a 10 year old German girl while she was playing on the beach in Portugal He approached her while only wearing fucking shoes Grabbed her by the wrists started beating off before releasing her when she started to scream So he just walked along the beach with a fucking boner and flip-flops grabbed her by the wrists, started beating off for releasing her when she started to scream. So he just walked along the beach with a fucking boner and flip-flops,

grabbing kids, then a decade later, June 11, 2017, he whipped his dick out in a playground in Portugal, allegedly, but I think he did it, started beating off while he stared at a nearby 11-year-old girl. The girl ran over to her dad, who called the police the police and Buckner was arrested afterwards. Fucking crazy. I'd like to think that if somebody did that around Coeur d'Alene they would just be shot immediately. Like if somebody just started fucking beating off at a playground you just hear a rifle fire within about 10 seconds. Why do we try and rehabilitate these fucking animals? Like why can't we if they've been found guilty of multiple sex crimes? Right, especially different victims, different legal jurisdictions. There's no way authorities just got the wrong guy time after time.

Let's just fucking kill him. Come on. Is there literally a single example of a sexual predator convicted of numerous sex crimes who goes to prison, gets out, never hurts anybody again, and also contributes something substantial to society. Like they develop some groundbreaking new cancer treatment. I doubt it. Right? I just don't understand why we, you know, what we have to lose by killing repeat offenders. They're literally just fucking completely worthless.

They're just a detriment to society. Sadly, on April 20th, 2023, a Braunschweig court throws out the rape and sexual offense charges against Christian Bruckner. But not because he didn't do it. No, his case was tossed out over some procedural bullshit. Essentially the court decided not to hear the case because the region where the court is located is not the last place Bruckner lived in Germany. His last address was in another state. Why does that matter? This occurred just before his trial was scheduled to begin. Prosecutors said that they would continue investigating Madeline's case regarding Bruckner and the possibility

was raised that maybe a different court could pursue prosecution. What the fuck is going on over here in Germany? Why should it matter where his last known address was? This is absurd. Listen, did I did all those kids and raped that teen here in Idaho, Your Honor? Yeah, I fucking did. You bet your ass I did. But if you look at some of the documents I have, these bills from Verizon, some catalogs for some toy and candy stores, you will see that when I did the raping and diddling, I was living in Montana. So, you know, what are we doing here? Come on. May 23rd, 2023, German, Portuguese, and British authorities all searched an area near a reservoir

approximately 30 miles from Praia do Luz. It was previously searched back in 2008. Purpose of the new search is to look for a gun in a camcorder that will hopefully link Madeleine McCann to Christian Bruckner. An unidentified jailhouse informant confirmed earlier claims by Bruckner's former associates, Manfred Saferth and Helga Bushin, who said they took the gun and camcorder from his home.

The camcorder allegedly had footage of Bruckner torturing and raped an American woman and a 15 year old girl. A source told the UK's Daily Mail, when the video camera was played, it showed a masked man carrying out a sex attack on a woman and the voice they heard was Bruckner's. Saferth said a gun was also found and that after finding the video camera they panicked, drove off, later threw both items in the lake. Safer was told investigators the material on the videotape was evil and if this can be found will be vital to building a case against Bruckner. Another source told the

Times, another British newspaper, that Bruckner had visited the site days after Madeleine was kidnapped and that Made Madeline may have been alive for two to three days After she disappeared Bruckner reportedly called the reservoir area his quote little paradise and he went there often in his camper van with his fucking evil boner Bruckner for his part denied any involvement in the girls disappearance claimed He was with his girlfriend the entire night Madeline went missing However, German prosecutor Hans Christian Vulture said nope that alibi not corroborated by supposed girlfriend. In a radio interview, Wolters clarified that there were indications they could find evidence near the

dam. Then Portuguese judicial police announced that the search was completed and that some materials had been collected that were going to be tested by German authorities. During the search, the Daily Mail posted images of jailhouse letters written by Bruckner professing his innocence. Bruckner wrote, You can never imagine how it is when the whole world believes you are a child murderer and you are not. Writes the convicted rapist and pedophile. Man, shut the fuck up. You should be killed for what? Even if you didn't fucking kill Maddell, you should still be killed.

He claimed he quote God told a long time ago that the prosecutor's office was closing the Maddie case because there's not even the smallest evidence there will never be a trial he believed prosecutors were aware of material that confirmed his innocence but we're trying to quote create a monster to let people think that I'm the right one now you are a monster Ruckner complained that he was being treated worse than Nazi criminal Joseph Goebbels. And he compared prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters to Adolf Hitler.

Oh god, I've seen pictures of this guy by the way too, Bruckner, and he's so fucking punchable. Like after hearing what he's done and seeing pictures, I would love to just like, like if I could like Hulk Hogan him, like if I was as strong as Hulk Hogan, just to like, just to like fucking just lift him directly over my head and then just like toss him off a building. I'll be so satisfying. He also wrote that prison staff prevented him from interacting with others and added quote, I even have to ask for the weekly jam and margarine that other inmates get automatically. Oh my god. I even have to ask for the weekly jam and margarine that other chums get their jam and the margarine automatically but I have to ask for the weekly German martyr and the other Germans get their Germans and the martyr and automatically But I have to beg for it like a peasant. Why am I here? Why am I being picked up? How terrible for me?

He then continued with like I told you already The responsibilities are not strong enough to admit the mistakes they made in the Maddie case So they tried desperately to accuse me of other weird stuff It doesn't matter that I have a completely different look than the victims are saying. I really would like to know what they tell them to convince them it was me nevertheless. Brechtner also wrote, I wasn't kidnapping anybody and of course I wasn't killing anybody. I'll go further. I'll tell you I wasn't attacking anybody after I was 18. Even though you were convicted of rape and child molestation after the age of 18. They said I made some silly mistakes when I was younger. I made some silly mistakes when I was younger.

I made some silly mistakes when I was younger, but who hasn't? I put my jam and sausage in the wrong holes a few times. Everyone falls down and does things and makes mistakes. Ah, fuck this guy so much. He also wrote, I know of about five open cases against me, all of them including raping and abusing. Right, because you're an abusive rapist. They have manipulated the truth in such an unprofessional way that I'm laughing, he says. I still have not lost my sense of humor. Even in this critical situation, it's what keeps me alive.

Oh, that's good. That's good that he's laughing about all this. Oh, man. May 7, 2023, Madeline's sister, Amelie, appeared with her parents at a memorial service for Madeleine. Madeleine would have turned 20 on May 12th. It's now been 16 years since she went missing. Amelie spoke publicly for the first time, publicly saying, it's nice that everyone is here together, but it's such a sad occasion. The twins have been kept out of the public eye from the beginning, and her brother Sean actually chose not to attend the ceremony. Also in 2023, a group of senior Portuguese law enforcement officers traveled to London

to meet with Jerry and Kate McCann and offer a personal apology for how their predecessors botched the investigation. The police admitted that the initial investigation was fucking shit. It was not handled properly. There was insufficient importance given to mission children at the time and that the original investigators did not appreciate the McCann's position as being foreigners in an environment they didn't understand. The police told the BBC they briefed the family on the current status of investigation, gave their full support to

German authorities, i.e. they also thought that fucking fuckface Bruckner kidnapped and killed the McCann's daughter. Hans Christian Wolters said he hoped his team would complete their investigation in 2024. Helga Busching, that former criminal acquaintance of Christian Bruckner, spoke out publicly for the first time in June of 2023. He's the one that led investigators to Bruckner in the McCann case and also the rape case involving the 72 year old victim. In an interview with the German tabloid called Bild, Bushing revealed a disturbing conversation he claimed to have had with Bruckner years earlier. He said that at first he thought Bruckner was a nice guy. Such a nice guy, he's very kind. But he was shocked when he stole Bruckner's

camera, found videos in Bruckner's apartment that showed him sexy assaulting women. Yeah that'd be a good reason to never talk to that guy ever again in your whole life. He didn't see Bruckner again until 2008 when they ran into each other at a music festival in Spain. For some reason he fucking talked to him. Bruckner asked him if he still traveled to Portugal for business. Bushing said there was too many police checks after the disappearance of a British girl. Bushing added, I don't understand anyway how the little girl could disappear without a trace. And then Bruckner allegedly replied, she didn't even scream. Next day Bruckner was gone. Bushen said he called the Metropolitan Police but received no immediate response.

Bushen believes that Bruckner planned to break into the McCann's apartment the night that she disappeared, that Madeline did, and then decided to abduct Madeline when he found the sleeping children. He said, quote, that probably wasn't planned at all. Whether he ended up killing her I don't know. In July of 2023 Helga Bushin spoke to the Sun tabloid said that Bruckner could have easily broken in to most common locks. He had a toolkit to break into resorts, hotels, vacation homes, to regularly steal from tourists. He's apparently very good at it. After Bruckner was in prison

Bushin said he broke into his apartment, found his lockpicking kit, passports, cameras, suitcases, all sorts of things that tourists brought with them on vacations. Allegedly the lockpicking tools supported police suspicions that the open window in the McCann apartment was a red herring. Sources said that the police believe Bruckner entered apartment 5A through the door or may have opened the window for ventilation while he used car paint solvents to knock Madeline unconscious and he would have access to those chemicals because he worked as a mechanic for a while.

February 16th, 2024, Christian Bruckner's trial begins in Braunschweig District Court in Brunswick, Germany. Remember how they previously threw out the charges? Well now they changed their mind again. Now they're making him face trial for multiple charges of rape and child sexual abuse. I guess they don't care about his address. I have no idea what goes on in the German judicial system. If you're confused, yeah, me too. The trial quickly adjourned until the following week after defense attorney Friedrich Fulcher filed a challenge against a judge on the panel who had

once allegedly posted on social media about how former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro should be killed. Okay? Sure. Yeah, why not stop the trial for that reason. Court is back in session February 23rd, but Bruckner would not respond to the charges. Germany, there are no formal pleas and defendants do not have to respond to charges. His lawyer said he was using his right to remain silent and thatants do not have to respond to charges. His lawyer said he was using his right to remain silent and that the prosecution's evidence was abysmal.

The judge in question had now been removed from the case, was placed under investigation on suspicion of making a public call to commit crimes for his alleged social media post. Breckton's lawyer said outside court that his client had been pre-convicted because of his alleged link to the Madeleine McCann case and that the court must free itself from that connection. The defense suggested they would challenge two of the rape charges because of statute limitations and insufficient evidence and they would deny his involvement in the 2004 rape case. They considered key witnesses to be unreliable due to unknown drug or alcohol issues. They would also challenge the child sexual abuse charged on the basis that children are susceptible to suggestive questioning.

The defense filed an application to have some evidence thrown out, claiming that some USB drives found in 2016 under that dead dog had been illegally obtained. Defense also argued that federal police bugged Bruckner's prison phone to try and obtain incriminating evidence in the McCann investigation, meaning they illegally recorded conversations with his lawyer. An undercover investigator was

also sent into prison to try to get him to talk, which should have been disclosed, they said. March 1st, Bruckner's former associate Manfred Saferth testifies that he watched a video of Bruckner raping a teen girl in his quote, rape lair. Saferth testified that he believes Bruckner abducted Madeline because he was obsessed with young girls and he saw a young girl in one of the videos filmed in the quote, rape lair. Safer said he always had a young girlfriend with him and I think he is easily capable of taking a small child.

That's why I think he may have something to do with Maddie. He broke in and saw her and because he likes young girls, he gets lots of convictions, he took her. Safer knew Bruckner was the one committing the rapes because he saw his face in one video and heard his voice in another, he gets lots of convictions, he took her. Saferth knew Bruckner was the one committing the rapes because he saw his face in one video and heard his voice in another, he said. In a different video, he said he saw a girl was tied to a post and Bruckner was dancing around her. He forced the girl to perform a sexual act. When she vomited during it, he allegedly said, you're ruining my carpet. Saferth also testified that Bruckner lived near the resort where the McCanns were staying

and that Bruckner completely disappeared for months right after Madeline went missing. He said he was known for burglarizing homes and his nickname was the climber because he was able to climb two or three stories and an expert at getting into basically whatever apartment and hotel room he wanted to get into. October 8th 2024, fucking ghoul, 47 year old Christian Bruckner. His case is concluded and he's acquitted on all charges. A three-judge panel argued there was insufficient credible evidence to convict him on the charges

based mostly in the witnesses being deemed unreliable. He is currently expected to be released from prison in September of this year. He's still serving the end of that seven-year prison sentence for the rape of a 72 year old American woman in Portugal. Investigators still believe to this day that he did rape the three women and sexually abused the two girls he went to trial for and that he kidnapped almost certainly sexually abused and then murdered young Madeleine McCann. Just days ago as I recorded this January 24th 2025 the UK's mayor reported that he has been telling his lawyers he plans on undergoing facial reconstruction surgery

to conceal his identity get a new name and flee Europe once he's released so that's cool his attorneys want him to please somebody fucking kill him in prison over there his attorneys want him to sue the German government because German investigators portrayed him as having killed Madeleine McCann they think he can get two to three million euros. Gross. German investigators are currently considering launching an appeal against Bruchner's acquittal on that series of rape and sex assault charges.

If successful, it could give them extra time to bolster the case against him regarding Madeline McCann. While he remains in prison awaiting a retrial, there are investigators who still think they might be able to charge him with Madeline's murder. The McCanns, they are allegedly Madeline's parents still holding on to hope that their daughter who would now be 21 years old, who will be turning 22 this May 12th, is somehow still out there and still alive. London's Metropolitan Police have chosen to keep Operation Grange, the nearly 18-year-old

investigation into finding Madeline McCann and catching her kidnapper and or killer, an active investigation as of this recording. The Home Office, the UK government department that is responsible for law and order, security and immigration, no longer has an end date for funding Operation Grange. And since that takes us to the present day, that takes us out of this timeline. Good job, soldier. You've made it back. Barely. And what a sad story.

Jerry and Kate McCann, I feel terrible for them. Yeah, they made a somewhat questionable, but not even remotely criminal decision, very innocent mistake to leave their kids in an apartment in Portugal alone for you know 30 minute stretches and holy fuck have they been punished for that It sure seems like some creep now probably in my mind German rapist almost certainly my mind German rapist and pedo Christian Bruckner Snuck in snatched a little girl and then if it was him sexually tortured her killed her tossed her out like she was trash sucks that evolutionary mistakes like that exists and He was just one of several dirtbags in the little Portuguese beach community at that time.

Right at the time of her disappearance. Just before Madeline's disappearance, a man approached her mother's home in Pride de Luge, pretending to collect money for orphanages. Then he creepily stared at her three-year-old daughter while he spoke. Then the next day she's upstairs doing laundry, comes down, finds out son of a bitch in her house with his daughter, little toddler, runs away when he sees her. Then there was Euclides Monteiro, the recent employee of the Ocean Club, suspected of sexually abusing five girls in their vacation homes between 2004 and 2006. There was an unnamed suspect suspected of sexually assaulting five young girls in Portuguese resorts from 2004 to 2010.

Two assaults took place in Pride Luce, most of the victims British tourists. One case the parents were asleep in the room, their 11 and 7 year old daughter sleeping in the next room. That shady fuck snuck into their vacation home, laid down in the bed of the younger child wearing a medical mask to hide his face. Ah, four of the five cases children sexually assaulted, victims between seven and ten. By 2015, the British investigators of Operation Grange will actually have investigated 650 previously convicted pedophiles. Hundreds could have been in the area, right? Around the time Madeleine disappeared. That's fucking crazy to think that you could be on some beautiful beach

somewhere on vacation with your family and also on that beach are just dozens of rapists other sorts of sexual predators it's enough to make somebody paranoid. If you have kids or if you're ever put in charge of watching kids man really watch them. Most people are not going to try and take it most people would never want to take them because other people's kids are annoying as fuck but you never know if it's going to be that one creep right and it just takes one Just one thief in the night so to speak to take him hurt him kill him to completely destroy your life your peace of mind happiness forever I mean however well Kate and Jerry McCann are doing today and they seem to be doing well in spite of what's happened to them They're not doing nearly as well as they would be if Madeline was still with them

They will I imagine replay and second-guess their decisions the night she disappeared for the rest of their lives. And unless her body has ever found it, they will always probably hold on to this tiny sliver of painful torturous hope that their little girl, who's now a full-grown woman or would-be, you know, just might, maybe, walk back into their lives. Right? Every once in a while they see some lady, you know, out in public some young woman who they think, you know, looks like their little girl would have looked like if she's grown up and went, oh my god, is that her? Is she coming home? The fucking torture of that. Keep a close eye on your little ones. It might feel annoying in the moment,

exhausting even to have to watch them so closely, but man, it's worth it. Always worth it. Hail Nimrod and fuck Christian Bruckner. I hope that motherfucker dies and soon. Time Shuck Top 5 Takeaways Number one, Madeleine McCann was a three-year-old almost four-year-old girl from a well-to-do British family. In May of 2007, McCann's went on a vacation at a family-friendly resort in Praia do L spent six happy days together for tragedy struck on May 3rd Madeline was abducted from the family's apartment while she slept in a bedroom with her siblings and she hasn't been seen since number two Kate and Jerry McCann faced heavy criticism for their decision to leave their kids unattended in the

In their apartment on the night of the abduction by a lot of people not just me They emphasized that they were regularly checking on the kids every 20 to 30 minutes, but their timing has been questioned and it seems they may have even left a door to their ground floor apartment unlocked while the kids were inside. Number three, initially the whole world expressed sympathy towards the McCanns, but they soon faced a suspicion and were accused by lead detective Gonzalo Amaral of hiding her body. His theory was that Madeline died accidentally perhaps due to an overdose of cold medicine.

And her parents hid her body then for days before transporting it in a rental car. Detective Amaral believed the abduction was staged to cover up what happened. This theory has since been proven false and the McCanns have sued Amaral for his claims numerous times. He won the last lawsuit, however, since he was just speculating. 4. In 2020, German authorities named a new intriguing suspect in Madeline's murder, 43-year-old man Christian Bruckner.

Bruckner has a long and disturbing criminal history involving child sexual abuse, rape, and alleged torture of women of all ages. In the late 90s and early 2000s, Bruckner lived in Portugal in the Praia da Luz area and phone evidence puts him near the crime scene on the night of Madeline's murder. He's currently still in prison for rape conviction, but he might be a free man this fall, despite many German, Portuguese, and British authorities strongly believing he is not just Madeline's killer, but someone who has harmed multiple, multiple people. He is not just Madeleine's killer, but someone who has harmed multiple, multiple people. Number five, new info. In March of 2023, a 21 year old Polish woman named Julia Wendel

came forward to claim she believed she was Madeleine McCann. Yet another weird turn in this case that the McCanns have had to deal with. Julia submitted her DNA for testing to determine her ethnic background, countries of origin, according to her representative slash private detective, why are there so many fucking private detectives in the story, Fia Johansson. If her DNA matched the same region as Madeleine's parents, she planned to send the DNA to Portuguese investigators for comparison. Julia claims she does not remember most of her childhood, she reportedly can't access her birth certificate, and she isn't sure of her real age. Julia said her first memory is being on a vacation

in a warm place. She said I don't remember most of my childhood but my earliest memory is very strong and it's about holidays in a hot place where there was a beach and white or very light colored buildings with apartments. She came to believe she was abducted as a toddler and that this spot in her right eye and a beauty mark on her cheek means she might be Madeleine. She does have the same rare eye condition as Madeleine. They both have coloboma which occurs when part of the eye tissue is missing. Julia's family said they were devastated by her claims. They have memories, photos. Julia had her birth certificates and

hospital discharge information. They claim that Julia has gone to therapy, taken medication and seen psychologists in the past many times for some psychological issues. The family also hinted that she has always desperately wanted to be famous. In April of 2023, DNA testing proved that Julia is not. Madeleine McCann. The test results showed that she is 100% Polish. Her parents also released a statement asserting that they were her parents and she was lying. But just for a second, she tortured Jerry and Kate McCann with a bit more false hope.

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been sucked. What a fucking nightmare. Gotta hope her parents get definitive answers someday soon. I can finally, for better or for worse, and I know it does look like worse just just stop looking for their now long lost daughter. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all the help in making time suck. Thanks to Queen of Bad Magic Lindsay Cummins. Thanks also to Logan Keith helping to publish this episode designing merch for the store at Bad Magic Productions.com. Thanks to Olivia Lee. I've been really leaning on her topics in 2025. Also

thanks to the all-seen eyes moderating the Cult of the Curious private Facebook page. The Mod Squad making sure Discord keeps running smooth and everyone over at the Time Suck subreddit and Bad Magic subreddit. And now let's head on over to this week's Time Sucker Updates. Updates! Get your time sucker updates! I love it when an old lie gets a new listener. Dumb as a rock sucker, Cory. Wrote him the subject line of Gator Horse. And here's what she said, and she's not, of course, dumb as a rock. She wrote, Hail suck nasty you fucking son of a bitch. I hope you go to Nimrod's ball sack in agony.

I'm currently at work not doing my job, instead I'm writing you this email to tell you that you pranked me hard. I'm currently catching up. I'm on the trail of the tears. I'm on the trail of tears suck. I actually looked up the swamp gators or for Twixley swamp horse as you called them. I told my coworkers about them and then I resumed listening to the episode. And then I looked like an absolute fucking idiot thanks to you. Love the show, wouldn't change a thing, three out of five stars. Love you and the war gators. Keep on sucking. Xoxo, a gullible queer sucker and space lizard, Cory.

Cory, I do wish that we could ride alligators like horses. That'd be so great. Wish we could train them to the point that we could just really trust them to never bite us, right? I mean, having a pet gator you could ride and trust, a giant one, that would never bite you, but it would bite your enemies on command. I would love to be some sort of fucking gator whisperer. Glad I got you. I know it's annoying, but it's a little fun, right? And thanks for supporting the show, Space Lizard. And now, bonafide shit lover Jacob Randall wrote in the subject line of Bird Shit Wars.

And here's what he had to say. In the 1860s Spain went to war with Peru and Chile over a couple of islands in the Pacific. Apparently these islands are a major nesting place for seabirds due to having no predators. The birds on this island never needed to go far, which meant the rocks of this island got covered by bird shit. So much so that you couldn't even see the rock under all the shit. As it turns out bird shit can be turned into an ingredient for gunpowder. Yes, almost a thousand people died over a couple rocks covered in shit. Thanks so much for doing this podcast.

Really helps me get through the lock jaw I suffer after my 12 hour shift at the dick sucking factory. In the unlikely event you read this on the show, I'd love for you to give a lovely shout out to my lovely partner, Jay. They are the light of my life. I don't know what I would do without them. Anyway, sorry, not sorry for the length or girth or grammar of this email.

Three out of five stars. Don't you dare change a thing from one sucker to another. Jake. Oh, Jake, I'm so glad I can provide you with a break. Man, 12 hours a day of sucking dick. You gotta have a Mr. Olympia level of jaw muscle. Oh man, just fucking ripped jaws, chiseled jaws, swole jaws. I didn't know about that war. It's called the Chincha Islands War, and it did result in a thousand casualties roughly between Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Spain. Yeah, it was Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, one side of Spain on the other. These three islands that are just 13 miles off the coast of Peru near the town of Pisco,

very small, little rocky islands, yeah, were harvested for their bird shit ever since pre-Incan times. People fucking taking boats, going out and checking out these islands way back when. They still do have guano but not nearly as much as they used to because it was over-harvested in the late 19th century. Just people just took too much shit literally. Crazy that so many people were wounded or killed, literally fighting for shit. Now speaking of bat shit, let's talk about hot, hard father, daddy, Nick's mother-in-law. And we were kind of speaking about bat shit, you know, bird shit, bat shit.

You know what I mean? Nick's mother-in-law, hot, hard father, daddy's Nick's mother-in-law is sweet, but also insane. Anyway, so many people actually are these days. Man, conspiracies, the dumbest ones keep becoming more mainstream. More politicians act like they're fucking real. Russia's propaganda machine flooding our social media with bots perpetuating this nonsense, social media algorithms feeding people more and more of it.

Conspiratorial echo chambers getting wilder than ever. Pretty depressing, but sometimes pretty funny. Nick wrote in with the subject line of why I listen to Time Suck. Dear Dan, writing to share one of the many reasons to listen to your show. Our son turned 10 two weeks ago. My mother-in-law was there at the party. I don't know about you, Dan, but my mother-in-law represents one of the great paradoxes in my life. While she has literally saved our lives and made raising three kids possible, she simultaneously seeks to upend my mental well-being with insane, hard to follow, and unendingly maddening comments

that push me to the brink. Such is life. Case in point. Her and I are washing dishes as the party winds down. I say to her, man, those wildfires out in LA are so horrible. What I don't understand is why we can't as humans acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, we're contributing to fucking up this planet and she'd do something about it." To which she replies, Well, you know, the real reason behind the fires is something many people don't want to admit is

happening. And in my head, I'm thinking, okay, we're about to agree on something. She continues, Child pornography and hidden tunnels under the city that someone wanted to eliminate. I let her finish the dishes by herself. Without your show Dan, I wouldn't have a space to turn to in times like these. Times in the world is literally burning around us. Times when you have to deal with your in-laws. Lastly, and I figured you'd like this one, my two older kids have taken to using father daddy as a descriptor for common household liquids. Many of which we use on a daily basis. For example, dad pass me that father daddy maple syrup or dad this quesadilla is just dripping in greasy father daddy oil. Don't judge me. Thanks for all you do. Warmest regards, Nick.

Nick you rational hot hard father daddy dripping with critical thinking skills you. Glad you and the kids are having fun with a lot of this shit and and wow yeah they burned down big patches of the LA area to high tunnels that child porn traffickers use. Wouldn't burning all the shit above ground increase the risk of exposing underground tunnels? How exactly does burning buildings above ground eliminate tunnels below ground? My God, just the things people say, the things people believe.

Two weeks ago, an older lady at the gym I work out at, when those fires were on TV, literally blurted out, government controls the weather, like for real. And then when I just stared blankly at her, not saying anything, clearly not agreeing, she goes, I mean, look outside, because it's been warm here, unseasonably warm. And then she goes, look at the snow in Florida. And I still stare blankly. And then she says, I'm not a conspiracy nut. And I just nodded, kind of rolled my eyes like, uh-huh. And then she just shrugged.

She goes back to riding the stationary bike, and we've not talked since. So many fucking people right now, just they will not believe in scientific consensus. All the scientists are wrong. But it's just these fucking nonsensical conspiracy idiots. Oh, they're right. These people that just babble on and make no sense. I don't know. I guess it's just fun to believe in weird shit like the government can control the weather. And I guess it's fun, you know, to say stuff like that because maybe sometimes other confused people are like, hell yeah they they do and that makes you feel cool Want an ignorance. I fear that we are moving into an increasingly ignorant era

I don't want to be Debbie Downer, but I think it's gonna get worse before it gets better I hope the pendulum swings back the other way soon, but I I don't have high hopes and you know I think just for a while us Rational folk are just gonna have to be like, Hoooooold! Hooooooold! Stay the course of sanity! Stay the course of logic as we sail through increasingly turbulent seas of ignorance and buttfuckery and paranoia!

Oh boy. Finally, shitster Eric Luxley sends in a message with the subject line of the history of shit from a turd herder. He writes, hey Dan and the Time Suck team. My name is Eric and I am a turd herder, a shit shepherd, a craft coraller, a boneless brown trout fisherman. I guess my actual title is wastewater operator, but whatever. I'm a big fan of Time Suck, scared to death, and is we dumb? Rest in peace. As well as your stand-up. Thank you. My wife and I saw you perform live. Missoula got to sit next to Lindsay and your dad.

Anyway, I was excited to see the Time Suck episode on a topic that I care so much about and absolutely loved it. I've been in the business of shit for many years and I learned quite a bit. I wanted to share a little piece of trivia. You talked a lot about the Thames in London in the episode and the discharging of waste into it. In Wastewater, we perform a test called BOD5. Stands for biochemical oxygen demand. It's a measure of the reduction in oxygen over a five day period. In layman's terms, it's just a measure of the strength of wastewater.

The subscript 5 represents the time it took wastewater after entering the Thames to reach the ocean. I think it's dumb that the test is over five days because by the time you receive your results, they're five days old But it's been done that way since it was adopted in 1908 and now for a PSA Over the years I have found many strange things in our screening system that people have flushed down toilets t-shirts dildos Okay, dildo can make it down a fucking pipe

I guess it good. It's bendy enough. Kid toys, tampon applicators. A friend of mine found a firearm. How do you get a tiny little pistol? The three things you flushed in the toilet are shit, piss, and toilet paper. The flushable wipes that have become popular over recent years are not flushable. They don't dissolve in the sewer collection system like toilet paper does and someone has to take it out of the wastewater with a treatment plant. Also, don't flush your cooking oil and baking grease down the drain either. It's nasty clogs the pipes over time. Your friendly local wastewater operators will thank you. One last note I'm sorry you don't like

bidets Dan because they really help the environment. Take seven gallons of clean water to produce one roll of toilet paper. Even though the bidet uses water it's a lot less. It uses a lot less and is a green alternative to flushable wipes. Thanks for letting me rant. Three out of five stars wouldn't change a thing. Your turd herder, Eric. Eric, thank you for all that extra shit info. I didn't know that about wet wipes. That's a bummer because they feel so fucking nice compared to toilet paper. I am leaning towards giving bidets a chance. It's come up in conversations. I've had, friends I didn't realize use them and they love them.

I think I'm ready to start pressure washing my butthole. I just gotta take the plunge so to speak and install another bidet after already sending one to college with lab rats. I mean Kyler. I think I'm ready. Thanks dude. I still think about that Missoula show sometimes. One of my all-time faves. Still love the shit out of your zoo town. Let's get out of here. time faves. Still love the shit out of your zoo town. Let's get out of here. Thanks time suckers. I needed that. We all did. Thank you for listening to another Bad Magic Productions podcast. Scared to death and time suck each week. Short sucks, nightmare fuel on the time suck and scared to death feeds some uh sometimes

twice a month. Keep an eye on your kids this week and while you watch them slip on some headphones and keep on sucking And now for a little snidely whiplash. Random I know, but he's one of the villains I mentioned early in the show, as far as the nonsense about the McCann friends that came with him to Portugal. He's a bad guy from the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, antagonist of Dudley Do-Right. Why can't this be the worst kind of villain we ever have to worry about in life? Somebody trying to goofily tie a damsel to some train tracks. Here, here! You oughtn't to do anything like that.

Going around tying defenseless people to railroad tracks. It's not the Canadian way! You think I'm not trying to stop to stop tying? I'm hooked! It's a habit with me now! I swear to you after I tie up this one defenseless woman I'm gonna swear off so help me could you just put your finger in this knot well don't do it Dudley if you think it will help you kick the hat no he's tricking you yeah oh boy again hey that's my line oh Oh, Dudley and Snidely!

Oh man, and don't worry everybody, Dudley unties her with plenty of time to spare. She's fine. Snidely never actually hurts anybody. Just how it should be with bad guys.