Over a decade ago (June 2010), I drew the Portuguese authorities to the fact that a particular derelict building lay at the heart of Madeliene McCanns disappearence.
I gave them what I considered to be a significant lead for the investigating officers to bring the case of child McCann to a conclusion. I sent all the photographs that I took showing views from outside the derelict building, from different parts of the rear garden, and also inside the premises. I believe that what I discovered on that one occasion that I physically stood inside and outside that property, that I discovered what appeared to be a shall grave located in a hollow, there was an iron bar laid alongside the grave and a line of rock or stone which had been laid out it seemed, deliberately, stretching from the general area of the grave going out towards the gardens sea wall. What struck me about this find was that almost everywhere in that rear garden, there were piles and piles of rubbish and garden waste thrown down, and because of this I remember pausing hovering on the bank of the hollow, and subsequently climbing down into the hollow to get a closer view of the grave - someone had buried something there, in the remotest part of the rear garden. I stood looking at the line of rocks and stone which took my gaze out and over the gardens rear sea wall, and then turned around 180° and I could sea the village church steeple and its clock tower clock tower. I felt more than a little uneasy at that point. I took photographs every few seconds / minutes.On my way out of the hollow intending to have a look around inside the derelict building, I noticed what appeared to be a bone amongst some logs and garden waste. I picked it up and placed it on top of a sawn off tree trunk, and photographed it. I left the bone there on top of the log, for the police to recover later on. I then entered the derelict building itself taking photographs all the while.I found items of clothing, a dark nylon kaghol type jacket, a pair of light blue Jean's, and a checked lumbermans woollen shirt which were altogether inside a yellow plastic bag under a pile of what appeared to be a discarded pile of broken / wooden doors. I removed these items of clothing from the carrier bag and placed them on the floor in slightly different positions and took photographs. In what appeared to have once been the main room of the derelict building items which indicates someone had been using or taking drugs there. There was also an empty wine bottle amongst other things discarded on the floor.On a table I saw an empty plastic tube of BAYGON Insecticide. I continued to take photographs. I also noticed that someone had put a line of kisses, or crosses, on or around a door frame, which reminded me of the row of rocks and stone which were laid out from the graveside in the hollow toward the rear gardens sea wall, it seemed to me that somebody was habitually keeping a record of something which had been or was continuing to recur. It did cross my mind to count the number of these chalk Mark's, and go back to the rock and stone between the shallow grave and the rear gardens sea wall, to see if they were of the same number, but thought better of the idea when I realised that I could do the counting of both once I checked the photographs I had taken which I would be doing upon my return to the UK. I remember seeing bottles, cans, and of course the empty tube of BAYGON Insecticide and thinking that once the police turn up here, and find a buried body, or some other item of evidential value, that information contained in the bar codes of the bottles, cans and tubes, might lead to the police being able to identify who had purchased them when and whether or not a bank card had been used to make the purchase of the goods. I eventually made my way into what I would call a bedroom - because on the floor of this room there was a disguarded single bed mattress where someone must have been sleeping rough on. The walls of this room were pinkish in colour. At the window were net curtains which I took photographs of as well as photographing the bed mattress which was on the floor. At that stage I did not see anything of an unusual nature which I would have wanted to photograph. I then went to the rooms window, the next curtain had been pulled to one side or other as if it enable a person within the derelict building to peer out onto the street and the entrance to St Vincent's church. Instinctively I took photographs showing the view from inside the room of the derelict building towards the entrance of the village church - it made me realise that somebody inside the derelict building must have deliberately set the net curtains like that so that they could keep watch on anybody attending and eventually leaving the church. It would be interesting to find out whether or not the series of burglaries, and thefts at hotels and apartments, occurred when the victims were attending church services...
