Searching For Madeleine

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On 3rd May this year, Madeleine McCann went missing. That is one of the very few facts in what has become the news story of 2007. Her parents Kate and Gerry have gone from victims of a terrible tragedy to suspects in the disappearance of their own child.

What has really happened in the 168 days since Madeleine was last seen? Dispatches sent a team of five of the UK's best-qualified criminal investigators to Praia da Luz.

Led by retired Detective Chief Superintendent Chris Stevenson, who headed the Soham investigation into the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002, their goal is to review the Portuguese police investigation.

The investigators analyse the key moments in the near six-month investigation. With expertise in forensics, searching, profiling and media management, learned in dozens of UK cases, the team detail how they would have responded to Madeleine's disappearance and gone about finding her.

With testimony from observers who witnessed events in the crucial early days, they differentiate between the fact and the wildly speculative media fiction.

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