|
Now
police are probing if Kate McCann had been depressed
Last
updated at 09:38am on 17th September 2007
Police
are trawling through Kate McCann’s confidential medical
records amid suspicions in Portugal she may have a history
of depression, sources close to the investigation revealed
today.
The
detailed analysis of her medical notes could provide them
with significant evidence against the doctor, now being
treated as a suspect in the disappearance of her daughter
Madeleine.
News of
the development comes as a judge blocked a request from the
Portuguese police to re-interview the McCanns in Portugal.
Judge Pedro Daniel Dos Anjos Frios said they could be
questioned by British authorities in the UK.
New
inquiry: Kate McCann now faces further pressure as police
check medical records of both Madeleine and her
The
re-interviewing will only take place when further DNA
testing in Birmingham is completed, either tomorrow or
Wednesday.
British
officers are also looking through Madeleine’s medical
records to see whether or not the missing four-year-old
could have suffered an allergic reaction to sedatives.
Since
Kate and Gerry McCann were named as official suspects last
week, there have been suggestions in Portugal that Madeleine
was given drugs on the night of her disappearance.
Madeleine: Still missing, but no body has been found
The
accusations have been strenuously denied by the couple but
have not been ruled out by police. Although the order to
seize medical files came from the Portuguese authorities,
the background searches are being carried out by
Leicestershire police.
A copy of
Mrs McCann’s diary has also been seized by police, who are
now waiting for permission from the judge to seize and
dismantle the McCanns’ hire car so they can search for
“traces of skin”.
It has
been reported that DNA evidence with a match to Madeleine
was found in the Renault Scenic 25 days after their daughter
vanished.
Yesterday
it emerged the McCanns are trying to knock down potential
evidence retrieved after two British sniffer dogs, capable
of detecting blood and human remains, were used in the
investigation in August.
One of
the dogs picked up a “scent of deathî on items ranging from
Mrs McCann’s clothes to Madeleine’s favourite soft toy
Cuddle Cat.
Leaked
reports from the investigation have suggested that
Madeleine’s parents could have accidentally killed her and
then disposed of her body using the car. Although they do
not know the full details of the Portuguese prosecutors’
case against them, the McCanns are concerned that it may
rest on the dog’s reaction.
The
couple’s legal team has now consulted the lawyers of an
American man accused of murdering his estranged wife in a
case where “cadaver dogî evidence was central. They want to
highlight the judge’s dismissal of such evidence in the
high-profile Eugene Zapata murder trial in Madison,
Wisconsin.
Mr
Zapata’s estranged wife, flight instructor Jeanette Zapata,
was 37 when she vanished in October 1976 after seeing her
three children off to school. Her body has never been found.
Detectives suspected Mr Zapata of involvement in her
disappearance but did not charge him because of a lack of
evidence.
Police
decided to conduct new searches using cadaver dogs and Mr
Zapata, 68, was charged with firstdegree murder last year
after the dogs indicated that they had scented human remains
in an underfloor crawl space at the former family home and
other properties linked to him.
But the
judge ruled that the dogs’ ability to detect remains was too
unreliable, noting that no remains had actually been found. |
