Four months after Madeleine McCann – a three-year-old girl from Leicestershire – vanished while she and her family were on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007, the investigation into her disappearance was in chaos. The Portuguese Polícia Judiciária (PJ) had admitted that a failure properly toF secure the scene meant vital forensic evidence could have been destroyed. It had been revealed that neither border nor marine police had been given descriptions of Madeleine for many hours after her parents, Kate and Gerry, raised the alarm. On August 11, detectives had publicly declared that Madeleine might be dead, suggesting they were no longer channelling resources into a “missing persons” investigation. And then, on September 6, officers hauled Kate in for 11 hours of questioning before making her and Gerry officially “arguidos” – suspects – on September 7. The detectives’ focus had suddenly switched from finding the child and her abductor to investigating her parents on suspicion of covering up Madeleine’s accidental death inside their holiday apartment and concealing her body. A trace of …