NARRATOR: On the evening
of May 3rd, 2007, three-year-old Madeleine
McCann disappears from her bed, while on vacation
with her family in Portugal. Local authorities immediately
launch an investigation, following extensive
leads, including an inquiry into Madeleine's
parents, Kate and Gerry McCann. Despite all the leads,
there have been no arrests. In these exclusive
interviews, we'll hear from two men who
have tried to answer some of the questions surrounding
the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. Can new cutting edge
technology help crack the case? Who is this
mysterious man spotted by multiple eyewitnesses? And was a promising lead
in the investigation overlooked due to a scandal? Praia de Luz, Portugal, the
evening of May 3rd, 2007. Madeleine McCann is
inducted from her bedroom and has not been seen since. At the time of the abduction,
Madeleine's parents Gerry and Kate McCann are dining with
their friends at a restaurant, just 60 yards away. They don't realize Madeleine
is missing, until Kate checks on her at 10 PM. Portuguese authorities
begin an investigation. But the McCann's
worry that the police in the small parish
of Praia de Luz lack the resources to
quickly find Madeleine. Over a month goes by. The McCann's turn to more
unconventional methods to help find their daughter. One of the first people
Gerry McCann reaches out to is Danie Krugel, a
retired South African police officer known
for his ability to find missing persons. Krugel is making
news with what he claims is a cutting
edge device called a matter orientation system. Krugel claims his
device uses an object's atomic makeup to detect
similar or identical objects in the area. A person disappears. You find a few strands
of hair left on a brush. You put those hairs
into a gadget. And that points out on
a map where in the world that person may be. NARRATOR: Krugel
claims his device uses a process called
quantum detection to find anyone in the world. REPORTER (VOICEOVER): Once he
has done a test with a hair sample, Danie is able to
geographically pinpoint an area by applying
coordinates from more than one vantage point. NARRATOR: As outlandish
as this sounds, Krugel has seemingly
had results finding missing persons with his
matter orientation system. REPORTER (VOICEOVER):
In the past two years, Danie has traveled across South
Africa to test the equipment. This is a long list
of his successes. Most of those he tracked
down were found alive. We cut off a sample of
our cameraman's hair and sent him to
hide in a cemetery. Danie took two readings
and within minutes, he was able to point out where
the camera man was hiding. DANIE: This person would
be in this facility. REPORTER (VOICEOVER): And that's
exactly where we found him. NARRATOR: Six weeks after
Madeleine disappears, Krugel arrives in Portugal. Using hair taken from
Madeleine's hairbrush, Krugel attempts to find her with
the matter orientation system. Krugel's device
narrows Madeleine's whereabouts to within
a one kilometer radius around the hotel. He is unable to narrow her
location down any further. Over the course of several
days, Krugel's readings show that Madeleine
signal is not moving. Krugel turns his findings over
to the Portuguese authorities. Krugel also urges them
to bring in cadaver dogs. When the dogs detect
traces of Madeleine's blood and the McCann's car, the
Portuguese authorities begin investigating
Madeleine's parents. For nearly a year,
Gerry and Kate McCann are considered suspects in their
own daughter's disappearance. It's not clear whether any of
the investigative authorities used the information
Krugel gives them. The case still haunts Krugel. Krugel still believes he
can find Madeleine if asked to join an investigation. It's important to note
that Krugel took no money from the McCann's, nor does
he ask for any payment related to missing persons cases. In the months following
Madeleine's disappearance, the investigation by the
Portuguese authorities fails to lead to arrests. Multiple angles are
pursued, including a group of mysterious charity
collectors who had been working the area at the time. Early on, the police,
in Praia de Luz started hearing about some men who'd
been going around knocking on doors and saying that
they were collecting for an orphanage in a
village called Espiche, which is very close to Praia de Luz. And it is absolutely rock
solid certain that there was no orphanage in Espiche. That could mean only
that it was a scam, that these were men trying
to con tourists out of money. At least one of these charity
collector scam merchants had an interest in little girls. He came to the
door as a woman was standing in her kitchen with
her own three or four-year-old. She realized when he was
doing his spiel that he wasn't looking at her at all. He was looking down
low at the little girl. NARRATOR: Despite
this promising lead, the Portuguese authorities
are unable to track down the con men with their
limited resources. Already hurting from
the police's accusations and frustrated by a lack
of arrests in the case, the McCann family
raises funds to support an independent effort
to find Madeleine. In 2008, the McCann's hire a
private company to investigate Madeleine's case. The investigation,
dubbed Operation Omega, is headed by British
citizen Kevin Halligen. Halligen is most
well-known for helping negotiate a deal for
multi-billion dollar commodities firm Trafigura. Halligen and his business
partner, Tim Craig-Harvey, are instrumental in
getting two Trafigura executives freed from prison
in the African country of Cote D'Ivoire. Halligen's international
resume makes him seem like he's the man for the job. He had supported undercover
operations in Northern Ireland in a technical capacity. He was in the SAS, working
in the Balkans, Iraq. NARRATOR: Nothing
underscores hooligans insider status more than his
lavish Washington DC wedding. The string quartet
playing, champagne flowing, and lots of
military and intelligence community people. That was a really amazing day,
a lot of money spent on it. NARRATOR: Halligen
promises the McCann's that no expense will be spared
in finding their daughter. He asks for $600,000. We were invited on the day
of the first anniversary of her abduction to engage
in a six-month contract to try and find her. So we really had to go back to
basics and reinterview everyone who had previously been
interviewed to build up a picture of what had
been going on in the days leading up to the abduction. NARRATOR: The most
promising lead Halligen's team followed is that
of the bogus charity collector. A witness provides
a description. TIM CRAIG-HARVEY (VOICEOVER):
Six feet, slim, scruffy, gapped teeth, mustache. NARRATOR: The trail
leads to the local gypsy, or Roma, population. It was given to us on
pretty good authority that the gypsy community
had a dwindling gene pool. And it was suggested to us
that over the previous 10 or 15 years, a number of,
particularly, blonde children had been abducted for
breeding purposes. NARRATOR: Within
the Roma community, the team hones in on a
man they nicknamed George. A team on the
ground in Portugal identified him, because
he looked so like one of the IdentiKit drawings. He was seen at a number
of local markets. NARRATOR: The team photographs
George and brings the evidence to Jane Tanner, one of
the friends on vacation with the McCann's who'd
spotted a suspicious man carrying a child. Jane Tanner, one of the
people who had been hanging out with the McCann's throughout
the whole day and the person who had also put
together a IdentiKit picture of a bloke in a brown
jacket carrying a child. When she saw the photograph
she, burst into tears. She said, that's the guy
that I saw taking the child. NARRATOR: George becomes the
team's number one suspect. They attempt to pursue him. He was followed by one of
the teams, relatively covertly. And his awareness of what
was going on around him was impressive. He forced the following
team down a dead end. So they couldn't actually
follow him any further. NARRATOR: Three months into
their investigation, the team feels that they're
getting close to actually finding Madeleine's abductor. Then, the McCann's receive
a devastating blow. Three months into Operation
Omega, investigators hired by the McCann's to
find their daughter have found a man
that they believe is a very viable suspect in
Madeleine's disappearance. However, just as they're
about to close in on the mysterious
George, calamity strikes. I went to our local
newsagents to pick up papers on the Sunday
morning and found Halligen all over the front page. That was my first real
understanding that there was a real problem getting on here. NARRATOR: The
Operation Omega team is shocked to learn that
Halligen is wanted for fraud. When I tried to get into
the office the next day, the locks had been
changed, because Kevin, having promised me that he
had pay the rent, hadn't. And Kevin took the
balance of the money. That was at the point that
Kevin disappeared off to Rome. NARRATOR: Some digging
leads Craig-Harvey to discover that his
business partner is not the man everyone thought. And he had created 70%. No one really knew who
the real Kevin was. NARRATOR: No evidence could
be found to verify Halligen's cloak and dagger tales. He did go to Baghdad
once for about four days. NARRATOR: The
purpose of the trip seemed to be little
more than a photo shoot. It was as much
about hanging out with the real players,
which in so doing made him look like a player. NARRATOR: Even
his extravagant DC wedding is found to be a fraud. It turned out it was
a, sham completely fake, and that the wedding
ceremony had been conducted by a local actor. NARRATOR: Authorities eventually
catch up with Halligen. And he served a short
prison sentence for fraud related to the Trafigura. case. He was just a sociopath. He wanted business and he
didn't care how he got it. NARRATOR: The collapse of
Operation Omega is devastating. Most of the funds
given to Halligen are never recovered and
remain unaccounted for. Once Halligen is released,
he becomes a hermit. I think by the
end, he believed in all these multiple
personalities that he had. NARRATOR: In 2018, Halligen
dies of an alcohol-related brain hemorrhage. Any gains made by
Operation Omega are overshadowed by the scandal
created by Kevin Halligen. Still, Craig-Harvey
believes the team was close to finding an answer. I still believe that
really good work was done, despite the interference
from Halligen. To me, the gypsy character
George was the most credible line of inquiry. I think she was
abducted for pedophilia. I think it was a
chance abduction. I think because of her
very clearly identifiable, once the alarm had been
raised, she was potentially going to be too easy to find. So I believe she was killed
and the body dumped, probably in a sewer somewhere
in Praia de Luz. NARRATOR: Though they've
lost their daughter, been accused of her
abduction, and been defrauded, the McCann's are undaunted in
their fight to find Madeleine. As technology and surveillance
methods grow increasingly sophisticated, there is still
hope that Gerry and Kate McCann will someday find the closure
they need in the heartbreaking case of Madeleine McCann.
