Date	Day	Event
Saturday 28 April 2007	0	Kate and Gerry McCann touchdown at Faro airport with their children Madeleine, Amelie and Sean for a holiday with friends at nearby Praia da Luz.   Mobile phone footage of Madeleine boarding the plane   They take the bus to the apartment.   Mobile phone footage of bus trip   Mr McCann said Madeleine was used to travelling, having flown to Italy and Amsterdam.   "She was excited about going away with the rest of the kids, it was her first time to Portugal. She had her Barbie rucksack... we all had rucksacks - even Sean and Amelie - it was quite funny. And Madeleine was acting like a big girl, she was so excited." At the start of their holiday the McCanns and their group of friends (who were to become known as the Tapas Nine) hire two cars: A blue jeep and a Nissan Micra. The cars were hired on a day to day basis, for the use of all of the 'Tapas Nine'.   It is alleged that the Policia Judiciaria later undertook forensic tests on these vehicles and found residue in the blue jeep that was used by the McCanns.
Thursday 03 May 2007	0	At night, as had become the holiday pattern, Kate and Gerry dine with their friends at the tapas restaurant, whilst their children sleep in the apartment. The tapas restaurant is located within the Mark Warner Ocean Club complex but their apartment, 5A, is outside the boundary wall of the complex.   At around 10.00pm, Kate goes to the apartment to check on the children and reports Madeleine missing and one of the most extraordinary cases begins.   Click here to go to page dedicated to 03 May 2007
Friday 04 May 2007	1	Police and locals call off the search at 4.30am. Kate, allegedly, does not leave the apartment after reporting Madeleine missing but is reported to have gone out with Gerry at 6.00am - although this is later contradicted in her BBC interview with Jane Hill in which she states that she never did any physical searching.   The McCanns are immediately moved to another apartment in the Ocean Club complex, having been authorised to take just essential items with them. They carry the twins, who it is alleged, do not wake throughout the whole disturbance.   Police use sniffer dogs and the Spanish and border police and airports are notified. Volunteer groups continue to search the village resort and beach in efforts to find Madeleine and clues. The forensic team arrive at 13.00pm to begin work on the apartment.   It is reported in Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha that sniffer dogs found a scent trail from the McCanns apartment to another apartment in the same holiday complex that had been occupied by Britons.   Kate's parents, Susan and Brian Healy, arrive on a flight from Liverpool with Michael Wright, Kate McCanns' brother-in-law.   At 10.00pm, as the search for Madeleine continues, her parents issue a statement to say they "cannot describe the anguish and despair" they are feeling at their daughter's disappearance.    Watch Gerry's full statement here
Saturday 05 May 2007	2	Police reveal that they believe Madeleine was abducted and that she is still alive and being held in Portugal. They also reveal they have a sketch of a 'suspect' and that Madeleine may have been abducted for sexual abuse.   Kate and Gerry keep a low profile, although Gerry does return to the apartment where they had been staying - now a crime scene - to retrieve a suitcase of belongings and a bucket and spade for the couple's two year old twins.   At one point they are seen walking hand in hand to the apartment where they are now staying, after dropping off the twins with friends.   They later meet with British ambassador John Buck and are joined by three family liaison officers from Leicestershire police.   The first reports: Liverpool Daily Post Daily Express Daily Record The Guardian International
Sunday 06 May 2007	3	Kate and Gerry attend the Mother's Day service at the church in Praia da Luz and make a brief statement afterwards.   Watch kate and Gerry speak here   Later, they are driven to the Policia Judiciaria headquarters in Portimao, as it is alleged the inquiry into their Madeleine's disappearance is centred on a group of three - two men and a woman.   Two further "couples" aged in their 50s are driven into the back of the PJ building in Portimao by mid afternoon.   Questions are raised about the quality of the police's sketch, with one newspaper reporting that the image is based only on the rear view of a man seen with a child in the area.
Monday 07 May 2007	4	Kate makes an appeal for the safe return of Madeleine, from inside their holiday apartment.   View the appeal on BBC News here   In the first of what will become many 'sightings', police begin investigating a claim that a man was seen dragging a girl towards the marina at Lagos, a short drive from Praia da Luz.   Lori Campbell, a Sunday Mirror journalist, reports Robert Murat to Leicestershire police as she believes he has been acting suspiciously.   View short clip of Lori Campbell here   Madeleine's aunt, Philomena McCann - a schoolteacher in Ullapool, approaches one of her former pupils, Calum MacRae, to set up a website to help raise awareness of Madeleine's disappearance.   Family friend Pat Perkins, sends out a chain e-mail asking for help and information about Madeleine's 'abduction'. See here for e-mail
Tuesday 08 May 2007	5	Police follow up 350 possible sightings and say they have already interviewed more than 100 people.
Wednesday 09 May 2007	6	In Portugal, police examine a CCTV tape from the Galp service station on the east-west motorway, just a few miles outside Praia da Luz, showing a woman with a child fitting Madeleine's description.   In Morocco, Norwegian tourist Mari Pollard says she saw a girl who looked like Madeleine with a man at a petrol station in Marrakesh. On the same day, a British holidaymaker saw a youngster outside the Ibis Hotel in Marrakesh.   Two child abduction experts arrive from the UK.   The official Madeleine McCann website is launched under the domain name www.bringmadeleinehome.com (Note: This is replaced on 16 May 2007 by www.findmadeleine.com)   Susan and Brian Healy (Kate's parents) talk to Sky News following their return to the UK Watch video here - (*Note: The Sky News video link doesn't work for this video. You need to enter 'Susan Healy' into the video search box and click on the video '09 May 2007')
Thursday 10 May 2007	7	Chief Inspector Olegario de Sousa holds a news conference to give more details of the search for Madeleine. He insists that he is doing everything he can to find the little girl, but so far from the ground search "the results are zero". He adds that the ground search for Madeleine is now being wound down.   It is also revealed that police are checking several CCTV images. Mr Sousa said "images of video surveillance" had been collected from several locations "in order to check possible leads that may have been recorded".   Kate and Gerry are asked to scan CCTV film for a glimpse of their kidnapped daughter. Footage at a garage in Portugal captured an image of three suspects, including a woman, with a girl who matched Madeleine's description. The camera also caught the car’s British number plate and the registration has been circulated by Interpol and British police.   The McCanns were driven at speed from their holiday apartment to a police station in Portimao to help officers examine the tapes after Mrs McCann again went to the local church to pray for her daughter. Bill Henderson, the British Consul in the Algarve, was seen leaving the police headquarters while Mr and Mrs McCann were still inside. Two of the three suspects in the CCTV footage that may show Madeleine have been identified by a man who claimed he caught them photographing his own child two weeks ago. The witness, Portuguese-born Nuno Lourenco who lives in Germany, said the gang attempted to abduct his own young daughter.   He told detectives that he saw a man of English appearance photographing his daughter, described as strikingly similar in appearance to Madeleine, on April 30 in Sagres, a town just a few miles from the holiday complex where the McCann family was staying.   The witness, who with his German wife has two children aged two and four, said he chased the man, who fled, jumping into a car with a woman and another man before speeding off. Mr Lourenco is believed to have provided the authorities with a photograph taken on his mobile phone. The witness has told officers he was "100 per cent certain" they were the same people caught on CCTV with the girl matching Madeleine's description hours after she went missing.   An image of a pair of pyjamas, identical to those which Madeleine had been wearing when she disappeared, is released.    The McCanns spend most of the afternoon and evening being questioned at the police station in Portimao: Kate is questioned for 9 hours and Gerry is questioned for 14 hours, eventually leaving the station at 3.00am in the morning.   While the McCanns were at the headquarters, according to local media reports, another British couple were interviewed at the same station. They were not arrested and were driven from the station concealed by a blanket.   It is also reported that while the McCanns were being reinterviewed police with dogs were searching the McCanns apartment again. Police say it is the final time they will search the block to look for clues. The wider search in the area will end in the next few days.

<STYLE type=text/css> </STYLE>