When was Madeleine last seen alive?

Kate and Gerry McCann were the last people to see their daughter. Nobody else has publicly emerged who saw Madeleine after 6pm. The McCanns are said to have put their three children, including 28-month-old twins Sean and Amelie, to bed and joined friends for a meal. The party were reported to have checked on the children every half hour, although sometimes this may have only involved listening at a door. Mr McCann checked on the children around 9pm. When Mrs McCann came at 10pm, Madeleine was gone.

Who were they with?

The McCanns were dining with a group of seven friends, mainly British doctors, in a tapas restaurant opposite their apartment. Among them were Dr Russell O’Brien and his wife Jane Tanner, who have two young children; Matthew Oldfield, a doctor, and his wife Rachael; Dr Fiona Payne and her husband David, a senior research fellow at Leicester University, and Mrs Payne’s mother, Dianne Webster

Madeleine McCann: the key questions

Why are the "Tapas 9" key to solving the Madeleine mystery?

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BACKGROUND

• McCanns consider interview bids

• Madeleine McCann: the global reaction

• The forgotten victim in the McCann case

Multimedia

• Pictures: searching for Madeleine

• Video: McCann family start holiday

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• ‘We will fight it all the way and never stop looking’

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Did anybody see an abduction?

Dr O’Brien and his wife Jane Tanner appear to have left the dinner table during the final hour before Madeleine was known to be missing. They went to look after their daughter. Jane Tanner told police she saw a man walking away from the McCanns' apartment carrying a child. Reports said that she had given the time of the sighting as 9.30pm.

Was there a break-in?

Kate and Gerry McCann, in an interview with The Times, said that the apartment was broken into. “I have no doubt in my mind that she was taken by somebody from the room,” Kate said. “We don’t know if it was one person, two, or if it was a group of people, but I know she was taken.” Members of Madeleine’s family have said that the shutter on an apartment window was forced. This window cannot be seen from the tapas bar and overlooks a car park and quiet residential street. But the Mark Warner holiday company said that there was no sign of a forced break-in. There are French windows but these can be seen from the tapas bar and holiday complex so an abductor is unlikely to have used them. Madeleine was reported to have been hugging her Cuddle Cat soft toy when she went to sleep, but it was found on a ledge beyond her reach after she vanished. This was taken to suggest she was abducted alive by an adult.

What has prompted the latest questionings?

At first, it was assumed that results of tests taken on traces of blood, hair and fibres found in the apartment prompted the Portuguese police to reinterview the couple. Experts at the Forensic Science Service in Birmingham have spent a month analysing samples found by British sniffer dogs in Madeleine's bedroom. Some reports now suggest that forensic tests on a car hired by the McCanns 25 days after Madeleine disappeared raise new questions. There are unconfirmed claims that blood stains, possibly linked to Madeleine, were found in the boot and on the key fob. There have been suggestions that a syringe was found in the flat, leading to rumours that the child might have been sedated.

Do the Portuguese know more than they are saying?

The legal system in Portugal prohibits police from divulging information about the state of an investigation to “protect the integrity of the inquiry” and avoid tipping off potential suspects. The ban is also designed to protect a suspect’s right to a fair trial. When, 22 days after Madeleine disappeared, police finally released details of a potential suspect, they needed special permission to make the appeal. Despite the secrecy laws, stories attributed to police sources have regularly appeared in the Portugese press. They reported on August 7 that detectives had “definitively abandoned” any theories that Madeleine was kidnapped and now believed she died in the apartment the night she disappeared. Last week the McCanns announced they would sue for libel a newspaper that ran a front-page report claiming that police believed they may have unintentionally killed their daughter

Who are the suspects?

Two people have so far been given the formal status of suspects. Being declared an “arguido” or “arguida” (feminine version) gives them the right to remain silent and to have a lawyer present at all times.

Often people who are involved in criminal investigations in Portugal declare themselves arguidos in order to receive this protection.

Police must also declare a person arguido if they want to put certain lines of questions, which can imply they are a suspect. Under Portuguese law, a person must be declared an arguido before they are arrested or charged with any criminal offence. Arrests or charges can only be made when there is sufficient evidence.

However, the police can place restrictions on the movements of arguidos. They may be ordered not to leave the country.

Robert Murat, a British expatriate who lives less than 150 yards from where Madeleine disappeared, was made an arguido on May 15 and there has been no announcement that he has been declassified, although it is understood that he is out of the frame. Yesterday Kate McCann was made an arguida after reporting to police in Portimao. Nobody has been charged.

However, Mrs McCann will be unable to return to Britain with her family as she had planned this Sunday. She may have to stay at a given address and sign an identity and residence statement.

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