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The Tapas Seven refers to the group of people who went to dinner while on vacation in Portugal during a trip in 2007 — when Madeleine McCann disappeared.
The McCann family were on vacation with seven friends. Every night around 8:30, the adults would meet up at the tapas restaurant at the resort. The media dubbed the group (excluding Kate and Gerry McCann) the “Tapas Seven.”
The group included Fiona and David Payne, both physicians; Fiona’s mother, Dianne Webster; Jane Tanner, a marketing manager, and her partner, Russell O’Brien, a physician; Matthew Oldfield, also a physician, and his wife, Rachael Oldfield, a lawyer.
The group put their kids to bed and headed to dinner, taking turns checking on the sleeping children throughout the night. Kate McCann wrote about each of the Tapas Seven in her book, “Madeleine: Our Daughter’s Disappearance and the Continuing Search for Her.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Matthew Oldfield Was the Last Person to Check on the Kids & He Claims He Saw the Prime Suspect (Pictured)
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Matthew Oldfield worked with Gerry McCann in Leicester. The two became friends and joined one another on this pre-planned vacation. Oldfield and his wife, Rachael, were on holiday with their only child, a 2-year-old daughter.
Oldfield was the last person in the group to check on the children, about 30 minutes before Kate McCann noticed that Madeleine wasn’t in her bed.
Oldfield claims he saw Robert Murat, who became the prime suspect in the case. Murat denies having any involvement in Madeleine’s disappearance and no charges were ever officially filed against him. Murat is featured in the new Netflix documentary called The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Jane Tanner Claims She Saw a Man Carrying a Child Near the Resort But Didn’t Think Much of it at the Time
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Russell O’Brien and his partner, Jane Tanner, were on vacation with their two children. Their oldest child was the same age as Madeleine at the time. During the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, O’Brien and Tanner’s daughter was sick. There was a period of time — about 30 minutes or so — that O’Brien left the restaurant to take care of his daughter, according to The Guardian. The child’s illness is unknown.
O’Brien also claims that he saw Murat hanging around the resort that night, specifically around the McCann’s apartment.
Tanner was at the restaurant, enjoying the evening with friends. When she went to check on the children, around 9:15 p.m., she claims that she saw a man carrying a sleeping girl away from the resort. When she first saw the man — before Madeleine had gone missing — she didn’t think much of him.
Tanner says the man was wearing a brown jacket, tan-colored pants, and a pair of dark shoes. He was carrying a child wearing pink and white pajamas.
Kate McCann discusses this sighting in her book.
“Who is the man Jane Tanner saw carrying a child, very probably Madeleine, away from our holiday apartment? Who is the man seen watching the apartment in the days before? Four years later he, or they, remain to be identified,” Kate wrote.
According to The Mirror, detectives spent four years trying to identify the man that Tanner claims to have seen but he was never found.
David Payne Was the Last Non-Family Member to See Madeleine
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David Payne and his wife, Fiona, are both doctors. David Payne was the last person outside of the McCann family to physically see Madeleine alive at the resort. He checked on the McCann kids while Kate and Gerry McCann enjoyed a round of tennis, a common pastime for the couple.
Fiona Payne, who brought her mom on the vacation with her family, also claims that she saw Murat on the grounds of the resort.
According to Kate McCann, Dave and Fiona didn’t regularly check on their sleeping children because they brought a “state-of-the-art” baby monitor with them.