In May 2007, Major Luís Sequeira was the GNR officer responsible for controlling the ground search around Luz for Madeleine McCann. That initial search is relevant to ‘woke and wandered’, but it is also relevant to body discovery and decomposition. However, for the moment I want to focus on the Major himself.
The first thing to note is his surname is spelled ‘Sequeira’. Mark Harrison refers to it as ‘Seqeuira’ in the PJ Files, but there is no doubt his name is Luís Sequeira.
His GNR career started well before Madeleine disappeared, and continues in modern times, so what was/is the man like?
The GNR is military, and splits men into officers and other ranks. Presumably Major Luís Sequeira was deemed to be officer material right at the start of his career.
Along with a great many other GNR members, mainly non-officers, he was awarded a medal for completion of ten years service in June 2001, when he was a Captain. He turned up again, as the recently-promoted Major Sequeira, in Portimão GNR, in November 2003.
By January 2007, Major Sequeira was the senior officer when a mixed bag of ordinary GNR soldiers and officers assembled to play an 11-a-side friendly football match against illustrious opponents. The GNR did play 5-a-side games at the time, but this adventure was to be a first for them.
The Hotel Montechoro was the base for Lokomotiv Moscow as the Russian professional team packed in winter games on the Algarve against Silves and Portimão, but with a gap in their training schedule, they challenged the GNR.
On the day of the contest, the GNR team was managed by Sergeants Sapateiro and Rodrigues, with all other ranks doing as they were ordered by the sergeants. Major Sequeira featured as a central defender. Lokomotiv went on to win 8-0, but the GNR squad was happy to have played against a top Russian team.
Just a few months later, in May 2007, Major Sequeira was managing the ground search for Madeleine McCann, following her disappearance.
That physical search is important. It determines whether Madeleine could have wandered and succumbed by natural means. A much more likely scenario is the local predator idea. Thus far, there has been considerable emphasis placed on Madeleine turning up within a short radius of Luz. Obviously this has not happened, but the physical location of Luz still dominates the psyche.
By 2011, Luís Sequeira had been promoted again, to Lt. Colonel. He then appeared at seminars on drug use and domestic violence.
In January 2016, Lt. Colonel Luís Sequeira was awarded the First Class Public Safety Merit. This is a medal given mainly to the military, in recognition of exemplary service.
While I have Colonel Sequeira’s full name, his GNR number, and his career profile, I cannot find a single photograph of him.
