There are a few different theories regarding the involvement of Kate and Gerry McCann in Madeleine's disappearance. Kate and Gerry were named by Portuguese authorities as official suspects and were interrogated about their daughters disappearance. Some people think they drugged her and it went wrong, others think they killed Maddie and the abduction story is all a cover up.
One of the theories about the McCanns, that is presented in the Netflix documentary, is that police thought that the couple might have killed her with an overdose of Calpol.
The documentary also looks at how sniffer dogs were used in the case, and had detected the scent of blood, and a human body, inside the McCann's apartment and their hire car. People have been suspicious about Kate McCann in particular for a while, the dogs sensed the smell of a human body and blood on her clothing too, and she refused to answer forty eight questions in her interview with the police.
Investigator and author Anthony Summers told documentary producers: "By late summer there was an implication that they may have over sedated her by administering a drug."
His co author, Robbyn Swan, said: 'Essentially the Portuguese cops' case against the McCanns involved the following: that she died by accident on May 3rd, that the supposed checks on the children had been concocted, that they had hidden their daughter's body.
"Her body had subsequently been transported in the rental car they had rented some weeks later." However, months later, forensic reports confirmed there was no viable evidence linking Madeleine's DNA to the holiday apartment or the rental car.
This theory is again raised in the Netflix doc by the disgraced Portuguese officer, Goncalo Amaral. He released a book and a TV documentary, called The Truth Of The Lie, in which he alleged the McCanns faked the whole abduction to cover up that they had accidentally killed her.
The McCanns claimed the book was "unfounded and grossly defamatory" and launched legal action against Goncalo Amaral in 2009. In 2015, Kate and Gerry McCann were awarded around £450,000 in damages by a Portuguese court. However, in April last year Amaral won an appeal against the decision.
