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Algarve |
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Police maintain search for Madeleine
• 10 May 2007 •
 AT a police conference held in the Algarve, the Judicial Police (PJ) said they still believe three-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann, has been abducted but have very few leads to follow.
Guilhermino Encarnação, director of Algarve PJ, said they have already a composite sketch of a suspect but refused to release it or to reveal any details for fear of endangering Madeleine's life. He added that police were hopeful she was alive and believe she is still in Portugal.
Madeleine, who disappeared from Praia da Luz last Thursday evening, will be four years old on Saturday. She went missing when her parents left her and their two other children at the villa they had rented at the Mark Warner Ocean Club at the resort, near Lagos. Little Madeleine, from Rothley, Leicestershire, UK, and two-year-old twin brother and sister Sean and Amelie, were alone sleeping while their parents, Kate and Gerry, were out having dinner at a tapas bar located 50 metres away from the villa. They told police that they had left the villa at 8pm and had returned regularly to check on the children. According to the police, it was around 10pm, during one of their half-hourly checks on the room, that they noticed that Madeleine was missing and the apartment door and window were opened.
John Hill, the manager of the resort, said the police were notified and around 60 staff and guests at the resort helped police to search for the girl throughout the night. "It was a very emotional and very frantic night and everyone did a fantastic job of getting involved and trying to search the area," Hill said. In a written statement, the resort’s head of customer services, Gordon Spence said: “The police, staff, other guests and a number of local people continued to search the premises as well as the local area for the child. The UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office were informed via the local consular offices. The Portuguese police have informed all borders and airports and the Spanish authorities have also been alerted.”
Meanwhile, pictures of the missing girl were delivered throughout the area and sent to airports and borders. However, the controls at the end of the Algarve motorway’s border with Spain only started in the morning of the following day, hours after Madeleine had been reported missing.
On Friday, after conducting interviews with Madeleine´s parents and then dusting for fingerprints on the open window, the police admitted that the toddler had been abducted. PJ Director Encarnação said: "We have evidence which indicates a kidnap.”
British ambassador John Buck came from Lisbon to assist the family. After arriving in the Algarve, he explained: “I have been in touch with the National Chief of Police and the Chief of Police in the Algarve, and they have assured me everything possible is being done. Intensive search and investigations are under way and will continue during the night.”
Jose Dias, Vice-President of Algarve’s Tourism Board told The Euro Weekly News: “In between police officers and Civil Protection staff, there were more than 150 people involved in the search. We had also the help of one helicopter and police sniffer dogs. Tourists and expats have also joined the search. Michael Hannar from Pontefract, UK, who owns a nearby villa, told The Euro Weekly News: “I have owned this villa for five years and this has always been a very quiet area. This year there has been a couple of burglaries, but nothing like this. This case is very bad.”
Along with Maddie’s parents, who made an emotional appeal for their daughter´s safe return, footballer Cristiano Ronaldo also made a televised appeal for anyone with any information regarding Madeleine’s disappearance to come forward. |  Return to Top
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