POLICE IN Portugal have acknowledged for the first time that Madeleine McCann may be dead.
The detective leading the investigation said on Saturday that new evidence had given “intensity” to the possibility she was killed.
Chief Inspector Olegário Sousa said Kate and Gerry McCann were not being considered as suspects following recent reports that they were under suspicion.
Mr Sousa said renewed searches by detectives with British sniffer dogs have revealed clues which could point to Madeleine’s death. He was referring to suspected traces of blood found inside the apartment room where
 British sniffer dogs have revealed clues which could point to Madeleine’s death. Photo: SUPPLIED |  |
Madeleine was sleeping, which are now being analysed by forensic scientists in Britain. The results are expected later this week.
Mr Sousa made it clear that other lines of inquiry have not been ruled out.
He said Kate and Gerry McCann and the friends who had been on holiday with them were not being treated as suspects.
And he said witnesses might be interviewed again depending on the results of the forensic tests.
Meanwhile, reports in the British press quoting Robert Murat’s lawyer as saying people in Praia da Luz wanted the McCanns to “go home” were described as “manipulated and changed.”
Francisco Pagarete said: “What I said to that journalist (from London’s Evening Standard) was that, as a resident in the area, I had heard some people complaining about the media circus surrounding the personal drama of that family”, he told The Resident on Friday.
When asked if he shared that opinion, Mr Pagarete said: “The McCann family has every right to be where they want to be.”
YouTube
Also on Friday, the campaign to find Madeleine joined the YouTube community. The new YouTube channel, Don’t you forget about me, aims to be another way to help efforts to find Madeleine but will also try to raise awareness of all the missing children around the world.
The URL for the new YouTube channel is www.youtube.com/dontyouforgetaboutme. And on Monday, the McCanns released a new video onto the channel. In it they talk about Madeleine’s abduction, how rare this sort of crime is and the work they have done to find her.
Answering comments that some people feel too much publicity might not be good, Kate says: “Obviously, everything we do has a slight risk to it, which is a horrible situation to be in when you are dealing with your daughter. But overall, we felt, rather than sit back and not do anything, this was the right way to go.”
Do you have a view on this story? Email: editor@portugalresident.com
1″>news
