Madeleine McCann parents still have hope, 10 years on
Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary since Madeleine went missing from her parents’ holiday apartment in southern Portugal
LONDON: The parents of the missing British child Madeleine McCann have vowed to do “whatever it takes” to find their daughter as they prepare to mark the 10th anniversary of her disappearance.
“It might not be as quick as we want, but there’s real progress being made and I think we need to take heart from that, and we just have to go with the process and follow it through — whatever it takes, for as long as it takes,” mother Kate McCann told the BBC in an interview aired on Sunday.
Wednesday marks the 10th anniversary since Madeleine, then aged three, went missing from her parents’ holiday apartment in Praia da Luz resort in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. Despite a wide range of suspects and theories about what happened, no one has ever been convicted over her disappearance. “My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago,” said her mother.
British police launched a fresh operation to find the child in 2011, but scaled it back in 2015. Scotland Yard said last week they were still pursuing a “critical” lines of inquiry.
“Since the Metropolitan Police actually started their investigation, it has taken a huge pressure off us, individually and as a family,” said father Gerry McCann. “After the initial Portuguese investigation closed, essentially, no-one, no-one else was actually doing anything proactively to try and find Madeleine.”
The couple promised to continue their legal battle against former detective Goncalo Amaral, who alleged that Madeleine had died accidently and the parents had concealed the body.
Kate McCann, 49, posted a Facebook message this week saying the couple and their two children were “bracing ourselves for the next couple of weeks. “Most days are similar to the rest — another day. May 3rd 2017 — another day. But ten years — a horrible marker of time, stolen time,” she wrote.
— AFP