Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
We live in hope
Maddie parents’ hell... 14 years on
We need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what KATE & GERRY MCCANN ON ANNIVERSARY OF DISAPPEARANCE
MADELEINE Mccann’s parents say they “hang on to the hope” she is still alive as they marked the 14th anniversary of her disappearance.
Kate and Gerry Mccann added it is “particularly poignant” because it comes days before they should be celebrating her 18th birthday.
The couple also said they are “truly grateful” for the support from friends and well-wishers.
Madeleine was three when she vanished from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Prosecutors want to question German paedophile Christian Brueckner, 44, over the disappearance and claim to have evidence Madeleine is dead.
But Kate and Gerry, both 53, from Rothley, Leics, refuse to give up hope that Madeleine is still alive and will one day be found. In a post on the official Find Madeleine page on Facebook, they said they “need to know what happened to our lovely daughter”.
They wrote: “Every May is tough – a reminder of years passed, of years together lost, or stolen.
“This year it is particularly poignant as we should be celebrating Madeleine’s 18th birthday. Enough said.”
They added: “The Covid pandemic has made this year even more difficult for many reasons but thankfully the investigation to find Madeleine and her abductor has continued. We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again.
“As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what. We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts. We still receive so many positive words and good wishes despite the years that have gone by.”
The couple, who got married in 1998 in Kate’s home city of Liverpool and have two other children, added: “It all helps and for that we are truly grateful.”
Scotland Yard’s hunt for Madeleine’s abductor continues, with four detectives still working on the investigation codenamed Operation Grange.
A summit between British, German and Portuguese detectives is due to take place in Lisbon this summer. The Mirror revealed in January that officers are launching a push to find the “missing piece of the jigsaw” that could snare Brueckner. German and Portuguese investigators are to carry out new interviews of key witnesses in the Algarve. Brueckner was named as the prime suspect for Madeleine’s disappearance by German prosecutors last June. They believe he abducted and killed her. The convicted paedophile is serving a seven-year term in a prison in Hanover for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz in 2005. Brueckner’s lawyer insists the offender had nothing to do with Madeleine vanishing. German police have new leads into Brueckner’s background, it was claimed yesterday. A source said the details relate to the late 1990s and early 2000s when the suspect was living in Germany and the Algarve.