Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Cops find ‘US Maddie’ body in the desert
But author stops bid to gag him
REMAINS of the girl who became known as “America’s Maddie” have been found in a desert – five years after she vanished.
Isabel Celis, six, was last seen when she was put to bed at night in Tucson, Arizona. Her family reported her missing the next morning.
A window may have been forced open and neighbours heard voices.
Last night cops confirmed that remains found in a remote area matched Isabel’s DNA.
Tuscon police chief Chris Magnus said: “This is not the ending that any of us hoped for but it is also not the ending of the case.”
A statement from Isabel’s family said: “We thank the community for refusing to give up hope.”
MADELEINE McCann’s parents have been told the policeman who made vile claims about her disappearance has shelved plans for a second book.
Goncalo Amaral, who led the hunt in the Algarve when Maddie vanished aged three a decade ago, was said to have been planning a new book on the case.
The Portuguese ex-detective’s 2008 book – The Truth of the Lie – claimed the McCanns faked an abduction. It was never released in the UK and sparked a legal battle between the former officer and Madeleine’s parents Kate and Gerry.
Amaral, 57, was planning a controversial follow-up but the Sunday Mirror can reveal the project has been axed. His publisher and friend Manuel Fonseca – head of Guerra e Paz Editores, the firm which published Amaral’s first book – told us: “There is no book. It doesn’t exist, even as a draft. It may be he’d like to work on a book some time, but for the moment it doesn’t exist.”
A McCann source said: “It will be a huge relief for Kate and Gerry.”
Sources said the proposed book was to focus on Operation Grange, the £10million Met Police probe into Madeleine’s disappearance. Amaral’s first book was published in 2008, three days after Portuguese authorities closed their inquiry and cleared Kate and Gerry of any wrongdoing.
The pair said Amaral’s book sparked a “mass-ive tidal wave of lies” against them and last week they lost a third and final appeal to silence him at Portugal’s Supreme Court. They could now face a six-figure legal bill.
Kate and Gerry, both 48, of Rothley, Leics, had sued Amaral over his book and he was ordered to pay them £360,000 in damages in 2015.
Madeleine vanished from a Praia da Luz holiday flat on May 3, 2007.
This week a senior detective who carried out a three-year private probe revealed he believes an abductor will have confessed to a pal or relative. Retired Detective Inspector Dave Edgar said: “If anyone confided in you, now is the time to come forward.”He believes that Madeleine may still be alive.