WE’LL NEVER GIVE UP, MADDIE
14 years on, McCanns tell missing daughter: We are waiting for you..
MADELEINE McCann’s devoted parents marked her 18th birthday yesterday with a vow never to stop looking for their missing daughter. Kate and Gerry McCann still hope Madeleine will be found alive, 14 years after she disappeared on a family holiday in Portugal in 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday. In a message posted on her milestone birthday, they said: “We love you and we’re waiting for you and we’re never going to give up.”
KATE and Gerry McCann marked their daughter Madeleine’s 18th birthday yesterday by leaving cards and gifts in her room, untouched since she vanished 14 years ago.
The heartbroken couple posted a photo of her on the Find Madeleine campaign Facebook page, writing alongside it: “Happy 18th birthday Madeleine.
“We love you and we’re waiting for you and we’re never going to give up.”
Kate, 53, and Gerry, 52, had asked pals to mark the day in a low-key manner.
The Facebook post came a week after they marked the “particularly poignant” 14th anniversary of her disappearance.
Madeleine went missing from her family’s holiday apartment in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007, days before her fourth birthday.
Prosecutors want to question German paedophile Christian Brueckner over her disappearance and claim to have evidence she is dead. But Kate and Gerry of Rothley, Leics, refuse to give up hope she is alive and will one day be found.
In another Find Madeleine post last week they said they “need to know what happened to our lovely daughter”.
Scotland Yard’s hunt for her abductor continues, with four detectives on Operation Grange.
A summit between British, German and Portuguese detectives is due in Lisbon this summer.
The Mirror revealed in January police 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 who knew him. Brueckner, 44, was last year named as the prime suspect by German prosecutors . They believe he abducted and killed the toddler.
He is currently serving a seven-year term in Hanover for raping a pensioner in Praia da Luz in 2005. His lawyer Friedrich Fulscher insists the German has nothing to do with the youngster’s disappearance.
Last week the McCanns posted on Facebook: “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.
“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. It all helps and for that we are truly grateful.”
This year we should be celebrating Madeleine’s 18th birthday. Enough said
KATE AND GERRY McCANN IN A POST ABOUT MILESTONE