Thursday, May 7, 2009

New Probe Yields Image of Madeleine McCann Suspect

Could a sketch of a man seen near the apartment where Madeleine McCann vanished two years ago provide new clues in the hunt to find the child?

At least, that is the hope of her parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, who are participating in a new film alongside a team of detectives they hired to help re-investigate the case.

So far, those investigators have discovered that some potential witnesses spotted a man, with pockmarked features, watching the holiday apartment in the resort of Praia de Luz, Portugal. It was from there that Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007, shortly before her fourth birthday.

The detectives have been combing through files from the case closed by local police last summer. A new film, Cutting Edge: Madeleine Was Here (to be shown Thursday on the U.K.'s Channel 4 at 9 p.m.), follows the probe.

Her parents recognize that Madeleine could have changed. A new image has been released of what she now might look like. But other changes are likely, too. "She could be speaking a different language, she might have her hair different, she might have different interests, but you know she's still our daughter," he mother says in the film.

Retired police detective Dave Edgar, who leads the family's search team, believes an answer lies with the local people in Portugal.

The McCanns have been stepping up their fight to keep Madeleine in the news and fuel a continuing hunt for her around this second anniversary. In a show that recently aired in the U.S., the parents told Oprah Winfrey, "We're really united in our goal and our love of Madeleine and [her younger siblings, twins] Sean and Amelie."

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