- Title: FILE: British girl Madeleine McCann missing for 100 days
- Date: 11th August 2007
- Summary: (BN08) PRAIA DA LUZ, PORTUGAL (FILE-MAY 15, 2007) (REUTERS) TWO NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGES READING: "MADELEINE, BRITON HELD" AND "MADDIE: BRITISH QUIZZED" ANOTHER NEWSPAPER FRONT PAGE READING: "BRITISH MAN IS QUIZZED" NEWSPAPER SHOWING PICTURE OF MADELEINE NEXT TO PICTURE OF SUSPECT MURAT, HEADLINE READING: "MADELEINE: BRITON HELD"
- Embargoed: 26th August 2007 13:00
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- Reuters ID: LVADPFKZQN89L38FJ581DWONBRC1
- Story Text: Four-year-old Madeleine McCann from Rothley, Leicestershire, disappeared on May 3 during a holiday with her parents in the Algarve tourist region of southern Portugal.
Madeleine vanished from the Praia da Luz resort, just yards from where her parents were dining. After finding an opened window and shutter in the house, police said all evidence pointed to an abduction.
Madeleine McCann's parents marked on Saturday (August 11) the 100th day since their daughter's disappearance.
They attended a special prayer service at Praia da Luz church.
In the past week Portuguese newspapers reported allegations that Madeleine was killed in the family holiday flat and the McCanns were suspects.
The same newspapers marked Saturday with headlines and photos the 100 days of the girl's disappearance and reported that Portuguese police has found new evidence on the case.
Within the first days following Maddie's disappearance, police were said to have put together a sketch of a suspect and confirmed they believed Madeleine was still alive and being held within three miles of the crime scene.
By May 8, Portuguese police were said to have investigated 350 suspicious incidents but still had no idea where she might be. Meanwhile, two criminal behaviour experts flew in from Britain.
Volunteer teams and police with sniffer dogs have been combing the village, the resort and it's scrubland surroundings for clues. But on May 10, the Chief of the Portimao Police, Oligario Soussa, announced that the search was being wound down.
Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, continued campaigning relentlessly to draw attention to her disappearance, "We are doing absolutely everything to assist the police with their investigation and we will leave no stone unturned in the search for our daughter, Madeleine," father Gerry McCann told journalists in a televised statement three days before Madeleine's forth birthday.
British business tycoons and celebrities ranging from Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling to soccer stars started offering rewards for her return.
Scottish businessman Stephen Winyard, Virgin boss Richard Branson, J.K.
Rowling and footballer Wayne Rooney are among those to have contributed to rewards by then totalling 2.5 million pounds.
Former England soccer captain David Beckham and Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo also made televised appeals for information, but the British toddler spent her fourth birthday on May 12 still missing.
Parents Kate and Gerry McCann made a fresh appeal on her birthday police to "redouble their efforts" to help find her.
The McCanns asked people to pray and attended a service at the Praia da Luz church for their daughter on her fourth birthday. Locals and tourists gripped by the tragedy carried photographs of the blonde-haired child and set off balloons for her return.
In the days to follow, police identified Briton Robert Murat, 33, as the main suspect in the investigation and his property in Praia da Luz -a villa just up the road from where Madeleine went missing is searched twice.
Portuguese media reported that police were also investigating some friends of the McCann family who were staying at the resort when the girl went missing.
A computer technician, identified by local media as Russian Serguei Malinka, was interviewed as a witness on May 16, and police took away computers for examination.
Almost a month after Madeleine vanished, Gerry and Kate McCann spoke for the first time of their guilt over Madeleine's disappearance and decided to take their appeals to Madrid, Amsterdam and Berlin.
The couple also met Pope Benedict during a general audience at the Vatican. They appealed to holidaymakers travelling in Europe to post pictures of his daughter in public places in the hope someone might have information that could lead to her safe return.
The Algarve is popular among Germans and British. The third largest group of nationals who make up the tourists in the region are the Dutch.
There have been a number of possible sightings of Madeleine -- from Morocco to Argentina -- since she went missing. There have also been some tip-offs, but police have come up with no concrete results.
On June 29, a man and woman were held in Spain on suspicion of trying to fraudulently claim a 2.6 million pound reward; and on July 6 the Dutch National Crime Squad arrested a man on suspicion of trying to extort money from the McCanns claiming to know the girl's whereabouts.
The latest reports indicate a shift in the direction of the police's investigation.
Last Friday (August 03), Belgian authorities said they were conducting DNA tests on a bottle and straw after a possible sighting of Madeleine with a couple in the eastern town of Tongeren.
But on Tuesday (August 7), Portuguese police found traces of blood on the wall of the apartment where four-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann went missing and now fear she might have been murdered, a local newspaper reported.
Police seem increasingly convinced that Madeleine was murdered the night she disappeared three months ago and no longer think she was kidnapped, the Diario de Noticias daily cited sources close to the investigation as saying.
It was not clear whether the blood belonged to Madeleine as tests have not yet been completed and the newspaper did not say how police had come to the conclusion that the child was murdered. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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