LONDON: British police said yesterday that they were opening their own investigation into the 2007 disappearance of toddler Madeleine McCann in Portugal and had identified 38 people of interest across Europe.
A two-year review of the original Portuguese investigation, which is officially closed, had resulted in some new evidence, said Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood of Scotland Yard, the officer in charge of the probe.
Police also still believe that Madeleine, who was three when she disappeared, may be alive, he said. “We have identified 38 persons of interest from a number of European countries. Twelve of those people are UK nationals who we believe were in Portugal at the time Madeleine disappeared,” Redwood said. “The inquiries that we seek to undertake will be to understand more about what role if any they played in Madeleine’s disappearance.”
Neither Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate, nor the friends who were having dinner with the McCanns when she disappeared, were among the suspects, he said.
The McCanns said it was a “huge step forward” in their ongoing search for their daughter. The couple launched a global campaign to find Madeleine after she vanished from the family’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz on Portugal’s south coast in May 2007.
Scotland Yard said they believed she was still alive. “There is no clear definitive proof that Madeleine McCann is dead and so on that basis I still genuinely believe that there is a possibility that she is alive, and so I would ask the public to continue to look for her,” Redwood said. Since the ongoing review was launched in 2011, British police have gathered more than 30,000 documents, visited Portugal 16 times, carried out new witness interviews and generated new theories. AFP
