"The parents’ involvement: that was dealt with at the time by the original investigation by the Portuguese.
“We’re happy that’s completely dealt with and there is no reason whatsoever to reopen that or start rumours that’s a line of investigation."
“The McCanns are the parents of a missing girl and we’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened.”
“We have a significant inquiry which could give an answer.”
“Ourselves and the Portuguese are doing a critical piece of work and we don’t want to spoil it by putting titbits of information out."
“We’ve got some thoughts on what we think the most likely explanations might be and we are pursuing those.”
“I know we have a significant line of inquiry which is worth pursuing."
“Because it’s worth pursuing it could provide an answer, but until we’ve gone through it I won’t know whether we are going to get there or not. He said the team were examining a “particular hypotheses” but refused to reveal what it was so as not to compromise a “live investigation”.
The officer added that
however Madeleine left the flat, she was abducted.“She wasn’t old enough to make a decision to set off and start her own life,”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/top-british-cop-says-madeleine-10295917