Madeleine McCann's parents vow not to return to Portugal unless new search finds daughter's DNA May 28, 2014 19:31
By Tom Pettifor
Kate and Gerry McCann have “no intention” of being in Portugal’s Praia da Luz while forensic archaeologists and sniffer dogs scour the area The parents of Madeleine McCann will not return to the resort where they last saw their daughter next week when British police will start digging for clues.
The significant new ground searches could begin as early as Monday, according to Portuguese sources.
But Kate and Gerry McCann have “no intention” of being in Portugal’s Praia da Luz while the grim task is being undertaken, a close pal revealed yesterday.
A UK crack team – believed to include a forensic archaeologist, sniffer dogs and ground penetrating radar - will scour an area yards from the family’s flat in Praia da Luz.
Scotland Yard are focussing on two more sites close by as they prepare for an operation lasting between four and six days.
Portuguese officers will supervise the work and retain overall management of the search.
But Kate and Gerry McCann have decided to stay away, a close pal has revealed.
The friend said: “They welcome the new phase of the investigation and hope it may lead them a step closer to finding out what happened to their daughter. They will be kept informed by Scotland Yard of any developments but they have no intention of going there. It is the last place they would want to be while digging takes place.
“It will be a hugely emotional time for Madeleine’s parents but it is a scenario they know needs to happen. They will only go to Portugal, God forbid, if any remains matching her DNA were found.”
Former GP Kate and heart doctor Gerry, both 45, believe Maddie – who vanished seven years ago and would now be aged 11 – could still be alive. Gerry recently told supporters in his home village of Rothley, Leics, that they had been buoyed up by the Met Police investigation.
During a prayer gathering for his daughter he said: “They are going back out to Portugal very soon. They are chipping away and there is new evidence. We are going to continue hoping we get a happy outcome – and one day we will know what’s happening.”
Kate added: “We are still battling, still hoping, still searching for Madeleine.”
It comes less than a week after Scotland Yard chiefs said the search for Madeleine would enter a “substantial” new phase in the coming weeks.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley confirmed: “There is going to be a substantial phase of operational activity involving Portuguese police with British police in support.
“In a major investigation with multiple lines of inquiry and hypotheses, you have to systematically work through them all.
“This is a phase of activity based on those principles.”
Search warrants permitting work to take place on the privately-owned land had already been issued, it has been reported.
One plot is thought to be fenced-off waste land a two minute walk from Madeleine’s apartment which police hired a Portuguese air force helicopter to fly over earlier this month so they could take pictures. Diggers and other equipment are expected to be hired locally by the Met.
Scotland Yard have sent formal requests to search two other plots of land - making a total of five - but the letters have not yet reached police in the Algarve capital Faro.
The “substantial” work Met Police have referred to is also expected to include interviews with new suspects identified by Operation Grange officers heading a British probe into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Several are understood to be ex-Ocean Club employees. The Yard has not ruled out the possibility Madeleine is still alive, but has prompted speculation with its dig requests that they now believe the youngster was kidnapped and her body dumped near her holiday resort.
They are linking 18 incidents when a male intruder broke into British families’ holiday villas between 2004 and 2010 and sexually assaulted nine girls with three near-misses.
One of the victims, a ten-year-old girl, was assaulted in Praia da Luz two years before Madeleine vanished from the resort.
Portuguese police heading a separate investigation into Madeleiene’s disappearance have not ruled out the involvement of a former Ocean Club worker who died in a tractor accident in 2009.
Euclides Monteiro’s widow Luisa Rodrigues has insisted her recovering drug addict partner, a convicted burglar, had nothing to do with Madeleene’s disappearance and was cleared of any involvement in the sex attacks after police questioning the year before he died.
Praia da Luz parish council leader Victor Mata has attacked the police excavations plans.
Claiming locals were “fed up with the Maddie case” and most “didn’t care anymore”, he told a Portuguese paper soon after the first reports of the dig plans emerged: “It’s bad for tourism. It’s beggars belief they’re preparing to open up holes here a month before summer.”
The McCann’s spokesman Clarence Mitchell yesterday refused to comment on the forthcoming police activity, saying: “I cannot and will not discuss Operation Grange.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccanns-parents-vow-not-3618722
