Appendices
Appendix 3 The Daily Telegraph 12th May 2007 By Martina Smit, Neil Tweedie and Richard Edwards
'Mark Maddy's birthday with renewed search' Madeleine McCann is - would have been - four years old today. No one except her kidnappers can be sure of the correct wording. For her parents, Kate and Gerry, it is the one simple, awful uncertainty. The McCann family should have returned to their home in the Leicestershire village of Rothley last weekend after a relaxing stay on the Algarve. This afternoon, Madeleine should have been enjoying her Dr Who birthday cake with friends - she loved Dr Who. Instead of preparing for the happy event, the McCanns released a statement this morning. They are the leading players in a drama acted out by other parents only in nightmares. "Today is our daughter Madeleine's fourth birthday," they said. "We would like to mark today by asking people to redouble their efforts to help find Madeleine." The huge effort this far and the daily offers of support kept them strong and gave them hope, they added. "On Madeleine's birthday, please keep looking, please keep praying, please help bring Madeleine home." Despite an official news blackout on the investigation because of Portuguese law, there has been intense police activity in recent days. Senior detectives have been working late into the night at the area's police headquarters in the town of Portimao. Some have even been sleeping at the office. Nine people, all thought to be British, have been questioned - including the McCanns, who were re-interviewed into the early hours of yesterday morning. Three of the tourists - a man and two women - were interrogated for nearly eight hours, the Correio da Manha daily reported. Quoting unnamed criminal police sources, the paper said the British tourists at the resort held "the key to the case" and that the abduction appeared to have been organised from Britain. The Britons are likely to have been shown CCTV images that centre around a blonde woman. Residents of the nearby village Burgau said they were shown stills of two separate groups of three people - both including a blonde woman. In one case, she was with a man of about 40 with shoulder-length brown hair and an older woman - perhaps in her 60s. The second set of stills featured a blonde woman with two men, both with short hair. Police also asked about a couple who stayed in an apartment in Burgau, again including a blonde woman. Sniffer dogs have been back in action around the apartment in Praia da Luz where Madeleine was snatched. According to local reports, the dogs returned to the same nearby apartment several times, prompting police to question the couple who lives there. Meanwhile Chancellor Gordon Brown voiced sympathy for the McCanns as he spoke on the campaign trail in Gillingham, Kent. "Every parent I know will be thinking about Maddie's family," he said.
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