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TechnoratiThe Portuguese police have named a new suspect in the case of a missing 4-year-old British girl that has attracted the attention of media internationally.
(Photo: AP Images / Miguel Angel Morenatti)Kate McCann, the mother of missing British girl Madeleine McCann gets into a car after leaving the police station in Portimao, southern Portugal, after being questioned, Friday, Sept. 7, 2007. Kate McCann was questioned for almost 11 hours Thursday and she was formally named as a suspect in her daughter's disappearance by Portuguese police Friday as relatives said they feared she would be charged over her daughter's death.
A police spokesman, Olegario Sousa, confirmed to The Associated Press that police had named a new suspect, but would not say who it was.
Kate McCann, the mother of missing Madeleine McCann, however, has reportedly told friends and relatives that she had been named a formal suspect. Furthermore, McCann said she was offered a deal if she was confessed and that Madeleine’s father, Gerry McCann was told he would likely also be named a suspect.
The surprising twists to the more-than-four-month-long case come after traces of blood were found in the McCanns’ rental car.
Madeleine’s aunt said police suggested the missing girl might have been killed accidentally rather than kidnapped, as has been believed since Madeleine disappeared from her family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, a resort town in the southern Algarve region of Portugal, while her parents were dining at a nearby restaurant.
"They tried to get her to confess to having accidentally killed Madeleine by offering her a deal through her lawyer — 'If you say you killed Madeleine by accident and then hid her and disposed of the body, then we can guarantee you a two-year jail sentence or even less,'" Gerry McCann's sister, Philomena, told ITV news.
Both Kate and Gerry McCann on Friday strenuously professed their innocence, however, and called the allegations against Mrs. McCann “ludicrous.”
"We will fight this all the way, and we will not stop looking for Madeleine," Mr. McCann wrote on the couple's Web site on Friday.
On Thursday, Mrs. McCann was questioned for 11 hours, and later on Friday for more than four hours.
Mr. McCann followed his wife on Friday into the police station in the southern Portuguese town of Portimao for a separate round of questioning.
Clarence Mitchell, a family friend and former spokesman for the McCanns, said Friday after speaking with Mrs. McCann that she found the police questioning "grueling."
"It's very intense, but she's remaining strong and determined to prove that they had nothing to do with their daughter's disappearance and they are innocent victims of the crime," he told AP.
Another family friend, John Corner, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the listing of Mrs. McCann as a suspect gave him "an uncomfortable feeling that the police are not looking outward" for Madeleine's abductor.
Since their daughter’s disappearance, the McCanns have launched an international campaign to find her, enlisting the aid of celebrities such as soccer star David Beckham and J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter fantasy books. They have also traveled to various countries where they have met press and distributed posters of Madeleine with the hope that someone may have spotted her.
The McCanns, who are both Roman Catholics, even met with Pope Benedict XVI, who put his hand on their arms during an emotional meeting and blessed them.
During the monthslong ordeal, Mrs. McCann has acknowledged that there were ”darker moments” which caused her to question God. She added, however, that those moments were short-lived.
"It's usually in those darker moments when that fear and panic sets in again and you find yourself saying why, why, why do this to Madeleine, why have you let this happen?" Mrs. McCann said last month on the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Heaven and Earth show.
However, she said she realizes shortly after that “God hasn't done this, somebody else has."
Mr. McCann added that "if the worst possible scenario happens," then he was at least comforted by the belief Madeleine was "in a better place."
Last month, police said that the investigation into the British girl’s abduction was reaching a very critical stage and wanted the McCanns to remain close by. They specifically told the couple not to leave Portugal after it was revealed that the McCanns were planning to return to England due to financial pressure and concern for their two-year-old twins.
Although the police were quick to emphasize that their request for the couple to stay had absolutely no implications that they were suspects, the latest developments may suggest otherwise.
The police also said last month that it was “active now in assuming that Madeleine is dead” and assured that the investigation would be over soon.
Until now, the only formal suspect has been Robert Murat, who lives with his mother near the hotel from which the girl disappeared. He has always maintained his innocence. Sousa said Murat's status as a suspect had not changed.
