One hundred new questions for McCanns and friends
Detectives investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann have 100 new questions to put to her parents and their circle of friends, it was reported today.
But reports in the Portuguese press say they have been prevented from re-interviewing Kate and Gerry McCann without better evidence to back up claims that they were involved in their daughter’s disappearance.
The Portuguese newspaper '24 Horas' claimed that Jose Cunha de Magalhaes e Meneses, the public prosecutor in charge of the case, said he will not authorise further interrogations without stronger evidence.
A source quoted by the newspaper said: “The new analysis of the evidence, carried out by the team which took charge of the case, has confirmed all the suspicions that exist but nothing more.
“There is no new data. New operations were carried out, other people who had not been interviewed at the time were interrogated. But nothing new came of it.
“If a body does not turn up or unless somebody comes forward with a credible lead we continue increasingly without any chance of closing the case.”
Senior officers are reported to privately believe they will struggle to build a better case against Mr and Mrs McCann.
Madeleine disappeared from the McCann’s holiday villa in Praia Da Luz on May 3.
Clarence Mitchell, the McCanns’ official spokesman, told reporters the couple hoped to be cleared as soon as possible so that police can concentrate on searching for their daughter.
Mr and Mrs McCann, both 39, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were named arguidos, or formal suspects, in the case in September after separate DNA tests on forensic traces in the apartment where they had been staying in Portugal and a hire car.
They deny any involvement.
