New Madeleine search unsuccessful
The four-year-old has been missing for three months
Monday, 06, Aug 2007 08:24
A new search for information about the missing Madeleine McCann at the home of the only official suspect in the case has been called off, according to Portuguese police.
Police had started looking for clues at the villa of Briton Robert Murat, 33, who lives just 100m from where the four-year-old went missing on May 3rd, on Sunday.
Sniffer dogs and scanning equipment were used in the operation and dense vegetation around the area was also cleared by the joint team of British and Portuguese police.
Today a Portuguese police spokesman said: "Searches have ended." He declined to reveal whether the police were closer to finding Madeleine.
Mr Murat was declared a suspect ten days after Madeleine's disappearance but investigations at the time did not reveal information about her whereabouts. His house was searched then as well, but he was not arrested.
The Briton is believed to have remained on the premises during the latest search.
He has consistently denied any knowledge of or involvement in Madeleine's disappearance.
These fresh developments come after several reported sightings of the four-year-old in Belgium in the company of an unknown couple.
There have been many reported sightings of Madeleine in countries across Europe and Africa but none have provided information that has helped find her.
This week, Madeleine's mother Kate McCann spoke to the press about the night her daughter disappeared from their holiday apartment in Portugal while she and her husband had dinner nearby.
"We are just so desperately sorry," she said. "Every hour now, I still question, 'Why did I think that was safe?'
"If I had had to think for one second, 'Should we have dinner and leave them?', I wouldn't have done it," Ms McCann added, speaking about Madeleine and her two younger siblings.
"It didn't happen like that. I didn't have to think for a second, that's how safe I felt," she said.
Gerry and Kate McCann, Madeleine's parents, have returned to the continent in the past week to publicise the three-month anniversary of their daughter's abduction and to maintain the case's profile across Europe.