EXCLUSIVE
Maddie: The face of 2009
By MIKE PARKER in Los Angeles
Picture: AGEPROGRESSION.ORG
EXPERTS say this is how Madeleine McCann may
look today ? 20 months after she went
missing.
This astonishing image was created for the
Daily Star Sunday by forensic computer
age-progression expert Jovey Mae Hayes.
Using the same techniques she employs for
the FBI and American police forces in
missing persons cases and kidnappings, she
has aged Maddie's face to reveal the way she
looks now.
?Her face would be elongated, her chin would
have become more pronounced and distinctive
and her nose would be a bit bigger,? said
Jovey Mae.
We asked her to show how Maddie now looks on
the basis that she has been physically
untouched since her disappearance from the
holiday resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal
on May 3, 2007.
Working from the photo taken shortly before
she vanished ? Jovey Mae's image shows
Maddie with a hint of a smile.
Hearts
'Even in the worst possible circumstances it
would be impossible to imagine that her life
today is totally bereft of even slight
happiness,' the expert claimed.
Jovey Mae also revealed Maddie, who went
missing just days before her fourth
birthday, could be suffering from Stockholm
syndrome.
This is defined by experts as ?a
psychological response sometimes seen in an
abducted hostage in which the hostage shows
signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker,
regardless of the danger, or at least risk,
in which they have been placed?.
The syndrome's name was coined by
psychiatrist and criminologist Nils Bejerot
following a five-day bank siege in the
Swedish capital in 1983.
Police were astonished that some hostages
defended the armed robbers who had held them
captive.
Jovey Mae said: ?If Maddie has been
abducted, she may have built a degree of
trust in the person or people who are hold
her, if they have treated her well. It is
highly unlikely her life would be a total
misery ? hence the slight smile. This, at
least, may be of some comfort to her parents
and relatives.?
Appeal
The McCann family made a Christmas appeal
for information about Maddie, releasing a
video of her playing at their home in
Rothley, Leicestershire at Christmas 2006.
Parents Kate and Gerry, both 40, have been
delighted at the response, with calls from
all over the world.
The couple spent Christmas at home with
their twins Sean and Amelie, both three.
