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Kate and Gerry McCann hope three new investigators will
solve their daughter’s disappearance |
A CRACK
team of British ex- police officers who have joined the search for
Madeleine McCann are giving her parents
fresh hope.
Kate and Gerry McCann
are
convinced three new investigators will help solve their daughter’s
disappearance and she told a friend yesterday: “A new team, new ideas
and new hope!”
The three, paid by the Find Maddie Fund, are now in the
Portuguese capital Lisbon.
Kate
has made a return trip to the resort where her daughter, now seven years
old, was snatched nearly three-and-a-half years ago.
She
visited friends in
Praia
da Luz and went alone to the Catholic Church and wept as she
prayed.
A
family source said: “Kate has been given fresh hope by her visit to
‘Luz’ and by the fact three new highly regarded investigators are
injecting new impetus into the search for Madeleine. She didn’t meet the
investigators but stayed with the local Anglican priest
Father Haynes
Hubbard and his wife Susan, who have become very close
friends.
“Kate went out alone to have a break and, of course, to pray for
Madeleine.”
Family doctor Kate, 42, spent last weekend in Luz while relatives looked
after her twins
Sean and Amelia, five.
She
is believed to have taken a look at the Mark Warner
flat
from
where Madeleine vanished in May 2007. Infamous Apartment 5a remains
empty with its windows boarded up and gates padlocked.
Chief investigator
David Edgar has boosted his team with
three former policemen:
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Nigel Brown |
Nigel Brown, who was named Investigator Of The Year after securing the
rescue of a kidnapped oil company executive, Dave Carter, who worked in
Northern Ireland, and Ray Cooper, who investigated war crimes in Bosnia.
The
McCann source said: “They are in Portugal on a semi- permanent basis.
“When new leads come in they are there to chase them up. They are an
ideal addition to the team and, in Gerry’s words, have vowed to leave no
stone unturned.
“Kate is upbeat because she is convinced they will have new ideas and
methods of working, which gives her new hope.”
Last
week, the McCanns were said to be “very upset and annoyed” that
Jim Gamble,
chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre,
has quit over a merger with the proposed national crime agency.
Kate
and Gerry said: “He will be a huge loss to child protection…it is
extremely saddening.” |