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Couple's Search Money
Running Out; They Call for British, Portugese Authorities
to Re-Examine
Case for Missing Girl
 |
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Madeleine
McCann (CBS) |
CBS)
Madeleine McCann's parents are making an impassioned plea for
authorities to re-examine their investigation exactly three-and-a-half
years after the British girl went missing on a family vacation in
Portugal.
Madeleine's disappearance set off an international search in 2007, but
when few clues emerged, the case went cold.
Now, "Early Show" co-anchor Erica Hill reports,
Madeleine's parents are reaching out again for help. They recently spoke
to British Sky TV asking for a new investigation into their little
girl's disappearance.
Gerry McCann said in that interview, "Madeleine's a British citizen.
She's innocent, she's vulnerable, and our government should be doing
more to find her."
With an online petition, the McCanns are demanding a full review of the
investigation by British and Portuguese authorities.
It was just days before
Madeleine's fourth birthday
when she disappeared
from a Portuguese
apartment building where the McCanns were staying.
Parents
Gerry and
Kate had left their three children alone while they
dined in a nearby restaurant. A search for Madeleine turned up nothing,
and Portuguese police began to suspect her parents. The case made
international headlines, and the McCanns denied any involvement.
Gerry McCann said, "We have played no part in the disappearance of our
lovely daughter Madeleine."
The couple was eventually cleared and they've carried on a private
investigation ever since. That campaign has led to reported sightings of
Madeleine from Europe to Africa, yet the trail remains cold.
Kate McCann said, "People are always saying to me 'Are you getting any
closer?' and it's a really difficult question to answer because until
you know someone says 'Madeleine is here, well, this is the person who's
taken her,' you can be really close to her, or you can be a million
miles away."
And now the couple's investigation is running out of money.
Gerry McCann said, "It's an expensive investigation and the awareness
campaigns that we've done."
Still, the McCanns say they won't stop looking until they know what
happened to their little girl.
But apparently, Hill said, the McCanns are keeping Madeleine alive for
their other children. In fact, Hill said, the couple's 5-year-old
twins
talk about their missing sister every day and Madeleine's involved in
their role-play.
But what could have happened to Madeleine?
Joseph Moura, an investigative consultant for "48 Hours Mystery," has followed the McCann case for years. He said
he thinks Madeleine has been killed.
"I don't believe she is alive and I said it from the very beginning," he
told "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "This case
is the highest publicity case of any kidnapping or missing child that
I've ever seen. And anyone who had this child was going to get rid of
the child because they just couldn't afford, you couldn't travel
throughout Europe and this child would not have been seen. So, I felt
from the very beginning, you know, possibly too much publicity on this
case was a problem."
But the search continues, despite dwindling funds. Rodriguez pointed out
the couple had around $3 million in a fund for their search. What
happened to that money?
Moura explained, "Once the initial investigation was handled by the
police department, they were fortunate enough to have some
celebrities and high-profile people invest money into a fund for the investigation
and that's exactly where the money went. They hired three teams of
investigators. They chased every lead in the world and, unfortunately,
the money is running out. But again, it's a situation where a lot of
those leads are just not leading to anything that was concrete. And now
they're desperate because they realize that the law enforcement is not
going to be able to proceed and they don't have the budget to continue
and investigation without any possible leads."
But will the police pick up the case again?
Moura said, "As everybody knows, the McCanns were the number one
suspects in this case. They've been taken off the suspect list in
Portugal, but unfortunately is that there is an unlimited sources
available to continue an investigation without any leads. And the police
in Portugal still think that the McCanns were involved in this case and
that the investigation is sort of pursued against them. So, they are
going to have a difficult team in reference to coming up with additional
resources, at least in Portugal, where law enforcement is going to look
at this case seriously in any other direction. They are not going to
follow the leads all over the world as the McCanns have done with their
own private investigator."
The investigation focused on the McCanns in its early stages. Why?
Moura said, "Well, I think originally the situation was -- was, you
know, the parents were not as truthful as they should have been in the
beginning stages of the case and at that point in time, the police got
very suspicious and started pursuing that avenue of investigation and
they just, you know, focused on that and unfortunately, at the time,
they really didn't go in any other direction. They had a couple other
suspects they looked at, but really strongly focused on the McCanns.
It's unfortunate but still in Portugal people still believe the McCanns
were involved and it's very difficult, at that point, to get the public,
at least, behind them in coming up with additional sources and to be
able to further the investigation."
The McCanns have also set up a website dedicated to the search for their
daughter, FindMadeleine.com. |
