PAULO REBELO

PORTUGUESE detectives are trawling the phone records of hundreds of residents in Praia da Luz in a major new operation to find Madeleine McCann.

Investigators want to question everyone who made a telephone call after 9.30pm on May 3 – the night she vanished.

The probe has been ordered by Paulo Rebelo, the new police chief in charge of the investigation.

He hopes it will provide a breakthrough in the search for Madeleine, now in its eighth month.

Sources said last night that Mr Rebelo was carrying out the massive trawl to uncover evidence of a potential conspiracy.

Senior officers are still working on the theory Madeleine, four, died in an accident in her family’s Ocean Club apartment in the Algarve resort. Her parents Kate and Gerry were named as official suspects in September.

Now detectives want to establish if anyone was involved in an operation to hide her body. The new initiative could also reveal evidence of an abductor working with an accomplice or as part of a network.

In the painstaking operation teams of officers have been handed detailed lists of all calls made on mobile phones and landlines in the area that night.

They are focusing on “suspicious activity” and are quizzing residents on who they called and why.

In a bid to eliminate them from their inquiries, detectives are checking their stories against records they have obtained from Portuguese phone companies.

The region around Praia da Luz has a population of 27,000 but it is believed police have already narrowed down the calls made after 9.30pm that night to less than 1,000.

Last night one local woman told how she was questioned by two plainclothes Policia Judiciaria detectives on Tuesday afternoon.

She lives just a two-minute walk from the Ocean Club complex and yards from the resort’s church where police have carried out two searches in the hunt for Madeleine.

The woman, who asked not to be identified, said the officers quizzed her about a single call she made on her mobile phone at 9.50pm on May 3.

She told the Daily Express: “Two officers, whom I recognised because I had seen them in town earlier in the investigation, knocked on my door at 1pm.

“They were carrying a file of papers full of names and telephone numbers. The numbers related to both mobile phones and landlines.

“One of the officers asked me to confirm my mobile phone number which I did.

“They wanted to know about a call I had made on the phone at 9.50pm on the night Madeleine disappeared.

“They asked me who I had telephoned that evening but it was some time ago and I could not remember. One of the men read out a number which I did not recognise at first but I later realised was my husband’s.

“As they were leaving my son asked them why they had come here now and they said they were investigating all calls made within Praia da Luz from 9.30pm onwards on May 3.

“It was clear I could not help with their investigation but they are going round to everyone in a process of elimination. I have spoken to other people, and four of my immediate neighbours said they have also been visited.”

Mr and Mrs McCann categorically deny being involved in their daughter’s disappearance. They insist that she is still alive and are convinced Madeleine was taken by an abductor.

Last night the couple were said to be “encouraged” by the development. Their spokesman Clarence Mitchell said:

“This would appear to be a totally new line of inquiry.

“It is possible one of those phone calls made in Praia da Luz that night may hold the key to this.

“At 9.30pm we believe Madeleine would have been with her abductor in the Praia da Luz area. It is obviously possible whoever took her called someone – a possible accomplice. A record of that call will exist somewhere.

“Kate and Gerry are encouraged by this police work because it shows the investigation is now active and thorough.

“The police appear to be doing a very thorough job of tracking down people who were in the area at the time. Clearly Paulo Rebelo seems determined to leave no stone unturned.

“That is good news for them because – as they are entirely innocent – they are confident a thorough investigation can only lead to them being eliminated as suspects. Crucially they also hope it may lead to them being reunited with Madeleine.’’

Mr Mitchell added: “It is possible the police have received information that has led to them targeting calls made after 9.30pm. If they have we are not aware of it, but it is an interesting development.’’

Mr Mitchell said the McCanns’ mobile phones were seized by police the night Madeleine went missing. Officers have had seven months to investigate all their calls thoroughly.

They have also studied records of British expat Robert Murat – the only other official suspect in the case. Detectives investigated phone calls made between Murat, 34, and Russian computer expert Sergey Malinka on the night of May 3.