Parents of missing UK girl still hopeful

LONDON - The parents of Madeleine McCann, the 3-year-old British girl who vanished during a family vacation to Portugal in 2007, say they are still hopeful they will one day be reunited with their daughter as they mark the 10th anniversary of her disappearance.

In an interview with the British media released on Sunday, the McCanns said they felt encouraged by the "real progress" that British police have made in the case in the past five years.

Scotland Yard said last week that, a decade later, detectives are still pursuing "critical" leads to trace Madeleine, who disappeared from a vacation home in Portugal's Algarve region on the night of May 3, 2007. Her parents had gone out to a tapas bar nearby after putting her and her twin siblings to bed.

Despite an investigation costing more than 11 million pounds ($14 million) so far, police said there was no "definitive evidence" on whether Madeleine who would be almost 14 now is alive or dead. The girl was abducted from the apartment, they said, but how and why it happened is still largely a mystery.

One theory that police say hasn't been ruled out is a "burglary gone wrong".

Gerry McCann, 48, acknowledged it was "devastating" not to have found her, but added: "No parent is going to give up on their child, unless they know for certain their child is dead. And we just don't have any evidence."

His wife, Kate, agreed.

"My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago," she said. "I never thought we'd still be in this situation, so far along the line. It's a huge amount of time."

Associated Press

(China Daily 05/01/2017 page4)