THE DISAPPEARENCE of a five-year-old girl in the Spanish city of Huelva last Sunday, January 13, has already echoed in Rothley, Leicestershire, where Gerry and Kate McCann live.
The parents of missing Madeleine McCann expressed on Wednesday, January 15, their sympathy for the family of Mari Luz Cortés and confessed that this new case “has brought many awful emotions flooding back”. They remembered “Huelva is approximately a two hour drive from Praia da Luz” and is also one of the many places where the McCanns went “in early August to publicise Madeleine’s disappearance”.
The similarity with the Madeleine McCann case has been mentioned in several newspapers and the fact that both children were away from parental surveillance at the time they went missing.
Madeleine was sleeping in her bedroom with her twin brother and sister Sean and Amelie while Mari Luz had left home late Sunday afternoon to buy a packet of crisps in a nearby kiosk just before disappearing.
Meanwhile, when the calendars mark the 260 days after Madeleine went missing, Kate and Gerry McCann are still being considered as prime suspects along with Robert Murat in the investigations being held by the Portuguese criminal police.
A decision announced at the beginning of the year by the Portimão judge handling the case has extended for a further three months the time for the investigations to be protected under the secrecy of justice. After this period, a new decision will have to be announced before the case is released for public viewing.
The week was also marked by rumours that the McCanns were considering selling the rights for a movie about Madeleine. The information spread like wild fire in the international media but was later denied by Gerry and Kate, who said the story was “simply untrue” and added that “there was a preliminary discussion between a production agency” and a representative of the couple to “discuss the possibility of a documentary about the issues we have faced since Madeleine was abducted”.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Madeleine McCann, please contact the McCann helpline on 0034 902 300 213 or the Portuguese Police on 00351 282 405 400.
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