Madeleine McCann: ‘Glimmer of hope’ for parents as Portuguese police launch new search

Although police are searching for the body of Maddie McCann in an abandoned well, her parents say there’s one thing giving them “hope”.

Madeleine McCann’s parents are “on tenterhooks” as Portuguese police launch a fresh search for their daughter, insiders say.

Kate and Gerry McCann are refusing to believe Madeleine is dead until her body is found, The Sun reported.

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Madeleine McCann’s parents claim there’s one thing that’s giving them a “glimmer of hope.”

The parents are being “kept informed every step of the way” by British police who are not directly involved in the latest hunt, the family’s ex publicist Clarence Mitchell said.

Detectives scoured three rural wells on the Algarve late last week after obtaining “fundamental evidence” that the youngster is dead.

“Kate and Gerry are being kept informed of what they need to know but police have not been given them all the full details,” an insider source said. “They remain on tenterhooks during this time and it causes them more anguish.

“They still have absolutely no idea if their daughter is dead or alive and what police believe happened to her.

“It is a period of prolonged agony with contradictory statements from German authorities and an alleged spat between all three forces involved.”

Madeleine McCann’s disappearance is one of the biggest mysteries of the century.

Convicted German sex fiend Christian B, 43, remains the prime suspect in Maddie’s disappearance during a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007.

“Kate and Gerry want answers more than anyone,” Mr Mitchell said, “but while the Metropolitan Police are still treating Madeleine’s abduction as a missing people’s rather than a murder inquiry it gives them a glimmer of hope that she could still be alive.

“They continue to hope until there is incontrovertible evidence which proves she is dead. They are being kept informed every step of the way.”

New searches were conducted in a network of water wells in Vila do Bispo, a 15-minute drive west of Luz.

A team of specialist rescue firefighters, including expert divers, joined officers to examine the huge underground holes.

One of the disused wells that authorities were searching. Picture: Doug Seeburg/The Sun

A man who lives adjacent to the search site saw police investigating the wells.

Mario Lucas, 60, told The Sunday Mirror: “At one point there were five or six cars, mostly the Portuguese rural GNR police, with up to nine or 10 people.

“They searched one well then started looking at another – using cables or ropes to lower themselves in.

“The water is about 10 or 15 metres deep. These wells have always been abandoned and filthy. There are lots of wells in this area.”

Respected Portuguese state broadcaster RTP is saying officers, working with their German counterparts, discovered “fundamental evidence” to be able to prove suspect Christian B is responsible for Maddie’s kidnap and murder.

It has also linked Christian B to another missing persons‘ case in the Algarve resort of Silves.

In 2014, British and Portuguese cops conducted a fingertip search of an area of scrubland close to where Madeleine vanished.

Sky News is also reporting that the drifter and prolific criminal twice slipped through the net of Portuguese investigators, according to court documents and witness testimony.

Maddie’s parents have always believed their daughter was stolen by a lone paedophile or a child sex trafficking gang.

A family source said today: “Kate and Gerry will be the first to know if there is any significant development.

“The Met police are now working with Portuguese and German officers on this case but have not been involved in any direct activity in Portugal.

“Wells in the area have been searched in the past and they were expecting new searches to be made in light of recent news from German police.

“They are rather surprised that the waterways hadn’t been searched sooner. But this is a matter for Portuguese officers who are liaising with German authorities and Scotland Yard.”

The inside source added: “Kate and Gerry have still absolutely no idea what evidence police have to suggest Madeleine is dead.

“They are not being told. We feel desperately sorry for them as they’ve endured so much pain and angst for more than 13 years.”

So far, the search for Maddie McCann has cost £12 million (AUD$21 million) of taxpayer funds

Former GP turned medical worker Kate and eminent heart doctor Gerry, both 52, remain “incredibly grateful” to Scotland Yard for its continuing work on £12 million (AUD$21 million) taxpayer-funded Operation Grange over the past nine years.

Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment just nine days before her fourth birthday.

She had been left sleeping alone with her younger twin siblings while her parents were dining with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant. If alive, she would now be aged 17.

The family have recently been buoyed up by news of a Chinese boy being found alive 32 years after being abducted.

The friend said: “This is the news they are dreaming of receiving themselves one day.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.