the body of what is 'allegedly' Maddie McCann found

[waichingliu81]

LISBON (AFP) - Portuguese police Wednesday said they will conduct searches in an area where the body of a four-year-old missing British girl is allegedly hidden, according to an anonymous letter sent to a Dutch newspaper.

The information "has certainly come to the team of investigators," police spokesman Olegario de Sousa told the Lusa news agency, adding that this would be followed up "like all other leads."

"If the contents of the letter are sufficient for us to identify the area, we will check it out, as is the case. We will not leave any leads," he told tha Antena 1 radio station from Portimao in southern Portugal.

The Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf said Wednesday it had received an anonymous letter giving details of where to find the body of Madeleine McCann, who vanished from the hotel room where she and her two-year-old twin siblings were sleeping in the southern resort town of Praia da Luz on May 3.

The daily said the letter was similar to one it received last year which had indicated with some accuracy the site where two missing Belgian girls' bodies were discovered at the end of June.

De Telegraaf did not publish the letter, which it handed to Amsterdam police who described it as "important," the paper said. The letter is due to be passed on to Portuguese investigators.

Meanwhile, a Norwegian woman who was holidaying in Marrakech when little "Maddie" disappeared in Portugal on Wednesday reaffirmed sighting the child with a man in Morocco.

"I am certain it was she (Madeleine) that I saw at a service station in Marrakech," Mari Ollim, 45, who lives in Fuengirola in southern Spain, said in an interview with the newspaper 24 Horas.

Ollim claims she saw the girl on May 9, six days after her disappearance, accompanied by a man in the shop of the service station -- a sighting she first reported to authorities on May 22.

She described the little girl as "very sweet, blonde, with a pale face, who looked lost. Her eyes were green... she was wearing blue pyjamas," she said.

The man with her was about 1.78 metres (five-foot eight inches) tall, thin, between 35 to 40 years old, with short brown hair and a long face, and could have been English or German, according to Ollim.

She also claimed the girl asked the man when she could see her mother again and that he murmured to her "soon."

Ollim complained that when she returned to Spain and first heard about the girl disappearing from a resort in southern Portugal, she had a hard time getting the attention of authorities in Spain and Britain, and finally was able to send a written report to Portuguese police.

Madeleine McCann disappeared from the hotel room while her parents were dining in a restaurant nearby.

Kate and Gerry McCann have waged a media campaign to keep attention on their missing daughter and were in Morocco on Monday and Tuesday.


if this is true- and as it is the press, you cannot always believe everything you read and hear-, then frankly it is most definitely the parents, who deserve to be condemned for their part in her dissapearance. how could anyone fathom what they did. ****ing morons. it angers me that even though they seeked all this press and media attention and used it to boost their reputations, it is because of the fact they left their daughter unattentive in an overseas country that all this mess had unravelled

[TripperFan]

Let's hope not, but I have a bad feeling she was killed shortly after she was taken. Such a beautiful child. I won't ever judge her parents, but I don't think I would have left my kids alone in a hotel room - especially on the ground level. I won't leave my dogs alone for very long even! (Haven't had a vacation away in 12 years because I don't trust anyone to care for them because of their medical issues, etc.).

Still praying for a miracle with this case.

[Tish]

I am so sad to hear this. These parents will live with this horror for the rest of their lives. It is not fair to judge them. We have all made mistakes. They felt comfortable with watching the door to the room a few yards away. I have always wondered why the kidnapper didn't take one of the twins. Sadly it is probably because they were a molester who was not interested in an infant. Doesn't that make you sick?? Well imagine, just imagine what these parents are going through. It is not time to condemn these parents but to pray. If they are in fact not involved in this, my heart breaks for them.

[KissMyGrits]

I agree with the original poster about the parents being partially responsible. How can they leave their little children in a hotel room alone. I don't care if it is for 10 seconds, let alone so the parents can have dinner. I have a 10 year old and have never left him alone at home, let alone when we are on vacation. Here in Florida they would have been arrested for child endangerment for that.

That being said, they don't need to be judged. They will beat themselves up enough over it every day. The guilt they will feel everyday will be more than they can probably stand.

[dawsongirl]

Originally Posted by AlabamaBound

Here in Florida they would have been arrested for child endangerment for that.

Exactly. I wonder if they'll ever face charges in that regard? I mean, c'mon...get room service if the kids are sleeping! No telling what's prowling around out there, even in wealthy resorts. Probably thought something like this would never happen in the area they were in.