at 12:58 on September 7, 2007, EST.
By IAIN SULLIVAN


Kate McCann, the mother of missing British girl Madeleine McCann, arrives at the police station in Portimao, to be questioned Friday. (AP Photo/Miguel Angel Morenatti)


PORTIMAO, Portugal (AP) - The mother of a missing British girl whose disappearance sparked an international search was formally named as a suspect by Portuguese police Friday. Relatives said they feared she might be charged with her daughter's death.

The girl's aunt said police had suggested four-year-old Madeleine McCann might have been killed accidentally.

Madeleine's mother, Kate McCann, was questioned for more than three hours Friday, her second day of questioning, and family friends said she had been declared a suspect under Portuguese law.

Earlier, family friend and former spokesman Clarence Mitchell told The Associated Press that police told Kate McCann and her husband, Gerry, that they would both be named as suspects.

Gerry McCann arrived for questioning at the police station in the Portuguese town of Portimao just after 3:30 p.m. local time.

Family spokeswoman Justine McGuinness said Portuguese police had alleged that Kate McCann might have been involved in her daughter's death.

"They believe they have evidence to show that in some way she is involved in the death of her daughter, which is completely ludicrous," McGuinness told British Broadcasting Corp. television.

McGuinness said the allegations related to traces of blood found in a car rented by the McCanns. She said the car was not rented until 25 days after Madeleine disappeared May 3.

Gerry McCann's sister, Philomena McCann, said police were suggesting Kate might have killed Madeleine accidentally.

"They are suggesting that Kate has in some way accidentally killed Madeleine, then kept her body, then got rid of it," she told Sky News. "I have never heard anything so utterly ludicrous in my entire life."

On the Web site www.findmadeleine.com, Gerry McCann said any suggestion "that Kate is involved in Madeleine's disappearance is ludicrous."

"We will fight this all the way, and we will not stop looking for Madeleine," he wrote.

Under Portuguese law, the legal move grants certain protections to suspects, but allows police more latitude in questioning. Police also have to show suspects whatever evidence they might have against them.

Kate McCann was questioned for 11 hours on Thursday at a police station in Portimao, a town in Portugal's Algarve region, and faced a media scrum as she returned for more questioning Friday morning.

The McCanns "continue to deny absolutely they had anything to do" with their daughter's disappearance, Mitchell said.

He said Kate McCann had found the police questioning "gruelling."

"It's very intense, but she's remaining strong and determined to prove that they had nothing to do with their daughter's disappearance and they are innocent victims of the crime," he told The Associated Press.

Family spokesman David Hughes said police had told Kate McCann they wanted to ask 22 questions, but had not said what they were.

Police summoned her after receiving new forensic evidence. Police spokesman Olegario Sousa said authorities have received some results from forensic tests of the apartment, but declined to elaborate on the findings.

The tests - on specks of blood, items of clothing and other objects in the apartment - were conducted at a British laboratory.

Mitchell said the McCanns had not been informed of the results of the tests.

Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors from central England, have spearheaded an intense media campaign since Madeleine disappeared May 3 from the holiday apartment in the Algarve where she was sleeping with her two-year-old twin siblings. The parents say they were at dinner at the time at a nearby restaurant, but checked on the children frequently.

The McCanns toured Europe with photos of Madeleine, even meeting with Pope Benedict at the Vatican. Celebrities, including Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling and soccer superstar David Beckham, made public appeals that helped the family raise more than US$2 million.

Their cause, and the couple's apparent strength in the face of adversity, hit a nerve among millions who have followed their lives as they cared for their other children and attended a local church in Praia da Luz, the seaside town where Madeleine disappeared, and where they have stayed ever since. Photographs of the bright-eyed, fair-haired girl have been posted throughout Europe and elsewhere.

The publicity has helped lead to numerous reported sightings of the girl, from as far away as northern Europe and Morocco, amid speculation she might have been taken by an international pedophile ring.

Just after Kate McCann entered the police station Thursday, another family representative read out a statement from her appealing to what she called Madeleine's abductors to "do the right thing."

"It is not too late. Please let her go or call the police," she said.

The only formal suspect until now has been Robert Murat, who lives with his mother near the hotel from which the girl disappeared. He has denied any knowledge of the disappearance.

Sousa said he was forbidden under Portuguese law from discussing the case, but that Murat's status as a suspect had not changed.


---


Chronology of key events in the disappearance at a Portuguese resort of a four-year-old British girl, Madeleine McCann.

May 3: The child is reported missing from a holiday apartment in the town of Praia da Luz in the Algarve resort region. Her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, say they left her asleep with two smaller siblings while they had dinner at a nearby restaurant.

May 6: Police say there is evidence the girl was abducted, and appeal for her return.

May 11: David Beckham and other soccer stars appeal for Madeleine's safe return. Police in Portugal scale down local searches, saying the case has become an international investigation.

May 12: Madeleine turns 4.

May 13: Harry Potter author J. K. Rowling pledges a contribution toward a US$3-million reward for the safe return of the child.

May 13: Robert Murat, a Briton who lives near the complex where the child vanished, is questioned after British journalists report him to police, saying he was poking around the crime scene and implying that he was part of the investigation.

May 18: A website set up to help find Madeleine receives some 65 million visitors in 48 hours.

May 30: The McCanns meet at the Vatican with Pope Benedict to discuss their ordeal. The pontiff pledges to pray for her safe return.

July 10: Murat is questioned by police in the company of his lawyer, and again the next day. He insists he had nothing to do with the disappearance.

Aug. 3: Authorities in Belgium said they were taking seriously a reported sighting of the child in the town of Tongeren. Police issue a drawing of a Dutch-speaking man reportedly seen with the girl and an English-speaking woman at a table outside a pub. Authorities eventually carry out DNA tests on a milkshake bottle from the pub, but no DNA from the child is found on it.

Aug. 7: Portuguese media report sniffer dogs had found traces of blood in the hotel room where Madeleine went missing. This forensic evidence is sent to Britain for testing.

Aug. 11: Police say new evidence prompts them to consider the possibility the girl is dead.

Sept. 7: A McCann family spokeswoman says traces of blood were found in a car rented by Kate and Gerry McCann 25 days after Madeleine vanished. Reports say both parents to be named as suspects in the disappearance.


©The Canadian Press, 2007

this pisses me off. They had the world looking for that child when other children were going missing.



ugh.....I wish I could whoop their asses....

Rhondab said:

A $3 million reward.

Why is she worth more money than the others?

INSATIABLE said:

She shouldn't be worth anymore, but she's an adorable white girl who caught the attention of celebs like Beckham and Rowling. If celebs want to "save" her then she must be something special If she wasn't so damn cute and white, she wouldn't have received this much attention world wide. This whole thing is a tragedy.

This is going to be interesting if mom killed her.

There was even a sticky here at one point, I recall.

PaisleyPark5083 said:

Yes, you're right.

All missing children should be given the same attention.

Empress said:

Agreed. It kills me. What it must feel like to be the parent of a missing child getting less media / police attention.

Forgive me for even thinking this, but I notice if you are an adorable looking, white kid...your odds are much better to get all the attention.

I'm baffled and then again I'm not ... children go missing at the beach or at the playground but they don't dissappear from a vacation home in a closed domain without any sign of breaking and entering ... I'm not a CSI but I think Portuguese police have done a lousy job, because they didn't dare to look in the right places. All camera's were there with positive attention for the people that so clearly were not guilty at all ...

the circus has disgusted me.

and on the topic of childrens safety, what in the hell is going on when you decide to leave your kid locked in a hot as hell car, while your ass goes shopping?!

just venting- this has happened one to many times in my hometown.

I think that in the UK, it got so much media attention initially, because the holiday aspect offered a new angle to a regular "missing child" story, as did the fact that they (allegedly) left their daughter home-alone whilst dining at a restaurant.

If it was an older child whom had just been walking home from school one evening, it wouldn't have made national headlines.

I remember reading about the story one day when it started to gather steam. In the same newspaper was a report on an eight-year old in Afghanistan whom had been promised a reward by the local Taliban militia if he pushed a wheelbarrow to a U.S. military base. He exploded along with the bomb in his wheelbarrow.

Empress said:

Man! Some people have nothing better to do by bringing the "race card" into this, that's sad. This is to do with a turn of events in the case.

Forensic evidence never lies. This is any parents worst nightmare is to be accused of killing your own flesh and blood, and yes some have actually done that.

luv4u said:

luv, i dunno if it's different in canada or the uk, but it really is an issue with missing children cases in the us. every single one given media attention that i can remember seeing is an attractive white child.

evenstar3 said:

really

horatio said:

yup. i'm only 21 though, so maybe there were older ones in the past

evenstar3 said:

only one I can think of, and I think that only made it cause there was another recent white crisis and people were wondering what you just stated in your post.


people go missing ALL the time
there are underground slave trades
sex slave market
everything foul that humans could possibly think of is happeneing
even in the good ol US

horatio said:

yup.

evenstar3 said:

No, it's exactly the same in this country.

maybe there should be a baby killing and all thing gruesome and horrible
forum, yanno

for those who get off on that kind of stuff

this should be interesting; to say the least

The father has been named as a suspect now, too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/h...983604.stm



I don't want to point the finger, but I have found it odd how the parents have managed to stay so composed. I'd be on severe medication and unable to get out of bed if one of my nephews or nieces had disappeared for this length of time. There's no way I'd be able to brush my teeth or shave - let alone arrange photo-ops with The Pope.

http://abcnews.go.com/Nig...616&page=1

Justin1972UK said:

i would not be able to even get out of bed

The whole thing is just heartbreaking..that poor little girl (where ever she is )

horatio said:

Co-sign.

This shit stunk to high hell from jump for me. Why in the fuck would any responsible parents leave their YOUNG kids alone in an apartment while THEY went to eat? Order in, bitches! Then for it to come to this, that's when it all made sense - They offed her themselves.

luv4u said:

You are right, forensic evidence never lies, but the mother has been carrying it around all the time, on Maddies Cuddle Cat, hair etc. I don't know about the blood. On one hand some newspapers believe the parents killed Maddie, but other papers believe it is all such a screw up.

If there was Maddies blood in their car, why wasn't it compounded? Why were they allowed to still drive around in it, right up until the day they left Portugal? They are also saying the forensic evidence is so small, it cannot be used as evidence.

The McCanns are now saying, show us the body and prove she is dead. And want to carry on searching for her.

I don't know what to believe, but it is a fuck up whatever.

Ocean said:

co-sign

MissMe said:

and have you noticed the difference between how Sky News cover the story compared to the BBC etc?
[Edited 9/14/07 0:57am]