Silke Jasso
Madeleine McCann’s parents still hope for the safe return of their daughter.
Videos by Rare
Kate and Gerry McCann are speaking out about the nearly decade-long missing person case after it was revealed authorities are investigating a “significant line of inquiry” in the case.
The then-3-year-old went missing on May 3, 2007, after she vanished from the family’s ground-level apartment while on vacation in Portugal.
“There is progress, and there are some very credible lines of inquiry that the police are working on, and whilst there’s no evidence to give us any negative news, you know, that hope is still there,” Kate McCann said in a new interview.
According to PEOPLE, the London Metropolitan Police confirmed in a statement that they have a team of four detectives working on “outstanding inquiries” in Madeleine’s disappearance with help of the Portugal police.
“We’ve got some critical lines of inquiry, those link to particular hypotheses, but I’m not going to discuss those because those are very much live investigation,” Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said.
RELATED: Tad Cummins’ daughter defended him as a father on TV, but mom just isn’t having it
The McCanns left their children, including then 2-year-old twin siblings, in the unlocked vacation home as they dined in a restaurant just 130 feet away.
“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,” Gerry McCann said. He and his wife have since been cleared as suspects.
“My hope for Madeleine being out there is no less than it was almost 10 years ago. I mean, apart from those first 48 hours, nothing has actually changed since then.” Kate McCann added.
Since their daughter’s disappearance, the McCanns have tried to return to a normal life as much as possible.
“I think before Madeleine was taken, we felt we had managed to achieve our little perfect nuclear family of five,” Gerry said, adding, “At some point you’ve got to realize that time is not frozen, and I think both of us realize that we owed it to the twins to make sure that their life is as fulfilling as they deserve, and we have certainly tried our best to achieve that.”
The family revealed that every year on her birthday and on Christmas, they buy a gift for Madeleine.
“I think, that there is still hope really, there isn’t a new appeal, most of the media that we’ve done in the previous years is usually around that, so this is unusual,” said Gerry. “So, we are marking the anniversary. I think it’s been good for the general public to hear police say there’s no evidence that she’s dead, and that there is still an active investigation, and there is still hope. So certainly from my point of view, somebody knows what’s happened.”
