Post by LadyBlue on Aug 8, 2007 7:08:42 GMT -5
The parents of missing British toddler Madeleine McCann refused to be drawn on the reported discovery of blood stains in their holiday apartment Tuesday, but insisted they believe she is still alive.
Gerry and Kate McCann, who have been searching for the four-year-old since she vanished from the resort of Praia da Luz in southern Portugal in May, added in a television interview that they were cooperating fully with police.
Asked about media reports in Britain and Portugal that blood had been found on the wall in the bedroom from where the toddler went missing, Gerry McCann said that the couple were "desperate" to find her.
"We can't comment on any specifics and forensics and we wouldn't do that, we would never, never, ever jeopardise the investigation," he told Sky News television.
"We would never put anything into the public domain that might put the investigation or Madeleine at risk."
Newspapers have reported that DNA tests are currently being carried out on the blood, discovered by a British police sniffer dog three months after the girl's disappearance, to find out if it is hers.
Unnamed police sources quoted by the Daily Telegraph said that an attempt had been made to clean the traces off the wall.
McCann added that he and his wife, both doctors, "strongly believe" that the girl was alive when she was taken from their apartment as they ate a meal with friends just metres (yards) away.
And he played down reports that police now believe she may have died there in an accident.
"I'm not naive but on numerous occasions the Portuguese police have assured us that they were looking for Madeleine alive and not Madeleine being murdered.
"I don't know of any information which changed that," he added.
McCann said it was "difficult" to have the police investigating them -- detectives are still looking at their car -- but said the couple expected "to be treated the same way" as anyone who had been around them.
"We're more than happy to cooperate with police and we have done at every opportunity from the minute we discovered Madeleine missing," he said.
uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070807/twl-portugal-britain-crime-b910669_1.html