Missing Maddie – May 2009, 2 Years On and New Image

Two years ago, on May 3rd, 2007, Madeleine McCann was abducted from the families holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal.

There has been little progress since the McCann’s were released and the charges against them dropped, and the files handed over by the Portuguese authorities had no clues to assist with the continuing investigation.

Earlier this year, the private investigators working on behalf of the McCann’s arranged to film a reconstruction of events in Praia da Luz. Gerry and Kate McCann went to Praia da Luz along with friends Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield who were also there on the night Maddie vanished without trace.

On May 7th at 9pm GMT, the reconstruction will be shown on UK TV and will include information that has not been made public as it was buried deep within the police files and given no significance. But there may be a clue in there somewhere to jog people’s memories.

The  programme will also feature interviews with Gerry McCann, Jane Tanner and Matthew Oldfield and will also be available on the Find Madeleine website. Negotiations are also underway to have the film broadcast across Europe and Portugal.

Missing Maddie in 2007

Madeleine was 3 years old when she disappeared shortly before her fourth birthday and this image is known worldwide as the picture of ‘Missing Maddie’.

Two years on and this little girl will have changed much in appearance and with the expertise of a forensic imaging artist from the United States’ National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children below is the ‘age progression’ photo created with computer technology and pictures of both parents at around the same age, but one thing will not have changed and that is the iris in her right eye.

Missing Maddie 'age progression' image

There is also a short video clip showing the ‘age progression on findmadeleine.com

There is also a new Poster of Support which can be downloaded from the Bring Madeleine Home website. Click the link or the image below.

Don't Give Up On Me - New Poster

This young child, along with many others, is still missing, there is no evidence to suggest otherwise and the search continues with sightings around the world but all have been false alarms.

Someone, somewhere, knows the truth of what happened on the fateful evening when Maddie disappeared. There has been no evidence to substantiate claims that the parents murdered their own daughter and what they did by leaving young children alone may have been morally wrong, but that does not mean that they were guilty as the press and prosecuters claimed at the time.

The prosecutors dropped the charges and the press payed out large sums in compensation for their wild accusations.

A Europe-wide alert system for missing children has received a £900,000 European Commission handout on the eve of the second anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

The Mccann’s campaigned for closer co-operation between EU States and took their case tothe European Parliament twice last year which gained support from MEPs for increased action to set up a US-style ‘Amber Alert’ early warning system.

In the US it has led to the safe return of hundreds of children when the alarm has been raised across state lines and a similar network across 27 European countries could have helped raise awareness faster about Madeleine’s apparent abduction.

The European Commission funding will be used to support work on several EU-wide projects aimed at improving joint child abduction procedures and to put into place a system in place that will transmit the pictures and details of an abducted child similar to the ‘Amber Alert’ used in the US.

European countries fail to cooperate effectively when a child goes missing and the first 72 hours are crucial.

This is still a search for a little girl who has disappeared and  the witch hunt against the parents has finished, although there are still those who maintain their guilt. Until there is proof of guilt then they are innocent, this is the way the law works and it is sad that they, along with other parents have to be put through such trauma when a child disappears.