Fresh hope in the hunt for Madeleine McCann

17 April 2011
Fresh hope in the hunt for Madeleine McCann
Sunday Mercury
Ben Goldby


Kate McCann has penned a book about her lost daughter Madeleine to encourage people to come forward with fresh information. The new book, simply titled Madeleine, is due to be published on May 12, which will be the Leicestershire schoolgirl’s eighth birthday.

Among heartbreaking details about life since Madeleine’s disappearance during a family holiday at Praia da Luz, Portugal in May 2007 Kate reveals that she still visits Maddie’s bedroom twice a day. Kate and her husband Gerry, both 42, are desperate to re-ignite the search for their daughter, and hope that the book will jog memories and help create new lines of inquiry in a case that has been cold for years.

Friends say the McCanns are pinning all their hopes on Kate’s story prompting someone to come forward with new information. They also hope to raise funds so that their team of private investigators can continue trying to find Madeleine four years after the little girl disappeared from their holiday apartment as they dined out with friends.

The couple have had bad luck with private investigators. American Kevin Halligen, is alleged to have conned the McCanns out of £300,000 and is currently fighting extradition to the US on other fraud claims.

Their hunt is now being led by two British ex-cops instead. Kate began writing the book five months ago at the family home in Rothley, Leicestershire, while looking after the couple’s six-year-old twins, Sean and Amelie.

Qualified doctor Kate relives the first days after Madeleine vanished in the book, and charts the media storm in the months that followed when Kate and Gerry became suspects in their daughter’s disappearance. She turned down the offer of a ghost writer because she wanted the book to be in her own words. The McCanns hope sales of the book will raise more than £1million for Madeleine’s fund.

The couple have taken successful legal action to prevent the publication in Britain of Portuguese cop Goncalo Amaral’s book about the case, The Truth Of The Lie, in which he repeats his hypothesis that the McCanns were involved.

Since Madeleine disappeared, Kate has given up her part-time position as a GP at a practice in Melton Mowbray, and has spent the last five months working day and night on the new book.