Missing Girl’s Parents Plan to Return to Britain

By BARRY HATTON

By Barry Hatton

The Associated Press

PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal

A British couple named as suspects in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter in Portugal are to return home today , a family spokeswoman said.

Kate and Gerry McCann, who have strenuously professed their innocence since police declared them formal suspects in their daughter Madeleine’s disappearance, are leaving “with the full knowledge of the Portuguese authorities and police,” family spokeswoman Justine McGuinness said.

Earlier, Gerry McCann’s sister Philomena said her brother and his family had planned to return home on Monday, when the lease on the villa they are renting in Portugal runs out, but they didn’t want to be seen as “running scared.”

“He doesn’t want it to look as if they are running away, because that is nonsense,” she said.

The McCanns’ Portuguese lawyer, Carlos Pinto Abreu, said after the separate interrogations ended late Friday that police had not imposed any restrictions on them, “meaning they have total freedom of movement.”

However, after reviewing their statements, authorities could decide to bring charges against them in the May 3 disappearance of their daughter Madeleine from the family’s hotel room in southern Portugal’s Algarve region.

Neither the police nor the McCanns were available for comment Saturday.

McGuinness said the couple had canceled plans to attend a local church service Saturday evening because the huge media interest could unsettle the local community.

A family friend, Clarence Mitchell, said Gerry McCann told him that he and his wife expected clarification of their legal status within 48 hours.

Mitchell said the McCanns, both doctors from central England, were considering hiring lawyers in Britain where they would also have support from family and friends.

“They are determined to prove this is a travesty … and clear their names,” Mitchell said of the police allegations about their possible involvement.

The police decision to name the parents as suspects brought a dramatic twist in the four-month-old case, which had initially focused on an apparent abductor.

Until Friday, suspicion had centered on Robert Murat, a British man who lived near the hotel from which Madeleine disappeared and who was the only formal suspect.

But police said that new forensic tests done on evidence gathered months after the girl vanished had found traces of blood in the couple’s car, McGuinness said.

The traces of blood, apparently missed in earlier forensic tests, were uncovered by dogs brought from Britain.

Residents in the village of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared and where her parents have remained for the past four months, said they were bewildered by the developments in the case.

Philomena, Gerry McCann’s sister, said Friday that police had proposed a plea bargain to the McCanns’ lawyer, suggesting Madeleine might have been killed accidentally and offering the mother a limited sentence if she confessed.

The McCanns have said they were dining with friends in a hotel restaurant when Madeleine vanished. Madeleine was in their hotel room with her twin 2-year-old siblings, and the parents said they returned frequently to check on them.

Since then, the McCanns have toured Europe with photos of Madeleine and the child’s stuffed animals and clothing, even meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.

Celebrities including children’s author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham made public appeals that helped the family raise more than $2 million.

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