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DETECTIVES are to quiz a drifter who looks uncannily like a
mystery suspect in Maddie McCann’s disappearance.
Joaquim Agostinho, 42, denies he is the creepy man depicted in a
sketch issued by parents Kate and Gerry McCann.
But Metodo 3, the Spanish private investigators hired by the
McCanns, are taking the possibility seriously.
The artist’s impression was based on a description by tourist
Gail Cooper of a man she saw lurking near kids in
Praia da Luz,
Portugal, before Maddie, four,
disappeared.
A source close to Metodo 3 said: “We are going to be talking to
this man as a priority, to establish if he is the one Mrs Cooper
saw.”
When shown a photo of Agostinho, Gail, 50, of Newark, Notts, gasped: “He’s the spitting
image of the man I saw three times at the resort. It’s deeply
shocking to see my drawing come to life.”
Unkempt Agostinho lives on disability benefit in Altura, 87
miles east of Praia da Luz.
He said: “People will claim the crazy guy is me — but I don’t
even know where that Praia da Luz place is.
“I’ve never been there. I can’t even drive. I accept the drawing
looks like me. But I did not kill Madeleine and the police
haven’t spoken to me.”
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Sinister ... face of the man
seen in Praia da Luz |
Cops now accept Kate and Gerry, both 39, may be innocent in
Maddie’s disappearance, it has emerged.
They have so far clung to just one theory — that Maddie was
accidentally killed and her parents disposed of her body.
Now they are taking seriously the alternative that she was
snatched from the holiday apartment last May — which Kate and
Gerry have always insisted must have happened.
But detectives are not ready to climb down and clear the couple
as official suspects yet.
A source said: “Everything points to accidental death. But the
possibility of abduction has again been taken up.”
A source close to the McCanns, of Rothley, Leics, said: “They
have been baffled by attempts to blame them.” |
