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A handout photo, released September 16, 2007, of missing
child Madeleine McCann. |
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Kate and Gerry McCann, parents of Madeline McCann, have been
named official suspects. |
(CNN) -- A Dutch tourist says she recently spotted missing
4-year-old
Madeleine McCann at a French restaurant near Montpellier, McCann family spokesman
Clarence Mitchell said Wednesday.
The tourist said she recognized Madeleine from the many media reports
about the child's May 3 disappearance and may have even seen the
well-publicized defect in the little girl's eye, Mitchell said.
"She and a friend saw a child that they immediately took to be
Madeleine," said Mitchell. "They actually called out her name.
"A man who was with the child scooped the child up and took her out of
the cafe before the girls could take a photograph with their mobile
phones," he said.
Mitchell said there is a surveillance tape of the girl in the L'Arche restaurant and
Madeleine's parents are hoping to be
able to use it to determine if it is their missing daughter.
But The Associated
Press, quoting an unnamed police
official, is reporting that investigators have determined it was not the
missing child.
Police watched the closed-circuit video footage, and despite the child
looking like Madeleine,
it was not her, said the official, who did not want his name published
because he is not authorized to speak to media about the case.
Madeleine disappeared May 3, days before her
fourth birthday.
Her parents, who were vacationing with her in
Portugal, have said she disappeared
from their room at a resort while they dined in a nearby
restaurant.
Despite a global search and the attention of celebrities like Virgin
Chairman
Richard Branson, author J.K. Rowling and soccer star
David Beckham,
there have been no major breaks in the case.
Portuguese investigators in September named the McCanns
official suspects in their daughter's disappearance. The McCanns deny
involvement, saying they believe Madeleine may have been abducted by
pedophiles
and taken to North Africa.
A few months ago, there was a reported
sighting of Madeleine in Belgium, but
nothing came of that report.
Last year, excitement grew when a video surfaced of a Moroccan woman
carrying a child on her back who looked very similar to Madeleine.
Authorities determined that it was the woman's child. |
