The
couple and their four-year-old twins, Sean and
Amelie, spent the day privately while prayers were
said at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic church in
Rothley, Leics, which they attend regularly.
Dave Edgar, a
retired Cheshire and RUC detective, and Arthur
Cowley, who spent 30 years with police forces in the
north west of England, are reviewing 30,000 files
released by the Portuguese authorities after the
investigation was shelved last year.
They have
uncovered a statement from a family who said that
they saw a man carrying a small blonde child near
the McCanns' apartment on the night of May 3.
It corroborates
the account of Jane Tanner, one of the couple's
friends, who also said that she saw what she is now
convinced was Madeleine being carried away by her
abductor.
She gave a
description to the Portuguese police at the time but
they were initially reluctant to make it public
because of judicial secrecy laws and only did so
after the threat of legal action.
In the weeks after
Madeleine's disappearance her parents travelled as
far as Morocco in hope of information on what
happened to her.
But the detectives
now believe the answer is much closer to where she
went missing.
Mr Edgar said:
"There's someone local who has the answer to this,
and not much wider than 10, 15km (six to nine miles)
away from Praia da Luz.
"So you don't
start an investigation in Morocco or Spain or France
or even Lisbon.
"This offence
happened in Praia de Luz. It's a very self-contained
resort, and that's where we've started and that's
where I think the answer is."
A televised
reconstruction of the events of May 3 is to be
screened in a Channel 4 Cutting Edge documentary on
Thursday.
