Suspect Euclides Monteiro Innocent, Claims Widow

Police warned staff at the Ocean Club Praia da Luz, where Maddie was snatched: "you can't trust this man"



A key suspect in the abduction of Madeleine McCann was fired from the holiday complex where she vanished after police warned staff: “You can’t trust this man.” Junkie and ex-jailbird Euclides Monteiro was sacked by the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz, Portugal, the year before the blonde three-year-old ­disappeared on May 3, 2007.

Yesterday, as the first picture of the 6ft 2in ex-waiter emerged, detectives were investigating the possibility that he kidnapped Madeleine after being disturbed as he broke into her ­family’s ­apartment. Menteiro, known as Toni, died aged 40 in a tractor accident four years ago. But phone records have placed him near the flats at the time she vanished. It is believed he may have been raiding guests’ rooms to feed his heroin habit. His picture looks nothing like two e-fit images issued by Scotland Yard – but police stress they are still exploring every line of inquiry.


Kate McCann has spoken about the nightmare her and her husband have gone through

The former GP said the abduction had plunged her family into a “nightmarish limbo” they would never escape until she is found. Kate was launching a BBC Radio 4 appeal on behalf of charity Missing People, which helps families whose loved ones have vanished.

She said the organisation had been a “vital lifeline” for her since then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from the family’s Portuguese holiday apartment on May 3, 2007. Kate told listeners: “I cannot describe the impact that awful night had on our family or put into words how it feels to miss your child. “When your child is missing you enter a new world of emotions which nothing can prepare you for.


Madeleine McCann went missing in May 2007 [PA]

Luisa Rodrigues was grilled by Portuguese officers as mobile phone records pinpointed Euclides Lopes Monteiro at the scene on the night she was snatched



The widow of the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has told how she was stunned when police arrived to quiz her – four years after his death. Luisa Rodrigues was grilled by Portuguese officers as mobile phone records pinpointed Euclides Lopes Monteiro at the scene on the night three-year-old Madeleine was snatched. The 40-year-old ex-jailbird and heroin junkie remains a key part of the inquiry, even though he died in a tractor accident in 2009 – two years after the abduction.


Speaking for the first time about her interrogation, Luisa, 40, admitted she was shocked when police contacted her at her home in Lagos, just a 15-minute drive from Praia da Luz.

She said: “Two officers phoned me out of the blue and said they were in town and wanted to see me. They wouldn’t tell me what it was over the phone but when I reached the cafe where we’d arranged to meet, they told me they were investigating Euclides over Madeleine McCann. They said they suspected him because he used to work at the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns were staying and because they had tracked the signal from his mobile phone to the area where Madeleine disappeared the night she vanished. I was speechless. I kept repeating Euclides was innocent but they said it was not for me to say.”



She added: “They asked me many questions, including where we had lived as a couple, where Euclides had worked over the years, what he was like as a person and if he had problems with drink and drugs. They also asked where he was the night Madeleine disappeared and if I had noticed any changes in him afterwards. It’s a long time ago, but I’m sure he would have been at home watching TV. That’s what he always did after work. They questioned me for about an hour. The next day I took them the work contracts I found for Euclides at home and details of our joint bank account which they also asked for. They never explained why they had come to ­question me more than six years after Madeleine disappeared.”

Luisa admitted that 6ft 2in Euclides had a problem with heroin and cocaine which he battled on and off his whole life. She said: “When he was younger he broke into houses and served five years in prison. So I can understand why he’s become a suspect, even if I don’t believe he could have had anything to do with it.” She insisted: “I know Euclides didn’t take Madeleine. He came out of prison a changed man. He had made an honest life for himself and was a good and caring father and companion. If I thought he had anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance I would have been the first to turn him in. I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself for keeping something like that secret. I know he is innocent.”