Kate McCann has laid out 15th birthday presents in her daughter Madeleine’s bedroom in the hope that one day she’ll come home to open them. A pile of gifts are being kept in Maddie’s pink room, which has remained untouched since she disappeared more than 11 years ago.
It has now become a shrine to her and is full of untouched Christmas and birthday presents that have been left over the last decade. Mrs McCann, who is a former GP, is said to have carefully chosen gifts to reflect the teenager’s age. Speaking to The Sun, Maddie’s great uncle Brian Kennedy said: ‘It would be lovely to have a celebration one day. We never lose hope.’
In October 2007 the McCanns put out a sketch of the Tannerman but Mr Totman had already told the Guarda Nacional Republicana in May that it was probably him but they kept looking for the suspect.
It was only in 2011 after Scotland Yard took over the investigation that Det Chief Insp Andy Redwood, who led the probe from Britain, described a 'moment of revelation' when they became 'almost certain this sighting [Tannerman] is not the abductor.'
After this the Met went on the hunt for the so-called 'Smithman' - a man seen carrying a child away from the Ocean Club resort by Irish tourist Martin Smith.
She told The Sun: 'My husband had told the local police it could be him but we didn't hear anything for years.
'We always thought it was Julian who was seen by Jane Tanner. But the national police who investigated didn't get back to us and we don't know if our information was ever passed on.'
An explosive report from US publication The National Enquirer has today claimed to have confirmed Madeleine McCann was 'stolen by traffickers' from her family's hotel room in Portugal in 2007, an investigation has revealed.
The National Enquirer's investigation has today claimed to have 'cracked the most famous missing persons case,' and has learned Scotland Yard has identified a 'person of significance' in the 11-year-old mystery.
According to the publication, law enforcement have travelled to Bolivia to track down the suspected culprit.
Psychologist and sex trafficking expert Remi Alli told the Enquirer, 'Scotland Yard isn't giving up on this case! Why? Because they know how to recognise sex trafficking and they've noticed a pattern.'
Not too surprisingly, viewers gripped by The Cry have pondered whether the tragic story is based on any real-life events, most specifically the disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Executive producer Claire Mundell was asked about these parallels at the launch of the drama.
She explained: "There are umpteen sadly different high profile cases which have occurred over the years and there was no specific case that we were drawn upon.
"The show is an adaptation of a novel [by Helen Fitzgerald], and what interested me about the novel when I first read it was that it spoke about a very contemporary sort of crime.
The mother of Madeleine McCann has urged parents of missing children to 'never give up' as she reveals how she hopes 'tomorrow is the day' something leads her back to her daughter.
Kate McCann was speaking at a carol service on Monday in London for missing people and comes as she prepares for her twelfth Christmas without her daughter.
Maddie disappeared as a toddler from the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007.
Speaking at the carol service, The Sun reports how Ms McCann said: 'Just maybe tomorrow will be the day we find something to lead us back to Madeleine and to know what happened.
'It gives us hope. Never give up hope.'
While at the service held in St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square, Ms McCann also lit candles for those missing.
