Madeleine McCann was Probably Not Taken Far, Mother Says

Kate McCann says Praia da Luz, where three-year-old disappeared in 2007, is ‘where I feel closest to her’, and she will never give up hope of finding her

Kate McCann, mother of Madeleine. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images

Press Association

Kate McCann has said she believes that her daughter’s kidnapper did not take her “a million miles” from the Algarve.

Three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared from the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal in May 2007.

Her mother, who is an ambassador for the charity Missing People, said her research had led her to believe that abducted children were not usually taken far from the scene.

She told the Sun: “That’s where she last was and I don’t think she’s been taken a million miles from there. I’ve always said Praia da Luz is the place where I feel closest to her.”

Madeleine, as she might have looked a year or two ago

McCann, 47, of Rothley, Leicestershire, said she and her husband, Gerry, would never give up hope of finding Madeleine.

“The urge to look for Madeleine absolutely hasn’t changed at all. You hear all the time about people who have been missing for years being found. There have been so many cases like that.

“We will never give up. You couldn’t settle if you thought about giving up. I want an end, an answer. Whatever that it is.”

She said child rescue alerts – a scheme of early warning messages that she helped to launch – could have mobilised people at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.

Praia da Luz, Portugal

Since 2011 the Metropolitan police has been assisting in the Portuguese investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance. The McCanns have previously praised the “meticulous and painstaking work” of detectives, and have again offered thanks to the police.

Last year the number of officers working on the case was reduced. The Home Office said in June that the investigation had cost £10m, with a further £2m budgeted for the year ahead.