British investigators Monday made a new push for leads in the 2007 disappearance of 3-year-old Madeleine McCann, releasing computer-generated images of a man they want to question about the night the child vanished from her parents’ Portugal vacation villa.
The man was seen around the resort town of Praia da Luz at around the same time the girl went missing, police said, noting that they’ve been able to “place more significance” on events of that night and need the public’s help.
“The [images] are clear and I’d ask the public to look very carefully at them,” Detective Chief Inspector Andy Redwood said on the BBC TV show “Crimewatch,” which featured the new developments in an episode slated to air in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands on Monday night.
The show reconstructed the events of May 3, 2007, when Maddie disappeared from her family’s holiday villa as her parents ate dinner with another couple at a nearby restaurant.
“Today, I am asking the public for their help,” Redwood said in a statement after the images were released. “Whilst this man may or may not be the key to unlocking this investigation, tracing and speaking to him is of vital importance to us.”
“We have witnesses placing him in the resort area around the time of Madeleine’s disappearance.”
The man is described as white, with short brown hair and a medium build. He’s between the ages of 20 and 40.“We still worry about her, we miss her as much as we ever did,” the McCann’s wrote.
Redwood also noted that Scotland Yard’s continuing probe “significantly changed the timeline” of the events of that night.
“The timeline we have now established has given new significance to sightings and movements of people in and around Praia a Luz at the time of Madeleine’s disappearance,” he said.
Police said they have 41 people of interest in the case. Fifteen of them are British and the rest are European nationals.
Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann — who were originally questioned in connection with their daughter’s disappearance — were interviewed for the BBC broadcast.
“We’re not the ones who have done something wrong here,” her mother told interviewers. “It’s the person who’s gone into that apartment and taken a little girl away.”
The McCann’s have a Web site dedicated to their daughter, where they noted they are “as determined as ever to find her.”