25 December 2007
By VANESSA ALLEN
Last updated at 19:03pm on 25th December 2007
Police want to trace a tennis bag allegedly taken from Kate and Gerry McCann’s apartment on the night Madeleine went missing, it was claimed yesterday.
Detectives think the blue holdall could have been used to carry Madeleine away, or even to transport her body.
It belonged to Mr McCann but has not been seen since the night of May 3, according to the Sky News documentary.
Tony Rogers, who reviews unsolved cases for British police and worked on the Soham investigation, said: “If it’s a bag of a size that could be used to take a child away from the flat, that would be of great interest to the investigating officer.”
But Mr McCann told friends yesterday that he did not take any tennis equipment to Praia da Luz, and did not own a blue tennis bag.
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell flatly denied that Mr McCann had lost a bag during the family’s holiday.
He said: “As far as Kate and Gerry are concerned, there is no missing tennis bag. They came back from holiday with everything except of course, tragically, Madeleine.”
Madeleine disappeared in Praia da Luz on May 3
Sky News stood by its story, which it said came from sources who had travelled to the resort after Madeleine’s disappearance Police want to trace a blue tennis bag allegedly taken from Kate and Gerry McCann’s apartment on the night Madeleine went missing.
At the time of the disappearance maritime police told fishermen and boat owners to watch out for anything unusual they spotted in the sea around the coast, including any black bin liners which could have been thrown into the water containing potentially vital evidence.
Portuguese police worked for several months on the theory that Madeleine died in her parents’ holiday apartment and that her body was somehow transported to a hiding place after her death, but have been unable to find sufficient evidence to prove such a claim.
Forensic samples which they hoped would prove her body was transported in her parents’ Renault Scenic, hired 25 days after she went missing, proved inconclusive.
Her parents have always denied any involvement in her disappearance and Mr Mitchell called the theory “ridiculous”.
Pamalam
From the official Portuguese police files
Photograph: Wardrobe in McCanns bedroom showing a blue bag
Sky News: New lines in Madeleine McCann hunt (2007)
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