Kate McCann's tears over Madeleine on Oprah show
by Nick Webster. Published Fri 01 May 2009 15:21, Last updated: 2009-05-02
Liverpool-born Kate, 41, and husband Gerry, 40, will appear on the US chat queen’s show, which will be broadcast next week.
May 3rd marks the second anniversary of the day Maddie vanished on holiday in Priai da Luz, Portugal, just before her fourth birthday.
Computer-enhanced images of Maddie aged five in a blue dress flashed were flashed onto a giant screen as the show was recorded in front of a studio audience in Chicago.
The pictures were created by experts at Virginia’s National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Audience member Chris Myers, 43, who watched the live show last week said: “Kate told Oprah she felt Madeleine was still alive.
“Oprah and Kate were very emotional. Kate broke down on two occasions."
The show comes amidst new claims that Maddie was probably abducted as she went looking for her parents.
Criminologist Mark Williams-Thomas said it was unlikely that an abductor entered Maddie’s holiday flat in Praia da Luz.
Mr Williams-Thomas said Maddie may have been seized by an opportunistic paedophile as she ventured out in search of her parents, who were dining at a nearby tapas bar.
He believes Maddie arranged her toys on her bed and left apartment 5a at the Ocean Club through an unlocked patio door. And he believes an abductor would not have arranged the toys as they would have wanted to escape quickly.
Others believe Maddie could have arranged her toys before an abductor entered the room and took her.
However, ex-detective Mr Williams-Thomas, who has studied 10,000 Portuguese police files, says that a paedophile entering the flat may have chosen to take one of Maddie’s younger and more defenceless twins Sean and Amelie who were asleep.
He said: “Based on case file evidence it is more likely she was abducted after she had left the apartment.”
The McCanns have launched a hotline and web interface for information and have started a new poster campaign in Portugal.
They are also selling new "Don't Give Up on Madeleine" T-shirts at £6 each in order to raise funds to finance the search for her.
From Kate McCanns statement May 4th 2007.
She noticed that the door to her children's bedroom was completely open, the window was also open, the shutters raised and the curtains open, while she was certain of having closed them all as she always did. Faced with this situation,she verified that the twins were in their respective beds, unlike Madeleine, who had disappeared. The cover was pulled back and the toys were on the pillow as usual.
