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Authorities in Paraguay are
discounting a media report
that a private investigator
found a young English girl
who famously disappeared
from her family’s apartment
while they vacationed in
Portugal.
When Madeleine McCann, 3,
disappeared in May 2007, it
caused headlines around the
world, with her distraught
parents coming under
suspicion right after she
vanished.
As the weeks passed and no
evidence about the case
emerged, finding Madeleine
became a national obsession
in England and Portugal, and
a number of theories began
to circulate. One had it
that she was abducted and
trafficked to a childless
couple on another continent.
Last weekend, a man named
Miraz Ullah Ali Isa, who
identified himself as an
English private eye, told
the Ascunción newspaper ABC
Color, “My team and I
received information that
Madeleine arrived in
Paraguay a month or two
ago.”
He added that Madeleine was
“in the custody of a woman”
in the town of Areguá, about
17 miles from the capital
city of Asunción.
But the reports were
discounted by inspector Luis
Ignacio Arias of Interpol in
Paraguay, who told EFE on
Tuesday that his office had
no information on Isa's
identity or any clues about
the girl's supposed
whereabouts in the South
American country.
"There's nothing concrete
about that person," Arias
said, referring to Isa,
adding that he never
contacted the National
Police or the Foreign
Ministry.
The country’s vice minister
of interior security, Jalil
Rachid, told Radio
Monumental, “The information
we have is that no,” the
missing girl was not to be
found in Areguá. He added
that the would-be
investigator “obviously left
with empty hands.”
Isa declined to tell ABC
Color the name of his
investigative firm, nor was
he able to provide any
documentation showing that
he was an investigator, the
newspaper reported.
In its original article, the
paper further discredited
Isa’s story by pointing out
that “he only stayed [in the
country] a couple of days
and didn’t speak with
anyone.”
Interpol’s Arias told EFE
that Paraguay’s National
Police said it will launch
an investigation into the
supposed detective's story
and into his identity.
When she disappeared,
Madeleine was sleeping with
her twin brothers in an
apartment in the town of
Praia da Luz, in the Algarve
section of Portugal, while
her parents were dining with
friends at a nearby
restaurant. Madeleine’s
brothers were undisturbed.
The parents then initiated a
massive search to try to
find their daughter, which
has never officially ended.
Last month, her mother held
a press conference saying
that she did not believe her
daughter was ever taken out
of Algarve.
“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.”
EFE contributed to this
report. |
