POLICE searching for a missing seven-year-old boy in Spain are linking it with the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann.
Jeremy Vargas vanished from his home in Gran Canaria
just eight weeks before four-year-old
Madeleine went missing in
Praia da Luz.
Detectives hunting for the boy have told his parents they are now working
closely with cops in Portugal.
The development adds weight to
Kate and Gerry McCanns' insistence that their
daughter was abducted - and that they were not responsible.
The link between the cases was revealed as dive teams
searched
a murky
reservoir for Madeleine's body.
Jeremy's mother Ithaisa Suarez, 24, told yesterday of
the striking similarities between the two cases - and her belief that both
children may still be alive.
She said: "The specialist police team from Madrid have told me that they have been in
contact with the Portuguese police investigating Madeleine.
They are working on the theory that people involved in child trafficking are
behind these cases."
Jeremy was playing on wasteground behind his home
when he disappeared on March 10 last year.
Ithaisa insists both Jeremy and Madeleine, four, were
snatched to order and likely sold on by a ruthless gang.
She was the first mother in similar anguished circumstances to write to the
McCanns, both 39, when Madeleine disappeared last May. The two griefstricken families exchanged a series of letters.
Ithaisa wants to meet Kate and Gerry, as well as the
parents of missing
Mari Luz
Cortes from Huelva,
Spain, to
present a united front in drawing international attention to their plight.
She said: "We need to stick together and make sure people understand we
have not given up on our children being found."
Clarence Mitchell, the McCann family spokesman, said: "We are very
grateful to the Vargas family for their continued support.
"Kate and Gerry have Jeremy in their thoughts an awful lot of the
time."
Yesterday, divers continued to search a reservoir for Madeleine's body
following a tip-off from an underworld source to a lawyer.
The search at Barragem do Arade
- 40 miles from Praia da Luz - is being funded by
Marcos Correia, who claims he was told she was
murdered and thrown into a lake last May.
Correia, who would not reveal his source, said:
"I am convinced this is the place." |
