Police Launch New Search for Maddy

Bloody footprint discovered outside bedroom

By Colleen Barry, Newser Staff

Posted Oct 15, 2007 3:38 AM CDT

(Newser) – Investigators are launching a fresh, extensive search for missing toddler Madeleine McCann, London newspapers are reporting. The search will focus within a 9-mile radius of the Portuguese resort where the toddler disappeared on vacation, including coastline, isolated villas, forests and a reservoir. Police have also revealed they discovered evidence of a bloody footprint, possibly Maddy's, outside the girl's bedroom at the family apartment.

Initial searches around the apartment were called off three weeks after the girl's disappearance in May. Portuguese detectives, now under orders from a new "meticulous" chief investigator, are reportedly focusing their attention on areas where Maddy's parents and their friends used their cell phones after the girl vanished. The McCanns remain suspects in the Portuguese case.

This is an undated image provided by The English Premier League soccer team Everton, of Madeleine McCann in an Everton soccer team shirt. (Associated Press)

Portuguese police senior detective Paulo Rebelo talks to journalists in Lisbon following a major drug bust. Rebelo, a senior criminal investigation coordinator at national police headquarters in Lisbon,... (Associated Press)

This March 2007 file photo released by the McCann family Friday, May 4, 2007, shows 3-year-old British girl Madeleine McCann. (Associated Press)

Kate and Gerry McCann, pictured outside their house in Rothley. England Tuesday Sept. 18, 2007. The family of missing toddler Madeleine McCann called Tuesday for an end to the rampant speculation surrounding... (Associated Press)

This May 2005 picture made available, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2007, by friends of the McCann family shows Madeleine McCann. (Associated Press)

This is an undated photo released by the McCann family of missing Madeleine McCann taken during the family's holiday at Praia Da Luz, Algarve, Portugal. (Associated Press)

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OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

cell phones • Madeleine McCann • Portugal • body • Gerry McCann • Kate McCann • search • searchers

MOST POPULAR STORIES

[ By Views ]

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Private Maddy Probe Yields Sketch of Suspect

Man watched family for days: witnesses

New Maddy Video Released

'Still missing, still missed, still looking!'

Video Appeal Renews Maddy Search

Message accompanies interviews by Kate McCann

Maddy Suspect Asked About Her 'New Daughter'

Calls flood in after request for tips about Australian woman

Portugal Cops End Maddy Investigation

Officials cite lack of evidence in case of child missing since '07

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