Computer enhanced images of Madeleine McCann showing how the young, missing British girl might look today were released by British police Tuesday. The child disappeared while on vacation with her parents in Portugal in May 2007.
British police released a new video depicting how Madeleine McCann would look today at the age of six. Called Maddie by her family, the young Brit went missing in May 2007 while on vacation on the Algarve coast in southern Portugal. Madeleine was just days shy of her fourth birthday when she disappeared from the resort where her parents were staying.
The short video contains new computer-aged images showing how little Maddie may have changed since being reported abducted more than two years ago. The images depict Madeleine with both fair skin and with tanned skin. Police said they were not acting on any new information in deciding to darken her skin.
Gerry McCann, Madeleine's father, told the BBC the video is an attempt to contact specific people rather than just appeal to the public for information. “We need it to be spread far and wide, and for those people to be exposed to this message as many times as possible,” he said.
The two new images of Madeleine were produced by the Washington-based National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children. The video release came from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) in London. Following the new images of Madeleine shown in the video are shots of her playing on the stairs and a closeup of her eyes. The emotional presentation was created with input from police psychologists. "It is never too late to do the right thing," according to the video.
Police are urging Internet users to spread the pictures as widely as possible using e-mail, social networking sites and blogs. The video is available in English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
