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Portugal opens Madeleine McCann case file

A police file containing almost 30,000 pages of evidence from the investigation into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann was due to be made public Monday.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A police file containing almost 30,000 pages of evidence from the investigation into the disappearance of British girl Madeleine McCann was due to be made public Monday.

A court clerk in the southern Portuguese town of Portimao, near where the child vanished last year in the Algarve region, said the file would be available to journalists who file a written request and appear in person at the court.

Officials would then copy the file onto DVDs, which journalists would have to provide, the clerk said on condition of anonymity in line with department rules.

She said the file is divided into 17 volumes and comprises close to 30,000 pages.

Madeleine McCann vanished May 3, 2007, a few days before her fourth birthday, from a hotel room during a family vacation in Praia da Luz, a coastal Algarve town.

Portugal's attorney general last month ordered police to halt their 14-month investigation because detectives had uncovered no evidence of a crime.

The case will remain closed unless new evidence emerges.

Portuguese lawyers acting for Madeleine's parents, Kate and Gerry, gained official access to the files last week. The McCanns have said they hoped to find leads that private investigators could follow up.

Police last year named Madeleine's parents, and local man Robert Murat, as suspects in the case. All three denied involvement.

The McCanns have waged a far-reaching international campaign to find their daughter, but there has been no reliable indication of what might have happened to her despite numerous reported sightings from around the world.