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PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal - The parents of four-year-old Madeleine McCann, who vanished more than two weeks ago from a Portuguese resort, remain positive she will be found, the priest who married the couple said today.
"They remain very, very positive and will do all that they can to find Madeleine," Father Seddon told journalists at the Praia da Luz resort where Madeleine was abducted 15 days ago.
He said her father, Gerry, had told him he could see light at the end of the tunnel and that everything was still possible.
"Gerry spoke of a tidal wave of destruction that Madeleine's disappearance had caused him but then he said he was met by a tidal wave of empathy and love which has been turned into action and hope," he said.
Chief inspector Olegario Sousa said yesterday police continued to follow their strongest lead in the investigation, which has centred on foreigners in the small resort.
So far one suspect has been identified by police -- a 33-year-old who lives in the area -- but his name has not been made public.
The search for Madeleine has received widespread media attention all over the world.
Prime suspect
Police have been told how their prime suspect, Briton Robert Murat, was impatient to rent a car two days before he was first questioned by police, because he claimed his own was needed by those involved in the search for the British girl.
Staff at the Autorent 3 dealership say they asked Murat to wait until after their lunchbreak finished at 3pm last Saturday. But he said he needed the vehicle immediately.
Maria Rocco, who received Murat's call at the dealership, called police to report Murat's request after hearing of his arrest.
"He said: 'I need a car for myself because the English people who are looking for the little girl need to borrow my car'," Rocco recalled. "You could tell from his voice that he needed it in a hurry. I was puzzled. Why would he need to lend his car to somebody else [in the search]?"
Police questioned Murat's mother, Jennifer, yesterday about her son's alleged involvement in Madeleine's abduction. Yesterday police arrived at Murat's mother's £600,000 ($1.6 million) villa in Praia da Luz to quiz her about her role as her son's alibi on the night of the abduction.
Results of these interviews will join Rocco's evidence, which was supported by the form Murat signed when he collected a Hyundai Jetz at 5.16pm that day.
Police are also focusing their inquiries on telephone calls between Murat and a Russian computer scientist, Sergey Malinka.
One of these was reportedly made by Malinka a few minutes after 10pm on May 3 - the time when Madeleine's parents discovered she was missing from her room at a resort in the Algarve town.
The Russian left his flat in Praia da Luz on Wednesday night with police who had removed a laptop and two computer hard drives.
Malinka declined to discuss his phone calls with Murat yesterday, and insisted that videos seized from his house had no paedophile content.
Yesterday, Malinka protested his innocence, saying, "I am not a suspect in this case. I am merely a witness questioned like eight or nine others. Everything that has been said about me is lies ...
"There have been claims in the press that I am some kind of sexual maniac or paedophile. It is nonsense. My career is destroyed and my life is ruined."
- INDEPENDENT, REUTERS
