Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared in Portugal. Photo / Official Find Madeleine Campaign Facebook
Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared in Portugal. Photo / Official Find Madeleine Campaign Facebook
The parents of Madeleine McCann have told her brother and sister 'everything' about her disappearance, according to her mother Kate.
Mrs McCann, 47, said her twins Amelie and Sean, now 11, still want their sister back after she went missing from the family's holiday home in the Algarve, Portugal, in 2007.
She added she and husband Gerry have kept their eldest daughter's room in the same condition as it was when she vanished.
Speaking to The Sun, Mrs McCann said: The twins are doing really well. They've grown up essentially without Madeleine, knowing their sister is missing and they want her back.
"They are up to date, they know everything, they know if we are meeting police. There is nothing kept from them."
Gerry and Kate McCann plays with their twins Amelie and Sean in their appartment in Praia da Luz in Portugal 19 May 2007. Photo / Getty Images
She added the twins don't talk about Madeleine, whose 13th birthday is in May, as much as they did when she went missing, but still raise money at school to support the efforts to find her.
Mrs McCann and husband Gerry, of Leicester, have led an eight-year campaign to keep the search for the youngster going since she went missing while they were on holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal in 2007.
She thanked the public for all their support over the years which she said "kept them going".
The couple have also recently launched a campaign with charity Missing People and the National Crime Agency to help find missing children or flag up when youngsters are in danger.
As previously reported, they say they have not lost hope in finding their daughter, despite the resources put into the search being scaled back by police last year.
Scotland Yard announced in October it was dramatically cutting the number of officers in the probe, known as Operation Grange, from 29 to four.
At the time of the announcement, the family's spokesman said: "Should the need arise for a private investigation to be resumed, [Mr and Mrs McCann] have made sure they have enough money left in Madeleine's fund."
The operation, launched in 2011 at the request of David Cameron, has so far cost upwards of £11m (NZ$23.7m).
Detectives said they have investigated 60 suspects and looked at 650 paedophiles as well as almost 9,000 sightings of the girl since she was abducted.
A total of 60 people were considered as more serious suspects but her kidnapper has not been found.
Last year British detectives returned to Portugal with sniffer dogs and sifted through scrubland on their hands and knees - 1,000ft from where she vanished eight years ago.
They also used radar scanners that could penetrate to depths of up to 13ft (four metres) at at least three sites but found no trace of her.
It is not known exactly when Operation Grange will officially end, but a spokesman for the Met recently said: 'While there remain lines of inquiry, the vast majority of work by Operation Grange has been completed.'
