KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are losing hope of finding her alive, the Portuguese media reported yesterday.
The search for the missing 4-year-old is being scaled down amid fears that she may have been murdered, a police source told the newspaper 24 Horas.
"There are strong suspicions that we are dealing with a sexual predator," the source said. "As a rule these individuals abuse their victims, kill them and get rid of the bodies. It is painful to say this but we must be realistic, the chances of finding her alive are getting less and less."
About 50 officers remain on the case now, compared to the 250 who were originally drafted in. Forensic tests on the villa where Briton Robert Murat, named as the chief suspect, lives with his mother are said to have failed to show any link to Madeleine. There is also no forensic evidence to show that the hotel room from where she disappeared was broken into.
In a fresh attempt to find new leads, police appealed to holidaymakers who visited the resort around the time of Madeleine's disappearance to send in any photographs with strangers in the background in a bid to identify her abductor.
- INDEPENDENT
