Madeleine McCann Suspect Turns Out to Be Dead

Euclides Monteiro died in a tractor accident in 2009
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 21, 2014 2:30 PM CDT
Madeleine McCann Suspect Turns Out to Be Dead
Missing British girl Madeleine McCann before she went missing from a Portuguese holiday complex.   (AP Photo/London Metropolitan Police)

On Wednesday, British police asked the public for information on an unnamed suspect they were hunting in connection with Madeleine McCann's disappearance. Yesterday, a source close to Portuguese investigators revealed to the Guardian the supposed identity of that man: Euclides Monteiro—who died in a tractor accident in 2009. The Cape Verde man lived and worked near where several young girls were sexually assaulted, and specifically worked at the Praia da Luz resort where the McCann family stayed as recently as six months before Madeleine's 2007 disappearance. A source tells the Guardian police "have not drawn any definitive conclusions as to whether or not Euclides is our man"; but a Portuguese police source reportedly told the Mirror that while Monteiro was once arrested on suspicion of a series of child sex assaults, "no charges were brought due to lack of evidence."

Indeed, when Scotland Yard on Wednesday requested information on the new suspect, police in Portugal said they had already been looking into this "primary line of investigation" since last October, and that evidence of a series of crimes was what drove Portuguese officials to reopen the McCann case, which they did after Scotland Yard reopened its own investigation last summer. The Guardian notes that there are "growing tensions between authorities in the two countries over the handling of the case." Meanwhile, the Daily Mail says Scotland Yard is also investigating three burglars who had previously hit the resort where the family stayed; cellphone data shows the men were near the resort when Madeleine went missing and were in "intense" contact with each other afterward. (More Madeleine McCann stories.)

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