Quiet party for Madeleine McCann’s fifth birthday

May 13 2008 by David Bartlett, Liverpool Daily Post

MADELEINE McCann’s parents marked their missing daughter’s fifth birthday privately at home yesterday.

A low-key party was being held for the benefit of her younger brother and sister, three-year-old twins Sean and Amelie, yet it was “just another day without her” for Gerry and Kate McCann, said their spokesman.

The couple could, however, report that their recent appeal for information has drawn thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls.

Their new campaign, launched ahead of the first anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance, urged anyone who has spoken to the Portuguese or British authorities about her apparent abduction in Praia da Luz to now call them.

The response has thrown up several “promising leads” which are now being probed by their private investigators, said their spokesman, Clarence Mitchell.

He said: “Obviously, without Madeleine home yet, this is sadly just another day without her in many respects.