Private investigators looking for missing British toddler Madeleine McCann have been given fresh leads involving a mystery woman believed to be from either Australia or New Zealand.
The investigators hired by Madeleine’s parents Gerry and Kate believe a key witness spoke with the woman briefly outside a bar in Barcelona, Spain, only three days after the four-year-old vanished from a resort in Portugal back in May 2007.
The woman is not believed to be a suspect, however the investigators do believe she holds “potentially significant” information from what she told their witness, who is a British man.
The former policeman who is heading the McCanns’ search for their daughter, Dave Edgar, didn’t reveal any details of the conversation, only that she had what was believed to be an Australian or possibly New Zealand accent.
"It's a strong lead. It was a significant conversation," Edgar told reporters. "She is a significant individual. I wouldn't describe her as a suspect."
The woman is described as being aged between 30 and 35, of slim build with short brown hair and about five foot, two inches tall. The witness described her as a "Victoria Beckham look-alike".
Asked why it had taken the British man two years to come forward, Edgar said the man had explained it had been because of "personal reasons" that he did not want revealed. Investigators believed him to be credible and trusted the information he had provided.
A spokesman for the McCann family, Clarence Mitchell, said the family were trying not to get their hopes up based on the new information.
"They are now just obviously waiting to hear and praying that this could be the piece in the jigsaw that could help them find Madeleine," he said. Kate and Gerry neither get their hopes up or down.
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