TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Photo Leads Search Astray

ADVERTISEMENT

By ABDELJALIL BOUNHAR, The Associated Press

Published: September 27, 2007

ZINAT, Morocco - The parents of missing British 3-year-old Madeleine McCann had their hopes dashed again Wednesday when a girl resembling their daughter who was photographed in Morocco turned out to be the child of an olive grower.

The excitement over the photo, taken by Spanish tourist Clara Torres in northern Morocco and widely published on the Internet, testified to the international frenzy the McCann case has sparked. Many people have hoped for signs that Madeleine is alive more than four months after she disappeared from a Portuguese resort.
Interpol said Wednesday that investigators have been studying the blurry detail of the photo. Only vague outlines of the girl's face were visible in the picture, which showed a group of people that includes a woman wearing Moroccan-style clothing and carrying a fair-haired girl on her back. It did not suggest any effort by the woman to hide the child's face.

An Associated Press reporter reached the girl and her family Wednesday in Zinat in northern Morocco, the mountain village where the photo was taken and where the family works a modest olive farm.

The girl is 3-year-old Bouchra Ahmed ben Aissa, and in the photo she was being carried by her mother, Hafida, with her aunt and father alongside, relatives said.
Interpol said its office in Madrid, Spain, had received 'a number of photographs from members of the public of potential Madeleine sightings.'

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT