False Madeleine sighting illustrates frustrations

Interpol has received numerous reports of sightings of the
missing British girl.

ZINAT, Morocco (AP) — 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 farmer.

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, while her aunt and father were also pictured, relatives said.

The child, visibly upset by the heated interest in her, clung to her sister Wednesday before retreating to play on a chipped tile landing outside her house.

One of many photos

Interpol said its office in Madrid, Spain, had received “a number of photographs from members of the public of potential Madeleine sightings, including the picture taken in Morocco by a Spanish couple.”

The international police organization, based in the southeastern French city of Lyon, said the photos had been forwarded to Portuguese police, who are leading an investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

Moroccan security officials told the AP that police in the North African kingdom had not received any formal requests to investigate. Portuguese police declined to comment on the grounds that an investigation was continuing.

A spokesman for the McCanns, Clarence Mitchell, said the family experiences an “emotional roller coaster ... each time this sort of information comes in.”

“Clearly, if these reports that the girl in the photograph isn’t Madeleine are true, it is disappointing news,” said Mitchell. He said the couple has decided not to comment on reported sightings of their daughter.

Vanished in May

Madeleine vanished from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, just days before her fourth birthday. Portuguese police have named the girl’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, as official suspects in the disappearance.

The couple said they left the girl and their 2-year-old twins asleep in their rented villa while they had dinner nearby. Despite an extensive search and a worldwide publicity effort led by her parents, no confirmed trace of Madeleine has turned up.

Other alleged sightings of the girl have been reported in Europe and Morocco. The area in which the photograph was taken is known for European influences, and fair-haired children with light-colored eyes are relatively common.