THE parents of missing Madeleine McCann have spoken of their mixed emotions in keeping alive the hunt for their daughter while providing a happy family life for their other two children.

Twins Sean and Amelie, toddlers at the time of the abduction in Portugal, are now four, just a little older than their sister when she went missing in the Portuguese holiday resort of Praia da Luz two years ago today.

They talk about their sister every day and include her in their games. Amelie wears her sister’s shoes, telling her mother that Madeleine’s feet will have grown “when she comes back”.

Kate McCann said: “I honestly believe they’re expecting her to come back home one day soon. They’re very much ‘well, when Madeleine comes back, we’ll share our toys’.”

Experts at the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia, have produced a computer image of what Madeleine would look like now.

In an article in today’s News Review, Emma Loach, the producer of a Channel 4 documentary to be screened this week, describes the dilemma facing the McCanns whom she first got to know while making a programme to mark the first anniversary of Madeleine’s disappearance.

“The further away they get from the shock of finding Madeleine had gone, the more they find themselves able to function,” she writes.

“In some ways this disgusts them. In some ways they feel they should still be incapable of operating in this bizarre, horrifying new world where Madeleine has been taken from them. But this is not an option, they have to keep going for the sake of all their children. The twins deserve a happy childhood. And if they don’t keep looking for Madeleine, who will?”

Gerry McCann describes how they have adjusted to this new world. “Healed is a bit difficult, adapted is probably the right word,” he said. “There’s still a scar, a deep, deep scar that’s kind of knitted at the minute but you still think it might break.” He added: “We are a happy family, but we’re not a complete family.”

Kate McCann says in the documentary: “I think we’re far from normality.” She said she recognised the importance of spending time thinking about Madeleine, however painful.

Loach reveals that far from slowing down, the family’s hunt for Madeleine has speeded up since Portuguese authorities released 30,000 pages from their files on the case. Kate McCann spent six months reading every document after they had been translated at a cost of £100,000. As a result the family’s investigation, aided by two retired policemen, has thrown up a new suspect.

Several tourists had told Portuguese detectives that they had seen a suspicious-looking short-haired man in his twenties hanging around outside the family’s apartment block. He is different from the long-haired man spotted carrying a small girl dressed in pink pyjamas away from the block on the night Madeleine disappeared. It has prompted the programme makers to carry out a Crimewatch-style reconstruction that will be seen in the documentary.

Dave Edgar, the retired detective inspector leading the search, said: “Someone local has the answer to this and not much wider than 10 kilometres away from Praia da Luz. So you don’t start an investigation in Morocco or Spain or even Lisbon. This offence happened in Praia da Luz. It’s a very self-contained resort and that’s where I think the answer is.”

Until the fresh image was released last week the McCanns were still receiving hundreds of letters each month from people who thought they had spotted a much younger Madeleine.

Gerry McCann said he felt sick reading the witness statements suggesting the family were being watched in the days before the abduction.

“The thought that we were having a nice time and I was oblivious – didn’t notice anything out of sorts – it’s pretty gut-wrenching,” he said.

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