A senior detective who called in the parents of Madeleine McCann for questioning and played a key role in the decision to make them suspects is one of the favourites to take charge of the investigation.

Luis Neves, 41, was seen by the McCanns as a “breath of fresh air” when he joined the inquiry team three weeks after Madeleine’s disappearance. But he later became convinced she had died in an accident in the McCanns’ apartment.

He is now a frontrunner to replace Goncalo Amaral, the former head of the investigation who was sacked last week after he accused British police of working only on leads given to them by the McCanns.

The appointment, which could be made as early as tomorrow, is seen as critical in determining whether police resume the search for Madeleine or continue to focus on the McCanns.

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Police in the Algarve, however, want Carlos do Carmo to get the post. Do Carmo, who has no previous connection with the case, was Amaral’s predecessor as director of the police in Portimao and earned the respect of colleagues after bringing the killer of a police officer to justice.

Gerry and Kate McCann hope the police changes will help galvanise the search for their daughter. Their legal team want British police to carry out an independent review of the case.

A source said: “The police abandoned the kidnap hypothesis too rapidly. We are trying to convince them to continue the hunt for Madeleine. We are considering a review from both British and Portuguese police.”

Amaral, who has been taken off the case and demoted to the rank of inspector, last week refused to comment. He told a friend, however, he had been expecting to lose his post for “some time” after a “crescendo of violence” from the media.

The police team is about to lose another senior detective, Tavares Almeida, who has applied for extended leave. The six remaining officers on the case are insisting on taking holiday built up over the 157 days of the investigation. It means the team could be cut by half.

Neves, national director of the DCCB, the Portuguese equivalent of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, began briefing the McCanns at the end of May. But in August, after police sniffer dogs allegedly found the “scent of death” in the McCanns’ apartment, Neves became “cold and distant”. Then last month, he called Gerry McCann directly to inform him that he and his wife would be questioned separately.

It is understood he was present during the questioning of Kate McCann, and, along with Amaral and Guilhermino Encarnacao, the director of police in Faro, decided the McCanns should be made suspects.

The upheaval in the investigation came as private detectives working for the McCanns were attempting to trace a new witness after a sighting in Morocco. According to Spanish police sources, a 30-year-old Moroccan woman, who lives in Malaga, Spain, reported seeing a girl who had the “mark of Madeleine”, referring to her distinctive right eye, where the pupil merges with the blue-green iris.

The woman was in the village of Fnidk on the north coast of Morocco when she saw a 50-year-old woman with the girl getting into a taxi. She tried to join them – sharing cabs is common in Morocco – but the woman refused to let her. She later discovered the taxi had taken them to the village of Housima. She described the girl as wearing an orange blouse with a dummy in her mouth.

Additional reporting: Graham Keeley

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