Madeleine McCann cops quiz prime suspect's widow - four years after his death
Luisa Rodrigues was grilled by Portuguese officers as mobile phone records pinpointed Euclides Lopes Monteiro at the scene on the night she was snatched
Luisa Rodrigues was grilled by Portuguese officers as mobile phone records pinpointed Euclides Lopes Monteiro at the scene on the night she was snatched
Case continues: Maddie vanished in 2007
The widow of the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case has told how she was stunned when police arrived to quiz her – four years after his death.
Luisa Rodrigues was grilled by Portuguese officers as mobile phone records pinpointed Euclides Lopes Monteiro at the scene on the night three-year-old Madeleine was snatched.
The 40-year-old ex-jailbird and heroin junkie remains a key part of the inquiry, even though he died in a tractor accident in 2009 – two years after the abduction.
And yesterday it emerged that British cold-case detectives are anxious to trace three of his known associates who are believed to have carried out burglaries in the Praia da Luz area around the time of the youngster’s disappearance on May 3, 2007.
Speaking for the first time about her interrogation, Luisa, 40, admitted she was shocked when police contacted her at her home in Lagos, just a 15-minute drive from Praia da Luz.
She said: “Two officers phoned me out of the blue and said they were in town and wanted to see me.
“They wouldn’t tell me what it was over the phone but when I reached the cafe where we’d arranged to meet, they told me they were investigating Euclides over Madeleine McCann.
“They said they suspected him because he used to work at the Ocean Club complex where the McCanns were staying and because they had tracked the signal from his mobile phone to the area where Madeleine disappeared the night she vanished.
“I was speechless. I kept repeating Euclides was innocent but they said it was not for me to say.”
She said the officers wanted to know about his criminal past – he served time for burglary – his friends and his drug habit.
She added: “They asked me many questions, including where we had lived as a couple, where Euclides had worked over the years, what he was like as a person and if he had problems with drink and drugs.
"They also asked where he was the night Madeleine disappeared and if I had noticed any changes in him afterwards.
“It’s a long time ago, but I’m sure he would have been at home watching TV. That’s what he always did after work.
“They questioned me for about an hour. The next day I took them the work contracts I found for Euclides at home and details of our joint bank account which they also asked for.
"They never explained why they had come to question me more than six years after Madeleine disappeared.”
Luisa admitted that 6ft 2in Euclides had a problem with heroin and cocaine which he battled on and off his whole life.
She said: “When he was younger he broke into houses and served five years in prison. So I can understand why he’s become a suspect, even if I don’t believe he could have had anything to do with it.”
Luisa, the daughter of a construction firm boss, started dating the father of her 11-year old son when she was 15.
She said she was aware of his problems, but he had turned over a new leaf – and believes the police are simply trying to find a scapegoat.
She insisted: “I know Euclides didn’t take Madeleine. He came out of prison a changed man. He had made an honest life for himself and was a good and caring father and companion.
"If I thought he had anything to do with Madeleine’s disappearance I would have been the first to turn him in.
“I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself for keeping something like that secret. I know he is innocent.”
Monteiro, who moved to Portugal as a child from Cape Verde off West Africa, first emerged as a suspect last year.
He was sacked from the Ocean Club a year before Madeleine vanished after being accused of theft while working at the Millennium restaurant.
But Luisa, who works for a local tourist firm, said: “I know in my heart he is innocent. It’s very easy to blame someone who can’t defend themselves any more.
“My husband was no angel but he would never be capable of committing such a terrible crime.”
British officers have asked their Portuguese counterparts to question three ex-employees of the Ocean Club complex, examine their bank accounts and search their homes.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Martin Hewitt, who is leading the Scotland Yard probe, said: “Clearly the tempo of the investigation is accelerating.”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/madeleine-mccann-missing-cops-quiz-3153923
