'Please let me hold you': Madeleine McCann's parents share heartbreaking poem to mark 16 years of her disappearance
LEICESTER, UNITED KINGDOM: The heartbroken parents of Madeleine McCann are still trying to find out what happened to their little girl who suddenly disappeared from her bed in a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, on the evening of May 3, 2007, at the age of 3. Kate and Gerry McCann shared an emotional poem on Wednesday, May 3, to mark 16 years since the tragic incident occurred.
They said that it is still "hard to find the words" to convey their feelings on the 16th anniversary of their daughter's disappearance. They are still eagerly waiting for a "breakthrough" in "the most heavily reported missing-person case in modern history."
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'Please let me hold you'
The devastated parents shared a poem by Clare Pollard in a heartfelt tribute which includes the emotional line "Please let me hold you," according to Daily Mail. The McCanns said Pollard's poem 'The Contradiction' "resonates strongly with us" as it conveys the utmost pain of losing loved ones. They added they "still very much miss" Madeleine, who would have been 19 if she was still alive.
'You are in the crowd'
"The absence contradicts itself: the missing conjures what we miss. You are not here, I'm not myself, but still talk to you like this," the poem reads. "You're in the crowd, the news, the glimpse - I make you there when you're not there. I trace your steps, I map your face, I say your name, see you in air."
The poem continues, "You're all I know and so unknown. I cannot hold you yet I do: please let me hold you in my head and where are you now, hold me too. How can you be so near and far? You are not here. But here you are." The parents added after posting the poem that the probe is still ongoing as the authorities "await a breakthrough."
"Thank you to everyone for your support - it really helps," the McCanns added.
Charges against primary suspect dropped
The emotional post came just a couple of weeks after German prosecutors said they are dropping the sex offence charges against Christian Brueckner, who was a suspect in Madeleine's disappearance, because they did not have jurisdiction over him. The 45-year-old is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence in Germany for a rape he committed against a pensioner in Portugal in 2005. He was charged with a number of sex offences last year which are said to have taken place in the Algarve, the same place the 3-year-old reportedly vanished, between 2000 and 2017.
Braunschweig court has dropped the charges over issues with jurisdiction. Brueckner hasn't been charged in Madeleine's case but is under investigation on murder suspicion.
