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EXCLUSIVE
by MIKE PARKER in Los Angeles
Picture: AGEPROGRESSION.ORG
January 4, 2009
EXPERTS say this is how Madeleine McCann may look today - 20 months after she went missing.
This astonishing image was created for the Daily Star Sunday by forensic computer age-progression expert Jovey Mae Hayes.
Using the same techniques she employs for the FBI and American police forces in missing persons cases and kidnappings, she has aged Maddie's face to reveal the way she looks now.
"Her face would be elongated, her chin would have become more pronounced and distinctive and her nose would be a bit bigger," said Jovey Mae.
We asked her to show how Maddie now looks on the basis that she has been physically untouched since her disappearance from the holiday resort of Praia da Luz in Portugal on May 3, 2007.
Working from the photo taken shortly before she vanished - Jovey Mae's image shows Maddie with a hint of a smile.
Hearts
"Even in the worst possible circumstances it would be impossible to imagine that her life today is totally bereft of even slight happiness," the expert claimed.
Jovey Mae also revealed Maddie, who went missing just days before her fourth birthday, could be suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
This is defined by experts as "a psychological response sometimes seen in an abducted hostage in which the hostage shows signs of loyalty to the hostage-taker, regardless of the danger, or at least risk, in which they have been placed".
The syndrome's name was coined by psychiatrist and criminologist Nils Bejerot following a five-day bank siege in the Swedish capital in 1973.
Police were astonished that some hostages defended the armed robbers who had held them captive.
Jovey Mae said: "If Maddie has been abducted, she may have built a degree of trust in the person or people who are holding her; if they have treated her well. It is highly unlikely her life would be total misery - hence the slight smile. This, at least, may be of some comfort to her parents and relatives."
Appeal
The McCann family made a Christmas appeal for information about Maddie, releasing a video of her playing at their home in Rothley, Leicestershire, at Christmas 2006.
Parents Kate and Gerry, both 40, have been delighted at the response, with calls from all over the world.
The couple spent Christmas at home with their twins Sean and Amelie, both three.