U.S. & World

PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal (CBS News) ― A British couple named as suspects in the disappearance of their 4-year-old daughter in Portugal are to return home on Sunday, a family spokeswoman said.

Kate and Gerry McCann have strenuously professed their innocence since police declared them formal suspects Friday following hours of grueling interrogation.

The couple is leaving "with the full knowledge of the Portuguese authorities and police," family spokeswoman Justine McGuinness said.

She said the couple planned to catch a 9:30 a.m. (5:50 a.m. ET) flight at Faro airport in southern Portugal to East Midlands, Britain. She did not provide further details.

Several friends and spokespeople for the McCanns had said Saturday that they wanted to leave Portugal but did not want to appear to be running from justice.

Gerry McCann said in a newspaper interview he was concerned their treatment indicates Portuguese police are under intense pressure to solve the case.

"We thought we were in our worst nightmare but now it just keeps getting worse and worse," Gerry McCann was quoted as saying in an interview with the Sunday newspaper The News of the World.

He said the couple was negotiating with police on whether they could return to Britain after the lease on the villa they are renting in Portugal runs out in the next week.

"I don't know if they will agree but we're desperate to get back for the kids' sake and emotional reasons," he was quoted as saying. "It's not that we're running away."

The McCanns' Portuguese lawyer, Carlos Pinto Abreu, said after the separate interrogations ended late Friday that police had not imposed any restrictions on them, "meaning they have total freedom of movement."

However, after reviewing their statements authorities could decide to bring charges against them in the May 3 disappearance of their daughter Madeleine from the family's hotel room in southern Portugal's Algarve region.

Questions about the McCann's behavior have been asked, albeit quietly, since the beginning, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. Primarily, why were Madeleine and her twin younger siblings left alone in the vacation apartment that evening in the first place?

Portuguese police could not be reached for comment on the lawyer's claim, or on the couple's apparent plan to leave Sunday, though it is unlikely they could leave the country without police approval.

Earlier, McGuinness said the couple had canceled plans to attend a local church service Saturday evening because the huge media interest could unsettle the local community.

A family friend, Clarence Mitchell, said Gerry McCann told him that he and his wife expected clarification of their legal status within 48 hours.

Mitchell said the McCanns, both doctors from central England, were considering hiring lawyers in Britain where they would also have support from family and friends. Kate McCann is not believed to have gone home since Madeleine disappeared, though her husband has returned as part of the campaign to raise awareness for his daughter.

"They are determined to prove this is a travesty ... and clear their names," Mitchell said of the police allegations about their possible involvement.

The couple's ordeal has drawn attention around the world, partly because of an unprecedented international campaign they led to find their daughter.

The police decision to name the parents as suspects brought a dramatic twist in the four-month-old case which had initially focused on an apparent abductor.

Until Friday, suspicion had centered on Robert Murat, a British man who lived near the hotel from which Madeleine disappeared, and who was the only formal suspect.

But police said new forensic tests done on evidence gathered months after the girl vanished found traces of blood in the couple's car, said Justine McGuinness, a spokeswoman for the family.

The traces of blood, apparently missed in earlier forensic tests, were uncovered by sniffer dogs brought from Britain.

Residents in the village of Praia da Luz, where Madeleine disappeared and where her parents have remained for the past four months, said they were bewildered by the developments in the case.

"I don't know what to believe any more," said Filomena Teixeira, a retired resident. "But it's not a matter of belief or disbelief, it's about what the evidence says."

Philomena, Gerry McCann's sister, said Friday that police had proposed a plea bargain to the McCann's lawyer, suggesting Madeleine might have been killed accidentally and offering the mother a limited sentence if she confessed.

The McCanns said they were dining with friends in a hotel restaurant when Madeleine vanished. Madeleine was in their hotel room with her twin 2-year-old siblings, and the parents said they returned frequently to check on them.

Since then, the McCanns have toured Europe with photos of Madeleine and the child's stuffed animals and clothing, even meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Celebrities including children's author J.K. Rowling and soccer star David Beckham made public appeals that helped the family raise more than $2 million.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)