U.S. & World

VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal (CBS News) ― The parents of a British girl whose disappearance sparked a global search will be formally named as suspects, family friends said Friday, after the child's mother was questioned for 11 hours. The girl's aunt said police suggested 4-year-old Madeleine might have been killed accidentally.

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?

The allegations related to traces of blood found in a car rented by Kate and Gerry McCann 25 days after Madeleine vanished on May 3, according to Justine McGuinness, a family spokeswoman.

"They believe they have evidence to show that in some way she is involved in the death of her daughter, which is completely ludicrous," McGuinness told British Broadcasting Corp. television.

Philomena McCann, Madeleine's aunt, said police were suggesting Kate McCann might have killed her daughter accidentally.

"They are suggesting that Kate has in some way accidentally killed Madeleine, then kept her body, then got rid of it," Philomena McCann told Sky News. "I have never heard anything so utterly ludicrous in my entire life."

The father, Gerry McCann, was also due to be questioned.

However, police may be looking more for a way to break the case, rather than pursuing a belief the parents are criminally involved, CBS News correspondent Richard Roth reported.

Kate and Gerry McCann, both doctors from central England, have spearheaded an intense media campaign since Madeleine vanished from a holiday apartment in the Algarve where she was sleeping with her 2-year-old twin siblings. The parents say they were at dinner at the time at a nearby restaurant, but were checking on the children frequently.

The McCanns undertook a deliberate and orchestrated media strategy to keep themselves and Madeleine in the public eye and, in so doing, reports Phillips, keep the pressure on the Portuguese police not to file this case in the unresolved drawer. As a result of their accessibility, their obvious distress and their attractiveness, they got a very sympathetic ride from the press.

They toured Europe with photos and stuffed animals of Madeleine, even meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Celebrities like J.K. Rowling and David Beckham made public appeals that helped the family raise more than $2 million.

That all started to go sour in the past few weeks as stories began to appear in Portuguese newspapers that the McCanns themselves were becoming suspects. The McCanns threatened to sue. Now it seems the gloves - the McCann's, the police's and the press' - are truly off.

The couple had been told they would both be named as suspects, family friend and former spokesman Clarence Mitchell said.

Under Portuguese law, the legal move grants certain protections to suspects, but allows police more latitude in questioning. Police also have to show suspects whatever evidence they might have against them.

Kate McCann was questioned for 11 hours on Thursday at a police station in Portimao, a town in Portugal's Algarve region, and looked gaunt and weary when she emerged at 1 a.m. She faced a media scrum as she returned for more questioning Friday morning. Gerry McCann was due to be questioned Friday afternoon, Mitchell said.

The Press Association news agency and other British news outlets quoted unidentified family friends as saying Kate McCann had been declared a suspect under Portuguese law.

Mitchell said Kate McCann found the police questioning "grueling."

"It's very intense, but she's remaining strong and determined to prove that they had nothing to do with their daughter's disappearance and they are innocent victims of the crime," he told The Associated Press.

There have always been a lot of unanswered questions in this sad case, says Phillips. Now they're being asked.

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