Family holiday that turned into nightmare

By Michael Holden

LONDON (Reuters) - It was on the evening of May 3 that a happy, family holiday to the Algarve in southern Portugal turned into a nightmare for Kate and Gerry McCann.

The McCanns had been dining with friends less than 100 metres away from the family's villa at a holiday resort village in Praia da Luz when Kate made the discovery that their four-year-old daughter Madeleine had been abducted.

So began the family's ordeal, with every twist and turn in the hunt for missing Madeleine played out in front of the world's media, their plight eliciting sympathy and criticism in almost equal measure.

The holiday had started very differently. Madeleine had been excited about going to Portugal and had enjoyed a fantastic week away. She'd "had a ball", Kate said, adding her last memory was of her daughter being happy.

"Mummy I've had the best day ever. I'm having lots and lots of fun," she said on the night of her disappearance, Kate said in one newspaper interview.

That night, the McCanns went to eat with a group of close friends leaving Madeleine and her younger twin siblings, Sean and Amelie, in their apartment nearby.

So secure did they feel at the small, friendly resort, that the couple decided against using the babysitting service, making regular checks on the children instead.

"I didn't feel I was taking a risk. If I'd have had to think for one second whether that was OK it wouldn't have happened," Kate told the BBC.