Kate and Gerry McCann have issued a statement to mark the 16th anniversary of their little girl's disappearance.
The British parents' then-three-year-old daughter went missing from their rented vacation apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal on May 3, 2007, as they were having dinner with friends nearby.
Despite the extensive search operation put in place to find the little one, she - until this day - has never been found.
Her name has been circulating in news reports in recent months after a young Polish woman claimed she could be the toddler who went missing all those years ago in Portugal.
It was later confirmed - following a DNA test - that Julia Wendell is not in fact Kate and Gerry's daughter.
It's been more than a decade and a half since Maddie's disappearance and her parents have today released a short statement on the official Find Madeleine Campaign website in order to share how much they still miss their little girl and to thank well-wishers.
They wrote: "Today marks the 16th anniversary of Madeleine’s abduction. Still missing… still very much missed. It is hard to find the words to convey how we feel. The police investigation continues, and we await a breakthrough. Thank you to everyone for your support – it really helps."
Kate and Gerry also shared a poem titled The Contradiction, written by Clare Pollard, which they said resonated with them.
Part of the poem reads: "The absence contradicts itself: the missing conjures what we miss. "I cannot hold you, yet I do: please let me hold you in my head and where you are now, hold me too."
It was revealed last month that Wendell's DNA results showed she had close to 100 percent Polish heritage and no evidence of ancestry from the UK.
Dr. Fia Johansson, a private investigator who helped organize the DNA test, told RadarOnline: "[Wendell] is absolutely 100 percent from Poland. She is a small percentage of Lithuanian and Russian but the test results show she is Polish. We learned a few things, one being that Julia’s mum is in fact now believed to be her mum, so she is not Madeleine McCann."
Despite previously enjoying a good relationship with Dr. Johansson, Wendell is now accusing the woman of deceiving her.
In a Facebook post, Wendell said: "I believe that my birth certificate could be forged. I still believe that it’s a possibility that I could be Madeleine and don’t be bad I will tell you why."
She continued: "When I was doing [the] dna test in USA it was DNA kit from company called Ancestry. Fia didn’t want to give me results over one week me asking for it.
"When she finally gave me access to my results I was so shocked because it was on another company’s website. Tell me please, how [is it] possible that my results came to [the] website of competitive company?"
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