Next to the war memorial in the village of Rothley, Leicestershire, a candle still burns for Madeleine McCann, who vanished from her parents' holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, 14 months ago.

Five days after the three-year-old disappeared, friends and neighbours of Kate and Gerry McCann held a silent vigil, tying yellow ribbons around railings on the village green and lighting candles in a show of solidarity with the family.

Yesterday, as it emerged that Portuguese police have handed over their final report to prosecutors, who will consider the files before deciding whether to end the investigation or carry out further inquiries, residents of Rothley once again spoke out in support of the McCann family.

They also criticised the police investigation and said they hoped that once the case was officially closed, private investigators could take it over and find Madeleine.

Heather Wheeler, who lives in Rothley, said: "The Portuguese haven't been straight from the start and I think they ought to leave them alone. ."

Village postmaster David Lynch said if the police investigation was brought to a close, it "may be a good thing because the private detectives can then come in and look for her". Speaking in a radio interview, he added: "The most important thing is to find Madeleine. People are really with the McCanns."

The investigation into Madeleine's disappearance has been beset by leaks and allegations of a police smear campaign against Mr McCann, 40, and Mrs McCann, 39. Officially Portugal's Policia Judiciaria does not comment on ongoing cases, on pain of breaching the country's strict "secrecy of justice" laws.

But developments have frequently made their way into the Portuguese press, with yesterday's reports that detectives are to shelve the case in the latest in a line of leaks by "unnamed police sources". The couple's naming as "arguidos", or official suspects, in September last year followed weeks of reports in the Portuguese media, vociferously denied by friends of the couple but greeted with the usual "no comment" by police.

As the investigation approached its first anniversary, a police statement given by Mrs McCann was leaked, revealing that on the morning she vanished Madeleine had asked: "Mummy, why didn't you come when we were crying last night?" Mr and Mrs McCann's spokesman Clarence Mitchell reacted by saying that the couple had been the "victims of leaks and smears".

A team of Portuguese detectives then travelled to Britain and spent several days sitting in on fresh interviews with the group of friends who were eating in a tapas restaurant with the McCanns when Madeleine disappeared. After the interviews, the McCanns renewed their calls for their "arguido" status to be lifted, saying the friends' stories had been consistent with what they had said before.

But the closest the Policia Judiciaria came to acknowledging that the interviews represented a step forward was when it countered Mr Mitchell's accusations that police had deliberately leaked information about the investigation.

In a rare statement, the police said it regretted the "baseless intervention of the spokesman above all at a moment when significant moves were being made in the investigation".

Last night, as friends and family waited to hear whether the latest developments would result in the couple's "arguido" status being lifted, Susan Bates, who lives close to Rothley, said: "I feel for the McCanns. I don't think the Portuguese police were very good in the early days. Not like police here, who would have been on the ball straight away."