By Jane Hill BBC News, Praia da Luz

Saturday marks 100 days since British girl Madeleine McCann disappeared from a holiday apartment in the Algarve.

Although the police investigation seems little further forward, the four-year-old's parents appear resolute.

Images of Madeleine McCann still adorn posters in the Algarve

Visit the supermarket or the newsagent, a hairdresser or a restaurant, the posters are still there in the window.

A blonde, blue-eyed girl - perhaps looking a little younger than her four years - wearing a pink nightdress, or pictured on a tennis court wearing a floppy hat and clutching tennis balls.

One hundred days after Madeleine McCann disappeared, I'm back in the small town of Praia da Luz on the western Algarve.

It's the height of the holiday season, and since I was last here in May thousands of tourist have sat on the wide, sandy beach, eaten in the bars and restaurants, swam in the sea.

All the while one young couple from Rothley in Leicestershire have waited and waited, hoping that their elder daughter will be returned to them.

But they have been far from idle during these long days and weeks.

They've visited numerous European countries to publicise their daughter's disappearance, and the images of the Pope blessing a photo of Madeleine at the Vatican is now famous.

Their Catholic faith has played a large part in helping them through the last three months.

Fabricated stories

For the journalists, meanwhile, back here to mark the grim milestone in the story, details about the police investigation remain as sparse as they were in the initial days and weeks.

The law of judicial secrecy, which prevents the release of details of an ongoing inquiry, means that what information emerges about the case is either a leak - or fabricated by an unscrupulous press in the knowledge that few inaccuracies printed or broadcast are corrected by the authorities.

There is still only one named suspect in the case, though he has not been charged or arrested.

He is 33-year-old Briton Robert Murat, who was brought up in the town in a house a few hundred yards from the apartment which the McCanns had rented for their stay on the Mark Warner complex - the apartment where Madeleine was last seen on the night of Thursday 3 May.

Police activity

Last weekend, out of the blue, word came through that his mother Jenny Murat's house was being searched for a second time.

The Pope blessed a photo of Madeleine at the Vatican

Police had gone through the house and removed computers and other equipment 10 days after Madeleine had disappeared.

My producer and I flew out immediately hoping, as we did every time there was a flurry of police activity, that this would yield some vital piece of information for Kate and Gerry McCann.

The garden was hacked through and the press helicopter went up to try to obtain a better view of what was going on.

But a search initially touted as lasting up to four days ended after only two.

Distressing innuendo

This, it transpired, was part of a review of the investigation, almost like going back to day one of these 100 days.

The sweep, along with that of the apartment where Madeleine was last seen, prompted this week's series of speculative and often hurtful stories in the Portuguese media, which often were largely rerun the following day in British newspapers.

These stories have resulted in Kate and Gerry McCann giving interviews explaining how distressing and unhelpful such innuendo is.

They have been compelled to justify their behaviour on the night Madeleine disappeared, and that of the friends they were on holiday with.

Remaining resolute

Many Portuguese papers have suggested in no uncertain terms that it's time for the couple to return to Britain.

Yet when I met them this week, they remained resolute that they can't leave Portugal without their daughter.

It has been incredibly sad to be back here this week witnessing an investigation apparently little further forward.

I and so many other journalists will return home in the coming days to cover other stories, to resume our lives.