Only four UK police officers are continuing to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, as the Met reveals resources have been stripped back by 90 per cent.
Just three UK police officers and a civilian member of staff continue to work on the case part-time, the force has revealed today.
It comes as Madeleine’s parents—Kate and Gerry McCann—marked their daughter’s 21st birthday today with a heartbreaking message.
Private investigator Julian Peribañez has disclosed that he is returning to the family’s vacation residence in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine vanished 17 years ago, despite the police effort being scaled back.
In 2007, Madeleine’s parents engaged Mr Peribañez from the Metodo 3 business to look into leads that the Portuguese police were not looking into.
DCI Mark Cranwell, who oversees the British investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, told MailOnline: ‘We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May, 2007 in Praia da Luz.
‘Our thoughts remain with the family.’
When Gerry and Kate went to eat at a tapas bar 120 metres away on that fateful May 3, 2007, they left their three children—including the toddler twins Sean and Amelie—asleep in their vacation apartment.
Around ten o’clock that night, Kate went back to see how the kids were doing and found Madeleine gone from her bed.
The matter was first looked into by British police, but in July 2008 it was archived because of insufficient evidence.
Until Scotland Yard launched its own investigation in 2011, the family continued to pursue the matter through private investigators.
At the behest of Teresa May, the Home Secretary at the time, Operation Grange was launched, which initially comprised a review of all past investigations.
The Met’s inquiries became an investigation in July 2013, collaborating with the Portuguese authorities to follow particular areas of inquiry.
However, by 2015, just 29 police officers were involved in the case, as reported by The Express.
A Met spokesperson told the newspaper: ‘The number of staff on the investigation team always remains under review and is flexed according to new information coming in, or new lines of inquiry.’
Gerry and Kate McCann have not commented on the investigation because it is an ‘active police investigation’.
Christian Brueckner, 47, a convicted sex offender, is the main suspect under investigation by German police right now.
Sadly, no one is certain of what actually happened, and I don’t believe I’ve ever read an article that gave a clear explanation of what happened—it was always all ifs, buts, and maybes.
My sympathy goes out to Maddie’s parents, but what parents leave their 3-year-old child alone in another country, and then expect the child to still be there when they get back? It’s a foreign country, anything could happen, and in this case, it did. I guess that she was taken for human trafficking, never to be seen again. That’s not to say she’s still not alive though and that every effort should still be made to find her.
If they ever found any fresh information or convincing proof, it would be nothing short of miraculous.
The investigation should be ongoing because this is a very sad case, but there are also other children out there that have disappeared without trace and I hope that they get just as much attention as this one did. At least the police are doing something because this was a child, although she would not be a child now, and sadly, if she were reunited with her family, she probably would have very little recollection of them.
More often than we may think, disappearances like these occur not just in the UK but in other nations as well. Sadly, if the child is located many years later, the relationship they once shared with their parents would have vanished.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 