Are police about to abandon Maddie inquiry? After eight years and £12million, detectives have NO new leads or suspects…and the money is running out

Are police about to abandon Maddie inquiry? After eight years and £12million, detectives have NO new leads or suspects…and the money is running out

• Scotland Yard's hunt for Madeleine McCann has 'no earth-shattering leads'
  
• Detectives rarely visit the Portuguese resort where she vanished in May 2007
  
• The Home Office provided £150k for four detectives to work on the operation
  
• They are due to finish at the end of this month when money runs out
  
  

The £12 million investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is at risk of being abandoned as leads dry up and Government funding runs out, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Scotland Yard’s hunt for Madeleine is understood to have no ‘earth-shattering leads’ and detectives rarely visit the Portuguese resort where she vanished in May 2007.
The Home Office provided £150,000 cash last October to fund four detectives to work on Operation Grange, as the inquiry is codenamed, until the end of this month.

The Metropolitan Police is understood to have sought a further £300,000, but officials last night admitted no decision on future funding has been made.
Madeleine was three when she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz in the Algarve as her parents, Gerry and Kate, dined with friends at a nearby restaurant.
Portuguese police shelved their investigation in 2008 but Scotland Yard launched its own inquiry in 2011. At its height, 31 detectives worked on the case, but the investigation was dramatically scaled back in 2015.

A well-placed source said the remaining handful of detectives have been carrying out ‘grunt work’ which includes tracking down and eliminating known sex offenders and finding possible witnesses rather than pursuing hard leads.
‘Most of what Operation Grange is doing is having things set up to knock down and rule out, rather than pursuing a particular fantastic lead that could unlock it all,’ the source said. ‘I’m not aware of any earth-shattering lead or breakthrough imminently.’

Much of the work is understood to take place in London. Detectives made just two trips to Portugal in 2017-18, which involved five return flights costing £1,240. They usually stay at the upmarket Estrela da Luz hotel but a bar manager there said: ‘I haven’t seen any police here for nearly a year, probably last May.’
Instead, sources say the focus has shifted to Eastern Europe as detectives examine the theory that Madeleine was abducted by child-traffickers. It is understood they went to great lengths to trace a couple believed to be from Bulgaria who were staying near Praia da Luz at the time of her disappearance. The man, who was believed to have been a paedophile, had died but officers struggled to find the woman, despite help from Interpol.
Operation Grange has so far cost £11.75 million, including more than £10 million on salaries, over £440,000 on overtime and about £287,000 on travel costs.
A source close to the investigation said the Home Office would be ‘clinical’ in deciding whether to approve more funding. ‘The bottom line is they need to be able to present an argument that suggests they still have stuff to do.’
The inquiry is led by Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall. Her team comprises a detective sergeant and three detective constables based at Putney police station in South-West London.
Former Met Commander Brian Paddick said investigations like Operation Grange were adding to the pressure on Scotland Yard detectives. ‘Clearly there is a national shortage of detectives and any detective that is taken away from other duties in order to investigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is going to have an impact,’ he said.
In an interview with Vogue magazine in 2013, DCI Wall spoke of her fondness for Saga Noren, the fictional detective in the Scandinavian TV drama The Bridge, whom she described as ‘quite feminine, very glamorous, very pretty and very capable’. The Met veteran was said to attribute her low media profile to the fact ‘we solve cases so quickly nobody gets involved’.
But the search for Madeleine has so far proved fruitless. Locals in Praia da Luz this weekend said they had seen little evidence of any ongoing police inquiries for almost a year.
A worker at the Ocean Club Resort, from where Madeleine disappeared, said: ‘I haven’t seen any police here for a long time. I think that is a good thing as far as the locals are concerned, they are tired of the area being associated with such a tragic event.’
A Met spokesman said: ‘The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains ongoing.’ A spokesman for the McCanns said: ‘Kate and Gerry remain incredibly grateful to the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office for the continued work they are doing.’
The Home Office confirmed it had received a request to extend funding for Operation Grange and was in talks with the Met.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6868571/Are-police-abandon-Maddie-inquiry-No-new-leads-eight-years-no-new-leads.html

Madeleine McCann search 'could be abandoned as £12m inquiry left with no new leads or suspects'
The Sun
The couple's spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, told The Sun Online earlier this month : "Kate and Gerry are extremely grateful to the Metropolitan Police ...

Jill Havern wrote: Madeleine McCann search 'could be abandoned as £12m inquiry left with no new leads or suspects'  
The Sun  
The couple's spokesperson, Clarence Mitchell, told The Sun Online earlier this month : "Kate and Gerry are extremely grateful to the Metropolitan Police ...

They are grateful for the Met NOT finding Maddie.
The are grateful the Met are investigating a crime which DID NOT occur in Portugal as if it had occurred in the UK.
They are grateful the Met are NOT investigating them with regard to the DEATH of Maddie as they have told us multiple times the MADDIE IS DEAD.
They are grateful they have NOT investigated the tapas 7
They are grateful the Met have NOT investigated the fund as fraudulent given they claimed it was to help fund the search for Maddie when it has been used for anything but, legal fees, hotels, mortgage payments and so on.

Copied and pasted from Natasha's piece three days ago


By 
portugalresident
 2019-03-29 Posted  2019-03-29 InTop Stories 
 
New signs that Met’s Maddie search “may not be searching at all”

 

I find it unbearably sad,  if this is the case, that the powers that be, for reasons best known to themselves feel that the  life of this little, innocent child has been deemed not worthy enough for a full investigation, including parents, friends and reconstruction. Then they could truely say, we have done all we can and have left no stone unturned.

Ellen52 wrote:I find it unbearably sad,  if this is the case, that the powers that be, for reasons best known to themselves feel that the  life of this little, innocent child has been deemed not worthy enough for a full investigation, including parents, friends and reconstruction. Then they could truely say, we have done all we can and have left no stone unturned.

You are right about it being unbearably sad, but I think most people who have looked into this case would say that Operation Grange has never attempted to get to the truth or leave no stone unturned.

portugueseresident wrote:“He has been told by the switchboard meantime that there is no one available to answer the phone.

Has Mr Saunokonoko never heard of automated telephone service? You need to allocate at least half a day to speak to a real live person on the phone - even then it's not guaranteed.

That aside, this is all part of a big game, the global McCann defence syndicate can just label anyone who tries to get answers as conspiracy theorists or trolls (whatever that means outside of Norse mythology). They provide the bait and the hungry take to it like an ocean feeding frenzy.

You come up with something that's really worth listening to and it's thrown aside as conspiratorial nonsense, simply because idle hands have nothing better to do with their time than mud slinging larks that destroy all the good work achieved over the years by genuine folk.

I blame twitter.

I hope more funding is found to cover this case. I have no issue with more being spent to investigate, but I think it should be for just that; an investigation. I can't help but think that the millions already poured into this, could have been more effectively spent. Realistically, it is going to take many more millions to undertake a full investigation, from the evidence upwards.

Veirdi was not amused by my  post re Marrisa Clifford pulse films  charity uk action for children with links to missing people apparently who mccanns did a charity marthathon .. how dare I point out links with the netflix film and Mccanns despite in keeping with thread of why they projected imo no involvment .. but there is a  link to who knows who and open public records  .. all very odd.. but not doubt comments whossed  anyone does'nt flow with the verdi ... yet if verdi or Tony checked company records may be surprised at who is listed and less dismissive of new member and his or hers outdated grammer rules .. there is a link not saying it means anything .. but why 12 million .. and then whosh .. wosh not in todays Oxford dictornary but Verdi et al love it .. the names on charties associated with pulse films
. Imo mccanns did not  whoosh netflix film.

[mod]@Puck/Cookiecat

Please show respect for the forum and it's members or you will leaving the same way as the last time.[/mod]

In answer to the question posed in the title of this thread, then yes, IMO, Grange is shortly going to park the Madeleine case in the "cold case" files. I also suspect that Portugal will follow suit with Sandra F. preparing the way via her T.V. "I love the McCanns and there's no blood to be tested" interview (credit Textusa, and thanks to Doug D for the link in another thread).

So what's happened to the most recent news that Operation Grange has been granted another stay of execution for the next twelve months - in the sum of £1m was it?

That aside, I seriously doubt the Portuguese police will decide their future investigation on the word of a Spanish journalist.

I admit to being disappointed about Sandra Felgueiras' change of direction but when you look at what she's allegedly said, she is only repeating what's already known - that Snr Amaral was led to believe there was a positive match between Madeleine McCann's DNA profile and the forensic laboratory analysis.

Having said that, does anyone really believe Gonçalo Amaral had a direct conversation with a Spanish journalist about the forensic results whilst still employed as case coordinator - or any other aspect of the case for that matter?  I don't think so.

I strongly suspect Ms Felgueiras got her information from the same source as every other news organ reporting on the case - not Snr Amaral himself.

Whatever, Ms Felgueiras is not in a position to influence this case in any way shape or form so her reason for changing her position is not important.

The forensic evidence is and always will be a bone of contention - largely because people don't understand the subject.  That's not a criticism, it's a statement of fact.

Here we go asking for more money strewth.


https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8757185/madeleine-mccann-cops-budget-funding-search/?utm_campaign=sunmainfacebook010419&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1554107231