Madeleine McCann's parents to launch new private search with appeal fund's remaining £750k

Madeleine McCann's parents to launch new private search with appeal fund's remaining £750k

Kate and Gerry McCann have set the money aside for another private search for their daughter with the £12million Scotland Yard operation set to wind down

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Madeleine McCann’s parents are poised to launch a new ­private search for [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] with the remaining £750,000 in their appeal fund.

Kate and Gerry, both 47, aim to begin a fresh initiative to solve the nine-year-old mystery as the £12million Scotland Yard investigation winds down.

Plans are under way to use what is left of the No Stone Unturned fund, boosted by sales of Kate’s book Madeleine, to hire private detectives to probe several unanswered questions.

A source told the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] : “There is £750,000 in the account. That money has been ­preserved because Kate and Gerry knew they may want to reopen an ­investigation at some point.

“They have always said they’ll do ­anything they can to keep going. That ­commitment remains.”

The number of British officers working on [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , named Operation Grange, has been ­reduced from 29 to four.


The operation has cost £10million since it was launched four years ago following intervention from the Prime Minister.
A further £2million has been ­guaranteed by the Home Office until April.

The source added: “We don’t know exactly when Operation Grange will end but while it continues it has the finest technology and analysts.

“Private investigations are expensive and do not have anything like the range and capabilities available to the Yard.

“The McCanns still feel there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered but they still have full confidence in the [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] .”

Madeleine disappeared from their ­ holiday apartment in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz in May 2007, shortly before her fourth ­birthday. Since then her parents have campaigned tirelessly.

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Methinks they've been advised to divest themselves of all possible assets in case they lose the case against Dr Amaral and are ordered to pay up. I wonder in whose name their house and cars are registered.... just a thought....

I might be in a minority on this but I can't see OG closing down - even if it's scaled back to the occasional couple of agency staff hot-desking in a broom cupboard I can't see it closing down entirely - and for many reasons some of which Lazz (God Bless Lazz) has pointed out in her fantastic blogs released today.

OG will not shut down imo.

As for the £750k earmarked for a private investigation - well that's laughable and a pile of pink spin.

There are more than just a "few unanswered questions", aren't there, Kate

They can use G4S.

They are already up to speed it seems.

BlueBag wrote:They can use G4S.

They are already up to speed it seems.

Haven't they already been down that road?  Around September 2007 it was widely reported that the McCanns wealthy benefactor, Brian Kennedy the double glazing salesman, was looking to employ a team of crack ex-CID detectives to assist the search for MBM?  As it turned out, a crack team of ex-SAS and MI5 agents in the collective name of Oakley International was invited on board at considerable expense - hopefully Kennedy's.  Whichever, the outcome was no more productive that Metodo, the Edgar/Cowley alliance, Operation Grange or any other misnomer that's profited by the case over the years. 

Still as they say - you can't teach an old dog new tricks!

I think PeterM would make an excellent lead PI.

plebgate wrote:I think PeterM would make an excellent lead PI.

Heck yes! With Tony Bennett.

Just think how quickly they could solve this case if they had the chance to interview the McCanns and how much money the McC's would save in the process.

it doesn't really matter if OG gets shelved, the mccanns will continue to be investigated for homicide, concealment of a corpse and filing a false police report, by the PJ.
The charges that really matter and the mccanns and chums know it.

Hobs wrote:it doesn't really matter if OG gets shelved, the mccanns will continue to be investigated for homicide, concealment of a corpse and filing a false police report, by the PJ.
The charges that really matter and the mccanns and chums know it.

That is why they wish to have headline news about Madeleine and I believe "Operation Grange"was a ruse to try to "Ascertain PJ Files" for information they may have from the non disclosed files?
The UK Police,"Never release their information to the public"just like Leicestershire Police had an alarmingly close affinity of what "private information" had been obtained misleadingly by the UK Police force openly accepting it as part of the missing child Madeleine McCann as part of a duel investigation,supposedly with the Portugal, PJ?  
Take a look at Operation Tiberious & the murder of Daniel Morgan of how they failed to comply with their "Oath of Honour"?