'Missing' Madeleine McCann clues and how DNA and Facebook could finally solve case

'Missing' Madeleine McCann clues and how DNA and Facebook could finally solve case

Police have requested new Home Office funds in the search for Madeleine McCann and yet detectives appear no closer to solving her disappearance – but could these clues provide the vital breakthrough?

By Tom Towers News Reporter

   11:27, 13 MAY 2020 Updated11:35, 13 MAY 2020

Police have pursued countless leads in the Madeleine McCann investigation and identified a raft of suspects – and there remain many clues which could help solve the UK's most high profile missing person case.

But detectives seem no closer to finding Maddie since her disappearance from the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007.

British cops have requested new funds to continue in the search, set to be approved by the Home Office.

Last week, parents Kate and Gerry marked the 13th anniversary of their daughter’s disappearance and asked others to join in their prayers.

This week it would have been Madeleine’s 17th birthday on May 12 and a psychic still believes she is 'alive and well'.

We have also spoken to a computer expert who has worked out what Maddie would look like now aged 17.

There are still countless avenues investigators could examine.

Here, Daily Star Online outlines some of the methods that could offer a breakthrough.

DNA

Portuguese cops initially sent a raft of DNA findings – which could implicate an intruder – to be examined by the UK’s Forensic Science Service (FSS) in Birmingham after Maddie disappeared in 2007.

However, the evidence was “too complex” for the team and did not result in “meaningful inclusion/interpretation”.

US-based Dr Mark Perlin believes his Pittsburgh lab Cybernetics – which has identified victims of the 9/11 terror attack – could crack the samples.

He launched a request with the Metropolitan Police last year to release them, but it was not granted.

Perlin earlier told Daily Star Online: “Most of the apartment's samples were taken from the wall, floor and skirting board. One item was from the curtains.

“The mixture evidence could contain DNA from an unknown person who was not a member of the immediate McCann family.

“However, we wouldn't know whether or not that stranger was actually an ‘intruder’.

"But the DNA results could provide an investigative lead, e.g., for conducting a DNA database search to find the unknown person.”

Dr Perlin’s team possess a computer programme called TrueAllele, which has been used in hundreds of criminal cases since 2009 and relies on mathematical formula to determine if a certain genotype came from one individual or another.

Last year, it overturned the wrongful murder convictions of two American men – Ralph Birch and Shawn Henning – who had served more than 30 years in prison.

Team of ‘super recognisers’

One forensics expert believes the social media giant Facebook could do a search against every missing girl.

Facebook identifies people's features in newly uploaded photos and can recognise individuals even when they’re not tagged.

Ex-chief inspector Mick Neville, who founded the Met Police’s Central Forensic Image Team in 2012, told Daily Star Online: “In my view, if you’re alive today it’s very difficult not to have your image somewhere.

“You’d probably have a passport or you might be captured on social media.”

Madeleine has an eye defect known as coloboma, a gap in part of its structure, which may stand out in photos.

Neville added: “We could ask Facebook to do a facial recognition search against every missing girl.

“Even if you don’t want to be caught on Facebook you might get caught in somebody else’s selfie.”

He believes a new suspect could be identified by analysing pictures of Maddie from the family's 2007 Portugal holiday in Praia da Luz and cross-checking against police sketches.

Neville now runs Super Recognisers International and its members are capable of recognising 80% of the faces they see – allowing them to pore through CCTV footage and pictures to identify criminals and missing people.

Any relevant images taken from Facebook could be passed on to his recruits.

The forensics expert has offered his service to the Find Madeleine campaign twice, detailing what his super recognisers are capable of.

However, he is yet to receive a response.

Confession

One former detective believes a key witness will one day come forward with a bombshell confession.

Jim Gamble was the UK’s top child protection police officer in the UK and heavily involved in the initial search for Maddie.

He believes police are currently pursuing vital leads and that a witness will eventually offer vital information.

Mr Gamble previously told Daily Star Online: “I genuinely believe that either a prompt to someone’s conscience or the advances in modern technology will take us to a point in my lifetime where we find out what happened to Madeleine.

“I absolutely believe that. If this involves an abductor, someone will have seen something.

“Someone will have suspected something and for personal loyalty perhaps, a relationship, or whatever else – the fact that they’ve been unsure, they’ll have kept that to themselves.

“But as time goes on, relationships change and people who’ve done things have life-changing experiences that make them feel the need to tell. I think that can happen.

“But I also think there are advances in technology could also lead us down a different path and that might be what breaks the case.”

Facial recognition technology

This March, a facial recognition expert created an up-to-date image of Madeleine McCann using AI technology.

Bradford University Professor Hassan Ugail’s approach maps out key features such as the shape of the cheeks, mouth and forehead.

The information is then given to a computer algorithm which produces new features.

He said: “We are confident the image produced is realistic as to what she would look like now.

“This would immensely help find similar looking people and investigate.

“We believe our algorithms are state of the art. We have used large datasets along with state of the art artificial intelligence algorithms in developing our method.

“This should be an aid to the technology the police may already be using.”

The technology was first unveiled by the university in 2017 and has been refined over the past two years.

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/missing-madeleine-mccann-clues-how-21998633
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How the mighty have fallen - you can almost smell the desperation!

What a load of TRIPE


The statistics for coloboma (or 'just a little fleck in the eye they didn't make much of') are between 2 and 14 per 100,000 live births.
If you then divide this by gender(are we still allowed to do that!) then the number of  faces that match dwindles. Then divide that by the number who have the coloboma in the correct eye for a match...

Surely an app that recognises a coloboma in the appropriate eye would be the correct approach?

But then this is just tripe.

The WIKI entry has been changed
to
" Madeleine McCann, a young girl who went missing in Portugal in 2007, does not have the condition. She has a freckle under her pupil. Her unique eye was a large part of her parents media appeal to find her.


Their publicity machine really needs to get at least ONE story straight.


11 Eye defect
Facts
The McCanns released details of the coloboma to the press of the world.
They trademark the sign “Løok”, in the phrase “Løok for me”
The eye defect is blown upon a giant screen at the FA cup Final,
The eye defect is clearly visible on all photos released as part of the campaign
The eye defect is clearly visible on the front cover picture of the book
Later
Kate denies “putting emphasis on it”
CNN PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT Where is Madeleine McCann? Aired May 11,
2011 - 21:00
MORGAN: Madeleine had a very distinctive eye pattern, didn't she? Tell me about
that, Kate, in case people see somebody they think may be Madeleine. Tell me
about her eye.
K. MCCANN: If I'm honest, we haven't put too much emphasis on her eye, because
I think you have to be very close to her to see it.


The strange case of the eye defect
The eye blemish — often referred to as the "mark of Madeleine" - has formed a key
part in the campaign to highlight her disappearance. It is played up prominently on
posters and videos. It is actually what doctors call a coloboma - or defect - of the
iris.
Gerry McCann “ The iris is Madeleine’s only true distinctive feature. Certainly we thought it was
possible that this could potentially hurt her or her abductor might do something to her eye . . .
but in terms of marketing, it was a good ploy.”
The McCann family has asked health professionals to look out for Madeleine McCann, a 4-
year-old English girl with a coloboma of her right iris, who was abducted while on holiday in
Praia Da Luz, Portugal, on May 3, 2007. (The Lancet: Vol 369, No.9576, p.1846, 2 June 2007)
K. McCann: If I'm honest, we haven't put too much emphasis on her eye, because I think
you have to be very close to her to see it.
“ IF I’m honest . . . ! “
How did they ever imagine they could get away with this ?

Wikipedia is a useful reference source for anything inconsequential, anything of importance however it should be viewed with extreme caution.  Apart from anything else, any old tom dick or harry can edit..



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coloboma

I venture to suggest someone has been busy editing.  Why would Madeleine McCann be a notable case?

Meanwhile, the wikipedia entry for the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remains thus..



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Madeleine_McCann