Ex-Metodo3 investigator Julian Peribañez heading back to PdL to explore leads not investigated by PJ

Just four police officers are now probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, Met reveal

By MEGAN HOWE
PUBLISHED: 21:27, 12 May 2024 | UPDATED: 21:36, 12 May 2024

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.

The message on the Find Maddie Campaign Facebook page read 'Happy 21st Birthday Madeleine. Still missing. Still missed. Still looking.'

Despite the scaling back of the police operation, private investigator Julian Peribañez has revealed he is heading back to the family's holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, where Madeleine went missing 17 years ago.

Mr Peribañez was part of the Metodo 3 firm hired by Madeleine's parents back in 2007 to explore potential leads that were not being investigated by Portuguese police.

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. '

On that fateful day, May 3, 2007,  Gerry and Kate had left their three children - including toddler twins Sean and Amelie - asleep in their holiday apartment while they ate at a tapas bar 120 metres away.

When Kate returned to check on the kids at around 10pm that evening, she discovered that Madeleine was not in her bed and was missing.

British police initially investigated the case before it was archived in July 2008 due to lack of evidence.

The family kept the case open with private detectives until Scotland Yard opened its own investigation in 2011.

Operation Grange was started at the request of the then Home Secretary Teresa May and involved, in the first instance, a review of all the investigations that had previously been conducted.

In July 2013, the status of the Met's enquiries changed to that of an investigation, working with the Portuguese authorities to pursue specific lines of enquiry.

But according to The Express, there were only 29 officers working on the case by 2015.

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'.

German police are currently probing prime suspect and convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner, 47.

He is currently serving a prison sentence for raping a woman in Praia de Luz in 2005, and is suspected of further offences between 2000 and 2017.

The attacks took place just minutes from where then three-year-old Madeleine vanished from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve.  

German police sensationally named Brueckner as the man responsible for Madeleine's 'abduction and murder' but he has yet to be charged with anything relating to her disappearance.