Disappearance Of Madeleine McCann: Police Get Money To Pursue 'Person Of Significance'

Police in London were given an additional $260,000 this month to continue the search for missing child Madeleine McCann. She was just 3-years-old when she vanished during a family vacation in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007. Since then, Scotland Yard authorities have spent around $13 million investigating her disappearance.

The additional funding was to be used to pursue a “person of significance” in the case, according to the Sunday Times.

“Following an application from the Metropolitan Police, the Home Office has confirmed funding for Operation Grange until the end of March 2018,” a spokesman told Metro UK. “As with all applications, the resources required are reviewed regularly and careful consideration is given before any funding is allocated.”

The 3-year-old went missing after her parents left the girl and her 2-year-old twin siblings alone inside a vacation apartment rental in Portugal in 2007 while they went out to dinner. Kate and Gerry McCann have adamantly maintained their innocence in relation to their daughter’s disappearance: the couple was eventually cleared by authorities in relation to the case. Authorities in Portugal ended their investigation officially in 2008, while authorities at Scotland Yard reopened the case in 2013. Four people named as suspects were also cleared in 2013.

Officials in London said in April, however, that they were pursuing a “significant line of inquiry.”

“Because it’s worth pursuing, it could provide an answer,” Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley told the Press Association at the time. “But until we’ve gone through it, I won’t know whether we are going to get there or not. We’ve got some critical lines of inquiry, those link to particular hypotheses.”

It remained unclear whether Madeleine McCann was alive or dead. Ahead of the 10 year anniversary of her disappearance in May, investigators released a statement regarding the situation, clarifying that it was still technically a missing person case.

“It is a missing person’s inquiry,” said Rowley. “But as a team, we are realistic about what we might be dealing with — especially as months turn to years.”

Some, however, have retained hope that the girl is still alive. A former top detective in the investigation who worked with the McCanns, Dave Edgar, said the child could still be alive near where she was taken from in Portugal and have no idea she is a missing person.

“There is every possibility that Madeleine is still alive and could be hidden somewhere,” said Edgar, according to News AU. “When you get up beyond the main strip of the Algarve, there’s countless isolated properties where Madeleine could be being held.”