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.
Madeleine McCann disappeared from a Portuguese resort in May 2007
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.’
Scotland Yard’s hunt for Madeleine is understood to have no ‘earth-shattering leads’
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. (Pictured) British Detective Chief Inspector Nicola Wall arriving at Faro police station in December 2014
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
