Madeleine McCann inquiry to end after 11 years – and chief suspect might not be charged
The investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance could soon end, it has been claimed.
Operation Grange was launched by Scotland Yard four years after Maddie vanished from a holiday apartment in Portugal.
She had been sleeping in the same room as her twin brother and sister while their parents dined at a tapas bar nearby.
Despite extensive searches and various police investigations, she has never been found.
Scotland Yard was given an extra £350,000 last July to allow a team of detectives to look into new lines of enquiry.
The total cost of investigations had been estimated to sit at £12.5 million.
But now, Operation Grange is reportedly disbanding.
A source told The Sun: ‘The end of the road for Operation Grange is now in sight.
‘The team’s work is expected to be completed by autumn.
‘There are currently no plans to take the inquiry any further.’
The Sun also reports that Maddie’s parents, Gerry and Kate, have vowed to keep searching.
The wider investigation into the disappearance had seemingly turned a corner last year, when ‘prime suspect’ Christian B was revealed.
Christian B is currently in prison for raping a 72-year-old woman in Portugal in 2005.
He was said to have repeatedly worked at holiday apartments near to where Maddie went missing.
But the suspect – who German police claimed they had ‘concrete evidence’ on – has never been charged over her disappearance.
And now there are growing doubts that he ever will be.
In recent years, the Grange team had reduced in size from 40 staff to just four.
Last night, Met detective chief inspector Mick Neville told the Sun that there are ‘still excellent lines of inquiry.’
He added: ‘There are still leads to be followed, with social media images and any CCTV footage from the time.’
In May last year, Gerry and Kate released a statement saying they would never give up hope.
They said: ‘The Covid pandemic has made this year even more difficult for many reasons but thankfully the investigation to find Madeleine and her abductor has continued.
‘We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again. As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what.
‘We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts.’
The story so far of Madeleine McCann's disappearance
Kate and Gerry McCann went for dinner with friends on the evening of May 3 2007.
Members of the group frequently popped upstairs to the holiday apartment to check on the sleeping children.
At 10pm, Kate discovered that the room’s window was open and Madeleine had gone.
The subsequent search for the three-year-old has been ongoing for 14 years.
The McCanns themselves were suspects to begin with, partly due to a misinterpretation of DNA evidence.
Portugese police dropped the investigation in 2008, but Scotland Yard would later set up their own dedicated inquiry.
Several leads were followed through the years but no major progress made.
Christian Brueckner, the newest prime suspect in the case, was identified in June last year.
He lived in the Algarve between 1995 and 2007.
He also has ‘numerous’ previous convictions for ‘sexual abuse of children’, according to Germany’s federal criminal police office.
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