The police chief leading the hunt to find Madeleine McCann has said investigators still have a “critical line” of inquiry to explore as they try to solve the mystery of her disappearance a decade ago.
Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said the joint Portuguese and British inquiry may never establish definitive answers and could not say whether she was still alive.
Madeleine disappeared from a holiday apartment in a Portuguese resort in 2007. Writing ahead of the 10th anniversary next week, her parents vowed never to give up their search for her.
The British end of the investigation has been scaled back in recent years to four detectives, from a peak of 30, but Rowley said it was still a live inquiry: “I know we have a significant line of inquiry that is worth pursuing, and because of that, it could provide an answer. Until we have gone through it, I won’t know if we will get there or not.”
Rowley said: “There are critical lines of enquiry of great interest to ourselves and our Portuguese counterparts, and there are some significant investigative avenues we are pursuing that we see as very worthwhile.”
Among the theories that Rowley said had been explored were that Madeleine was abducted by a burglar who panicked when the little girl woke up, or that a sexual attacker was responsible.
“So, one of the lines of enquiry, one of the hypotheses was: could this be a burglary gone wrong? Someone is doing a burglary, panicked maybe by a waking child, which leads to Madeleine going missing,” he said.
“However she left that apartment, she has been abducted. It is not a 20-year-old who has gone missing and who has made a decision to start a new life, this is a young girl who is missing and at the heart of this has been an abduction.”
Her parents, Kate, 49, and Gerry, 48, said they were dreading the anniversary, which falls next week, describing it as a “a horrible marker of stolen time”, and they told of the pain caused by their daughter being missing for so long, which they said had been made worse by media speculation.
Madeleine, then aged 3, vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, while on holiday with her siblings and parents.
In a statement on Facebook, Madeleine’s parents said: “Most days are similar to the rest – another day. May 3rd 2017 – another day. But ten years – a horrible marker of time, stolen time.”
The McCanns, from Leicestershire, used the statement to attack media reporting of the case and said it was damaging to their family: “We could spend all our time and energy trying to defend ourselves by correcting inaccuracies and lies, but then we would have no strength left to look for Madeleine, look after our other children and to live our life.
“I truly hope that those reporting on the ‘story’ over the next couple of weeks will have a conscience. Even if little consideration for Gerry and me is shown, they will at least bear in mind the effect such unfounded and unwarranted negativity could have on our other children – and of course Madeleine.”
Rowley, who is overseeing the British effort, said: “We don’t have evidence telling us if Madeleine is alive or dead. It is a missing person’s inquiry but as a team we are realistic about what we might be dealing with – especially as months turn to years.”
Rowley said information was still being received on a daily basis, and four people identified in 2013 as of interest to detectives had been eliminated from inquiries.
He said: “As detectives, we will always be extremely disappointed when we are unable to provide an explanation of what happened. However, the work carried out by Portuguese and Met officers in reviewing material and reopening the investigation has been successful in taking a number of lines of interest to their conclusion. That work has provided important answers.
“Right now we are committed to taking the current inquiry as far as we possibly can and we are confident that will happen. We must, of course, remember that no investigation can guarantee to provide a definitive conclusion.”
The McCanns said in their statement that they still had hope. “The two themes that seem most appropriate to me as we reach this ten-year mark are perseverance and gratitude: We will go on, try our hardest, never give up and make the best of the life we have.
“We consider ourselves immensely fortunate to have received the love, solidarity and support from so many kind and decent people over the last decade. There have been many challenges and low points along the way but the warmth, encouragement and positivity we have experienced from the ‘quiet majority’ has undoubtedly sustained us and maintained our faith in human goodness. And while that is there, there will always be hope.”
David Cameron, while prime minister, asked British police to help find out what happened to Madeleine. Scotland Yard has been helping with the investigation since 2011. Last month the Home Office said it had provided £85,000 for British police efforts to continue for a further six months.
