Madeleine McCann Investigation Gets More Funding From UK

The investigation into missing U.K. girl, Madeleine McCann, received more funding from the government on Nov. 13, the BBC reported.

The girl was 3 years old when she went missing while on vacation with her parents in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007. The U.K. Metropolitan Police launched a probe into the matter after a Portuguese investigation turned up nothing.

Parents of missing girl Madeleine McCann, Kate and Gerry McCann pose with an artist's impression of how their daughter might look now at the age of nine ahead of a press conference in central London on May 2, 2012, five years after Madeleine's disappearance while on a family holiday in Portugal. AFP/Getty Images

Now, another $194,000 will be added to the investigation, the BBC reported on Nov. 13. So far, $15 million has been spent on the inquiry.

“We have confirmed that Special Grant funding of £150,000 ($194,000) will be provided to the Metropolitan Police Service for the six-month period,” a Home Office spokesperson told Sky News.

The new funding is for the six-month period until March 31, 2019. Home Office detectives have to apply for funds every six months.

Madeleine’s parents, Gerry and Kate McCann, have been public voices in the search for the missing girl. “Life is full and busy which helps but Madeleine is still missing and she is still dearly missed,” they wrote in May 2018 about the 11th anniversary of the girl’s disappearance.

“Information continues to come in (incredible as it may seem after so long, although we are grateful for that) and work goes on. Perseverance and hope remain,” her parents wrote.

A photo of British girl Madeleine McCann aka Maddie is displayed on a TV screen at an apartment in Berlin, on Oct. 16, 2013. Johannes Eilese/AFP/Getty Images

Former Detective Says She Might be Alive, Hidden

“There is every possibility that Madeleine is still alive and could be being hidden somewhere and having no idea that she is at the center of a worldwide hunt for her,” former detective David Edgar told The Sun in October. He was hired by the McCanns for three years before Metropolitan Police detectives took over.  “She could literally be anywhere in the world but my hunch is that she is in Portugal.”

He said he doesn’t think the girl was taken across the border.

“The chance that she may have been smuggled out of the country without being detected is highly unlikely,” Edgar added to The Sun. “There is someone in Portugal with an open knowledge of where she is and what happened.”

“It’s a baffling case, but I think it’s solvable,” Edgar insists.

He said that someone who has a guilty conscience could eventually come forward. “The best hope of a breakthrough, even after all this time, will be if and when someone’s conscience is pricked. It may be that the person responsible for Madeleine’s kidnap is dying and makes a deathbed confession, or someone close to that person comes forward after he or she has passed away,” Edgar added.