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Many people with a keen interest in the
disappearance of Madeleine McCann are
hopeful that the latest phase in the
investigation will reveal vital evidence
that will lead to the solving of the
seven-year-old mystery. Many others have
already written it off as a waste of
time – or maybe worse.
A prevalent view is that the
Metropolitan Police Service must have
good reason for mounting an extensive
ground search to which they have
committed a forensic team,
ground-penetrating radar equipment,
specialist dogs and with heavy
earth-moving machinery on stand-by.
The reason must have been strong enough
to persuade the Portuguese authorities
to allow the search on a piece of
private land near the center of Praia da
Luz during the summer holiday season.
The British detectives have been
understandably cagey about what they
expect to achieve, but it seems unlikely
they would have gone to such legal and
bureaucratic lengths, and agreed to pay
the search costs, only to confirm there
is nothing of interest buried on the
site.
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This computer generated
image made available by
Britain’s Child Exploitation
and Online Protection Centre
(Ceop) shows how Madeleine
McCann might look now,
right, and with dark brown
hair and tanned skin in case
she has been living in north
Africa, left. The images are
taken from a one minute film
by Ceop made available
Tuesday Nov. 3, 2009. |
No one will be more surprised if the
police do find a body or any other
evidence than Praia da Luz residents who
know the site well. They point out that
countless walkers and their dogs have
crisscrossed the scrubland interminably
over the past seven years.
The area comprises bedrock and soil so
hard that a kidnapper or anyone else
trying to dispose of a body there would
have needed a JCB himself. That anyone
unfamiliar with the area could have
buried evidence at nighttime or unseen
is not feasible, they say.
Credible sources say that some
Portuguese Judicial Police officers in
the Algarve are among those ridiculing
the search operation.
Seasoned sceptics suspect it may be just
“a fishing trip,” or even a “whitewash,”
part of a plan to try to bring the
investigation to a dignified close.
As ever, speculation is rife. Let’s hope
for some clarification in the days
ahead.
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