Maddie 'could still be alive': Police hopeful of finding missing Brit despite scale back
MADELINE McCann may still be found alive according to detectives who remain "hopeful" despite a huge scale back on the man-power on the case.
Police remain hopeful over Madeline McCann's case
Tiny Maddie was three-years-old when she went missing from her parents’ holiday apartment in Portugal in 2007.
Scotland Yard launched an investigation in 2011 into the disappearance, but no progress has been made in finding her.
Despite there being no new leads in the case Detective Chief Superintendent Mick Duthie said Scotland Yard's probe is "ongoing" and officers hope to find her alive.
In April the Home Office granted the investigation, called Operation Grange, £95,000 to cover another six months of the inquiry.
This came after the number of officers working on the operation was scaled down from 29 to four in October 2015.
Madeline McCann pictured on the day she went missing
There is ongoing work. There is always a possibility that we will find Madeleine and we hope that we will find her alive
Speaking to the Evening Standard Mr Duthie, who is head of Scotland Yard's Homicide and Major Crime Command, said: "There is ongoing work. There is always a possibility that we will find Madeleine and we hope that we will find her alive.
”That's what we want and that's what the family and the public want and that is why the Home Office continue to fund it. There is work that needs to be done still."
Madeleine McCann - Update on Previous Appeals - March 2014
Madeline will be aged nine now
In the last nine years dozens of theories have been explored including abduction by a paedophile, her being killed in a bungled burglary and her body dumped, that she was targeted by trafficker, even that she wandered out of the apartment and died in an accident - yet none have been proven.
Despite this, Mr Duthie remained positive.
Madeline's parents Gerry and Kate McCann
He told the newspaper that if no new leads are discovered, they will push the Home Office for more money to continue.
Mr Duthie said: "There is a missing girl and if she has been murdered and if we think we have got justifiable and reasonable lines of inquiry to pursue then they should be dealt with.”