New police investigation: Was Madeleine McCann killed by a drunk driver?
She disappeared at the age of three and has been missing for 11 years. Madeleine McCann was on a holiday in Portugal with her family when she vanished in 2007 while her parents were having dinner in a nearby restaurant.
Sadly, there hasn’t be a credible sighting of her since that night.
For 11 years British police, Scotland Yard and the toddler’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, have worked endlessly over the past decade to try and locate her.
In what could be a positive sign, a new lead came into play recently. As reported by The Sun, British police are re-examining the theory that the toddler woke up in the middle of the night, left the apartment and began walking around the villa looking for her parents.
According to the theory, Madeleine walked out of the complex and could have possibly been struck by a drunk driver, who placed her body in a car and buried her later.
Meanwhile, Scotland Yard officers are looking into the possibilities of a kidnapping or burglary gone wrong.
“A meeting took place at the HQ of the General Attorney’s Office, which was attended by the prosecutor from Portimao, who is in charge of the Portuguese inquiry,” a Portugal informant said.
“One of the lines of investigation that continues to be pursued is that Maddie could’ve walked out of the holiday flat herself,” shared David Edgar, a former investigator on Madeleine’s case, as he explained his theory.
As reported by The Sun, Edgar is adamant the toddler was kidnapped by a child sex gang.
“She is most likely being held captive, possibly in an underground cellar or dungeon and could emerge at any time,” he added.
The former investigator also believes Madeleine is still in Portugal and is being held against her will and that someone in Portugal knows what happened to the young girl.
Edgar urged that now is the time to come forward with information.
“Unless a body is found there is hope. Everyone hopes for a positive outcome and Kate and Gerry will never give up, even when the funding runs out. I hope they get an answer, they’ve been waiting for so long,” he pleaded.
British Home Office has announced that it has allocated an extra 150,000 pounds ($265,275 AUD) to Scotland Yard so they can continue their investigations to find Madeleine. Metropolitan Police are following two new leads which they have informed Maddie’s parents about, and they are “hopeful of getting a result”.
Edgar hopes they’re chasing up his theory which he didn’t have the resources to pursue himself when he was working on the case.
“Not for want of trying, but as a private investigator, I was faced with certain restrictions and stumbling blocks unlike the official authorities,” he explained.
Kate McCann wrote a heartbreaking letter to the Telegraph where she revealed that each year she still buys presents for her daughter at Christmas time.
“The presents I buy for her usually have to jump out at me,” she wrote. “She would be a teenager now so I always try and pick something that would be suitable and enjoyable for her no matter what age she is when she gets to open them.”
The heartbroken mother added, “In my head I guess I just want everything to be right for her when she comes back home. The loft is filled with the presents I have bought for Madeleine and her wardrobe too.”
Kate also shared that she hasn’t touched her daughter’s bedroom since she went missing and that it’s in the same condition as it was before her disappearance.
She confided in the letter that during the time Maddie went missing she felt “numb”, and now, over 10 years later, everything she does on a daily basis is tinged with sadness.
Do you think this new investigation will finally lead to answers? Let us know in the comments below.