A Polish woman claiming to be missing child Madeleine McCann will complete a DNA test to see if she really is the girl who has been missing for 16 years. Video / NewsNation
As the world prepares to mark the 16th anniversary of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, two former cops have spoken out on what went wrong in the early days of the search, what investigators need to do now - and why they still have a “glimmer of hope”.
The pair spoke to Sky News Australia ahead of the anniversary to provide insider knowledge on the case, highlighting the key role the media and the public could play in solving the mystery.
The night Madeleine McCann disappeared
On May 3, 2007, the McCann family, from Leicestershire, in England’s East Midlands, were on holiday at the Ocean Club in Praia da Luz in Portugal.
Kate and Gerry McCann were out for dinner with friends at a restaurant complex. Maddie and her younger twin siblings were put to bed in an apartment about 100m away and left unattended.
According to Kate, the adults - now dubbed the Tapas Nine - had a rota system to check on all the children about every hour that evening. Gerry had checked his children at 9.05pm. They were all accounted for. Eventually, it was Kate’s turn to check on the unaccompanied children to make sure they were safe and sound.
Their lives would turn upside down when she opened the apartment door about 10pm to find Maddie wasn’t there. Her cot was empty and all that was visible were a blanket and a cuddly toy. The police were immediately called while staff and guests searched the complex everywhere for any sign of the 3-year-old.
The bed Madeleine McCann slept in on holiday before she disappeared.
As the sun rose on May 4, there was still no sign of Maddie - and the long investigation began.
Mike Neville, the retired head of a missing persons unit, told Sky News that “lots of evidence was missed” but admitted it was “harsh to criticise that initial response”.
He first became involved in the case after his retirement, working alongside The Sun newspaper to govern over the initial Portuguese probe.
He said that technology had moved on since 2007 and cited pattern recognition as one technology that could be put into use, tracking the clothes that Maddie was wearing as one example.
But he cited missed evidence, such as a nearby CCTV camera that was never checked, as signs that the investigation had major holes.
He believes that photo and video evidence could help solve the case.
“I think the available images we have are the key to this case,” he said.
“Somebody somewhere may still have an image on a camera on their own computer, which is relevant.”
Kate and Gerry McCann. Photo / Supplied
Former senior child protection officer Jim Gamble, who worked on the United Kingdom’s first investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance, said he found leads “literally sitting in cardboard boxes on tables and on the floor in Portugal”.
He told Sky News that he recommended that an organisation with the resourcing of New Scotland Yard take on the task, saying modern technology and input from the public could be key.
“Media attention as such lit the fuse which inspired so many people then who had access to social media to become involved in the conversation, to become involved virtually in the search,” he told Sky News.
“Someone out there knows something that they have kept to themselves from 2007. Maybe that’s because of misplaced loyalty. Maybe that’s because they don’t actually realise the significance of the small piece of information that they have.”
The latest: Polish girl claims to be Madeleine McCann
Early this year, Polish woman Julia Wendell comes forward claiming she believes she is Maddie McCann and is awaiting the results of a DNA test to prove it.
But the result of a facial recognition analysis has cast doubt on her claims.
Julia Wendell believes she may be missing Madeleine McCann. Photo / Dr Fia Johansson, Handout
Swiss facial recognition firm Ava-X says its “face matching” software found Wendell is extremely unlikely to be Maddie. The company told Swiss news outlet Blick that its technology, developed to help law enforcement in reuniting missing families, had not found a match.
“It’s practically impossible for the young Pole to be Maddie,” Ava-X boss Christian Fehrlin says. “You can save yourself the DNA test.”
He adds he is 90 per cent sure she is not Maddie based on the findings.
Mike Neville told Sky News that large-scale missing persons cases inevitably led to “weird and wacky” people coming forward and said it was part and parcel of any such investigation.
“As a senior investigator - you just gotta accept that we live in a strange world and these things happen.”
‘A glimmer of hope’
Both men told Sky News that they hope that the case would be solved and Jim Gamble said “we’re as close as we’ve ever been”.
“We should continue to raise awareness and to encourage people to reflect on where they were in 2007, to reflect on what they might have heard, to reflect on the behaviours they may have observed in others who were in proximity at that time, and to think about whether now is the time to come forward and talk to the authorities,” Gamble said.
Mike Neville agreed and said “you never know who’s going to come forward in the future”.
“I hope that Madeleine McCann was, is, alive and well somewhere if she was kidnapped, that she was brought up in a decent and a nice way by people who did the wrong thing but tried to make the best of it, and that one day she’ll be reunited, reunited with their parents and their siblings,” he said.
