Madeleine enquiry ‘could draw to a close’ soon

The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann could be wound up in the coming months, as detectives pursue their last remaining line of inquiry. 

According to Scotland Yard chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the absence of new evidence is likely to spell the end of the hunt for the eldest child of doctors Kate and Gerry McCann, who the vanished from her bedroom at a Praia de Luz resort in the Algarve on May 3, 2007. Nine years and thousands of 'sightings' later, police are no closer to finding the child, who was four years old when she vanished. Age progressed pictures tshow what Maddie would look like now, approaching her 13th birthday in May. Speaking on LBC Radio, Sir Hogan-Howe said the size of the team working on the case "has come down radically".

"We are now down to two or three people; at one stage there were about 30 officers in it. He added: “There is a line of inquiry that everybody agrees is worthwhile pursuing.” “At the moment it would be at the conclusion of this line of inquiry unless something else comes up. If somebody comes forward and gives us good evidence we will follow it. We always say that a missing child inquiry is never closed."

Last month a small newspaper advertisement published in a South American local newspaper sparked an international media frenzy with its claim that Madeleine had been spotted in Paraguay. Interpol said the agency had zero 'concrete' information on the man who made the bizarre claims while Arias Paraguay’s National Police launched an investigation into Mr. Ali Isa and his story.