Just four British police officers continue to investigate Madeleine McCann’s disappearance as the Met reveals resources have been cut by 90 percent.
Only three British police officers and one civilian staff member will continue to work part-time on the case, police announced today.
It comes as Madeleine’s parents – Kate and Gerry McCann – celebrated their daughter’s 21st birthday today with a heartbreaking message.
The post on the Find Maddie Campaign Facebook page read: ‘Happy 21st birthday Madeleine. Still missing. Still missed. Still watching.”
Despite the scale-back of the police operation, private detective Julian Peribañez has revealed he is returning to the family’s holiday apartment in Praia da Luz where Madeleine went missing 17 years ago.
Madeleine McCann (photo) disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal seventeen years ago. Only a small team of British police officers continue to work the case
Kate and Gerry McCann appeal for the return of their three-year-old Madeleine in 2007 (pictured)
A view of the apartment complex from which Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, in Praia da Luz, on Portugal’s Algarve coast
Mr. Peribañez was part of the Metodo 3 company that was hired by Madeleine’s parents in 2007 to investigate possible leads that were not investigated by the Portuguese police.
DCI Mark Cranwell, who is overseeing the UK investigation into Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, told MailOnline: ‘We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened in Praia da Luz on the evening of May 3, 2007.
‘Our thoughts remain with the family. ‘
On that fateful day, May 3, 2007, Gerry and Kate had left their three children – including toddler twins Sean and Amelie – to sleep in their holiday apartment while they ate at a tapas bar 400 feet away.
When Kate returned to check on the children that evening around 10pm, she discovered that Madeleine was not in her bed and was missing.
British police initially investigated the case before it was archived in July 2008 due to lack of evidence.
Gerry and Kate McCann (pictured) read a statement to the press after their daughter’s disappearance in 2007
The family kept the case open with private investigators until Scotland Yard opened its own investigation in 2011.
Operation Grange was launched at the request of then Home Secretary Teresa May and initially involved a review of all investigations previously carried out.
In July 2013, the status of the Met’s investigation changed to that of an investigation, working with Portuguese authorities to pursue specific lines of inquiry.
But according to The ExpressIn 2015, only 29 officers worked the case.
A spokesperson for the Met told the newspaper: ‘The number of staff on the investigation team is always under review and will be adjusted based on new information coming in or new lines of inquiry.’
Gerry and Kate McCann have not commented on the investigation as it is an ‘active police investigation’.
German police are currently investigating 47-year-old main suspect and convicted sex offender Christian Brueckner.
Christian Brueckner, 43, a pedophile convicted in Germany, was previously named as the man suspected of kidnapping and murdering Madeleine McCann
He is currently serving a prison sentence for the rape of a woman in Praia de Luz in 2005, and is suspected of further crimes between 2000 and 2017.
The attacks took place just minutes from where then three-year-old Madeleine disappeared from the holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, in the Algarve.
German police sensationally named Brueckner as the man responsible for Madeleine’s ‘kidnapping and murder’, but he has yet to be charged with anything related to her disappearance.