The investigation into the disappearance in Portugal of Madeleine McCann when she was just three years old could be set to receive thousands of pounds extra in an effort to finally crack the mystery of what happened to her.
The Home Office has confirmed that the Metropolitan Police has requested "a significant sum", which is likely to be approved according to reports in the Daily Mail and The Sun. The toddler went missing while on holiday with her family in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007. She vanished from the family's accommodation without trace while asleep with her two siblings while their parents were dining with friends just yards away.
One source said of the potential new funding: "This is excellent news. Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry will be delighted. It gives fresh hope." The news came amid some reports that due to budget cuts, the precise opposite was about to happen.
The girl sometimes known as Maddie disappeared from her bed in a villa on a holiday complex while Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, were dining at a tapas restaurant just 55 metres away. According to reports at the time, Mrs McCann checked the children at 10pm to discover that Maddie had disappeared, but her siblings, twins, were still asleep in their cots.
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Peter Bleksley, a former Metropolitan Police detective, told The Sun: "As long as there are unanswered questions I can see why there is a case. But, in the this time of squeezed budgets, I can also see why eyebrows would be raised — I understand the frustrations of missing children who do not have the luxury of such ongoing funding."
A spokesman for the Home Office, although confirming it had received an application for further funding, did not disclose the sums involved. The sixteenth anniversary of Maddie's disappearance occurs on May 3, nine days before her birthday, which this year would be her 20th.
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