As a girl brought up in Poland goes on ‘Dr Phil’ to claim to be Madeleine McCann, why is Operation Grange likely to receive a top-up on the £14 million already wasted? Why not help fund the search for other missing people instead?
A Twitter poll still running by The Steeple Times’s Matthew Steeples this morning stands at around 95% in favour of the Home Office ending funding to Operation Grange – the investigation into the ‘disappearance’ of Madeleine McCann.
Established on 12th May 2011 after the daughter of doctors Gerry and Kate McCann went missing in Praia da Luz, Portugal on 3rd May 2007 aged just three years old, the Metropolitan Police Specialist Crime Command unit ‘investigative review’ became an ‘investigation’ subsequently.
Funded to the tune of the astonishing sum of nigh on £14 million to date in spite of finding nada, nowt, nothing, the Daily Mail’s Elizabeth Haigh this morning shockingly claimed: “Police probing disappearance of Madeleine McCann ‘are set to get hundreds of thousands of pounds in new funding.’”
Going further, Haigh added:
“A significant sum has been requested by the Met Police and is likely to be approved by the Home Office, The Sun reports.”
“Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent on attempts to find her… A source close to the ongoing investigation last night said her parents would be ‘delighted’ with the news. The source said: ‘This is excellent news. Maddie’s parents Kate and Gerry will be delighted. It gives fresh hope.’ There had been fears the probe into the toddler’s case could be cut back amid budget cuts.”
At a time when the general public are enduring poverty, food banks and struggling due to the cost of living crisis, this is frankly outrageous and turning to such, former Metropolitan Police detective Peter Bleksley was quite rightly quoted as stating:
“As long as there are unanswered questions I can see why there is a case. But, in 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.”’
Elsewhere this weekend, a woman claiming to be the ‘disappeared without a trace’ now 19-year-old has appeared on the American talk show Dr Phil to claim: “I believe I’m Madeleine McCann.”
Julia Wendell – a young lady brought up in Poland andgenerally assumed to have – “really believes” she could be Kate and Gerry’s McCann’s “long-lost child after recognising Kate McCann’s voice,” according to LBC.
Miss Wendell – who is being bizarrely aided by a medium and private investigator named Dr Fia Johansson – is “currently awaiting the results of a genetic test and submitted three DNA samples and a genetic test, which will help determine her ancestry.” She stated:
“A lot of you ask why Kate and Gerry are not involved. There is no need. Madeleine McCann’s DNA is already there. They don’t need to get involved with media press.”
“I want to say something to Kate McCann: I listened to a song that you sang to your daughter Madeleine. When I hear your voice – from movies, from interviews – I feel like I really know this voice, your voice. I really believe that I could be Madeleine.”
Miss Wendell “wants to be part of the [McCann] family;” God help her.
Editor’s Note – Unlike as is the case in many publications, this article was NOT sponsored or supported by a third-party. Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Pictured Top – ‘Missing’ Madeleine McCann (left) and Julia Wendell, a girl from Poland, who is currently claiming to be the ‘missing’ child.
Missing Madeleine – Questions STILL without Answers… £14 million wasted on Operation Grange… Why continue? Why waste more? Why not help others?
Many questions about what happened on the evening of the disappearance of Madeleine McCann remain. Some that have been highlighted by the press and discussed online include:
- Why did Kate McCann refuse to answer 48 questions put to her by the Portuguese police?
- Why were certain records of phone calls on the evening of the disappearance “whoosh-clunked” from the memories of the phones of Mr and Mrs McCann and the ‘Tapas 7’?
- Why were relevant mobile phone records never handed over to the authorities in spite of them potentially being useful to the search?
- Why did the couple not use the babysitting service on offer in the holiday resort on the evening of 3rd May 2007 when they went out on the razzle dazzle with friends?
- Why was the door to the apartment – which opened directly onto a public highway – left unlocked with three children aged under three years old alone inside?
- Why did a British sniffer dog sense the smell of a corpse in a cupboard in the apartment from which Madeleine McCann disappeared?
- Why did a sniffer dog also supposedly sense the smell of a corpse in a vehicle hired by the couple a month after the disappearance of their daughter?
- Why did the McCanns repeatedly try to discredit the work of the sniffer dogs and their handlers?
- Why did Mr and Mrs McCann go jogging and play tennis in the days after their daughter’s disappearance?
- Was it acceptable for Mr and Mrs McCann’s mortgage to be paid by the fund established to search for their missing daughter?
- Why have the McCanns attempted to ‘gag’ anyone who disputes their version of events – most especially Gonçalo Amaral?
- Why, given over £14 million has been spent on this search to date, has nobody come forward with any sighting of ‘missing’ Madeleine McCann given the very, very substantial rewards on offer?