As I understand it all the cases you mentioned are still open and active so who knows how much money has been spent investigating them over the many years since their disappearances. You have to remember also that Madeleine disappeared in a foreign country and so costs involved in investigating her disappearance would have been greatly enhanced. Finally, it is quite obvious to me that it was the massive and relentless media interest in the McCann case that kept the disappearance so prominent in people’s minds and which became part of the zeitgeist and a cultural reference point that played its part in the decision to review and reinvestigate the case, that coupled with a sense that Madeleine had been robbed of a proper initial investigation by the Portuguese of course. These were all exceptional circumstances and as I have said before, if the case was only reopened and millions spent because of the parents unflagging determination to push for it then they have only to be applauded. Remember how “if it was my kid I’d break down every door in Portugal”? Well this is the same thing just by different means and still it’s considered outrageous and unfair by people like you.
Much of what you say may be absolutely correct but it doesn’t detract from my point, made soooo long ago, that this case was given preferential treatment when it came to the funding and resources given to it.
As to the effort=result equation, doesn’t Kerry Needham deserve the same support and funding for exactly the same reasons? The Greek investigation was not as thorough as would be hoped and Kerry has fought tooth and nail, and with only a fraction of the media support afforded to the McCanns, to find out what happened to her son. Does she not deserve a multi-million pound review? The disappearance happened in the same circumstances so why not?
If there is still leads to be followed then they should be but if a full review of the available evidence, such as happened in Madeleine’s case, is not afforded to every missing child that is simply wrong. The right to a fully funded investigation should never depend on how interested the public or media are, as suggested above.