Redwood also said this in 2012 ".. he "genuinely" believed Madeleine could be alive, though the team is following
an equal line of inquiry that she might now be dead.''
That is from the Guardian but many other UK papers just focussed on the 'abduction' theory with many of them quoting Redwood in headlines as saying she was alive and ignoring the fact he
also said she might be dead.
2 years later in 2014 sniffer dogs were looking for a body, and SY were quoted,
"Scotland Yard said there was still a "substantial amount of work yet to be completed" in its investigation, and that "more activity" was expected to begin shortly.
"This recent work is part of ensuring that all lines of enquiry are progressed in a systematic manner and covers just the one hypothesis that she was killed and buried locally," it said.''
https://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/11/world/europe/portugal-uk-mccann/index.html So they were still seriously pursuing this equal line of enquiry 2 years later. IMO Amaral's was also systematically looking at the possibility of a death and hiding of a body but he only had a few months in which he could develop and test that theory.
There are plenty of cases where police suspect murder / death and don't have a full comprehensive theory such as the Kate Prout case, the Claudia Lawrence case. Arrests were made to question suspects and try and fill in the circumstances of what exactly happened. What they did have was a person that had completely disappeared and a motive. IMO this is very similar to Amaral's theory.
I agree with John that the 'stealing to order / trafficking theory' is not a very plausible one. Where is the motive to perform such a risky kidnap of a young girl on holiday when families are actually willing to sell children throughout the world? There is also no evidence of these trafficking gangs in the area at the time. Redwood was looking at stranger abduction as a possibility, this does not mean it was an organised smuggling gang he was looking at.
IMO the trafficking of young European children from Portugal as presented by the UK media is a myth, African children are brought IN and this is documented. The majority of these children are also older than 10 which is also documented. There was also 1 documented case of a boy kidnapped in Portugal by a paeodophile gang and trafficked out but again he was older at 11 years old and this is just 1 case over many years.
"Visiting Portugal last year, it heard that of the 226 people identified as victims of trafficking over the last four years, 36 of these were children - five of them less than 10 years old.
Of those 36, 15 appear to have gone missing.
The “majority” of children were brought into this country by sex trafficking networks. Most came from African countries (Nigeria, Angola, Guinea-Bissau), though three were identified as coming from Romania. Of the total, only five children were trafficked for non-sexual purposes: three for ‘work exploitation’ (modern-day slavery) and two for “criminal activities”.
http://portugalresident.com/child-sex-trafficking-in-portugal-authorities-%E2%80%98lose%E2%80%99-almost-half-%E2%80%98rescued-children%E2%80%99
