There is a view that the McCanns are still being investigated by, at the very least, the PJ, if not also the Met, despite repeated assurances from the police that the McCanns are not suspects. So, assuming these assurances are lies, then what avenues of investigation are open to the police, particuarly the PJ as far as the McCanns are concerned?
Forensics? CCTV? Re-interviews? What? And what evidence is there that the McCanns are currently under investigation?
There is no evidence from the police that they are being investigated but from past cases that doesn't necessarily matter. New forensics were probably included in an ILOR by Nicola Wall in 2015.
Sep 3, 2015 "But top Portuguese sources insist there was no evidence to suggest Operation Grange was going to be shut down at any point in the near future.
And they said they were expecting to receive a new international letter of request shortly from UK authorities - the second since DCI Nicola Wall took over from previous Operation Grange boss Andy Redwood at the end of last year but the first she will have been involved in preparing."
Responding to grumbles about the cost of Scotland Yard's probe and fresh claims it should be wound down, the Portuguese source insisted: "Nothing is going to be shelved.
"Co-operation right now between the British and the Portuguese police is at a moment of great synchronisation."
In May, Portugal's Attorney General's Office revealed: "Since August 2012, the Public Prosecution Service of Portimao has received five British requests for international cooperation in criminal matters, the last of which has been received on January 2015.
"Three of these requests have been already executed and their pieces of execution were returned to the requesting authorities. The execution of two of them is still pending.
The Prosecutor General's Office does not provide information on the content of the requests presented by the British authorities."
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/602598/Madeleine-McCann-case-not-to-closeOct 28, 2015Police are to scale back the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, with the number of officers on the team cut from 29 to four.
The Metropolitan police said Operation Grange would now only focus on a “small number of focused lines of inquiry that have allowed them to reduce the size of the Home Office funded team”.
The four officers who remain on the team will continue to be led by DCI Nicola Wall, the current senior investigating officer, and sit within an existing major investigation team on the homicide and major crime command.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/oct/28/met-reduces-officers-madeleine-mccann-case-29-to-fourApr 29, 2016During a radio interview this week, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said he believed there was “one final lead” in the case.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/28/madeleine-mccann-abducted-during-botched-burglary/Apr 26, 2017London Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said investigators still hope they can provide answers to what happened.
"I know we have a significant line of inquiry which is worth pursuing,” he said. “Because it's worth pursuing it could provide an answer, but until we've gone through it I won't know whether we are going to get there or not."
"Ourselves and the Portuguese are doing a critical piece of work and we don't want to spoil it by putting titbits of information out publicly."
https://www.newstalk.com/Investigators-pursuing-critical-lead-in-search-for-Madeleine-McCann