Madeleine McCann: Ex-detective says case 'unsolvable' due to an inoperative CCTV camera when she went missing
The disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a three-year-old who went missing nearly 13 years ago in Portugal, may never be solved, a leading crime investigator has said.
According to ex-detective, Mark Williams-Thomas, a crucial CCTV camera was switched off when she vanished which would have been key to cracking the case.
Thomas, who has worked on multiple major missing person cases, added that the criminal involved in the toddler's disappearance struck opportunistically and benefited from an inoperative camera. The detective also branded the case "unsolvable," according to the Daily Mail.
The 49-year-old, in his new book 'Hunting Killers', says: "The abduction of Madeleine McCann is the one I'd put into the unsolvable category. I believe Madeleine was the victim of an opportunistic criminal whose act was random – she wandered out of the apartment and into the path of this person. The case hasn't been solved simply because a crucial CCTV camera was turned off, meaning that whoever took Madeleine was not identifiable at the scene."
The crime investigator said that although he hopes that there can be some resolution in the case, the statistics show that it is probable the case will never be solved.
"The sad reality is, this far on, the likelihood of Madeleine being alive now is incredibly slim," he said. "Unfortunately, in almost every case of stranger child abduction, within the space of 24 hours, the child is dead."
Madeleine mysteriously disappeared from her parents' vacation apartment at The Ocean Club Resort in Portugal on the night of May 3, 2007. At the time, the McCanns were just 50 meters away from the apartment, dining at a tapas restaurant with several close friends while Madeleine and her twin siblings slept in the house. Madeleine's disappearance is the most widely-reported missing person's case in modern history.
The toddler's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, both 51, have continued to remain hopeful to this date about finding their missing daughter. The duo, in November 2019, had thanked the public for "being by their side" as they vowed to continue searching for their daughter after receiving a £300,000 funding boost. The official Find Madeleine Campaign Facebook page stated: "Thank you for being by our side as we continue to search for Madeleine."