Madeleine McCann would be 11 now

[TheOneWithTheNicestSmile]

\link{http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/12/the-hunt-for-madeleine-mccann-s-grave.html\article from the Daily Beast}

She's still that tiny girl in my head. I'm astonished that she would be sitting SATs this week & starting secondary school in September.

So sad for the family.

[Sparklingbrook]

[Forgettable]

[Youdontneedacriminallawyer]

Let's not start all that again.

[Sparklingbrook]

Nothing is starting. There is a thread somewhere where it's being debated i think.

[EffectiveCommunication]

I thought they had stopped talking about MM, is it still going on?

Poor child, poor family, they need answers.

[Joules68]

Well if it's in the news/media of course people talk about it

Time has gone so quick. Still feel the same about it. Her poor family

[KeinBock]

Police about begin a "substantial phase of operational activity" in Portugal, according to the Telegraph

[CPtart]

Same age and school year as my DS. I often think about her when he reaches a particular milestone.

[Grandmamoses]

OMG! I saw today that the police are going to begin digging for a body in Prai da Luz early next week. How awful. They must think she's dead then.

[Sparklingbrook]

Where did you see that Grand?

[Grandmamoses]

On Twitter from reporter Jerry Lawton of the Star

[Sparklingbrook]

Thanks-I couldn't find anything in the news.

[Grandmamoses]

Here is the article in The Star



Police prepare to dig for Madeleine McCann's body
POLICE will start searching for Madeleine McCann’s body


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By Jerry Lawton/Published 29th May 2014
RECOVERY: The operation to recover the body of the missing girl is expected to last six days [PA]
They will use radar to scan waste ground near the Portuguese apartment where she vanished in 2007.

UK sniffer dogs are also expected to join an operation set to last up to six days in the Algarve resort of Praia da Luz.

They are said to be focussing on three sites next to the Ocean Club where Madeleine, (left) then three, and her parents Kate, 46, and Gerry, 45, (right) were staying. The start date claim comes less than a week after Scotland Yard chiefs said the probe would soon enter a “substantial” new phase.

STILL MISSING: Scotland Yard are expected to hire sonar detection equipment [JONATHAN BUCKMASTER]
“The Yard has not ruled out the possibility Madeleine is still alive.”
Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley said: “There is going to be a substantial phase of operational activity involving Portuguese police with British police in support.

“In a major investigation with multiple lines of inquiry and hypotheses, you have to systematically work through them all. This is a phase of activity based on those principles.”

One plot is thought to be fenced-off wasteland a two-minute walk from the McCanns’ holiday apartment.

Diggers and other equipment are expected to be hired.

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Met Police are also expected to include interviews with eight new suspects. Several are understood to be former employees of the Ocean Club.

The Yard has not ruled out the possibility Madeleine is still alive.

Praia da Luz parish council leader Victor Mata has attacked the police excavation plans.

He told a Portuguese paper soon after the first reports of the dig plans emerged: “It’s bad for tourism.

“It beggars belief they’re preparing to open up holes here a month before summer.”

[CointreauVersial]

I sometimes look at DD2 and think of MM. Same age, blonde hair..... Poor family. So long has passed.

[Grandmamoses]

Kate and Gerry are not going out there though. I'm sure I would want to be there if they found something.

[CanaryYellow]

I don't think anyone will ever know what happened to her. Same as Ben Needham. It's torturous for the families, I'm sure if it were me I'd rather know even if it meant knowing the worst had happened, rather than living in limbo.

[Grandmamoses]

I don't think they would be going ahead with the digging, cadaver dogs, ground penetrating radar etc., unless they had a good idea of what they are looking for. You can't just go digging willy nilly in the hope of finding something. And the Portugeuse police wouldn't sanction it without firm evidence.

[TheLateMrsLizCromwell]

strange that the digging seem to be going on in full view of the world's press.

[KeinBock]

What I find strange is the fact that they're digging now - so many years later. Very hard to understand why these areas weren't searched properly earlier - or were they?

[MrsWinnibago]

Apparently they have good reason to dig and search in that area. Of course they won't say why...and it's not strange to do it in front of the press. The press are right alongside whatever the police do in this case. I think it's terribly sad...terribly.

[mummytime]

I think if they do find something it will throw up even more questions. Including why did a Belgium (I think) newspaper say they should search there, just after her disappearance.
I think it was searched, but not dug. I don't think anyone found evidence of soil being disturbed, so they didn't dig.

[brighteyedbusytailed]

Kate and Gerry were treat horrifically by the Portugese police, I don't think I'd want to step foot there again If I was them. I don't jusge there decision.

[brighteyedbusytailed]

judge their

[YoureBeingASillyBilly]

Did they have new evidence recently that directed them to dig there? Otherwise, like others, i cant understand why it's just happening now.

[Swannery]

Surely, from almost the word go, there was almost no chance whatever of her being found alive. The never-ending suggestions that she was still alive were fuelled by bounty hunters, due to the massive fund that was set up. Of course it was and is a terrible thing for the family, but vast numbers of young children could have had their lives saved by a different use of that fund and of the money that the government is spending at the moment (for PR purposes only, surely). Eg those staving, dying of malaria, dying in childbirth, etc.