Madeleine McCann search to end in months as police say only one lead left to follow
'There is a line of inquiry everybody agrees is worthwhile pursuing': Met boss admits hunt will end if no new line after
THE hunt for Madeleine McCann could end within months as police admit they have just one lead left to follow.
Scotland Yard boss Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has said they have one lead "everybody agrees is worth pursuing" - but the British investigation will end after that if no more evidence arises.
The Met boss said unless they get a new line of inquiry in the Maddie case, they will have to give up the search for the girl who vanished in 2007.
Speaking on LBC radio, Hogan-Howe said: "There's been a lot of investigation time spent on this terrible case.
"It's a child who went missing, everybody wants to know if she is alive, and, if she is, where is she, and sadly if she's dead then we need to give some comfort to the family.
"It's needed us to carry out an investigation together with the Portuguese and other countries have been involved."
He admitted: "There is a line of inquiry that remains to be concluded and it's expected in the coming months that will happen."
The Home Office has pumped £95,000 into the hunt for the missing girl, who disappeared from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal nearly 10 years ago.
Despite a high-profile search no trace of Maddie has ever been found and the large-scale investigation has been pulled back.
Hogan-Howe said: "The size of the team has come down radically, we are now down to two or three people in that team, at one stage there were about 30 officers in it.
"There is a line of inquiry everybody agrees is worth pursuing."
The Scotland Yard boss admitted Operation Grange, the investigation into Maddie's disappearance, will end once this line of enquiry concludes unless more evidence arises.
He said: "If somebody comes forward and gives us good evidence we will follow it. We always say a missing child inquiry is never closed.
"If something new comes forward we will investigate it, but that line of inquiry probably at the moment is the conclusion of this inquiry."
The blow for Gerry and Kate McCann comes a week after they lost a libel lawsuit against a Portuguese detective who wrote a damning book blaming them for Maddie's disappearance.
Goncalo Amaral worked on the missing girl case at the very beginning in Portugal before being laid off.
He claims Maddie died in the apartment and Gerry and Kate covered up her death by pretending she was missing.
Despite no obvious progress or viable leads in the near-decade since Madeleine disappeared, DCS Mick Duthie, head of the Met's murder squad, said they remained optimistic last week.
He said: "There is ongoing work. There is always a possibility we will find Madeleine and we hope we will find her alive."