Detective Dave Edgar, who worked on finding Madeleine McCann for three years, thinks she is still alive and hidden in the Algarve in Portugal
A detective who worked on the missing Madeleine McCann case for three years has revealed that he thinks she is still in the Algarve in Portugal - where she went missing in 2007.
Detective Dave Edgar, who is now retired, thinks that the little girl was abducted by a gang of paedophiles whilst the family were on holiday in Portugal.
Mr Edgar, 60, was hired by Maddie's parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, after she went missing and worked on finding her for three years. In 2011, he handed all his files over to Scotland Yard - including SEVEN lines of enquiry.
Speaking to Sunday Express, he said: "There is every possibility that Madeleine is still alive and could be being hidden somewhere.
"When you get up beyond the main strip of the Algarve, there are countless isolated properties where Madeleine could be being held.
"Obviously, we had a number of lines of inquiry and some of those lines did lead us to properties which we followed up and handed over to the authorities."
Last month, we reported that Mr Edgar thought Maddie could still be alive, and that he thinks someone somewhere does know where she is.
Speaking to The Mirror, he said: "There was a very narrow window of opportunity for them to get away with Madeleine. So it does point to it being planned and some level of surveillance, perhaps of the apartment.
"If the motive was gang-related child prostitution, there might have been more than one involved."
READ MORE | Madeleine McCann timeline: A decade since her disappearance
He revealed that a public appeal to someone who may have been confided in would be the best way to find the little girl, who would now be 14-years-old.
He said: "They can't keep it to themselves and research has shown they always confide in someone else.
"I think that someone else apart from the perpetrator knows and that is one of the best hopes of getting to the truth, that someone comes forward and says what they know."
It is also thought that Kate and Gerry McCann will give a TV interview to mark the ten-year anniversary of Madeleine's disappearance.
What do you think happened to Madeleine? Let us know over on Facebook and Twitter****.
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