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Published 09:58 19 Apr 2025 BST
Updated 10:44 19 Apr 2025 BST

18 years since Madeleine McCann went missing on a Portuguese family holiday, the Home Office is still pumping thousands of pounds into the investigation.
According to The Mirror, detectives from the Metropolitan Police have just received a £108,000 boost for the 2025/26 financial year, taking the total to over £13 million spent on searching for the girl who'd now be 21 years old.
The news has gone down like a lead balloon with social media users, though.
"Outrageous!!! This is a real slap in the face for all the other missing persons families out there who haven't had one ounce of this case's attention or money spent to find their missing loved ones. It's disgraceful," wrote one individual on Facebook.
Another echoed that with: "This is plain wrong, others with missing children do NOT receive this level of support."
Aged just three at the time of her disappearance, McCann was taken from the family's apartment in Praia da Luz, Lagos, whilst parents Gerry and Kate were dining with friends 55 metres away.
In 2020, Christian Brückner was declared the prime suspect by German authorities, having been living in a nearby farmhouse in Praia da Luz and had broken into properties at the same resort.
Although abduction and murder charges are still yet to be formalised, Brückner is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for a separate crime.
Elsewhere in the McCann case, a woman named Julia Wandelt, who claimed to be the grown-up little girl, was charged with stalking a couple of months ago.
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