The age progression image was made by the Human Identification and Forensic Art Consultancy, and they have done an amazing job. You can see the advance of time, the ghostly palimpsest of her parents features merging with her own, the virtual romanticism of a lost girl growing up fast. Just like millions of readers who have followed the tragic Madeleine case, I found the images riveting and heart-breaking in equal measure. Then I also thought, well, boo hoo for us. For imagine what it must be like to be her parents; to daily endure the limbo and piercing torture of not knowing what has happened to their little girl where she is, what she is doing, whether she is happy, alive or dead. And then to be presented with her smiling face five years on, as though nothing had ever happened.
As time marches on, our memories fade, but Kate and Gerry McCanns ordeal does not diminish. Mrs McCann has talked in the past of often imagining how Madeleine would look now; for her and her husband to see a forensic representation of this fond daydream must have been bittersweet. On the one hand, the couple must be delighted Scotland Yard detectives are reviewing the case and have already stated that they have found 195 new leads and believe there is a chance Madeleine is still alive. On the other, they are once again jolted back down into their own private abyss of grief. For despite the fascinating new images, as far as her parents are concerned, Madeleine is frozen in time as a three-year-old; a tiny daughter snatched away on a warm night in Portugal, a child who slipped from view and has never been seen again.
The images have been published as part of Operation Grange, the latest investigation into Madeleines disappearance, which so far has cost the British taxpayer more than £2 million. The new search involves some 28 officers from Scotland Yard and seven civilian workers. Everyone is hoping that the new findings will put pressure on the Portuguese judicial authorities to reopen their investigation into Madeleines disappearance. Of course, some people will say this is a terrible waste of public money. Why should we re-investigate a five-year-old case that, while being terribly sad, has a slim chance of ever being solved?
Well, why not? This country spends millions on all kind of well-meaning but misguided rubbish: on government-backed fact-finding missions; on wind farms; on dodgy jobseeker schemes; on court interpreters and massage therapists for granny-murdering asylum-seekers; on keeping Abu Qatada safe and warm in a lovely British jail; on long-winded, ultimately pointless public inquiries; on endless, endless rubbish. To spend money on the admittedly tiny hope that Madeleine McCann might still be alive seems the right thing to do. Indeed, the only civilised, decent thing to do. To invest public funds to try to bring closure to this most vexatious case is money well spent as far as I am concerned. For apart from anything else, sometimes miracles do happen.
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